Suzanne Conklin Akbari

With the launch of chatbots such as ChatGPT and Bard, artificial intelligence (AI) has never been more prominently placed in the popular imagination. At IAS, the technology has been the subject of interdisciplinary discussion for some time. This article, featuring comments from scholars across all four IAS Schools, demonstrates the breadth of debate.

The Hidden Stories project, co-led by Suzanne Conklin Akbari, aims to explore the systems, peoples and cultures that make a book, including its physical and biological properties that reveal new knowledge. Everything from fungal growth on its pages to the trade routes involved in the materials used to make the book will be studied.

"In this and other tales from the period, the color of the sultan’s skin has a deeper meaning: His black skin is a metaphor for his non-Christian soul, according to Cord Whitaker, associate professor of English at Wellesley College, a [M]ember of the Institute for Advanced Study, and one of the founding members of the Princeton collaboration."

Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, has been elected to the Medieval Academy of America’s Fellows Class of 2022. The highest honor granted by the academy, it is bestowed upon scholars “who have made notable lifelong contributions to Medieval Studies through their scholarship, teaching, and service.”

Explore 1,000 years of world history in the exhibit Hidden Stories: Books Along the Silk Roads. The exhibit, co-curated by Suzanne Conklin Akbari and Filiz Çakır Phillip, opens on October 9, 2021 and will run through February 27, 2022, at the Aga...

Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, with Chris Piuma, hosts The Spouter-Inn, a MegaphonicFM podcast that explores major works of literature from antiquity to modern times. Akbari and Piuma—avid readers with a...

By Suzanne Conklin Akbari, Professor in the School of Historical Studies:

The French verb essayer means “to try,” “to attempt”; even “to try out.” Like the “Try-Works” of Melville’s Moby Dick, where clear pure sperm oil is melted down from the chunks...

Suzanne Akbari, Professor in the School of Historical Studies, convened a workshop on November 19, 2019, of researchers from the University of Toronto, Princeton University, and other institutions—as well as Nicola Di Cosmo, Luce Foundation Professor...