Social Science

After the death of several dozens of refugees, most of them fleeing Afghanistan, in a shipwreck off the coasts of Calabria, in the South of Italy, on the 26th of February 2023, Lorenzo Alunni, current Member in the School of Social Science, and Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor, wrote a column for Le Monde, analyzing how Europe had shifted from a politics of rescue to a criminalization of humanitarianism.

Lynne Huffer and Andreas Folkers, current Members of the School of Social Science, join Distinguished Visiting Professor Timothy Mitchell to discuss the important and varied work of the Members participating in the School's theme seminar on Climate Crisis Politics, and consider what it looks like to live in and beyond climate crisis.

Based on her firsthand experience of shadowing workers on construction sites in Qatar, Natasha Iskander, Member (2022–23) in the School of Social Science, reveals how climate change and climate migration were exploited for profit at the 2022 World Cup. She highlights that climate change has a face, and that its consequences are made through specific economic and organizational practices.

Lesyle Obiora, Visitor (1998) in the School of Social Science, describes her time at the IAS as "a gift that has just given perpetually in my life."

"There is a uniquely U.S. story to the legal undoings following Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. The American divide on abortion finds its contested space reinvigorated by the recent majority decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that overturned Roe and Casey. This distinctly American institution of politically appointed judges is unparalleled to any other top courts in other liberal democracies."

Meet 2022–23 Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., and Annette L. Nazareth Member in the School of Social Science, K-Sue Park. Her research examines the development of American property law and the creation of the American real estate market through the histories of colonization and enslavement. 

Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. It has created a refugee crisis, the scale of which has not been seen since World War II in Europe. The toll of civilian casualties is in the thousands, with countless others missing, injured, trapped, or lacking in essential medicines, food, and water.

Fernando Brancoli is a social scientist studying far-right Brazilian politics. Currently, his research is interested in Bolsonarismo, a term used to describe the non-cohesive coalitions orbiting President Jair Bolsonaro, as both a domestic phenomenon and one with international connections.

Adriana Petryna, past Member (2003–04) and Visitor (2006) in the School of Social Science, has authored Horizon Work: At the Edges of Knowledge in an Age of Runaway Climate Change, offering a new perspective on the current climate crisis. 

In this Scholar Spotlight we feature three former scholars: Michael Hanchard (Social Science), Jo Nelson (Mathematics), and Tracy Slatyer (Natural Sciences). They explain how and why the environment at IAS nourishes independent thinkers and prompts scholars to ask questions that push the boundaries of knowledge.