Summer Program in Social Science 2021 - 2023

The School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, announces the 2021-2023 Summer Program in Social Science. It is conducted in collaboration with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER) at the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, and the Escuela de Estudios de Género (EEG) and Centro de Estudios (CES) at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, in Bogotá. This innovative program will normally take place over a two-year cycle, however, because the current cycle had to be postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic, it will take place over three years, beginning with a one-week online session in March 2021. In-person workshops will begin with a two-week session in Princeton in the spring of 2022, followed by one week mid-2023 at one of the two collaborating institutions in South Africa and Colombia, with continuous communication facilitated among the scholars throughout the two year period. The program will be led by Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the Institute’s School of Social Science, in collaboration with Sarah Nuttall, Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, and Mara Viveros-Vigoya, Professor at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. It is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Designed to draw together twenty early-career scholars from countries in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America, the program aims to enrich and expand the realm of the social sciences through the confrontation of different intellectual traditions and perspectives; to facilitate and enhance the dialogue between various scientific disciplines and communities; and to strengthen international networks across continents. Fellows will pursue and present their own research projects during the program. This research is expected to be at an advanced stage of development so as to render discussions of its object, method and conclusions richer and intellectual interactions among the fellows more fruitful. Special attention will be paid to local contexts of production and global modalities of circulation of knowledge and the participants will be invited to exchange their research experiences. The purpose is to constitute a genuinely international and interdisciplinary network of social scientists from the global South.