Three Arts and Sciences Professors Named Institute for Advanced Study Fellows

Fellowships from the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton are enabling two Penn Arts and Sciences professors to pursue their research full-time this year. David Grazian, associate professor of sociology, and Vanessa Ogle, assistant professor of history, have been named 2013-14 fellows in the School. In addition, Paul Goldin, professor of East Asian languages and civilizations, has been named the Willis F. Doney Member of the IAS School of Historical Studies for the fall semester.

Each year, Princeton’s School of Social Science invites about 20 visiting scholars from various disciplines to examine historical and contemporary problems. Scholars are drawn from diverse fields including anthropology, economics, history, law, philosophy, political science, psychology, and literary criticism. The School’s chosen theme for the year is "The Environmental Turn and the Human Sciences."

During his sabatical, Grazian is completing a book manuscript on metropolitan zoos as repositories of culture as well as nature. The book is tentatively titled Where the Wild Things Aren't: City Zoos and the Culture of Nature. Grazian is the author several books on urban life and popular culture. He teaches courses on popular culture, mass media and the arts; cities and urban sociology; social interaction and public behavior; and ethnographic methods. 

Ogle is working on her first book, Contesting Time: The Global Struggle for Uniformity and Its Unintended Consequences, a global history of time reform during the late 19th century. She teaches and writes about international history. Her other projects include a book about the history of Tangier from the 1880s to the 1960s and a biography of Elisabeth Achelis, who toured the world to promote a standardized, neutral world calendar in the interwar years and after World War II.

During his residency, Goldin is working on a history of early Chinese philosophy focused on eight texts from the classical period: Analects of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius, Laozi, Zhuangzi, Sunzi, Xunzi, and Han Feizi. Goldin’s main area of research is the era referred to as the Warring States period of ancient China. He has taught courses on civilization, classical Chinese thought, sex and society in ancient China, early Chinese history, and law in pre-modern China.

Read the full stories on Grazian and Ogle here and on Goldin here.