Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies
Fabianinkatu 24 (PO BOX 4)
00014 University of Helsinki
Finland
+358 (0)2 941 23261
Contact person: Outi Salonen
outi.salonen@helsinki.fi
Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, established in 2001, is an independent institute within the University of Helsinki. It endeavors to enhance scholarly excellence and interdisciplinary dialogue within the humanities and social sciences. The Collegium appoints annually 8 to 12 Fellows through its competitive application procedure for periods from one to three years. Distinguished scholars from abroad can be invited as Visiting Fellows. The Collegium also has a special programme for visiting scholars coming from Russia and the Baltic countries and a Visiting Professorship in Studies on Contemporary Society.
The Collegium is governed by its Director and the Board which represents various academic constituencies of the University of Helsinki. The fellowship applications are evaluated by an international Academic Advisory Board which includes seventeen distinguished scholars.
The Collegium is located in the City Center Campus of the University of Helsinki. It provides convenient offices, professional services and easy access to the best libraries. In addition to the high level guest lectures and international symposia, the Collegium organizes weekly Brown Bag seminars where Fellows can present and discuss about their on-going research. The Collegium also has an electronic publication series COLLeGIUM: Studies Across Disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Helsinki Collegium does not have any permanent focus areas of research. The Fellows are expected to pursue their own individual research projects in the spirit of academic freedom. However, the annual calls for applications can be partially targeted. For example, the special theme in the 2010 and 2011 calls was mortality. This, as well as similar topics of future targeted calls, is intended as a strongly interdisciplinary research topic potentially attracting excellent candidates representing a wide range of academic orientations. In addition, depending on the annual fellowship appointments, there can be strong constellations of researchers focusing on certain topics; there may be significant variation from one academic year to the next. For example, sociology, international relations, literary theory and philosophy have been strongly represented over the past few years. At a meta-level, the concept of interdisciplinarity itself is continuously a very important research topic at the Collegium.
The Collegium is open to humanities and social sciences in their broad definition (including law, theology, behavioural sciences...). Disciplines from physical and natural sciences are not eligible to HCAS. However, researchers from these scienfic areas can apply provided that their proposed research project falls within the humanities and social sciences.
