Thriving in the face of challenges: on the eve of her retirement, Susannah Smith reflects on a final year well spent. 

It has been quite a year! Looking at the IAS’s accomplishments for this past year has left me more than a little dizzy. In the past 12 months, we were awarded $1,386,724 in grants for five projects. We funded and administered 22 interdisciplinary Research and Creative Collaboratives, and administered 11 externally funded grant projects and two projects internal to the University. We hosted eight graduate MnDRIVE Human in the Data fellows last summer, and in fall and spring two exceptionally lively cohorts of residential fellows. Through these programs, we directly supported over 140 people, drawn together from the Duluth, Morris, Rochester, and Twin Cities campuses as well as other colleges and universities, nonprofit or governmental agencies, K-12 schools, and community organizations. Open Rivers published three issues, including our first-ever double issue. IAS staff prepared and submitted paperwork to set up 251 outside vendors and over 1,350 payments, and provided documentation for internal payroll payments to an additional 53 people (not including IAS core staff).

Meanwhile, our public events this year included the thought-provoking (In)Justice Series on Just Policing, created in partnership with the Mellon-funded Sawyer Seminar on Just Policing; the Spotlight Series on cosmic justice, a collaboration with Northrop; and the Thinking Spatially Symposium on Mississippi River Futures, in partnership with the John R. Borchert Map Library, Mapping Prejudice, University of Minnesota Libraries, and U-Spatial. And as though we didn’t already have more than enough to do, IAS staff also offered multiple workshops on public scholarship, organized and presented on conference panels, and served on at least a dozen University committees. 

I could list more numbers and stats, but they don’t get at the heart of what happens every year at the IAS: generous sharing of ideas; pursuit of understanding across divides of discipline, physical location, academic position (or the lack thereof), and experience; fascinating research and important contributions to academic knowledge and social issues; and warm camaraderie and support. I confess to getting a little tired reviewing our long list of achievements, but when I think of the many conversations I have had this year on such a variety of topics with people from all around the University and the community, and I consider the amazing work done by each member of the IAS staff, I am reenergized. Together we are able to accomplish so much. It’s very much a joint effort, and it’s fantastic.

This has, of course, been a very challenging year as well. The National Endowment for the Humanities abruptly terminated funding for the IAS-supported project “Making Meaning from Movement: Piloting a Digital Workflow for Interactive Flap Books,” and projects led by IAS Affiliates have had their federal funding withdrawn. 

At conferences and in discussion forums, I have heard concerns from colleagues around the country about the erosion of academic freedom, increased strife on campus, and fears for the safety of international students, staff, and faculty. These are difficult times to navigate in higher education. At the IAS, we are feeling stretched to the edge of our capacity and are not immune to the general stress around us. Sometimes it is truly discouraging. However, we are constantly reenergized by you—our ever-expanding community—and the work we do together. We daily recommit ourselves to providing space and resources for us all to thrive in the face of these challenges. 

This makes me all the more excited for everything the IAS has in store next year. 

• We will be celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the IAS on September 25, and I hope you will be able to join us. If you are reading this, you probably have a story about your own experience of the IAS. We would love to hear your IAS story, which we would love to hear.
• We are also excited to announce the (In)Justice Series on Data & Power in which we will consider data: how it’s collected, who controls it, and what it reveals (or conceals) about power, identity, and justice. As always, we will bring together scholars, artists, activists, and community leaders for robust conversations about data, privacy, and authority.
• Our Residential Faculty Fellows will be a diverse group that ranges from Assistant to Regents Professors, drawn from the sciences, design, education, and the liberal arts. They will be joined by two Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellows, from sociology and geography.
• I am absolutely delighted that both Arianna Genis, the IAS/Liberal Arts Engagement Hub Visionary Community Fellow, and Eduardo Bautista Duran, the Sawyer Just Policing Postdoctoral Fellow, will be in residence with us for a second year.
• In January, the bilingual Global Humanities Institute “Indigenous Mobilities, Tourism, and Racial Capitalism,” led by IAS director Bianet Castellanos and funded by the Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes, will take place in Mérida, Mexico and other Yucatán locations. 
   

The big thing coming up for me: I’m retiring in August! I started at the IAS shortly after it opened in 2005, so our celebration on September 25 is also my big retirement bash! It has been an amazing twenty years. I never imagined I’d find the dream job that let me hang out with and learn from remarkable scholars, artists, and practitioners while doing something I actually enjoy: organizing things, making spreadsheets, and generally managing stuff. I am in awe of the three fantastic IAS directors I have served, from whom I’ve learned so much. And I have been incredibly lucky to have worked with such smart, genial, quirky, and capable colleagues. Their camaraderie, support, and expansive senses of humor have gotten me through even the worst work days. 

In the end, it’s really all about people, and I will miss you all!

Susannah Smith
Acting Director, Institute for Advanced Study