The School of Interdisciplinary Advanced Social Studies (Escuela IDAES) was created in 1999 as one of the first graduate institutions in the field of the social sciences in Argentina. Throughout its history, it eventually became a college-level institution within UNSAM (Universidad Nacional de San Martín) granting all levels of higher academic degrees – from undergrad to Ph. D. – as well as one of the top research centers of its type in the whole country and the region.
More than 200 researchers – including both tenured researchers/professors and researchers-in-training with full-time scholarships and grants – work at Escuela IDAES. A similar number of professors teach within its fourteen graduate programs (three Ph. D. eleven Masters’) and its two undergrad tracks, which altogether include more than 2,000 regularly enrolled students.
Our training proposal at all levels is open and welcoming to fruitful reciprocal dialogue among disciplines. Sociology, anthropology, history, art history, political science and economy are constantly engaged with each other, as well as with literature, philosophy and the arts.
Furthermore, the School is deeply committed to the process of internationalization of the social sciences. Therefore, our training programs, discussions and research projects are nurtured and enriched by constant dialogue and exchange with colleagues and teams from different parts of the world.
The aim of taking a public stand and speaking on behalf of a more democratic, reflexive and equal society is deeply rooted in the history and vision of IDAES, where we cultivate a long-standing and rich tradition of public social science.
At IDAES we believe training and practice in the social sciences is inevitably collaborative. The tools and resources of knowledge (theories, arguments, methodological tools) are not acquired or used as a closed set, but are inexorably destined to be shared, exchanged and transformed in situations and partnerships with different actors of the extra-academic world (such as labor unions, NGOs, social movements, state agencies or institutions from the private sector). In this spirit, normative and reflexive plurality allows Escuela IDAES to grow as a social science institution where research, training and intervention keep reciprocally reinforcing.
The social sciences we advocate for are inescapably contemporaneous with society. They are an inextricable part of the languages and aesthetics through which society gain insight on its current controversies and dilemmas. To study and practice research in the social sciences at IDAES is intended as a way to inhabit society in an open, reflexive, collaborative and committed fashion.
