Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center

The mission of the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center (BLCC) at Cornell University is to foster collaborative research, outreach, and educational efforts dedicated to understanding the forces and experiences that shape human development throughout all stages of the life course. It aims to promote an understanding of existing and emerging challenges to effective functioning of individuals and families across the life course, and to identify promising solutions, according to Phyllis Moen, founding director of the BLCC and its director for a decade. Moen's own life course contributes to her scholarly commitment to the concept. (See Moen, 2001, and Moen, in press, for an autobiographical statement.) BLCC is a university-wide center at Cornell, housed in the College of Human Ecology. The center, created during the tenure of Francille M. Firebaugh (dean of the College of Human Ecology from 1988 to 1999), receives core support from the college and the provost's office.

BLCC evolved from the Life Course Institute that was established in January 1992. As early as 1990, Phyllis Moen wrote about the proposed formation of a “Cornell Life Course Studies Center,” with the conclusion that such a center can make a significant contribution to this “pivotal area of concern” by not fixating on the past or tinkering with outmoded and ineffective systems and policies. Rather, she proposed that as a nation

In 1994, the Life Course Institute was renamed the Bronfenbrenner Life Course Center in recognition of Professor Urie Bronfenbrenner's scholarship and [Page 182]leadership in linking basic research to social policy. Moen described Bronfenbrenner's contributions in the request to name the Center for him:

The Life Course Institute was and its successor BLCC is committed to fostering cross-campus involvement. From the early years, through the efforts of Director Phyllis Moen and Associate Director Donna Dempster-McClain, an ongoing colloquium series provides an opportunity to critique papers and concepts and to stimulate exchange among the participants. An Innovative Research Award Program makes grants to people across the campus who already have major proposals ready to seek external funding. According to Moen's experience at the National Science Foundation (NSF), first proposals were often rejected, and most of the applicants did not reapply. The purpose of the Innovative Research Awards is to help investigators make their applications stronger. Each proposal to BLCC is reviewed by a panel of retired scholars who offer detailed critiques and suggestions for making the proposal more competitive. Forty projects involving 70 faculty members were funded in the first decade, in amounts ranging from $8,000 to $15,000.

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