IAS scholars share informed and diverse perspectives on high-level issues, contemporary society, and social change, lending expert insight to the global discourse.
By Angelos
Chaniotis, Professor in the School of Historical Studies:
"The fragments of the Parthenon sculptures that are exhibited in
the British Museum have made headlines again, after an interview
with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in...
By Nicholas Dirks, Member (1989–90) in
the School of Social Science:
"When the sociologist Alondra Nelson was named as the new deputy
director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, she noted
that the pandemic had 'held up a mirror to our...
Since March, the world resembles a disaster movie. For their
plot, screenwriters follow a proven model: scientists warn about a
threat—an earthquake, a volcano, a virus, a meteor, or a terrorist
attack; politicians ignore the warning because of...
By Avi Loeb, Member (1988–93, 2002–03) in the
School of Natural Sciences:
“Such examples are often used to support the notion that the
scientific method works and that the truth eventually prevails. But
these success stories reflect a selection...
By Joan Wallach
Scott, Professor Emerita in the School of Social Science:
"The recent terrorist attacks in France aroused what has become
a predictable counter-attack by French politicians: the
condemnation of Muslims as – in the words of the...
Donald Light, Visitor in the School of Social Science, asks in the Philadelphia Inquirer:
"The British Medical Journal wrote last month that 'none of the [Covid] vaccine trials are designed to detect significant reduction in hospital admissions, admission to intensive care, or death.' Can these vaccines stop the pandemic?"
“By relying solely on preliminary results, one gets a falsely
positive view of the vaccine. Surveys indicate that most people are
worried that the government is going to allow untrustworthy
COVID-19 vaccines on the market. Therefore, the public...
The conversion of Hagia Sophia, then the greatest church of
Christianity, into a mosque in 1453 by Mehmet the Conqueror was not
a historical paradox. Over the centuries, places of worship often
passed from one religious community to another, hosting...
In the summer of 430 B.C.E., a ship from Egypt arrived in
Piraeus with an uninvited guest onboard: the "plague." The symptoms
of this yet-to-be-identified disease—hypotheses range from typhoid
fever to viral hemorrhagic fever—are described by the...
