Teatime at Home

During the Covid-19 shutdown, scholars continue to pursue their research. Seminars and conversations are ongoing in the Schools and collaborations among scholars continue, as do virtual lunches and afternoon teas. While in a very different format, the work of the Institute continues in the same spirit. Teatime at Home is a social distancing email newsletter featuring new interviews with scholars conducted by IAS Distinguished Journalism Fellow Joanne Lipman, curated archival materials, and concert recordings presented by Artist-in-Residence David Lang.

July 7, 2020

Teatime at Home: A social distancing newsletter
July 7, 2020
This week in Teatime at Home 
  • Chris Maddison joins Joanne Lipman to discuss deep learning and creativity in science.
  • Ankur Moitra asks how we can navigate the vast amount of data at our disposal.
  • Watch videos from a 2020 workshop on Iran’s cultural history organized by Sabine Schmidtke.
  • Read an excerpt from Life: A Critical User’s Manual by Didier Fassin.
  • David Lang presents Die Schöne Müllerin performed by Nicholas Phan.
A Recipe for Creativity: In Conversation with Chris Maddison
Chris Maddison, 2019–20 Member in the School of Mathematics, works on the development of methods for machine learning, with a focus on deep learning. This week Chris joins IAS Distinguished Journalism Fellow Joanne Lipman to discuss bias in artificial intelligence, the importance of creativity in science, and how to teach students the “usefulness of useless knowledge.” Read more.
Finding Structure in Big Data (2012)
“The fundamental mathematical problem is: If the data can be ‘explained’ by a small number of rectangles, can we find them?” Ankur Moitra, Member (2011–13) in the School of Mathematics, on the mathematical questions at the heart of effective computer-driven recommendation systems. Read more.
Iran at the Crossroads of Civilizations (2020)
With a written history that stretches over more than 7,000 years, Iran’s is one of the most variegated and richest cultures of the Middle East, if not the world. In January 2020, Sabine Schmidtke, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, organized a panel discussion showcasing Iran’s incredibly rich cultural heritage. Watch now.
Life: A Critical User’s Manual (2018)
“What I propose, then, is not an anthropology of life, which I deem an impossible project, but rather an anthropological composition formed of three elements which when assembled, like a jigsaw puzzle, reveal an image: the inequality of human lives.” Read an excerpt from Life: A Critical User’s Manual, the 2018 book from Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science, on the forms, the ethics, and the politics of life. Read more.
Curated by Artist-in-Residence David Lang:
Nicholas Phan Sings Franz Schubert
David Lang writes: In 1823 composer Franz Schubert changed the relationship of singers to their songs forever, with his masterpiece of storytelling Die Schöne Müllerin. This hour-long series of linked songs tells melodramatically a story of a miller’s apprentice who wanders down the river looking for work. He finds it, he falls in love with the miller’s daughter, she rejects him, he drowns himself in the river. And all the while the piano part accompanying him musically personifies the water—comforting him, supporting him, and ultimately luring him to his suicide. Today’s performance is by the young superstar tenor Nicholas Phan, accompanied by pianist Myra Huang.

Listen now.