The Russell Sage Foundation Centennial, 1907-2007
On Thursday, April 19, 2007, the Russell Sage Foundation celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding by Mrs. Margaret Olivia Sage in 1907. To mark the occasion, the Foundation held a day-long symposium focused on some of the principal issues that have concerned the Foundation over its long history—and which continue to engage RSF as it moves into its second century. A distinguished roster of social scientists discussed the plight of low-wage workers, the stratification of American society, immigration and diversity in the United States, and the role of social science in addressing these issues. The day concluded with the Foundation's Centennial Dinner, at which Ira Katznelson of Columbia University delivered the keynote address: "Boundaries and Borderlands: Reflections on Organized Social Knowledge."
Below are links to full videos of his address and speeches from former RSF Trustees Kathleen Hall Jamieson and William Julius Wilson.
Keynote and Commentaries
Ira Katznelson: "Boundaries and Borderlands: Reflections on Organized Social Knowledge"
"Today, faced by the robust vigor shown by illiberal nostrums, radically heightened inequality, and passionate unreason sometimes married to just causes, the Foundation's vocation has become more difficult and more significant."
William Julius Wilson: A Commentary on the Russell Sage Foundation
"No other foundation can match Russell Sage's creative leadership in advancing basic social science research on some of the most vexing social problems confronting our nation."
Kathleen Hall Jamieson: A Commentary on the Russell Sage Foundation
"Why did the woman in black, Margaret Olivia Sage, a woman of unquestioned virtue, of intelligence and integrity, marry a loan shark who wore white socks?"
Additional Materials
- Centennial Symposium Agenda
- Brochure: Celebrating 100 Years of Social Science Research
- Book: Social Science for What?, by Alice O'Connor
- Book: America Works, by Richard Freeman
- Book: Categorically Unequal, by Douglas Massey