process throughout. His substantive contributions, notably in the
papers we coauthored, fed the argument of this book in a great many
ways. The same holds for Grégoire (known as “Greg” in the United
States), who, although he joined the project later than Josh, also
made important contributions, notably in the construction of the
typology of epistemological styles used in Chapter 5. At Harvard, an-
other graduate student, Lauren Rivera, helped me in countless ways,
as did several other assistants: Frederic Clark, Eva Dickerman, Joshua
Wakeham, Luis Martos, Viktoria Slavinia, Janice Whang, and May
Tobin-Hochstadt.
Other colleagues contributed directly to the project time and
time again. At Princeton, my dialogues with Carl Schorske, notably
around his work with Tom Bender concerning the transformation of
the social sciences and the humanities, were very inspiring. My early
thinking about the culture of excellence across disciplines was also
enriched by conversations with John Borneman, Angela Creager, Bob
Darnton, Tony Grafton, Rena Lederman, Liz Lunbeck, and Alexan-
der Nehamas. Within sociology, Paul DiMaggio, Robert Wuthnow,
Viviana Zelizer, and Marion Fourcade-Gourinchas were stimulating
conversational partners around sociology of knowledge topics,
while Chris Winship and Neil Gross played a similar role at Harvard.
Beyond my department, Lisbeth Cohen, Peter Gallison, Howard
Gardner, Ivan Gaskell, Sheila Jasanoff, Steve Shapin, Kay Shelemay,
Gerhart Sonnert, and many others generously engaged my project.
I want to underscore the particularly significant contributions of
Jenny Mansbridge and Sandy Jencks, for their friendship through-
out. My writing group, which includes Jenny as well as Ann Blair,
Nancy Cott, Lani Guinier, Leah Price, and Harriet Ritvo, constituted
the ideal interdisciplinary audience. So did my Radcliffe writing group,
which was composed of John Diamond, Jane Kamenski, Peggy Miller,
Leah Price, and Francesca Tribaletto.
Friends and colleagues from various disciplines played a crucial
318 / Acknowledgments