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IASs of New Delhi and São Paulo emphasize
Some institutes of advanced studies operate only with foreign researchers without predetermined activities, such as the one at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), in New Delhi, India. Others, like IEA-USP, receive national and international researchers with individual projects or as part of thematic groups. The profiles are varied, but one policy is common to this type of institute: the encouragement of free, interdisciplinary and innovative thinking. At a meeting held on June 25, this feature became evident in the presentation of the work proposals of the Institute for Advanced Studies Jawaharlal Nehru (JNIAS) and of IEA-USP by its directors, Aditya Mukherjee and Martin Grossmann, respectively. GLOBAL INSTITUTE To explain the context of the JNIAS' creation in 2004, Mukherjee said JNU was founded in 1969 to stimulate the development of social sciences in India in a similar way to the growth of the natural sciences in the 1950s and 60s. "JNU is a free public university, created with the goal of being a center of independent thought that does not replicate the West's centers of reflection; a center of nationwide scope, recruiting students from all over the country; and secular in the Indian sense of the word: not averse to religion, but without connection to any of them." JNIAS" goal is to be a global institute. All fellows are foreigners and, preferably, from places that have scant academic exchange with India. Researchers from 25 countries have worked with the institute so far, including a Brazilian microbiologist. "The challenge is to find good researchers. When that happens, their presence in the institute is enough. Everyone will invite them and they'll be busy all the time with lectures, seminars, and contacts with students," he explained. To stimulate the exchange of ideas and experiences through personal contact, JNIAS' building offers apartments for all researchers and rooms for social interaction and events. There are currently 14 resident fellows at the institute and the goal is to reach 30, according to Mukherjee. The institute always seeks the participation of at least one person from the creative areas (visual arts, cinema, theater, literature etc.), "who always asks the most difficult questions at scientific presentations." Mukherjee said that one of the most successful cases was the residence of the playwright, poet and social activist Ari Sitas, from South Africa, who worked with Nelson Mandela in South Africa's reconciliation movement: "We didn't ask him to teach. He just came over, and was invited to work all over the country. This is the best we can do. The university, the city, the country should benefit from the people we are able bring." TRANSITION "IEA-USP is the vanguard in the conservative system of the university. Not that the university is a thing of the past. On the contrary, it is the bastion of knowledge. However, to remain up-to-date and aligned with new realities, it needs agents such as IEA," said Grossmann in his presentation. He believes the Institute is undergoing a transition phase, after its first 25 years with a typically modernist style of operation, based on the contribution of big names in science and culture. "We must recover its role as a place of debate, of exchanging experiences, where impossible encounters become possible and irreconcilable visions confront their ideas." Grossmann's main concern with the transition to a post-modern framework is how to enable the Institute to act more metacritically, with greater awareness of the new central issues: "We must promote changes in IEA's operating system, not only to deal with the new facts, but also to have the ambition to promote change." It was with this aim that Grossmann presented the Institutional Project (2012-2017) to the Advisory Board in May, whereby he proposes a new way of organizing the institute's activities by means of comprehensive themes that "give a better idea of IEA's identity, clarifying its objectives and goals, and enhancing the communication between research groups." METACURATORSHIPS The wide-ranging themes will be treated as metacuratorships, a management design that is more critical and more transparent with regard to the languages used, according to Grossmann. "Instead of giving voice to only one person and empowering a curator, a metacuratorship assumes that the organizers are many: an interdisciplinary group that canvasses the themes that deserve urgent scientific or cultural attention." Four metacuratorships are planned for in the project: Commons, Transformation, Glocal and Abstraction. Commons will be the space of collectiveness, accessibility, well-being, democracy, human rights, social justice, sociocultural environments and interfaces. "The choice of this theme emerged from a critical analysis of the University of São Paulo on how to deal with democracy and the dialogue among the sectors that comprise it, and on how to dialogue with society and be accountable to it." Grossmann stated that judge José Renato Nalini, member of the IEA's Advisory Board, has proposed a theme for analysis: the judicialization of Brazilian life, whereby all disputes between individuals are brought to court. The object of the Transformation metacuratorship is education and its ability to transform people and society. "The governments of Brazil since the return to democracy have had no clear plans for education. If Brazil intends to become a central player and attract knowledge and experience, it must undergo a socially-based transformation, and education is fundamental in this process." For Grossman, this metacuratorship could even hold discussions on the future of USP. Glocal is a paradox in itself, with the presence of contradictions, inequalities and inadequacies: "It is a concept that post-modern thinkers have frequently used to understand the relationship between globalization and local processes, and how the latter are neutralized by that the former. In this respect, IEA can be a partner in the development of USP's internationalization policy, including the identification of other partners besides U.S. and European universities." The metacuratorship Abstraction turns to the theoretical speculations, philosophy, abstract thinking in general, since it is from these reflections that science defines its directions and, ultimately, enables the various applications of knowledge. Grossmann said that this kind of reflection, this thinking about the new, and the new interfaces are essential to the development of an institute like IEA. He even thinks of the possibility of an IEA Academy. A project developed within the scope of University-Based Institutes of Advanced Study (Ubias, a network of which IEA and JNIAS are members) could be considered a harbinger of that. In this project, 30 young researchers with leadership potential in their areas of expertise will undergo a one-month immersion at IEA-USP and another month at the Institute for Advanced Research at Nagoya University, Japan, under the mentorship of three scientists of international prestige. APPLICATION In addition to the metacuratorships, Grossmann proposes the creation of a Program for Higher Directed Studies: "USP has recently expanded its activities to the city of Santos, in view of the discoveries of oil and gas in the pre-salt. The university is responding to the demands of professional training and development of technologies in this field. But are there not other repressed or imaginable demands for the near future?" Finally, Grossmann noted that IEA intends to make full use of high-definition broadcasts made possible by the internet 2, which make virtual fellowships possible: "An eventual format will be debates by telepresence, with the participation of people from around the world in advanced digital setting." English revision by Carlos Malferrari — picture: MB/IEA-USP |
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