Professor named fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute
Trysh Travis, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, has been named a 2025-26 fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.
During her yearlong fellowship Travis will work on “Feminists on Drugs: A History,” a book tracing the evolution of women-focused substance abuse treatment programs in Boston, Detroit and New York City in the 25 years between 1970 and 1995. The project examines how activists, survivors and policymakers brought ideas of women’s empowerment into urban drug and alcohol treatment programs. The book intends to highlight the successes and challenges the programs faced as national priorities shifted from community mental health to more market-driven approaches.
“The current opioid crisis has affected more women than any previous drug crisis. But after 50 years of experience, we still don’t know much about what makes treatment work,” said Travis.
In addition to her role as associate professor, Travis is an affiliate faculty member in the Department of History. Her research and teaching focus on the cultural history of gender, therapeutic culture and social reform movements in the United States. Her most recent book, “Rethinking Therapeutic Culture” (University of Chicago Press, 2014), co-edited with Timothy Aubry, explores how therapy-focused ideas have shaped American culture.
Travis said the fellowship will allow her the luxury of time to focus on her research. “One thing faculty in book-based disciplines really need is time: time to read deeply, time to write carefully, time to think creatively across disciplinary boundaries—and that is what this year will give me.”
Travis holds a bachelor’s degree from New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, a master’s degree in English from Middlebury College and a doctorate in American studies from Yale University. Her writing has appeared in many academic journals, including American Quarterly, Contemporary Drug Problems and Feminist Studies and other publications such as Raritan Quarterly and Time magazine.
From 2021 to 2024, Travis served as associate dean with oversight of the humanities within the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
The Harvard Radcliffe Institute fellowship is among the most competitive academic honors in the country, bringing together scholars, scientists, artists and practitioners from around the world to pursue ambitious projects in a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment.
