Wednesday, July 24, 2024
We are delighted to announce that Jen K. AlVarez Hughes has been appointed the next managing director of the Institute for Advanced Study, effective August 19, 2024.
Dr. AlVarez Hughes will succeed Susannah Smith, who will serve as acting director of the IAS while Bianet Castellanos, IAS director, is on sabbatical for the 2024-25 academic year.
“I am very excited to have Jen join our team,” said Castellanos. “Jen's extensive experience in project management and building collaborations within and outside of the academy aligns perfectly with the managing director position. As a former IAS advisory board member and Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow, Jen brings a strong commitment to the IAS and its priorities. Their vivacity and intellectual curiosity will foster broad and robust conversations between faculty, staff, students, and the public. Please join me in welcoming them back to the University of Minnesota.”
Dr. AlVarez Hughes (she/they) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Anthropology Department at Bates College in Maine. They are also a professional video and web producer, financial researcher, museum and archives specialist, and ethnographic filmmaker. They hold a PhD in sociocultural and linguistic anthropology from the University of Minnesota and graduated cum laude with a BA in both Anthropology and Gender Studies from Mount Holyoke College after almost a decade working at Powell’s Books in Portland, Oregon. AlVarez Hughes conducted fieldwork in Iceland on the production of whiteness and the role of storytelling and enchantment in political and economic crises. They continue to collaborate on projects with their interlocutors on documenting local economic knowledge, social mobilization, constitutional reform, and eco-critical and environmental humanities approaches to climate change.
AlVarez Hughes’s previous research examined language, history, economy, and “kinship” in lesbian bar culture and among queer youth experiencing homelessness in Portland, Oregon. They studied Icelandic folklore and language at the University of Iceland (Háskóli Íslands, Reykjavík, Iceland) and were a Visiting Scholar there in 2015-2016. They are currently focused on editing and post-production for their documentary film and book project, Viking Futures: An Ethnography of Storytelling and Economic Enchantment in Crisis Iceland. Their second book project is on the queer and indigenous human and non-human entanglements and racial and gendered imaginaries that include human spaceflight futures and global film production in Iceland’s storied ‘North.’
While at the U of M, they served as a research assistant and program coordinator for the (then) Race, Indigeneity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (RIGS) Initiative and played a significant role in transforming the initiative into a university center with increased recognition of the role of disability scholars in studies in ethnic, race, gender, sexuality, and native and Indigenous studies—now the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender, & Sexuality Studies. They served on the board of the Stephen J. Schochet Collection and grants committee for the Liberal Arts Technologies and Innovation Services (LATIS) and was a LATIS Media Services Fellow.
Beyond the University, Jen has worked on research, digital media, exhibit and video projects for the Discovery Channel’s Curiosity Project (now Curiosity Stream), the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, the Moving Images department at the Walker Art Center, the University of Minnesota, Minnesota Opera, Bloomberg, Al Jazeera Plus, the Eric Carle Museum for Picture Book Art, Powell’s Books (Portland, OR), and Curiosity Retreats, LLC.
Dr. AlVarez Hughes has been closely involved with the Institute for Advanced Study and its programs. They held an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship at the IAS and have collaborated with the IAS-funded Disability Studies Collaborative and Mellon-funded Minnesota Transform project.
“I love the IAS and have seen what it can do to create spaces and time critical for research and the spread of impactful ideas,” said AlVarez Hughes. “I am excited about Bianet’s vision and collaborations locally and internationally and look forward to supporting innovative faculty and graduate student work—particularly at this critical inflection point in the world historical record. It’s a real homecoming and exciting time to continue and expand the work Susannah and IAS staff have started as we approach the 20th Anniversary of the Institute.”
Please join us in congratulating Dr. AlVarez Hughes on their appointment as managing director. We are looking forward to all the future holds with Jen on our leadership team.