What will the Institute for Advanced Study in Nantes be like in 15 years?
Mari Paz Balibrea
My wish for the IAS Nantes is that it continues to offer what I found most extraordinary during my stay in 2022-2023: the intellectual, human and financial generosity to host for a substantial period of time researchers and artists (and their families!) from all over the world whose work is engaged with imagining and making a different world.
I found the time and space that the Institute provided an ideal environment for the best ideas, relationships and connections to materialize. I appreciated the effort made by the administrative and academic teams to acquaint newly arrived fellows with the cultural, historical, socio-economic and political realities of Nantes and the region. Such conditions should be preserved and cherished. Furthermore, I wish that the opportunities for access to them can be expanded to more researchers and artists in the years to come.
So, in 15 more years, I imagine your project will be further consolidated with increased global visibility and enhanced local and world connections. I imagine more intense interaction of the fellows with other city-of-Nantes cultural and social actors for mutual benefit, facilitated by the Institute. I see the Institute headquarters, taking advantage of cinema, library and conference facilities, holding regular events related to the work of fellows and guests, open to the general public and successful in attracting it. At the same time, more international ties with academic and cultural institutions and social groups with common aims and missions, will have been established and strengthened, by taking advantage of the networks that every year fellows bring to the Institute. I addition, the IAS Nantes will have strategies in place to stimulate and maintain networks of connection and collaboration between different promotions of fellows, all of which will bring the Institute more esteem and prominence.
To conclude: many congratulations to everyone running the IAS Nantes in your first 15th anniversary, you have accomplished something unique already, while overcoming many difficulties. Your motto: “Habiter le monde autrement” and the desire that it expresses could not be more urgent and necessary and will remain so in the future. Long live the IAS Nantes, for the next 15 years and beyond!
