Transitions: Future Trajectories of Institutes for Advanced Study (IASs) in Academia (SCAS Jubilee) - part 2

Published: 6 November 2025

Summary
This SCAS Talks Spotlight episode, part two of the SCAS Jubilee series, delves further into the future trajectories of Institutes for Advanced Study (IASs) in academia. The discussions highlights the crucial role of IASs in fostering academic freedom, hospitality, and diplomacy.

In a conversation with two young researchers emerging models - such as thought leadership, mentorship, and Ubuntu—are explored to support early-career researchers and promote global intellectual exchange. We get to visit the kitchen of SCAS and learn more about the significance of daily lunches as unexpected catalysts for interdisciplinary collaboration and building trust among scholars. The episode emphasizes IASs as vital spaces for developing new ideas, nurturing academic values, and ultimately contributing to a better world.

Keywords
Institutes for Advanced Study, academic hospitality, academic diplomacy, early career researchers, intellectual exchange

Transcript of the Episode

Nkatha Kabira 00:10
The Institutes of Advanced Studies provided me with the gift of time. They gave me the gift of time, the gift of space, the gift of freedom, the gift of friendships, networks, collaborations and good food.

Natalie von der Lehr 00:34
Welcome back to SCAS Talks and the second part about the Jubilee of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. In the previous episode you heard about the role of the Institutes for Advanced Study in academia, and also got some perspectives on how the Institutes can stand united for academic values, in particular academic freedom. But there is more. Looking into the future, we hear the voices of some of the young career researchers. One of them is Nkatha Kabira, who just summarized the benefits of her stays at Institutes for Advanced Study. You will hear more from her and another early, or maybe rather, mid career researcher later on in this episode. We also get some insights on academic hospitality and diplomacy, and we go to lunch. Now we listen to what Christina Garsten, principal of SCAS, has to say about the future trajectories of Institutes for Advanced Study.

Christina Garsten 01:32
Institutes for Advanced Study are living processes, living organisms in continuous transition, and I think we need to reflect on the conditions we're in and where the academic landscape is heading, where research policy is heading, and from there, try to do our best to really advance the search of new knowledge and advance research, and to try to create a kind of scholarly cosmopolitan ethos that actually counters, to some extent, the attempts to erect borders around countries, cultures and continents. So I think it's really now that we have a very important task assignment to do our very best to advance knowledge seeking, but also to try and do our best to promote a civil dialog across borders, across cultures and continents. That's what's needed at this point in time. And I think our fellows are well positioned to do this, and our institutes are well positioned to support this kind of endeavor. I think we are very important nodes in a global, interconnected landscape of Institutes for Advanced Study, and we should make the most use of this position, the most use of this landscape, this ecology of Institutes for Advanced Study that we actually represent. And I think, of course, that we have a special task to think about the future of the academy, the future possibilities and challenges that our younger scholars are facing. It's important from a number of different perspectives, not least, to advance knowledge that can, in the end, lead to surprising new insights that would help us to move towards creating a better world.

Natalie von der Lehr 04:03
Yes, what happens, not only when a woman takes power, but when seemingly small academic institutes join forces, come together, think and dare to ask and address the difficult questions across disciplinary and geographical boundaries. The musical interlude "What happens when a woman" was performed by the choir La Capella during dinner in the Orangery. Opening up and constantly welcoming new fellows and research ideas is one important aspect for the Institutes for Advanced Study. I talk to Joanna Page, Director of CRASSH, the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge, about the concept of academic hospitality.

Joanna Page 04:46
So I was thinking a little bit about hospitality in the way that Derida talks about it. He talks about it very much in terms of the nation state and who we welcome in and, and hospitality is a kind of impossible ideal. Because actually we can't have absolute hospitality. We can't have the guests coming in and taking over the house, because otherwise it wouldn't be our house, and we wouldn't be offering hospitality. And then a couple of scholars have extended Deridas ideas to think about academic hospitality, which, of course, is really important in an Institute for Advanced Study, because a lot of our main business is welcoming in visitors from abroad, and kind of trying to enhance collaboration across borders and that kind of academic exchange. So I was thinking a little bit about, the title for the panel that I was speaking on was "Thinking about academic collaboration in a turbulent world". And so I was thinking about, in the world that we're in, the context we're in where there's increasing violence, decreasing mobility, shrinking funding available - what forms of hospitality can we find that maybe don't involve people traveling, because that for some people is not possible at the moment.

Natalie von der Lehr 05:59
Can you give an example then on what you can do in this case?

Joanna Page 06:02
I guess I used the talk as a little bit about setting a challenge to myself, because I think in the pandemic, we found that we could use Zoom for all sorts of kind of online conversations and networks. But actually we really didn't enjoy it. And as the pandemic ended, I think all universities went back to in person events as much as they could. So it was a little bit of provocation to myself to think, do we need to think again about this? Because actually, in person events exclude so many people who can't travel. And in person fellowships are wonderful, and we know that that is how human beings relate to each other and create really long, lasting ties. But do we, do we need to think about new online forms of hospitality that we could create. So rather than just having zoom sessions where we present speeches, you know, can we actually use those as spaces of interaction of real hospitality? I don't yet know what that might look like. So the provocation was to me and possibly to others, to think about, how do we do this? How do we exercise hospitality, even to people who can't step through our door?

Natalie von der Lehr 07:11
What do you think, we talked about turbulent times, or you talked about turbulent times in this session. What should the role be of the institutes for Advanced Study in these turbulent times that we see now throughout the world, really.

Joanna Page 07:22
I mean, we obviously have very limited power to address the root causes of that turbulence, but we should respond to them. And I think a number, I've been really inspired hearing directors of other Institutes for Advanced Study who have been able to provide sanctuaries for scholars at risk, for example. But there's also a lot that we can do in upholding academic freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, and really decreasing the barriers wherever we can to collaboration. So I think there's a responsibility on all of us to be promoting these values and to be practicing them in different ways.

Natalie von der Lehr 08:02
From academic hospitality to academic diplomacy then, Naoko Shimazu, Director of Tokyo College and Long Term Fellow at SCAS, tells us more.

Natalie von der Lehr 08:12
What comes to mind when you think about the term academic diplomacy?

Naoko Shimazu 08:19
You see, I do study diplomacy as my research area. And of course, I was on this academic diplomacy panel. I think one of the most important things for me about academic diplomacy is that there are many different ways of engaging with this. And probably what most people would think first is some kind of instrumentalist use of academic, academics, academic occasions, in order to gain some objective which is not actually necessarily academic research orientated. It could be sort of like some kind of political objective. And so yes, of course, that's one way of looking at it, but I do think that that's kind of quite narrow, because I think one of the most important things as academics is that we just tend to engage in an environment which is, generally speaking, very international and cosmopolitan. And so we ourselves are, in some sense, sort of, you know, academic diplomats. And you may not necessarily think like that, but I, for one am very conscious of this, maybe because I grew up as a child of diplomat, that this kind of role, the consciousness of it, is for me, a very important part of doing, particularly the kind of job I'm doing now at Tokyo College. And I think the creation of an environment which is conducive to, you know, intellectual discussions, exchanges of ideas, being influenced and also kind of having some impact on the way other people think, that sort of mutuality, you know, I think that can actually be only done if you have an environment which is sort of safe and you feel confident about your ideas not being intentionally mis-, sort of misinterpreted or misdirected in the wrong way. So that that sense of trust is really important. And I think that creation of the environment that enables this kind of this relationship of trust under which academic discussions, research discussions, can take place in itself is actually academic diplomacy. And so people who who actually studied diplomacy started thinking about this idea of sociability in academic diplomacy. And I'm one of the kind of proponents of this, and I think that we take too much for granted that this kind of institutional environment building is a given. But it's not a given, actually. So I think that understanding academic diplomacy in a much more kind of wider context and enable to kind of keep opening the channels of communication. Because ultimately, I think diplomacy is really about keeping the channels of communication open. And if that cannot happen, then this is really the end of diplomacy. And this is quite serious. And I think even when there are very tense situations around the world, which we are living in, a very turbulent and destabilizing world at the moment, you know, you would probably imagine that one of the last areas in which channels of communication close is academic channels. Because we actually, you know, I think for many of us academics, it's very important to keep on talking to each other even in difficult times.

Natalie von der Lehr 12:01
That brings me directly, of course, to the question: What can an Institute for Advanced Study do to keep these channels open, to be a place for academic diplomacy?

Naoko Shimazu 12:11
I suppose my big takeaway from the Jubilee is how important it is for Institutes of Advanced Study to feel that they're part of a community. And it was my first exposure as any kind of representative of Tokyo College, to be in that kind of environment where there were so many IASs, I think there must have been just under 30 IAS representation, and this is really quite major. And it speaks a lot for SCAS, you know, in being able to gather so many directors and other representatives to SCAS. And I was really quite awestruck by what, what was happening, and Christina Garsten's, you know, role in being able to bring together all these people. So I felt that Tokyo College is a new Institute for Advanced Study, would really benefit from being more kind of integrated into this more global community of IASs, because I don't think it's enough to kind of open your house, you know, have an open house and say, yes, we welcome visitors. We are really interested in hearing about your research and that you come to Japan and connect with others. I mean, obviously that's a very important part. But I also think that we ought to be out there in this global community and really learn from each other, peer learning. Of course, I felt at the Jubilee that I had so much to learn, and it was just this kind of whirlwind of all these really important ideas and themes and discussions going on. But on the other hand, I also thought that, you know, the relative underrepresentation of the world as such, apart from the Western world, was also quite noticeable. So I did wonder, like, how could we, and in the name of, you know, diversity, in the name of globalization, I do think that there's quite a lot that we should be thinking about, and particularly in terms of how, you know, one can do that sort of thing.

Natalie von der Lehr 14:19
One excellent way of hospitality is to serve food to your guests, and eating together can be much more than just sharing food, a topic that we will explore shortly. But before virtually going to lunch at SCAS, let's listen to a conversation between two early, or maybe mid-career researchers who are enrolled in fellowship programs at Institutes for Advanced Study. You have already heard the voice of one of them.

Nkatha Kabira 14:53
Thank you very much. Natalie, my name is Nkatha Kabira. I am a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at the University of Nairobi. I've also had the honor of being in several Institutes of Advanced Studies all over the world, in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, and also in the US. So I'm very happy to finally make it here to the Swedish Collegium, and looking forward to the conversation.

David Karlander 15:20
David Karlander, I'm a linguist and an Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Linguistics at Uppsala University. I'm also a Pro Futura Scientia fellow, number 17 cohort here at Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. I've spent some time as a postdoc before sort of returning to Uppsala, at other Institutes for Advanced Study, or similar institutions have been a society fellow in the Humanities at the University of Hong Kong and FRIAS at Freiburg.

Natalie von der Lehr 15:51
You are scholars within these Institutes of Advanced Studies, you have moved around between them and so on. You have had the opportunities to have time to do different things. How can people like you support and inspire the young scholars or early, mid career scholars who are not in the system, who are sort of stuck in their departments and have to follow the hierarchies, the way things are done there. What can you do for them?

Nkatha Kabira 16:22
So I have to a two part answer to your question. The first part, I want to talk about the kinds of models of Institutes of Advanced Studies that I see emerging based on my experiences in the different parts of the world and why that is important for the future of Institutes of Advanced Studies. And then the second part is a response to your question on what can we do for early career researchers? So the first thing I've noticed is that we seem to have at least three models of Institutes of Advanced Studies that are emerging. The first model is a thought leadership model. This is all about early career researchers. So thought leadership models, so I think that is it called the Pro Future?

David Karlander 17:15
Yeah.

Nkatha Kabira 17:16
The Pro Futura and the ISO-LOMSO. I was also, I was an ISO-LOMSO fellow for three years. They sound like they could be similar in the sense that you take three years off of teaching you focus on your research, and so you focus more on developing your thought leadership, and they provide the resources and the space and the time and everything. And then the other model is a mentorship model, and this is what I see emerging in the Institute of Advanced Studies in Nigeria, for example, where they're responding to a crisis in the education system in Africa. So they are teaching you how to teach, how to research, how to write, how to prepare for grants, how to deal with the excellence struggles that we have, how to mentor, how to network, how to collaborate. And the numbers are in their 1000s, because with the population boom, the youth population boom, there's so many young people on the African continent, with the median age being 19, 19 years. So in the coming years, we're going to see more and more young people entering academia, more early career researchers with fewer resources. So now Institutes of Advanced Studies are beginning to have to take on that role which the university are not, is not doing. So I'm calling that a mentorship model. So where we are now having to mentor those who are in the system, who are having the kinds of challenges that you face as an early career researcher. Then the third model I see is what I'm calling the Ubuntu model. Ubuntu really is communitarian, and an example of this is the Intercontinental Academia, where you put together a bunch of early career researchers, give them a problem and get them to solve it together. So get them to think about the concept of time, for example, get them to think about artificial intelligence together, regardless of the discipline that they are coming from, get them to think about law. So in essence, those three models are responding to many of the kinds of challenges that we see early career researchers facing in our world today. And I do think that as we look to the future and as we think about what Institutes of Advanced Studies might look like in the future, they would be responding to these three critical things, because the context is actually demanding more of Institutes of Advanced Studies. Then the last statement I want to make is that, for me, what it has forced me to do, based on my experiences in Institutes of Advanced Studies, is to find ways to, first of all, initiate curriculum reform that would allow more transdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary conversations, so changing educational curriculum so that it can respond more to the kinds of conversations and issues that I see emerging within the context of institutes of Advanced Studies. Lunch seminars, do you have lunch seminars?

David Karlander 20:36
I mean eating together is a form of intellectual collaboration, and I think what I would like to see is post doctoral programs that take up that idea and sort of introduce it earlier, rather during your career stage. So instead of sort of, yeah, I mean, great. It's brilliant. Everyone who makes it into IAS, I mean, congrats, but I think I mean developing a postdoctoral scheme where, say, would recruit people from the maybe all subjects, maybe from from a macro area, like humanities or social sciences, or humanities plus social sciences, or from all STEM subjects, or from STEM plus, and then just make you know, we could give people two years worth of funding and a space to be in and some sort of structured activity. But not necessarily with very expensive senior fellows. The original question says, how does mentoring work, what can we do for for junior scholars, postdoctoral scholars? I mean, one answer here would be, as early as possible, try to give them the tools to craft their own future. I mean, make, put them in a position where they can exercise more control over their career decisions, I think And that is something that can be governed, not necessarily what they do, but the way they think about their possibilities in the system. Because something which is very, I mean, it sounds like a very elitist thing to say, but something that an Institute for Advanced Studies study does is to elevate people's sense of their own worth, maybe.

Natalie von der Lehr 22:06
You mentioned lunches, and a lot of my podcast guests actually mention lunches.

Nkatha Kabira 22:13
Definitely, food is a unifier. It's a connector. It brings people together. Food goes beyond disciplines. It goes beyond. The food is really, really important, because then you make friendships over lunch, you have conversations over lunch, you think about the unthinkable over lunch, and you also break down the barriers over lunch, because you're not afraid, because otherwise maybe you might think, oh, this is such a big shot professor, someone I would never have a chance to speak to. And here they are sitting next to me, and they are eating, which is a normal human thing to do. So it also helps with the mentorship, because then a junior, an early career scholar, will feel less intimidated. So I think the lunch, whoever thought about this idea...

David Karlander 23:12
Yeah

Nkatha Kabira 23:12
...had it right on the money.

David Karlander 23:14
Definitely.

Nkatha Kabira 23:14
Right on the money.

David Karlander 23:15
Yeah. What's also good, it's a very good way of mixing, because you don't eat with the same people. Eat in the same room with the same people, but you don't sit next to the same people. It's probably the most productive mode of interdisciplinarity in an Institute for Advanced Study, because, I mean, I can't be too geeky about my stuff. I have to cut away all the technicalities. It has to be adapted to someone who is really smart but knows nothing about my subject.

Natalie von der Lehr 23:45
Lunch is served every day at 12.30. I decided to do some research about the lunches, and started by joining Ulrika Andersson, Head of the Kitchen.

Natalie von der Lehr 23:53
So what's for lunch today?

Ulrika Andersson 23:56
Today we will have shrimps with rice and vegetables. For the vegetarian, we will have stew with beet roots and root celery and sauce together with coconut milk and little bit of garlic and leek I have here prepared for today.

Ulrika Andersson 24:18
So, and I take the garlic here.

Natalie von der Lehr 24:26
So how do you plan the lunches, what food you will prepare, and so on.

Ulrika Andersson 24:30
I used to have a schedule for around eight weeks, and then I repeat it after a while. So I think it's very good to have lots of variation. And I do a schedule normally in the August when I prepare the semester. So I start with a new schedule and plan that. So get some new inspiration and do something that I used to do, also even Swedish traditional food and, and so. And then it could be a lot of food from other countries also, especially when I meet the fellows here, they have so much input about the food from their countries. And sometimes I can get some recipe from them. Or many of them are very interested about food as well. So it's very good for me.

Natalie von der Lehr 25:21
Do you ever get company in the kitchen from them?

Ulrika Andersson 25:25
Oh, yes, last time we had the Ukraine food, we made Borsjtj, the soup. It was very good and interesting to learn how to do it. One year it was Indian food and even Chinese food. So fellow from their country, they we do it together and then serve it like a special day. Very good inspiration for me. They teach me, and I can learn from them. So that inspires me a lot.

Natalie von der Lehr 25:57
So maybe a leading question, but what is the most important meal of the day?

Ulrika Andersson 26:04
Many people should say the breakfast, but I think the lunch is very good, of course, I have to say. But I think that then, if you have a nice and good food with lots of both protein and carbs and vegetables, I think you don't need so much in the evening.

Natalie von der Lehr 26:22
And if you have a good lunch, then that keeps you going for the rest of the day.

Ulrika Andersson 26:27
Yes, I think so too. Otherwise, you know, think about myself, if I don't have food, my energy is low. I can't think, I can't do anything, because you need the energy. I believe here they need that kind of energy to make a good work here at SCAS, so.

Natalie von der Lehr 26:47
So when I'm in the podcast studio and I have guests, they always mention the lunch and how extremely nice it is and how much they like your food. Do you have any comments on that?

Ulrika Andersson 26:58
Oh, wow. What should I say? It is, of course, I think they say so nice things. Of course, I like it. like to hear it, and I also feel so happy, and I appreciate what they say that I like my food. So of course, I'm happy for that. Thanks so much.

Natalie von der Lehr 27:17
So the fellows, they get nice food from you and energy for the rest of the day. What do you get from the fellows? What do you get back?

Ulrika Andersson 27:27
It gives me a lot of energy and inspiration to do better work. They give me back a lot of motivation, actually, and inspiration for making good food.

Natalie von der Lehr 27:40
So now let's go to lunch then and join some of the conversations around the table.

Lunch guests 27:45
Lunches are fantastic.

Natalie von der Lehr 27:47
So what do you think about this daily gathering in the middle of the day?

Lunch guests 27:52
It's nice. I mean, I generally like, generally like having social lunch, sort of get a break from whatever you're working on. The food is delicous. Definitely very nice, way better than my own lunch. I would not never have this, you know great variety of, it's such a privilege, right to just turn up and sit next to really interesting colleagues and have great lunch. And great conversations, so you know as we were discussing like this terminology used in philosophy is one that we could use in anthropology as well, would be very useful. So from an intellectual perspective it gives us that opportunity. Fantastic, yeah.

Natalie von der Lehr 28:34
At the next table, there is a lively discussion about animals.

Lunch guests 28:40
On the topic of otters, so actually, in Delhi, after the one such bout of heavy rains, a colleague - this is a heard story, I can't you know, attest to it veracity. But a colleague, when they heard a knock on her door, and then went up to find that there was, like an otter, knocking on her door, it had swam up the canals and, like, walked up the corridors of this college.

Natalie von der Lehr 29:12
So here we learned that otter gang wars is actually a thing in Singapore and that there are no snakes in New Zealand. One of the many things that at least I did not know I wanted to know more about. It is easy to understand that fellows miss SCAS and the lunches once they leave. I happened to come across an entry from a secret diary of the fellows from the cohort, 2018/2019. Bruce Carruthers, then fellow in residence, and now Long Term Fellow at SCAS kindly reads this entry for us.

Bruce Carruthers 29:44
Nine o'clock I arrive at my office, turn on my computer and begin another day of productive scholarly work. But first I wonder, what is Ulrika making for lunch today? 10 o'clock, fika! I try to find out from Ulrica wha is for lunch. She says it's a surprise. Why does she tease me so? Why all the mystery? I am tormented. 11 o'clock. Did some emails and organized my paper clips, but I'm really puzzled about the lunch menu. I removed a comma from the opening paragraph in a paper I'm revising. It is hard to stay focused when my mouth is watering. 12.30, lunch, wow. What a beautiful repast. I had four helpings. It was a real Ulrika's feast. Someone said something clever at my table, but I was too busy eating to notice. 13.30, I return to my office and work on my paper again. I reinsert the comma I'd previously removed. I pick my teeth. I'm still thinking about the extraordinary flavors from lunch. Great mouth feel so, aromatic. What a pleasure. 14.15, a fellow's research presentation. I am sleepy for my big lunch, but manage to stay awake through the talk. Interesting topic, for sure, but my eyes are heavy. 16.00, the Q&A are over. I was tempted to ask the speaker "What's for lunch tomorrow?", but realized that that was not germane to the topic. Probably no one knows but Ulrica. 16.30, my desk chair is creaking as I've gained seven kilos this year. Ulrika's food is too good, I must have more self control, or I'll need new clothes, maybe a new chair. I'll ask Pia. 17.00, I inserted a semicolon in parentheses into my intro paragraph. It looks much better now, but then I realize I've just added a wink emoji to my text. Good grief, I used to concentrate. Still thinking about today's lunch, delicious and nutritious. How does she do it? Day after day after day? I am in awe. Will she write a SCAS cookbook? 18.00, back at my apartment, another frozen pizza dinner. I can't wait for lunch tomorrow. Will it be the soup or the potato pancakes or quiche? I would love to eat salmon again. I'll never forget Ulrika's julbord. Could she make - and it's redacted - like my mother? 20.00, watched "Hela Sverige bakar" on TV. The cakes didn't look as good as Ulrika's. 22.00, bedtime, I'll probably dream of Ulrika's potatoes or meatballs. Now I go to sleep.

Natalie von der Lehr 32:29
Let's round off this episode with the reflections from Björn Wittrock, one of the founding directors, former principal and now permanent fellow of SCAS.

Björn Wittrock 32:39
What could be the rationale for an Institute for Advanced Study? What do you say when you are proposing an Institute for Advanced Study or directing one, and people say this is a diversion of resources. We should instead devote these resources to teaching students in regular university departments. And is it really a good thing to assemble some very eminent people, if for a brief time, in a special institution, and take them away from the universities. Experience has shown that such institutions really are uniquely well suited to serve the needs of early career scholars, and particularly at the stage beyond the doctoral stage, the post doctoral or the post post doctoral. At that stage, early career scholars should get the maximum stimulus to consider if they want to carry on what they have been doing so far, if they want to venture into a slightly different direction. And they should be advised, but informally advised, by a cohort of scholars at the highest academic level. Institutes for Advanced Study should be spaces where completely new ideas may thrive during the first sensitive stage in their articulation and development. The Harvard historian of science Peter Galison talks about the breeding grounds of new knowledge and many institutions, not least the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, has used this in a very systematic way. I think it's a very important and perhaps the ultimate reasons why you should have these institutes.

Natalie von der Lehr 34:25
You have listened to SCAS Talks, a podcast by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. This was an episode within our series SCAS Talks Spotlight, highlighting the SCAS Jubilee in September 2025. You have heard some of the thoughts and reflections about the future trajectories for Institutes for Advanced Studies and academia. And this was the second episode of this special Jubilee edition. In the next episode, you will hear some SCAS voices from the past for the future. The material for this podcast was recorded and edited by me, Natalie von der Lehr. I would like to thank Christina Garsten, Joanna Page, Naoko Shimazu, Nkatha Kabira, David Karlander, Ulrika Andersson and Björn Wittrock for talking to me. Thanks also to the fellows at the lunch tables and Bruce Carruthers. The musical piece "What happens when a woman" was performed by the choir La Capella, and is part of their current performance, which explores themes of curiosity, resilience, freedom and women's rights. You can find out more on the website lacappella.se. In our regular podcast series, you can hear more about the research of present and former SCAS fellows. Tune in and listen if you're not a regular listener already. Thank you for listening, and bye for

Transcribed by https://otter.ai