Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science

THE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE each year invites as Members some fifteen to twenty scholars from a large applicant pool. The group is interdisciplinary and international. A completed doctorate or equivalent is required of all applicants; memberships are awarded at both the junior and senior levels.

Visiting Members are expected to pursue their own research, but the School organizes a seminar on the year's focus and a weekly lunch at which Members as well as invited guests present their on-going work. The School is not wedded to any particular intellectual or disciplinary approach. It welcomes applications in economics, political science, law, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. It encourages social scientific work with an historical and humanistic bent and also entertains applications in history, philosophy, literary criticism, literature, and linguistics. Member awards are funded by the Institute for Advanced Study or by other sources, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The theme for 2006-07 is The "Third World" Now. The last sixty years have seen a dramatic change in the shape of the world. Colonial empires have dissolved either violently or peacefully and a new international system has taken shape. From the original 42 members of the League of Nations, the United Nations has grown to 191. In many states founded by charismatic spokesmen for national liberation there are now a second generation of more managerial types. And there is a different, volatile configuration of alliances and antagonisms among them. There have been many studies over the years of such matters as the modernization and development of emerging economies postcolonial culture and politics, ethnic rivalries within and among nations, and post-Cold War realignments. Most such studies have been conducted within the context of "globalization," and have used categories of analysis that, in the light of recent history, appear dated and inadequate to the task. What is lacking, and what we are hoping to provide, is a map of structure, and form. Such a map requires not only empirical work (from historians, ethnographers, political economists, geographers, sociologists), but new and revised categories of analysis that will illuminate the patterns that have emerged. We want to bring together a group of scholars from all over the world whose individual work (substantive and focused as well as theoretical) will contribute to the drawing of this map and who collectively will articulate the analytic categories that can make sense of the "third world" as it is now.  

Please note that applications that do not fall within the parameters of the theme for 2006-2007 will also receive full consideration.

COMPLETED APPLICATIONS MUST BE POSTMARKED BY NOVEMBER 15, 2005.

Location: Princeton, NJ
Deadline: Nov 15, 2005
Website: http://www.sss.ias.edu/home/applications.html