Offering both insight and inspiration, Feminists Resisting Gendered Violence highlights feminist collaboration across borders as a crucial resource for understanding and challenging violence in the present. Hear from the authors, and editors Dr Hemangini Gupta and Prof. Fiona Mackay, as we share excerpts from the creative, critical, collective, and transnational pieces in our volume and a live recital by renowned singer-songwriter Karine Polwart whose piece features in the anthology.

Part of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence 2026 (25 Nov - 10 Dec).

Free registration via Eventbrite.

This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and to avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee everyone a place. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Please note, filming, recording and/or photography may take place at this event.

On Thursday, 19 November 2026, at 16.00-18.00 (Bucharest time)

Recurrent link for all TransCorr seminars:

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86053564093?pwd=soarDcaeGTlulMIYP18BZtzjrtjKm…

Meeting ID: 860 5356 4093
Passcode: 197637

Abstract: 

My conference reinterprets the final decade of Phanariot rule in Wallachia and Moldavia through the analytical lenses of corruption theory, principal–agent models, and neo-patrimonial governance. Focusing on the reigns of Ioan Caragea (Wallachia, 1812–1818) and Scarlat Callimachi (Moldavia, 1812–1819), it challenges the longstanding nationalist narrative that portrays late Phanariot rule primarily as a period of moral decay and endemic corruption.

Rather than treating corruption as individual deviance, the paper conceptualizes it as a structural feature of Ottoman imperial governance. The Danubian princes functioned as agents of the Ottoman center, operating under conditions of high fiscal extraction, short tenure, and limited monitoring. Such institutional constraints created predictable incentives for rent-seeking, patronage distribution, and office commodification. Within this framework, Caragea’s much-criticized fiscal policies and crisis governance during the plague epidemic appear less as exceptional abuses and more as intensified expressions of systemic pressures.

The divergence between Caragea’s negative reputation and Callimachi’s relative favor at the Ottoman court is analyzed through the prism of coalition management, loyalty signalling, and reputational politics. The 1819 Ottoman regulation restricting princely appointments to four families is interpreted as an institutional response to principal – agent failure – an early modern attempt at risk containment and elite control rather than a purely moral reaction to corruption.

By combining historical institutionalism with political economy approaches to corruption, this study contributes to broader debates on how empires manage peripheral elites, how anti-corruption reforms reshape rather than eliminate patronage networks, and how retrospective nationalist historiography moralizes structurally embedded governance practices. The late Phanariot case thus offers a historically grounded perspective on corruption as a negotiated and systemic phenomenon within hybrid political orders.

Photo: Miniature in a Cotroceni Monastery ledger, calligraphed by Dionisie Eclesiarhul, 1817 (Wikipedia)

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This event is part of an ongoing series of public seminars organized under the ERC research project “Transnational histories of ‘corruption’ in Central-South-East Europe (1750-1850)” – TransCorr, hosted by New Europe College [ERC-2022-ADG, project 101098095 -TransCorr – European Research Council Executive Agency (ERCEA)].

Convener:
Octavian-Adrian NEGOIȚĂ (NEC Alumnus), Scientific Researcher, ICUB – Research Institute of the University of Bucharest

Participants:
Mihai-Cristian AMĂRIUȚEI, Vlad BEDROS, Cristina BOGDAN, archim. Policarp CHIȚULESCU, Lidia COTOVANU, Despoina LAMBADA, Octavian-Adrian NEGOIȚĂ, Elisabeta NEGRĂU, Ovidiu-Victor OLAR, Nikolas PISSIS, Andrei PROHIN, Marinos SARIYANNIS, Aleksandar Z. SAVIĆ, Yorgos TZEDOPOULOS

Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81073968318?pwd=pVGTzEG8l5N4auQb4MW7d5C2bVHgQ…

Meeting ID: 810 7396 8318
Passcode: 477305

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Abstract:

This workshop explores the complex and multifaceted interactions between apocalyptic thought, prophecy, eschatological expectations, biblical exegesis, and visual culture in South-Eastern Europe from the 15th to the early 19th century. Positioned at the crossroads of empires, confessions, and intellectual traditions, the region offers particularly fertile ground for examining how scriptural interpretation, prophetic discourse, and eschatological speculation intersected with political upheaval, religious reform, artistic production, and cultural exchange.

Apocalypticism, understood broadly as a mode of interpreting history through the lens of divine revelation and ultimate transformation, played a significant role in shaping the region’s religious, intellectual, and artistic life. Prophecy likewise provided a flexible language through which individuals and communities interpreted the past, made sense of contemporary crises, and imagined possible futures. In South-Eastern Europe, these traditions developed within a pluralistic environment marked by the coexistence and interaction of Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic communities. The workshop investigates how different groups engaged with biblical texts—especially prophetic and apocalyptic books such as Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation—and how their interpretations were articulated through commentaries, historical narratives, prophetic traditions, and iconographic programs.

A central concern of the workshop is the relationship between exegesis, prophecy, and historical experience. Interpreters, writers, and artists did not approach biblical texts and motifs in isolation, but their readings and representations were deeply embedded in the political, social, and confessional dynamics of their time. Ottoman expansion, Habsburg-Ottoman conflicts, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, dynastic change, and shifting patterns of patronage and intellectual exchange all contributed to heightened senses of historical urgency and eschatological expectation. Prophecies could be reinterpreted and adapted to explain political change, legitimize particular actors, identify enemies, or anticipate the collapse and renewal of empires and communities. The papers consider how such contexts shaped interpretations of figures and themes including beasts, Antichrists, tribulation, sacred cities, Enoch, and the end of dynasties—and how these interpretations, in turn, informed perceptions of crisis, identity, history, and destiny.

The workshop also foregrounds the transregional and transcultural dimensions of apocalyptic and prophetic thought. South-Eastern Europe functioned as a zone of intense intellectual and artistic circulation, in which ideas, texts, images, prophecies, and interpretive frameworks moved across linguistic, confessional, and imperial boundaries. Languages served as vehicles for the transmission and transformation of apocalyptic, prophetic, and exegetical traditions. By bringing together scholars working on diverse textual, historical, and visual corpora, the workshop seeks to foster a comparative perspective that highlights both shared patterns and distinctive local developments.

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Program:

9.30-9.45
Registration and Introductory Remarks

9.45-10.15
archim. Policarp CHIȚULESCU, Anciens commentaires du Livre de l’Apocalypse conservés dans la Bibliothèque du Saint-Synode du Patriarcat Roumain

10.15-10.45
Andrei PROHIN, Andrew of Caesarea’s Commentary on the Revelation in the Slavic Manuscripts from the Romanian Lands

10.45-11.15
Aleksandar Z. SAVIĆ, The Seven-Hilled City: (Sacred) History and Prophecy in Constantine of Kostenets

11.15-11.30 Coffee Break

10.30-12.00
Nikolas PISSIS, The “Ten Days of Tribulation” (Rev 2:10): Exegetic Fortunes of an Apocalyptic Theme

12.00-12.30
Marinos SARIYANNIS, End of the Dynasty and End of Times: Ottoman Views on the Future from Eschatology to Historical Sociology

12.30-13.00
Mihai-Cristian AMĂRIUȚEI | Lidia COTOVANU | Despoina LAMBADA | Ovidiu OLAR | Yorgos TZEDOPOULOS, The Lion, the Convert and the Queen: A 1821 Painting and Its Prophetic Context

13.00-14.00 Lunch break

14.00-14.30
Cristina BOGDAN, Saint Jean dévorant le Livre: Représentations dans l’iconographie eschatologique roumaine

14.30-15.00
Elisabeta NEGRĂU, The Trial of History:  Shaping the Brancovan Church Entrance Programs

15.00-15.30
Vlad BEDROS, Revisiting the “Interiorized Apocalyptic” Tradition: A View from Inside a Moldavian Church

15.30-15.45 Coffee Break

15.45-16.15
Octavian-Adrian NEGOIȚĂ, Beasts, Antichrists and the End of Times: Georgios Koressios (cca 1570–1659/60) and His Reading of the Apocalypse of John & Concluding Remarks

Speakers and Affiliations:

Mihai-Cristian Amăriuței | Institute of History “A.D. Xenopol”, Romanian Academy
Vlad Bedros | National University of Arts & Institute of Art History “G. Oprescu”, Romanian Academy
Cristina Bogdan | University of Bucharest
archim. Policarp Chițulescu | Library of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Patriarchate
Lidia Cotovanu | Institute of History “Nicolae Iorga”, Romanian Academy
Despoina Lambada | University of Ioannina
Elisabeta Negrău | National University of Arts & Institute of Art History “G. Oprescu”, Romanian Academy
Ovidiu-Victor Olar | Institute of Habsburg and Balkan Studies, Austrian Academy of Sciences & Institute of History “Nicolae Iorga”, Romanian Academy
Nikolas Pissis | Ionian University
Andrei Prohin | Museum of Ethnography and National History, Chișinău
Marinos Sariyannis | Institute for Mediterranean Studies/FORTH in Rethymno
Aleksandar Z. Savić | University of Belgrade
Yorgos Tzedopoulos | University of Ioannina

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This international workshop is organized within the ICUB Fellowship for Young Researchers, offered by the Research Institute of the University of Bucharest (ICUB), contract no. 13139/16.12.2025, and it is hosted by New Europe College—Institute for Advanced Study (NEC).

In this workshop, scholars from different disciplines will explore what concrete, and at times controversial, examples in European history and politics have been considered unholy, unlikely, and, for some, unwelcome alliances.

Unholy alliances can be found across empirical and disciplinary contexts. For example, how did British socialists and conservatives find common ground in Euroscepticism? How did Eastern European anti-communist dissidents come to oppose European integration, and why were left-wing intellectuals supporting the far-right politics of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán?

Rather than shying away from such uncomfortable cases, in this two-day workshop we aim to turn these apparent conundrums into a collective inquiry and object of analysis.

Organized by HCAS Fellows Annastiina Kallius and William King.

9:00 Coffee  

9:30 Introductory remarks (Hanne Appelqvist, Annastiina Kallius and William King)  

9:45–10:45 Keynote I: Carol Balthazar (UCL): ‘Unholy Alliances and Their Everyday Ethics: An Anthropological Approach’
Chair: Annastiina Kallius (HCAS) 

10:45 Coffee  

11:00–12:15 Panel 1: The Everyday of Unholy Alliances 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists:  

• Andriy Fert (HCAS)
• Marie Cazes (University of Jyväskylä) and Corrado Piroddi (Tampere University)
• Aleksander Alekseev (University of Helsinki) 

12:15–13:30 Lunch Break

13:30–14:45 Panel 2: Governance and Unholy Alliances 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists:  

• Timo Miettinen (HCAS)
• Ivan Fomin (HCAS)
• Vesa Heikkinen (University of Helsinki) 

14:45 Coffee 

15:00–16:15 Panel 3: Unholy Alliances in Contemporary Politics 
Chair: tbc 

Panellists: 

• Cherry Miller (University of Helsinki)
• Yuliia Kurnyshova (University of Helsinki)
• Karel Kekkonen (University of Tampere) 

16:15–17:30 Reception at HCAS Common Room (for speakers, participants, and HCAS   Fellows) 

18:00 Dinner (for speakers) 

9:15 Coffee 

9:30–10:30 Keynote II: Katja Seidel (University of Westminster): ‘Promoting, Contesting and Shaping European Union Building: Holy and Unholy Alliances in European Integration History’ 
Chair: William King (HCAS) 

10:30–10:45 Coffee 

10:45–12:00 Panel 4: Historical and Contemporary Unholy Alliances
Chair: tbc 

Panellists: 

• Risto Marjamaa (University of Helsinki)
• Alan Granadino (Complutense University of Madrid)
• Timo R. Stewart (University of Helsinki) 

12:00–12:15 Closing remarks    

12:30 Coffee

It is our pleasure to invite you to the conference:

An Analytical Deadlock in 
the Historiography of the Soviet Bloc?

A Philosopher’s Take on the 
Historians’ Converging Concerns with the Totalitarianism Framework

given by

Manuela UNGUREANU
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of British Columbia-Okanagan, Canada

on Wednesday, 11 November 2026, at 4 pm (Bucharest time), 
at New Europe College (Plantelor 21, Bucharest) & Zoom
 

Zoom Meeting ID: 825 1060 4212
Passcode: 300964

Who or what should be remembered and why? That we practice the art of remembering is beyond dispute. History, as we understand it, has been written for over 2500 years, and extant record keeping extends far beyond that. Do we practice this art of preservation for the sake of those we remember, or for some other purpose(s)? Is it possible to act on behalf of those no longer living, or is the study of history something we do for our own good? 

In her talk, Professor McCants explores the connection between memory and human dignity and documents several historical examples of how the pervasive desire for dignity has manifested itself in the past. In particular, she highlights evidence drawn from the records of the Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage and the Dutch East India Company refreshment station at Cape Town, South Africa. The presentation concludes with a reflection on the ways that the writing and reading of history might contribute to that quest for dignity.

Anne McCants is the Ann F. Friedlaender Professor of Economic History at MIT. She holds an MA in Economics (UCLA), a PhD in History (UC Berkeley), and an Honorary Doctorate from Lund University. During the 2026–2027 academic year, she is Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor in Contemporary Society at HCAS.

Professor McCants’s research interests lie in the economic and social history of the Middle Ages and Early Modern Europe, as well as in the application of social science research methods across the disciplines. She is the author of Civic Charity in a Golden Age: Orphan Care in Early Modern Amsterdam (1997) and the co-editor of the three-volume Railroads in Historical Context: Construction, Costs, and Consequences (2011–2013). She has authored numerous articles that range across her research interests in historical demography, material culture, early modern trade and consumption, the provision of charity, and the relationship between economic growth and the standard of living.

Marking the National Theatre of Scotland’s twentieth anniversary, this one-day Unconference invites participants from across academia, theatre, literature, politics, activism, as well as cultural and community organisations to explore the role of theatre, literature, and cultural institutions in shaping democratic life in Scotland as a stateless nation.

Over the past two decades, the NTS’s repertoire has contributed powerfully to Scotland’s national storytelling, interrogating national myths and amplifying voices previously marginalised or absent from the national landscape. Still, as democratic norms come under strain globally and regressive nationalisms fuel division across Europe and beyond, cultural institutions find themselves operating within an increasingly complex political environment, further compounded by unprecedented financial pressures.

This Unconference asks what forms of storytelling, representation, and cultural participation are most needed now and how Scotland’s avowedly innovative and ‘radical’ national theatre might contribute to the formation of an inclusive, equitable, and democratically engaged public space.

The event embraces an open, conversational format which seeks to dissolve traditional hierarchies and academic–practitioner divides, fostering collective reflection, debate, and opportunities for cross-party and cross-community collaboration. Highlights include a conversation between former First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon MSP and theatre critic Joyce McMillan, as well as roundtables, video provocations, panel discussions and more. 

In-person tickets are sold out. Sign up here for online attendance: Teams Webinar

The annual conference of the Network of European Institutes for Advanced Study (NETIAS) took place this year at Iméra, the Institute for Advanced Study of Aix-Marseille University, on 12 and 13 October 2026. It is an important event for the network, which brings together more than 25 member institutes and welcomes over 500 fellows each year.

This year's meeting marked the formal appointment of a new NETIAS President. After two consecutive terms served by anthropologist Christina Garsten, Director of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (Uppsala), the position is now held by Ralf von den Hoff, Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Freiburg and Executive Director of FRIAS since 2022. Olivier Bouin, Director of the RFIEA, continues to serve as the network's Secretary General.

Hosted by Iméra, discussions focused on the growing threats facing research communities in Europe and around the world, and on the renewed importance of Institutes for Advanced Study as safe havens for freedom of thought and research, particularly for those whose work puts them at greatest risk in their countries of residence.

True to the tradition of Institutes for Advanced Study, NETIAS continues, now more than ever, to embody a network of collaboration and intellectual solidarity.

The conference also featured a workshop on “Drawing as Research Practice”, led by artist Josune Urrutia Asua, Senior Fellow at Iméra. Her work explores the potential of drawing as a research tool, an epistemological medium and a means of exchange. The NETIAS conference concluded with a friendly game of pétanque in the gardens of Iméra. The next NETIAS conference will take place in autumn 2027 at NIAS (Amsterdam).

Since its launch last year, the network has further developed its identity through a website, which provides information on open calls, researchers in residence and initiatives carried out across the network or through collective projects.

These include CAT (Constructive Advanced Thinking), which enables groups of researchers working on a shared project to undertake short stays at different institutes within the network, and NETIAS Debates, which bring together researchers in residence at member institutes to discuss topics such as the role of artistic creation in research, artificial intelligence and science diplomacy.

The network's work takes shape through joint actions and unanimously shared statements, as well as through thematic working groups seeking to advance reflection and establish platforms for knowledge exchange and resource-sharing. This year, the working group focusing on funding for Institutes for Advanced Study identified important opportunities at European level to support the continuation of the network's projects.

Three other working groups presented their work to the assembly. The Arts-Science group, led by Iméra and involving the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study, has resulted in the creation of an interactive map identifying Institutes for Advanced Study offering residency programmes open to artists and creative practitioners. The map will soon be available directly on the NETIAS website.

The Scholars at Risk group, which explores ways to strengthen the conditions for hosting researchers and artists at risk within the institutes, is co-chaired by the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study and the Collegium Helveticum in Zurich. It presented the work carried out throughout the year, with particular emphasis on a workshop on academic freedom held at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study in March 2026.

The working group will continue its efforts to identify funding opportunities to support the hosting of researchers and artists at risk, complementing the initiatives already established by individual institutes.

Finally, the research group on interdisciplinarity, led by CRASSH (Cambridge) and the Collegium Helveticum, facilitated a group discussion on what interdisciplinarity can and should mean within today's Institutes for Advanced Study ecosystems. Moving beyond a term that is often misunderstood, the discussion explored how interdisciplinarity can be put into practice through situated and established approaches that respond to the needs of research.

Ancient Athens perfected democracy. The plays of this Greek state are still staged today. Athens is famous for these democratic and cultural successes. It is a matter of real national pride that the United Kingdom remains at the forefront of the study of them. It is ancient historians here who have written the best comprehensive studies of the democracy and the cultural festivals of classical Athens. Less well known is the other side of this success story.

On the eve of the Peloponnesian War, Pericles famously advised the Athenians how they could win. This political leader reassured assembly goers that they already had the required funds and armed forces for victory. The first corps that Pericles mentioned was the 13,000 hoplites. The next two were the 1,200-strong cavalry and the 1,600 archers. The last military branch of which he spoke was the navy of 300 triremes. This paper’s primary aim is to go behind Pericles’s famous numbers. For each corps that he mentioned, it studies the legal status of corps-members and their social background. This paper explores how they were recruited into their corps and subsequently mobilised for campaigns. It establishes each corps’ history and specific organisation. By treating these four military branches together for the first time, the paper reveals the common practices that the dēmos (‘people’) used to manage their armed forces. It concludes by detailing the common assumptions that they brought to this management.

There will be a reception following the lecture. 

Professor Pritchard's permanent position is at the University of Queensland (Australia), where he has chaired the Department of Classics and Ancient History. He has obtained 16 research fellowships in Australia, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (including IASH in 2013) and the United States of America. Professor Pritchard is currently the lead chief investigator on a large project that is funded by the Australian Research Council.

In times of growing geopolitical tensions, the role of science, academia and research as forms of transnational engagement has gained renewed relevance. Global systemic and resource competition, the development of disruptive technologies, security requirements, and unequal access to science shape the conditions under which international science collaboration operates. While political diplomacy is increasingly becoming confrontational or coming to a halt, science and academia play an ever more important role in global cooperation.

In this context, science diplomacy is gaining importance at national, European, and global levels. The view is growing that internationally oriented research institutions, universities and science networks are becoming diplomatic actors in their own right.

For the institutions, this brings both opportunities and risks: While they run the danger of being instrumentalized to serve geopolitical interests at the expense of scientific quality, they can leverage their role to forge new future-oriented alliances and to help safeguard academic freedom, collaboration and capacity amid mounting international rivalry and fragmentation.

The aim of this panel event is to discuss these topics with various stakeholders in science diplomacy, including representatives from academic institutions, research institutes, and scientific networks, as well as policymakers – from Hamburg, Europe and the African Continent. What strategic and coordinated action do they consider necessary to prepare their institutions for the future?

Welcome Remarks

• Hauke Heekeren, President of the University of Hamburg
• Claus Müller, Managing Director of the Hanse-Office, Brussels
• Christian Suhm, Secretary-General of the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study 

Keynote

Jan Marco Müller, Team Leader Global Approach, Multilateral Dialogue and Science Diplomacy, European Commission, DG Research and Innovation

Panelists

• Frank Lehner, Head of Directorate`s Office, Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron  (DESY), Hamburg
• John Owusu Gyapong, Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA)
• Maria Rentetzi, Professor in Science, Technology and Gender Studies, University Erlangen/Nürnberg; Chair of the European Union Science Diplomacy Alliance
• Nela Riehl, Member of the European Parliament (Volt), Chair of the Culture and Education Committee (CULT) at the European Parliament

Moderation

Andreas Roepstorff, Director of the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) 

Venue

Hanse-Office – Joint representation of the city of Hamburg and the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein in Brussels
Avenue Palmerston 20
B-1000 Brussels

The discussion will be available as a live stream. Access details will be provided prior to the event. Please indicate this preference when you register.

Registration

If you would like to participate, we kindly ask you to register here.
R.S.V.P. by August 31, 2026.

The event will take place in English.

Event in the framework of the Hamburg Forum for Global Science and Policy, University of Hamburg. In cooperation with the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies.  

This presentation explores the relationship between technology and nature, between the digital world and biodiversity, by investigating the impact of new technologies on climate change and social exclusion, in the awareness that technology can help mitigate environmental problems and therefore social inequalities, but that it can also aggravate them. Drawing inspiration from philosophical, historical, and social studies of the biological, medical, and environmental sciences, I build an alternative vision for artificial intelligence, and discuss various examples of collaboration between citizens, institutions, and researchers to create a digital world that truly serves the planet. A vehicle that we have used in Italy to experiment with these ideas is Pianeta Lab, a collaboration between the NGO Pianeta and the public science laboratory of the University of Munich in which we support institutions, people and communities committed and sensitive to socio-environmental issues, and mobilize a network with activities and advocacy tools towards institutions, offering skills, experiences, structure, relationships and places of discussion. Find out more at this link: www.pianeta.org

References:
Leonelli, S. Environmental Intelligence: Reframing AI from the Data Up. Manuscript under contract with Milan University Press.
Leonelli, S. (2025) Environmental Intelligence: Redefining the Philosophical Premises of AI. Harvard Data Science Review
7(4) https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.ac7c1504

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This event is part of the Sixth Conference of the East European Network for Philosophy of Science (EENPS), organized by EENPS in co-operation with the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Bucharest and New Europe College – Institute for Advanced Study. Part of the funding for the event was provided by the Botnar Foundation.

The conference program is available for download here. 

From Eastern Europe’s efforts to survive Soviet oppression, to Indigenous ideas about ecology, local communities around the world are looking for ways to talk about their experiences in a quest for justice.  

In this RSE Curious Festival conversation, three researchers will explore how culture, storytelling and collective memory can help shape national identity in times of recovery and change. 

Dr Viktoria Bavykina examines the role of culture and the arts in Ukraine, and how it probes conventional historical narratives to offer a riposte to Russian imperialism. Via Shakespeare in translation, Dr Elsie Albis centres the experiences of survivors of natural disasters in the Philippines, highlighting their struggles in the context of climate change. Dr Dustin Lalkulhpuia explores how Indigenous ideas of care, dignity and continuity can help address some of today’s most pressing global challenges. 

Note for audiences: The discussion may touch on issues such as the war in Ukraine and catastrophes like Typhoon Yolanda. However, there will be no graphic imagery or descriptions. This talk looks to focus on rebuilding after disaster, with a view towards positive proposals for change. 

Tickets available from the RSE Curious Festival website: https://rse.org.uk/event/after-the-storm-rebuilding-cultural-identity-and-local-knowledge/

This Door of the Seas, framed through letters home, reveals Scotland’s colonial ambitions and how they ultimately failed, bankrupting the nation and setting Scotland on a path towards union with England.

Supported by the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities as part of the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Buy tickets here.

This year, the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies celebrates its 25th anniversary. Established in 2001, the Collegium was founded to follow the original Institute for Advanced Study model by providing outstanding scholars in the humanities and social sciences with the freedom necessary for cutting-edge, curiosity-driven research. Over the past quarter-century, the Collegium has grown into a vibrant international community known for its collegial and multidisciplinary atmosphere.

In addition to the main celebration, the Collegium organizes various events during the three first weeks of June.

Program

2:15 pm              

Musical Performance

Anniversary Greetings 

Hanne Appelqvist, Director of HCAS

Kari Raivio, Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Helsinki

Hanna Snellman, Vice-Rector of the University of Helsinki, Chair of the HCAS Board

Ann Phoenix, Professor of Psychosocial Studies (University College London), Member of the HCAS Academic Advisory Board

Screening of HCAS Video

Keynote Address

Jane Cowan, Professor Emerita of Anthropology (University of Sussex), Former Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor in Studies on Contemporary Society

Professor Cowan will be introduced by Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology Sarah Green (University of Helsinki).

Musical Performance

4:30 pm               

Reception in the Foyer

7:00 pm               

Dinner at Katajanokan Kasino (Laivastonkatu 1)

Dress Code: Dark suit

Across social and historical contexts, claims to artificiality often breed mistrust. To be “natural” is almost always a virtue, while things deemed “artificial,” from the sweeteners and dyes in processed foods to crypto-currencies, more commonly provoke suspicion. Through its panels and presentations, this symposium asks: What is it about artifice that sparks such concern and ambivalence? And, if artifice produces a unique set of insecurities, by what techniques have social actors sought to shore up the authority of decidedly “artificial” constructions?

In asking these questions, the symposium seeks to contribute to historical studies of epistemology and authority. The philosophical elaboration of artifice as a distinct kind of agency emerged in the early modern period in Europe, during a time when nascent colonialism and religious conflict undermined a once hegemonic Christian cosmopolitics. When confronted both with stories from the Americas and also sectarian warfare across Europe, claims to a natural or divine order were newly contestable. In this milieu, thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes pointed to artifice as a new principle and justification for institutions. Where others saw polity as an outgrowth of natural law or divine right, Hobbes argued that the state itself was an “artificial man,” crafted by humans to serve common ends. Such “artifice” gave license to a new understanding of politics and history. But, it also unleashed a line of questioning that remains with us into the present: if our knowledge and institutions are not ordained by nature or god, how are they authorized and secured?

The symposium assembles an interdisciplinary group of scholars to offer complementary perspectives on the problem and power of artifice. By design, we will bring intellectual, legal, and cultural historians, literary scholars, political theorists, and anthropologists into dialogue. Case studies will span eras and geographies. Organizing the discussion, however, are four core themes: ontologies, affordances, ambivalences, and fixes.

The symposium is organized by HCAS Alumni Andrew Graan and Tim Stuart-Buttle at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

10:00 Welcome by HCAS Director

10:15 Opening Remarks by Symposium Organizers (Tim Stuart-Buttle and Andrew Graan)

10:45 Coffee/Tea Break

11:15 Session 1: Panel on “Ontologies” 

12:45 Lunch Break

13:45 Session 2: Panel on “Affordances” 

15:15 Coffee/Tea Break

15:45 Session 3: Keynote Address by Charlotte Epstein 

17:15 Reception

10:00 Session 4: Keynote Address by Pasi Väliaho 

11:30 Lunch Break

12:30 Session 5: Panel on “Ambivalences.” 

14:00 Coffee/Tea Break

14:30 Session 6: Panel on “Fixes.” 

16:00 Concluding Discussion

Speaker: Anna Foka, Professor of Digital Humanities, Uppsala University.

ABSTRACT:
The opening keynote explores how artificial intelligence is reshaping not only the way societies imagine the future but also how we understand the past and define humanity itself. Drawing from cultural heritage, digital humanities, and critical AI studies, it argues that the technologies driving automation and prediction are deeply entangled with inherited cultural narratives, biases, and epistemologies. By tracing the historical continuities between past imaginaries of intelligence and today’s algorithmic systems, the lecture highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches that foreground ethics, creativity, and global diversity. Ultimately, it asks how the humanities can help us reclaim agency and meaning in an increasingly automated world—turning AI from an object of control into a shared space of interpretation and reflection.

ABOUT:
Anna Foka is Professor of Digital Humanities at Uppsala University and the cluster PI of the Wallenberg national research cluster AI Futures of Culture and Memory. Anna Foka is National Mentor for AI in the Swedish South Korea Collaboration in the Research and Innovation Programme (SKERIC). Foka’s work focuses on the cultural and ethical dimensions of artificial intelligence, digital heritage, and interdisciplinary methods across the humanities and technology. She has published widely on digital transformation in museums, archives, and cultural institutions, and currently leads several international projects on AI, sustainability, and cultural knowledge infrastructures. Her latest books are AI and Image (Cambridge University Press) and Evolving Perspectives in Digital Classics (Routledge).

HYBRID EVENT

The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) and the Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program – Humanity and Society (WASP-HS) are together launching a new international research initiative, Human Futures – AI Transitions in a Global Context, carried out in collaboration with Tokyo College (Japan). and the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS, South Africa).

This open keynote lecture is part of the first workshop in a series of three.
 

A number of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence were Scottish emigrants or descended from Scots, but Scots also formed a large part of Britain’s army in the Revolutionary War. From Cadwallader Colden, one of the last British governors of New York – and an Edinburgh graduate – to medieval Scottish identity’s ongoing echoes in the 19th-century American confederacy, Scotland was bound up tightly with the establishment of the new American state. This event explores the interplay between the two nations, and asks, how interdependent are the U.S.A. and other countries’ nation-building efforts? The roundtable is part of the Making A Nation series for 2025-26.

Registration is open now at Eventbrite. This is a free event, which means we overbook to allow for no-shows and to avoid empty seats. While we generally do not have to turn people away, this does mean we cannot guarantee everyone a place. Admission is on a first-come, first-served basis.

Accessibility: This event will take place at IASH, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NW, UK. Please see a map here. The Seminar Room is on the first floor, and unfortunately IASH does not have a lift. If you have mobility issues and would like to discuss access, please contact iashed [dot] ac [dot] uk (iash[at]ed[dot]ac[dot]uk) as soon as possible.

The event will also be streamed online via Teams Webinar. To attend virtually, please click here.

Ariane Bertogg (Associated Fellow / History and Sociology)

Dementia-related conditions are a major public health concern and are associated with high social and economic costs for affected individuals, their immediate social ties and the society they live in. Despite recent medical advancements, a universal and accessible treatment is lacking, making prevention a central way to address these challenges. While ample research has identified modifiable genetic, biological and behavioural risk factors for dementia and accelerated cognitive decline, social factors have been less studied.

Relevant social factors refer to both risk factors and reserves accumulated across life courses (e.g., participation in employment, family roles) and the presence of close social ties in later life. At a macro-level, relevant social factors include social norms and institutional change such as the East-West German reunification, but also socio-environmental risks such as climate change. The presentation outlines a research program that links these individual- and societal-level factors for cognitive ageing processes, and presents selected findings from Bertoggs research program.

Human Interaction in the Age of the Internet brings together scholars across social psychology, communication, linguistics, anthropology, and computational research to explore how digital infrastructures are reshaping social life.

The conference focuses on three intertwined questions:

1. Interaction: What happens to sociality when conversation is mediated by platforms, metrics, and machines?
2. Language: How do narratives, identity, and public opinion form through distributed micro-utterances—posts, comments, clips, and memes?
3. Models: How can computational methods (including LLMs) help us understand these shifts—without reducing them to “content” or “information”?

This is a meeting about the new norms of interaction that organize belonging, truth, civility, and conflict in connected worlds.

The conference is organized by Jane and Aatos Erkko Visiting Professor Kevin Durrheim at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies.

09:00–12:00 Group session: introductions + 2-minute provocations; constellation mapping and session formation

12:00–13:30 Lunch

13:30–15:30 Session 1 (5 × 8-min starters + extended discussion)

16:00–18:00 Session 2 (5 × 8-min starters + extended discussion)

09:00–11:00 Session 3 (5 × 8-min starters + extended discussion)

11:30–13:30 Session 4 (5 × 8-min starters + extended discussion)

13:30–15:00 Lunch

15:00–17:00 Plenary: open discussion + harvesting “what emerged”

• People: How do policies and practices promote inclusion of staff and students from diverse backgrounds? In what ways is belonging conceptualized and operationalized within academic institutions?
• Knowledge: Which forms of knowledge are recognized as legitimate, and how can non-Western knowledge traditions be meaningfully incorporated without slipping into relativism? How can curricula and research embrace epistemic diversity?
• Materiality: How do physical environments—such as buildings, classrooms, technologies, and resources—shape belonging? How can material infrastructures facilitate access and participation for underrepresented groups, as well as other forms of knowledge production?

• A keynote by Michèle Lamont ( (Harvard University Professor of Sociology & African and African American Studies and Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies)
• Paper presentations by invited scholars, including Gladys Akom, Caroline Hummels, Halleh Ghorashi, Zehra Colak, and Timothy Stacey
• A surtout de table by Cecilia Hendrikx (artist and Akademie van Kunsten Artist in Residence)
• Breakout sessions on the three subthemes, moderated by Bernike Pasveer, Ellen Rutten, and Paolo Boccagni

The symposium offers a unique opportunity to critically reflect on the mechanisms and meanings of “belonging” within academia, and to build on insights from earlier editions of the Studies of Belonging series.

At the same time, the event marks a farewell moment for Jan Willem Duyvendak and Bernike Pasveer .

There is space for only 150 participants — register soon as an attendee and don’t miss this unique opportunity!

https://nias.knaw.nl/events/belonging-to-academia/

Developments of technology design in artificial intelligent systems, such as generative AI, most prominently large and small language models, pattern recognition, affective computing, automated and predictive data-driven algorithmic systems, are closely linked to Western traditions of technology, knowledge and political economies – designed, through perceptions of 'intelligence',  ‘efficiency’ and ‘growth’. 

The promotion of Western epistemologies, one-size-fits-all technologies, and the transferability of design methods to diverse contexts, continues to advance the Western idea of technology as universal to design and research. Yet, contemporary societal challenges of social injustice, economic inequality, political instability, and ecological crisis pertaining to worldwide concerns, urge us to address local aspects of policy, knowledge, data justice, ownership, and increasing AI divides at different scales. Through interactive sessions, the symposium will collect critical reflections on the position of computational research and cases in diverse global contexts, to advance the diversity, equity and pluriversality of AI technologies.

The symposium addresses how technological developments relate to the formation of more pluriversal futures through core concerns of: (1) state-of-the-art examples of decolonizing practices and epistemologies in and for contemporary technology design and research, (2) theoretical discourses for advancing equitability, responsibility, and sustainability integrated into concrete practices, policies, methodologies, and modes of knowledge production for pluriversal research and technology design in and across global south(s) and global north(s).

Rachel Charlotte Smith, Aarhus University and Joachim Herz Fellow 25-26 at HIAS

• Lukman Abdulrauf, Guest Professor and Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), Germany, Professor of Public Law at the University of Ilorin, Nigeria
• Oluwatoyin Ayodele Ajani, Senior Lecturer in Curriculum and Education Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
• Christian Ulrik Andersen, Carlsberg Monograph Fellow at Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Associate Professor in Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University
• Manuel Battigaglia, PhD scholar in STS at the University of Bologna, under the supervision of Professor Annalisa Pelizza (Bologna and Aarhus University)
• Deepshikha Behera, IASH Digital Research Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh
• Louis Fendji, Associate Professor at the University of Ngaoundere, Cameroon, and head of the Centre for Research, Experimentation, and Production at the School of Chemical Engineering and Mineral Industries, fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) and Joachim Herz Alumnus 2024-2025 at the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS)
• Fausto Giunchiglia, Professor of Computer Science, University of Trento, EURAI fellow, AAIA fellow, member of the Academia Europaea
• Rikke Hagensby Jensen, Associate Professor at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University
• Haftom Bayray Kahsay, Postdoc fellow at Copenhagen University, Department of Food and Resource Economics (IFRO)
• Gertraud Koch, Professor at the Institute of Anthropological Studies of Culture and History at the University of Hamburg
• Nicolas Malevé, artist, visual researcher and data activist, postdoc at SciencesPo/ Medialab in Paris
• Dikeledi Manyekwane, Ph.D. candidate in Geography at the University of Johannesburg
• Chris MuAshekele, postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University
• Pierre-Alexandre Murena, Junior Professor at the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH)
• Rachel Charlotte Smith, Associate Professor of Human-Centred Design at the Department of Digital Design and Information Studies at Aarhus University, Joachim Herz Fellow 2025-2026 at HIAS and Associate Fellow at AIAS
• Victor Vadmand Jensen, PhD fellow at Aarhus University's Department of Clinical Medicine

26 November, 19:00

Astoriasaal, Kulturzentrum am Münster, Konstanz

If you would like to attend online, click here:

Public panel discussion - in collaboration with VHS Konstanz - on the role of the military-industrial complex in the production of academic knowledge and its implications for democracy.

The event takes place in the framework of the visit of the CAT group of Tom Vaughan (University of Leeds, UK); Heba Taha (University of Lund, Schweden); Kjølv Egeland (NORSAR, Norway); and Lyndon Burford (BASIC, UK), and their project "Theories of Change and Nuclear Disarmament".

James Davis (University of St. Gallen)
James Davis is a renowned professor of political science at the University of St. Gallen. Throughout his long career, he has focused particularly on international relations.

Andreas Zumach (Journalist)
Andreas Zumach is a German journalist and publicist. He is considered an expert on international relations and conflicts. From 1988 to 2020, he was the Swiss and UN correspondent for the daily newspaper tageszeitung (taz), based at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva. He works as a freelance correspondent for German and English-language print and broadcast media. As a staunch pacifist, he focuses on security and peace policy, the UN, the OSCE, arms control, and human rights.

In an attempt to develop a transformation framework for artist residencies, the team explored three main themes:

• Contemporary challenges/Internal critiques: How have organisers and artists conceptualised the challenges facing residencies today, and how have they responded in their own practices?
• (Counter)histories: How have residencies changed over time, and what alternative histories of travel, hospitality, and exchange might inform the residencies of the future?
• New trajectories: How are residencies redefining the limitations of geopolitical borders and unequal resources, and encouraging meaningful community participation?