A Research Partnership between the School of Advanced Study, University of London, the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, and Yale University

伦敦高级研究学院与耶鲁大学和印度高级研究所（印度最重要的学术机构）建立了长期伙伴关系，以促进这三个机构及其网络的学者参与讨论、辩论和联合研究活动，并传播这些努力的成果。这是非常需要的。来自这三个国家的几个主要研究人员小组以及伙伴关系的早期形成活动已经确定，这种合作具有很大的前景。但印度学者很少有机会与西方领先研究中心的学者和见解进行深入交流，西方学者才刚刚开始认识到与印度强大的研究社区互动对他们自己的工作的好处。许多印度最优秀的研究人员发现，很难或不可能从西方获得足够的案例研究、观点、方法和其他想法（包括西方对其他发展中国家的分析），因此他们无法从印度以外的国家的比较工作中获得见解。西方学者同样缺乏接触印度的证据和分析，以及印度对重要主题的观点-这可以丰富他们的工作。这种丰富的一个令人信服的例子可以在最近的一本书中找到，这本书由两位非常杰出的政治分析家/理论家从美国和一位杰出的印度同事-这为民主理论和比较法/宪政主义做出了重大贡献。这一三方伙伴关系旨在解决这些问题，并为所有三国的学者提供这方面的重大新机会。该伙伴关系将通过每年6月在印度高级研究所组织关于广泛，引人注目的主题的国际会议来实现这些目标-该研究所位于西姆拉的Vicreregal Lodge，西姆拉是喜马拉雅山脉英属印度的前夏季首都。2012年6月的会议将侧重于“法律与民主”，2013年6月的会议将审议“城市的社会、文化和历史视角”。在随后的几年里，会议将讨论从哲学、历史、身份、环境等研究中得出的主题，来自伦敦、耶鲁大学及其网络的学者小组将前往这些会议，印度高级研究所-拥有巨大的声望、资源和因此具有的契约力量-将把15至20名印度主要研究人员带到西姆拉。所有三个合作机构都将包括杰出的高级研究人员和有前途的年轻学者。与会者还将包括来自印度政府、民间社会组织和私营部门的强大研究中心的人员，以及密切关注研究的人员。为了确保这些年度会议上出现的想法能够得到更彻底的探讨，该伙伴关系还将把三个机构（及其网络）的学者聚集在一起，在伦敦或印度进行简短的磋商-为进一步研究发展他们的想法，并准备详细的赠款建议。为了使研究人员和公众能够获得伙伴关系产生的想法，每次会议上提交的所有论文的文本都将在三个伙伴的网站上“开放获取”。还将通过公开讲座、研讨会和向严肃的媒体机构提供简明易懂的稿件来传播这些想法。每次会议还将产生一本包含会议论文的编辑书籍-一些论文（或多篇论文的精华）也将作为参考期刊上的文章出现。

The School of Advanced Study, University of London has formed a long-term partnership with Yale University and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study (that country's premier scholarly institution) to promote discussion, debate and joint research activities involving scholars at the three institutions and in their networks -- and to disseminate the results of those efforts. There is a great need for this. A few teams of leading researchers from the three countries, and the early formative activities by the partnership, have established that such collaborations hold great promise. But Indian scholars have far too little opportunity to engage in depth with academics and insights from leading Western research centres, and scholars in the West are only beginning to recognise the benefits to their own work which interactions with India's formidable research community offer. Many of India's best researchers have found it difficult or impossible to gain adequate access to case studies, perspectives, methods and other ideas from the West (including Western analyses of other developing nations), so that they have been cut off from insights that emerge from comparative work in and on countries other than India. Scholars in the West have similarly lacked exposure to evidence and analyses from India and to Indian perspectives on important themes -- which can enrich their work. A compelling example of this sort of enrichment can be found in a recent book by two immensely distinguished political analysts/theorists from the U.S. and an eminent Indian colleague -- which provides a major contribution to democratic theory and comparative law/constitutionalism. This tripartite partnership seeks to address these problems, and to provide scholars in all three countries with major new opportunities in this vein. The partnership will pursue these goals by organising international conferences on broad, compelling themes each June at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study -- which is located in the Vicreregal Lodge in Shimla, the former summer capital of British India in the Himalayas. The conference in June 2012 will focus on 'Law and Democracy', and in June 2013, the conference will consider 'Social, Cultural and Historical Persectives on Cities'. In subsequent years, conferences will address themes drawn from the study of philosophy, history, identities, the environment, etc. Teams of scholars from London, Yale and their networks will travel to these conferences, and the Indian Institute of Advanced Study -- which has immense prestige, resources and thus covening power -- will bring 15 to 20 leading Indian researchers to Shimla. All three partner insitutions will include both eminent senior researchers and promising young scholars. Participants will also include people from formidable research centres -- and people who pay close attention to research -- in the Indian government, civil society organisations and the private sector. To ensure that ideas which emerge at these annual conferences are then explored more thoroughly, the partnership will also bring together scholars from the three institutions (and their networks) for short consultations in London or India -- to develop their ideas for further research, and to prepare detailed grant proposals. To provide researchers and members of the general public with access to the ideas that are generated by the partnership, the texts of all papers presented at each conference will be available on 'open access' on the three partners' websites. Those ideas will also be disseminated through public lectures, seminars and concise, intelligible contributions to serious media outlets. Each conference will also yield an edited book containing conference papers -- and some papers (or distillations of multiple papers) will also appear as articles in refereed journals.