Every now and again one hits a jackpot and this place is the motherload of jackpot. Tavistock is NOT the best kept secret. This place is. Abraham Flexner had backing from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Carnagie Foundation in his career time. His older brother worked for Rockefeller's institute for medical research. Flexner believed in the smaller class size and more personal one on one teaching and a more hands on approach. His book the Flexner Report caused such a stir that many medical universities got shut down and the whole of medical education and educaton in general was ovehauled.
This place believes in a methodolgy type of study and has a hands off approach to its students. It allows for the research to go on unhindered by deadlines. It is a small nucleus of around two hundred students. These are hand picked.
From their website about us page.
Welcome to the Institute for Advanced Study.
Since its founding in 1930, the Institute has remained, in the words of its founding Director Abraham Flexner, “small and plastic.” While its influence, through the achievements of its Faculty and Members and through the new institutions it has inspired, has been wide and profound, the Institute retains the intimacy and focus envisioned by its founders. It is, in its very essence, a community of scholars, both those who are here now, and more broadly, all who have benefited from membership.
Each year about 200 Members come to the Institute where they are given the freedom to work on the attainment of long-term goals without pressure for immediate results. We believe, as Abraham Flexner did, that the research that has the most profound impact on knowledge and understanding, and so often that which ultimately has the most profound impact on everyday life, is that driven by curiosity rather than immediate application. In a world in which funding bodies tend to support research that is programmatic and promises predetermined deliverables, the freedom provided by the Institute to its Faculty and Members is increasingly rare.
The Institute has remained remarkably true to its mission even as the work of our Faculty and visiting Members, who come from all around the world, has changed in response to advances in knowledge and developments in society at large. We are deeply indebted to our founders and our subsequent benefactors for providing and maintaining the independence which is essential for the continuance of the Institute’s mission
Here's some of what they offer:
The School of Historical Studies was established in 1949 with the merging of the School of Economics and Politics and the School of Humanistic Studies. It bears no resemblance to a traditional academic history department, but rather supports all learning for which historical methods are appropriate. The School embraces a historical approach to research throughout the humanistic disciplines, from socioeconomic developments, political theory, and modern international relations, to the history of art, science, philosophy, music, and literature. In geographical terms, the School concentrates primarily on the history of Western, Near Eastern, and Far Eastern civilizations, with emphasis on Greek and Roman civilization, the history of Europe (medieval, early modern, and modern), the Islamic world, and East Asia. Support has been extended to the history of other regions, including Central Asia, India, and Africa.
The Faculty and Members of the School do not adhere to any one point of view but practice a range of methods of inquiry and scholarly styles, both traditional and innovative. Uniquely positioned to sponsor work that crosses conventional departmental and professional boundaries, the School actively promotes interdisciplinary research and cross-fertilization of ideas. It thereby encourages the creation of new historical enterprises.
The School of Historical Studies supports scholarship in all fields of historical research, but it is concerned principally with the following: Greek and Roman civilizations, Medieval Europe, Modern Europe, The Islamic World, Philosophy and International Relations, History of Art, East Asian Studies.
Founded in 1973, the School of Social Science takes as its mission the analysis of societies and social change, and is devoted to a multi-disciplinary, comparative and international approach to social research. Each year, the School of Social Science invites about 20 visiting scholars with various perspectives to examine historical and contemporary problems, providing a space for intellectual debate and cross-fertilization to flourish. Scholars are drawn from a wide range of fields including political science, economics, law, psychology, anthropology, history, philosophy, and literary criticism. Members pursue their own research, and participate in a weekly seminar at which each has an opportunity to present on-going work.
In an attempt to create a sense of community, the School designates a theme for each year. The theme for the current year is Morals and Moralities, the second year in a 2-year exploration of Values in a Changing World. For 2012-2013 the theme will be Economics and Politics. Each year, about one-third of the scholars will pursue work relating to the theme, which conducts its own, more focused, seminar. An archive of past themes is available. Applications are strongly encouraged from scholars across the social science spectrum, however, regardless of whether their research corresponds to the year's theme.
The school of Mathematics and Natural History are pretty straight forward and very advanced. Albert Einstein was an alumnus of this University. This is the kind of thinkingis the "so open minded the brain leaked out" thinking. These people become our Economic Political and Business leaders, and they are our future.
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