Insights
What’s going on
Explore the stories behind our fellows’ ground-breaking research, the work in progress and the coming events at NIAS.

Academic Freedom Besieged: Whose Academy? (And Who Decides?)—NIAS Opening of the Academic Year 2025-2026, keynote by Claudine Gay
We are honoured to welcome Claudine Gay—Professor of Government, of African and of African-American Studies & former president of Harvard University—for her address to NIAS' Opening of the Academic Year 2025-2026. With a welcome by NIAS director Jan Willem Duyvendak and contributions by Ingrid Robeyns, Maria Barnas, Jonathan Soeharno, Wendelmoet Boersema and (mod.) Marcia Luyten.

We are looking for a great Director!
As of May 2026, Jan Willem Duyvendak will retire from his role as Director. The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), of which NIAS is part, is now inviting applications to succeed him.
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Insights
‘What world does AI create – and for whom?’
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What is recognition?
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Bullsh*t Security?
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Moving Beyond Welfare Chauvinism
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Listening as resistance
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In Praise of Doing Nothing by NIAS alum Costică Brădăţan
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Louisa Schneider on houselessness
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The Danger of Conflation in Light of the Israel-Hamas War
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Rethinking Human Relationships with the Sea
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"An impressive amount of new thinking and exploration goes into fellowship proposals"
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‘When I finally start to write, I realize there are few finer places to do so than at NIAS.’
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'Onze namen opschrijven' Column by Dan Afrifa
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'Harvesting Care' column by Anna Kooi
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Practices of Interdisciplinarity
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Looking Back at the Academic Year 2021/22
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Contested Objects: The Material Aspects of Colonial Narratives
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Contested Objects and their Complex Social Meanings
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Women’s Voices from the Mediterranean
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A Forgotten Theory in Defense of Democracy