Ginger Nolan is a 2011 International Dissertation Research Fellowship recipient and a graduate student at Columbia University. In this Research Snapshot, she examines how twentieth-century architects and systems-designers in Europe and the U.S. attempted to translate theories of the ‘savage mind’ into a modern science of creativity. The Research Snapshots series is an initiative aimed at highlighting important and innovative research by SSRC fellows who are currently conducting or who have recently returned from doing international research.