Fellowships in the "Brain, culture and society program" for Junior researcher

The Paris Institute for Advanced Study welcomes applications from high level international scholars and scientists in the fields of the humanities, social sciences, cognitive sciences, and neurosciences for a research stay of five or ten months during the academic year 2021-2022 within the framework of its “Brain, Culture and Society program”.

The Paris IAS gives its research fellows the unique opportunity to work freely on the project of their choice at the interface of neuroscience, the cognitive sciences and the humanities and social sciences. They benefit from the scientific environment of the Institute and receive support for creating contacts with researchers in the academic institutions of Greater Paris.

Applicants may request a fellowship for one of the following periods:

• September 1st, 2021 to January 31st, 2022 (5 months)
• September 1st, 2021 to June 30th, 2022 (10 months)
• February 1st to June 30th, 2022 (5 months)

The "Brain, culture and society program"

The primary mission of the Paris IAS is to be a research centre anchored in the social sciences and humanities (SSH), with the aim of fostering a fruitful dialogue between researchers from different cultural and disciplinary backgrounds.

Within the framework of its “Brain, Culture and Society” program, the Paris IAS invites applications centred on the dialogue between the SSH, cognitive sciences and neurosciences.

The exponential development of scientific data on genetics and the brain gives us more and more insight on the functioning of the human being in its environment. It is becoming increasingly difficult and irrelevant to reflect on topics such as the Human, the mind and consciousness in the humanities and social sciences without taking into account the neuro-anatomic and neuro-functional data produced by life sciences and neuroscience in particular. Reciprocally, neurosciences cannot claim to understand the Human if they do not incorporate the knowledge built up by the SSH. 

The Paris IAS has therefore chosen to open a privileged dialogue between the SSH, psychology and neurosciences, and in particular cognitive neurosciences, which study the neurobiological mechanisms and psychological phenomena underlying cognition (i.e. perception, memory, imagination, consciousness, reasoning, emotions, decision-making, identity, creativity, etc.). The IAS is particularly interested in dealing with societal challenges, such as child development, ageing and health; education and learning; social interactions; addictions; consequences of artificial intelligence, digital technologies and social networks; tolerance, aggressiveness and fanaticism; etc.  The aim of this dialogue is to enable the SSH, as well as the brain sciences, to renew their approaches to classical objects and to invest new fields of research with bold and innovative interdisciplinary approaches.

Eligibility

Researchers from all countries are eligible.

This call for applications is open to junior scholars having a minimum of 2 and maximum of 9 years of research experience after the PhD. To be eligible and considered a junior, the applicant must have received her/his PhD between April 1st 2010 and April 1st 2018.

Applicants who have spent more than a total of 12 months in France during the 3 years prior to the application (that is, between April 1st, 2017 and April 1st, 2020) are not eligible.

Application deadline: Wednesday, May 6, 2020, 3:00 pm (Paris, France time)

Preselection: June 2020

Final selection: November 2020