The Institute for Advanced Study is an independent private institution in Princeton, New Jersey, founded in 1930 to create a community of scholars focused on intellectual inquiry, free from teaching and other university obligations.
Each year, scholars from around the world apply to come to the Institute to pursue their own research. Those who are chosen are offered a membership for a set period and a stipend. Members receive access to the extensive resources of the Institute, includin offices, access to libraries, subsidized restaurant and housing facilities, and some secretarial services.
The School of Social Science each year invites as Members around twenty visiting scholars who constitute a genuinely interdisciplinary and international group. A completed doctorate or equivalent is required by the application deadline, and memberships are awarded at both the junior and senior levels. Memberships are awarded for the full academic year only. Visiting Members are expected to pursue only their own research, while the School organizes a weekly seminar at which Members as well as invited guests present their ongoing work.
The School is not wedded to any particular intellectual or disciplinary approach. It welcomes applications in economics, political science, law, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. It encourages social scientific work with a historical and humanistic bent and also considers applications in history, philosophy, literary criticism, literature, and linguistics. The following thematic focus is neither an exclusive nor excluding theme; it is expected that only one-third of the accepted scholars will pursue work relating to this theme. Applications are strongly encouraged from scholars across the social sciences, whether or not their research corresponds to the theme.
Theme 2012-13: ECONOMICS AND POLITICS
Economic and political matters are obviously closely connected. Indeed, the disciplines of economics and political science have their common origin in the field of political economy, which was premised on this inter-relationship. For many decades, however, each discipline took rather little notice of the other; the subjects evolved in more-or-less parallel universes. That has changed in recent years, which have seen a renaissance in the study of economics and politics together. Thus, for example, scholars have been investigating how political alignments induce and constrain economic policy--and, conversely, how economic conditions shape the growth of political movements and coalitions. We anticipate assembling a diverse group of eight to twelve scholars to examine
In the upcoming academic year, the Institute will again take part in a program sponsored by the American Council of Learned Societies: the Frederick Burkhardt Fellowships. These fellowships support more adventurous, more wide-ranging and longer-term patterns of research than are current in the humanities and related social sciences.
Fellowships for Scholars at IAS School of Social Science
