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

伦敦大学高级研究学院与耶鲁大学和印度高级研究所(该国最重要的学术机构)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的讨论、辩论和联合研究活动--并传播这些努力的成果。这是非常有必要的。来自这三个国家的几个领先研究人员团队，以及该伙伴关系的早期形成活动，已经确立了这种合作具有巨大的前景。但印度学者与西方领先研究中心的学者和见解深入接触的机会太少了，而西方学者才刚刚开始认识到与印度强大的研究界互动所带来的自己工作的好处。印度许多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、视角、方法和其他想法(包括西方对其他发展中国家的分析)，因此他们无法获得来自印度以外国家的比较工作产生的洞察力。西方学者也同样缺乏接触到来自印度的证据和分析，以及印度人对重要主题的看法--这可以丰富他们的工作。美国两位非常杰出的政治分析家/理论家和一位杰出的印度同事最近出版的一本书中，可以找到这种丰富的令人信服的例子--这本书为民主理论和比较法/宪政做出了重大贡献。这一三方伙伴关系旨在解决这些问题，并在这方面为这三个国家的学者提供重大的新机会。该伙伴关系将通过每年6月在印度高级研究学院举办广泛而引人注目的主题的国际会议来实现这些目标。印度高级研究学院位于喜马拉雅山脉英属印度的前夏季首府希姆拉的维克雷格尔旅馆。2012年6月的会议将重点讨论“法律与民主”，2013年6月的会议将讨论“关于城市的社会、文化和历史观点”。在接下来的几年里，会议将讨论哲学、历史、身份、环境等研究的主题。来自伦敦、耶鲁及其网络的学者团队将前往这些会议，印度高级研究所--拥有巨大的声望、资源和凝聚力--将把15至20名顶尖的印度研究人员带到希姆拉。所有三个合作伙伴都将包括著名的资深研究人员和有前途的年轻学者。参与者还将包括来自强大研究中心的人，以及印度政府、公民社会组织和私营部门密切关注研究的人。为了确保在这些年度会议上提出的想法得到更彻底的探讨，伙伴关系还将召集来自这三个机构(及其网络)的学者在伦敦或印度进行短期磋商--为进一步的研究发展他们的想法，并准备详细的赠款提案。为了使研究人员和公众能够接触到伙伴关系产生的想法，在每一次会议上提交的所有论文的文本将在三个伙伴的网站上“开放获取”。这些想法还将通过公开讲座、研讨会和向严肃媒体发表简明易懂的文章来传播。每场会议还将产生一本编辑过的书，其中包含会议论文--一些论文(或多篇论文的摘录)也将作为文章出现在被引用的期刊上。

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.