Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

The Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Institute for Human Sciences) is an independent institute for advanced study in the humanities and social sciences based in Vienna, Austria. The German name “Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen” indicates that the IWM transgresses classical borders of disciplines and combines social sciences and humanities.

History and core idea

The IWM was founded in 1982 by the Polish philosopher Krzysztof Michalski, who is Rector of the Institute today. Since its inception, the IWM has strived to broach new and sometimes contested topics of societal relevance. Its main purpose was to forge international connections among scholars and intellectuals from different societies and fields. It was also a particular interest of the IWM to bring together academics and intellectuals from Eastern and Western Europe – their ideas and experiences – into a common discussion and, by doing so, to influence this discussion. This exchange has increasingly included researchers from the United States and has resulted in the establishment of an affiliate Institute for Human Sciences at Boston University in 2001.

Structure and Program

The IWM is sustained by a community of scholars consisting of Permanent Fellows, Visiting Fellows and Junior Visiting Fellows, as well as Non-Resident Permanent Fellows.

Permanent Fellows of the IWM are: Cornelia Klinger, apl. Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tübingen (Germany); János Mátyás Kovács, Member of the Institute of Economics at the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest; Krzysztof Michalski, Professor of Philosophy at Boston University and University of Warsaw; Klaus Nellen, IWM-Publications and Managing Editor of Transit – Europäische Revue; Timothy D. Snyder, Professor of History at Yale University; and Charles Taylor, Professor emeritus of Philosophy at McGill University, Toronto.

Members of the IWM’s Academic Advisory Board include, inter alia Timothy Garton Ash, Leszek Kolakowski, Fritz Stern, and Saskia Sassen. The Board of Patrons includes Giuliano Amato, Ralf Dahrendorf, Karl Schwarzenberg and George Soros.

During each year the IWM hosts about 40 fellows and guests, among them scholars as well as journalists and scientific translators, who come from Eastern and Western Europe and from the United States to spend approximately one semester at the Institute.

The IWM regularly organizes lectures, discussion rounds and conferences for a broad public, and launches policy-related programs. It is also engaged in several publication projects, among them the “IWM Lectures of Human Sciences” published in English, German and Polish (with texts from Paul Ricoeur, Charles Taylor, Ryszard Kapuscinski, Zygmunt Bauman), and the bi-annual magazine Transit-Europäische Revue.

In terms of content, research at the Institute is currently focused on six fields:

• The New Europe: In Search of its Intellectual, Social and Political Identity
• Sources of Inequality
• Cultures and Institutions: Central and Eastern Europe in a Global Context;
• United Europe – Divided Memory
• Religion and Secularism
• The Philosophical Work of Jan Patocka

The IWM is politically independent and registered as a non-profit organization. It receives core funding from the Austrian government and the City of Vienna. Its projects and activities are supported by cultural and scientific foundations, as well as other grant-making institutions in Europe and in the United States.

External links

Homepage of the Institute: [1]