Announced in 2006 with a $200 million gift from the Foundation, the Institute is a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education, intended to cultivate cross-cultural study of the ancient world, from the western Mediterranean to China. It is headed by Dr. Roger Bagnall, a distinguished scholar educated at Yale University and the University of Toronto and a specialist in the social and economic history of Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique Egypt.
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ISAW admitted its first class of students into its doctoral program in fall, 2009.
The program is distinctive in its flexibility and breadth, defining the ancient world expansively both chronologically and geographically to foster a comprehensive understanding of the entire Old World in antiquity. Students will be encouraged not only to develop expertise in more than one area but also to focus on research that connects areas of the ancient world.
Each year since 2007, ISAW has appointed 8 to 12 visiting research scholars, offering them an oasis in which they may pursue independent research in ancient world studies.
ISAW’s exhibitions are intended to shed light on central questions about the economic, religious, political, artistic and technological connections among ancient societies. “Wine, Worship and Sacrifice: The Golden Graves of Ancient Vani” was presented in 2008, and “The Lost World of Old Europe: The Danube Valley, 5000 – 3500 B.C.” went on view in November 2009.
Watch Philippe de Montebello’s interview of Jennifer Chi on Channel Thirteen’s SundayArts about the “Lost World” exhibit here.
ISAW is developing an extensive library in its field of study. It has so far acquired several private libraries whose strengths lie in Greek and Roman art, history and archaeology, Egyptology, Assyriology and Late Antique and Byzantine history, and Asian art. ISAW continues to acquire books, especially in areas underrepresented in other New York libraries.
The Digital Projects team has been charged with using digital technology to advance scholarship worldwide in accordance with ISAW’s mission. Among its undertakings to date are the Pleiades project, an online, open gazetteer for ancient Greek and Roman places, edited jointly with the Ancient World Mapping Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an online project to support research on Greek and Roman papyrology.