History of IASH

The Institute for Advanced Studies was founded in 1969 within the then Faculty of Arts at the University of Edinburgh by Professor John MacQueen, Professor of Scottish Literature and Oral Tradition, and Professor Conrad Hal Waddington, Professor of Animal Genetics. IASH was inspired by Waddington's visit to the world's first Institute for Advanced Study, at Princeton in the United States, and was the first Institute of its kind in the UK. Beginning in 1970, the first fellows were elected to conduct research and give lectures and seminars to attract outside interest. 

During the ‘social turn’ of academia in the 1960s and 1970s, the variety of subjects researched at IASH and the elevated level of academic position allowed the Institute to capitalise on our inherent interdisciplinarity. A project on the bicentenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, as well as the Institute Project on the Scottish Enlightenment (IPSE ’86), which produced the exhibition ‘A Hotbed of Genius’ at the Royal Museum of Scotland (now the National Museum of Scotland), led to our reputation in Scottish Studies. However, other fields of study were also pursued, such as the Renaissance, and Indo-European and Northern studies. Visiting speakers in the 1970s included Edwin Morgan, A.J.P. Taylor, Harriet Harvey Wood, Hugh Trevor-Roper and Eric Hobsbawm.

Generous endowments in 1984 and 1987 from Sophie Gifford, the wife of the late T.J. Carlyle Gifford, formerly Chancellor's Assessor of the university and the founder of Baillie Gifford, made it possible for the Institute to independently and continuously fund fellowships, increasing our geographic diversity, for example with scholars from former eastern bloc nations and countries such as Argentina, Singapore, and India. Through the establishment of international links to other academic institutions, such as the Humanities Research Center in Canberra and the Charles Wallace India Trust, IASH established new Fellowships and adopted a broader and more diverse intellectual reach.

Between 1991 and 1995, we launched our third Institute Project, Scots at War, funded by the Scots at War Trust; the project established research collating information about Scots who served in the armed and civilian services in the twentieth century. The project attracted much public and academic response, especially through the patronage of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh and the support of Sir David Smith, principal of the University of Edinburgh from 1987 to 1994.

In 2000, IASH was incorporated into the newly created College of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Edinburgh. In 2005, Susan Manning was appointed as director, the first woman to do so. Manning continued the Institute’s international traditions, while also increasing our interdisciplinarity through the Institute Project titled The Science of Man.

IASH’s role changed drastically between 2000 and 2013. The nature of IASH Fellows shifted from older, established male academics to supporting postdoctoral researchers and early career academics, many from the Global South. By 2013, the number of female Fellows had risen to 47 per cent.

Since 2015, IASH has presented lectures by Wole Soyinka, Lord Stern, David Miliband and Michael Ignatieff. Recent Institute Projects include the Dangerous Women Project (2016-17) and the Institute Project on Decoloniality (2021-24).

Today, IASH serves the 12 Schools of the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences by developing people, partnerships, projects and programmes across the College and beyond.

College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Professor William Beattie CBE, Honorary Director 1972 – 1980

Keeper of Printed Books in the National Library of Scotland 1931 – 1953; Librarian of the National Library of Scotland 1953 – 1970.

Professor David Daiches CBE, Honorary Director 1980 – 1986

Professor of English at Cornell University 1946 – 1951; Lecturer in English and Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge 1951 – 1961;  Professor of English at Sussex University 1961 – 1977.

Professor Peter Jones, Deputy Director 1980 – 1986, Director 1986 – 2000

Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor John Frow, Director 2000 – 2004

Darnell Professor of English at the University of Queensland 1990 – 1999; Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh 2000 – 2004; Professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Melbourne 2004 – 2012; Professorial Fellow at the University of Sydney.

Professor Susan Manning, Director 2005 – 2013

Lecturer in English at Newnham College, Cambridge 1984 – 1999; Grierson Professor of English Literature at the University of Edinburgh 1999 – 2013.

Professor Pauline Phemister, Deputy Director 2009 – 2012

Professor of History of Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Jolyon Mitchell, Acting Director 2013, Academic Director 2014 – 2016

Professor of Communications, Arts and Religion at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Jo Shaw FRSE, Director 2014 – 2017

Professor of European Law and Jean Monnet Chair of European Law and Integration at the University of Leeds 1995 – 2011;  Professor of European Law and Jean Monnet Chair at the University of Manchester 2001 – 2004; Salvesen Chair of European Institutions at the University of Edinburgh.

Professor Steve Yearley FRSE, Director 2017 – 2022

Director of the ESRC Genomics Policy & Research Forum 2006 – 2013; Professor of the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge at the University of Edinburgh. 

Professor Lesley McAra CBE FRSE, Director 2022 – 2026

Professor of Penology at the University of Edinburgh; Assistant Principal Community Relations.

Professor Tobias Kelly, Director 2026 – 

Professor of Political and Legal Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh.