Institute For Advanced Study Receives Grant From Mellon Foundation

The Institute for Advanced Study has received a grant of $1,200,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City, in response to a proposal from Institute Director Phillip A. Griffiths for support of three initiatives: a program in economics in the School of Social Science; a program in art history in the School of Historical Studies; and the scholarship of professors emeriti.

“The support of the Mellon Foundation is deeply appreciated, and is of critical importance as the Institute continues to strengthen the schools of Historical Studies and Social Science,” says Griffiths.

The Economics program, led by Eric S. Maskin, Albert O. Hirschman Professor in the School of Social Science, will explore the interaction of analytically-based knowledge with mainstream economics, and take into account cultural and historically-driven aspects of economic behavior. The program hopes to encourage new modes of economic inquiry in conjunction with the other schools of the Institute: Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Historical Studies, as well as the Program in Theoretical Biology. It will also seek to integrate the economics program with allied interests at Princeton University.

Art History will be led by Professor in the School of Historical Studies Kirk Varnedoe, whose interests include European and North American art of the 19th and 20th centuries. His scholarship has opened or reshaped fields of enquiry such as Impressionism, Scandinavian modernism, and the influence of photography on painting. Varnedoe has focused on the social, psychological, cultural, historical, and personal mechanisms of innovation and influence that shape modern art. Library resources and related facilities will support the new focus in art history, and help to make current research materials available to scholars.

Both Maskin and Varnedoe will work with the numerous Members, or visiting scholars, who are in residence each year in their respective Schools. The new grant will also support the scholarship of faculty members who, although recently retired, are deeply engaged in academic research.

All three funding areas are important to the School of Historical Studies and the School of Social Science, says Griffiths. “In the humanities and social sciences,” he observes, “some of the most creative and energized intellectual efforts are to be found at the interfaces between major areas of thought.

“These three initiatives are consistent with the Institute’s goals of making enduring contributions to the creation and advancement of historical and societal knowledge, and deepening the preparation of the leading scholars of tomorrow.”

The Institute for Advanced Study is favorably structured to accomplish these goals, he says, “because of having both a permanent Faculty, who bring to their task a breadth of scholarship that provides intellectual continuity and direction, and many visiting Members, who likewise bring creativity and wide-ranging interests to their enterprise.”

The Mellon Foundation grant is for use over approximately three years.