“I think the fact that gay marriage is a dominant social and political issue in this country is something that we will talk about,” Jacques said of her IOP study group.

A fourth fall fellow, Benjamin L. Ginsberg, said he plans to examine in his study group similar cultural and political territory from a conservative perspective, trying to understand “why the country has become so much more Republican and conservative,” he said.

Ginsberg is a Washington, D.C. lawyer who worked as the Bush reelection campaign’s top outside counsel. He resigned abruptly in August 2004 after the Bush campaign learned he had advised Swift Boat Veterans for Truth—a group that made questionable claims against the Vietnam War record of Sen. John F. Kerry, Bush’s Democratic opponent.

Ginsberg, who describes himself as a one-time liberal who later “morphed into a conservative Republican,” said his past experiences speaking at Harvard have always been intellectually rewarding.

“I have my assumptions and presumptions challenged,” he said.

Joining Ginsberg, Graham, Jacques, and Nagourney as IOP fellows this fall are Martin Frost, a former Texas congressman who lost to Howard Dean earlier this year in a bid to chair the Democratic National Committee; Joseph Gaylord, a former counselor to Newt Gingrich (and Ginsberg’s first political boss, Ginsberg said); and Lisa Davis, a former advisor to Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign.

All candidates for IOP fellowships must apply to a student committee that interviews applicants and makes recommendations to the IOP’s director, according to Kevin P. Kiley ’07, the student committee’s chair.

Recent IOP resident fellows have included such luminaries as former Minnesota governor Jesse “The Body” Ventura and Benjamin C. Bradlee ’43, managing editor of The Washington Post during the Watergate fracas. The IOP has also invited several members of Congress through its fellowship program.

Kiley called this fall’s roster “an exceptionally talented, distinguished and diverse group.”

The IOP’s director, Jeanne Shaheen, who technically has the final say on selecting fellows, said that most of the fellows had already been selected by the time she became head of the IOP on July 1, as a permanent successor to former IOP director Dan Glickman. Shaheen, a former New Hampshire governor and Kerry campaign chair was a 2003 IOP fellow herself.

“We got all the stars we were hoping to get,” Shaheen said.

—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.