The Institute Letter Spring 2023

Art historian Marilyn Aronberg Lavin describes how three busts attributed to Baroque artist Gianlorenzo Bernini shaped the career of her husband Irving Lavin, past Professor in the School of Historical Studies, and how she recently repatriated one of these artworks to Italy from her home at IAS.

Since 2007, when she made her own avatar on the 3D virtual world of Second Life, Eiko Ikegami has been immersed in a study of how individuals, as avatars, form communities. Explore how her research has evolved from studying Japanese history to understanding the metaverse, and how the two seemingly disparate fields are linked by ideas surrounding networks and "virtuality".

In this excerpt from “Well, Doc, You’re In” Freeman Dyson’s Journey through the Universe, edited by David Kaiser, Freeman Dyson and friend Peter Sankey ascend the New Court clock tower at St. John’s College, Cambridge during a wartime blackout.

Lynne Huffer and Andreas Folkers, current Members of the School of Social Science, join Distinguished Visiting Professor Timothy Mitchell to discuss the important and varied work of the Members participating in the School's theme seminar on Climate Crisis Politics, and consider what it looks like to live in and beyond climate crisis.

Based on her firsthand experience of shadowing workers on construction sites in Qatar, Natasha Iskander, current Member in the School of Social Science, reveals how climate change and climate migration were exploited for profit at the 2022 World Cup.

Patrick J. Geary, Professor Emeritus in the School of Historical Studies, describes how advances in the field of paleogenom­ics are not only revolutionizing the study of paleolithic homi­nids but are also allowing scholars to answer questions about much more recent history, previously inaccessible using traditional historical and archae­ological sources.