School of Social Science

Jenna Kelly, Academic Assistant in the School of Social Science, reflects on how working at the Institute for Advanced Study has seen her enter a vibrant community where scholars can find both academic engagement and friendship.

Introducing E. Tendayi Achiume, Ashvin B. Chhabra and Daniela Bonafede-Chhabra Member in the School of Social Science, whose research focuses on the international legal frameworks that govern migration, racism, and xenophobia. In this Q&A, she highlights IAS scholars who have influenced her work, the value of collaboration, and how she plans to expand her scope of analysis beyond nation states to transnational corporations during her time at IAS.

Marc Aidinoff, Research Associate in the Institute for Advanced Study’s School of Social Science (2023–25), discusses how interdisciplinary scholarship stretching across academia, industry, and civil society can work in practice.

Geoff Mann, Member in the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science (2023–24), describes his interest in modeling how the world works, and how uncertainties in this modeling process can be channeled from scientific research through the policy world and into the realm of politics.

This selection of books provides a peek into the treasure-trove of scholar publications from the Schools of Historical Studies and Social Science that have been promoted via the Institute’s social media channels in the past six months.

During the 2023–24 academic year, the School of Social Science hosted a special theme year titled PLATFORM. To offer a view into their work, some of the theme year participants share thoughts on what the word "platform" means to them, and how "platform" serves as a useful concept in their research.

After the COVID-19 pandemic saw public health erupt into the world’s consciousness, Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, gave a series of lectures at the Collège de France in Paris proposing a new analysis of the moral and political issues at stake in the practice of public health. The lectures have been published by Polity Press in a book titled The Worlds of Public Health: Anthropological Excursions.

While some people were baking sourdough bread during the pandemic, Kristen Ghodsee, Member (2006–07) in the School of Social Science, studied utopian communities. In this interview, she discusses the resulting book, Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Wild Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life, and her efforts to engage a non-academic audience through her writing and even TikTok!

Lindsey D. Cameron, Member in the School of Social Science, studies Uber. "Well, I don’t study strictly Uber per se," she says, "but it’s easier to digest than saying I study the rise of the platform economy and algorithmic management, and its implications on labor."

Lorenzo Alunni, Wolfensohn Family Member in the School of Social Science (2022–23), and illustrator Elisa Nocentini, describe how their time at the Institute for Advanced Study inspired them to write a children’s book titled “An Ordinary Night at the Institute.”