École des hautes études en sciences sociales | |
 | |
Other names | EHESS |
|---|---|
Former names | École libre des hautes études (1941–1946) École pratique des hautes études, VI Section (1947–1975) |
| Type | Grand établissement EPCSCP |
| Established | 23 January 1975; 50 years ago (23 January 1975) |
| Budget | €60 million[1] |
| President | Romain Huret |
Academic staff | 830 |
Administrative staff | 450 |
| Students | 3,000[1] |
| Location | , |
| Campus | Urban |
| Website | ehess.fr |
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TheSchool for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (French:École des hautes études en sciences sociales,EHESS) is a graduategrande école andgrand établissement in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awardsMaster andPhD degrees alone and conjointly with the grandes écolesÉcole normale supérieure,École polytechnique, andÉcole pratique des hautes études.
Originally a department (Section VI) of the École pratique des hautes études, created in 1868 with the purpose of training academic researchers, the EHESS became an independent institution in 1975.[2][3] Today its research coverssocial sciences,humanities, andapplied mathematics. Degrees and research in economics and finance are awarded through theParis School of Economics.
The EHESS, in common with other grandes écoles, is a small school with very strict entry criteria, and admits students through a rigorous selection process based on applicants' research projects. Scholars in training are subsequently free to choose their owncurriculum amongst the School's fields of research. Theécole has a small student-faculty ratio; 830 researchers for 3,000 students (27.6%).
Most of the School's faculty belong to other institutions, mostly within theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research and schools affiliated withPSL University.[4] The School's alumni and faculty include sociologistPierre Bourdieu, philosopherJacques Derrida, and economistThomas Piketty.[5][6]
Originally part of theÉcole pratique des hautes études (EPHE) as itsVI Section: Sciences économiques et sociales, the EHESS gained autonomy as an independent higher education institution on 23 January 1975. The creation of a dedicated branch for social science research within the EPHE was catalyzed by theAnnales historical school and was supported by several academic initiatives of theRockefeller Foundation, dating to the 1920s. After WWII, the Rockefeller Foundation invested more funds in French institutions, seeking to encourage non-Marxist sociological studies.
The VIth section was created in 1947, andLucien Febvre took its head. Soon after its creation (1947), theVI Section, later EHESS, became one of the most influential shapers of contemporaryhistoriography,area studies andsocial sciences methodology, thanks to the contribution of eminent scholars such asFernand Braudel,Jacques Le Goff andFrançois Furet. F. Braudel succeeded L. Febvre in 1956. He concentrated the various study groups at the well-known building onboulevard Raspail (area ofallée Claude-Cahun-Marcel-Moore), in part by financing from theFord Foundation.[7]
Today, the EHESS is one of France'sGrands établissements. It functions as aresearch,teaching, and degree-granting institution. It offers advanced students high-level programs intended to lead to research careers. Students are admitted on the relevance of their research project and undertake at the EHESSmaster programs anddoctoral studies. The main areas of specialization include:history,literary theory,linguistics,philosophy,philology,sociology,anthropology,economics,cognitive science,demographics,geography,archaeology,psychology,law, andmathematics. The institution's focus is oninterdisciplinary research within these fields. The EHESS has more than 40 research centers (among which are several joint research units with theCNRS) and 22 doctoral programs, 13 of which are in partnership with other FrenchUniversities andGrandes écoles.[8]
Lucien Febvre andFernand Braudel were members of theÉcole des Annales, the dominant school of historical analysis in France during theinterwar period. However, this school of thought was contested by the growing importance of the social sciences and the beginning ofstructuralism. Under pressure fromClaude Lévi-Strauss, in particular, they integrated new contributions from the fields ofsociology andethnography to event-based historical analysis, a concept put forward by the Annales school, to advocate for the concept of "a nearly imperceptible passage of history". They were reproached, along with the structuralists, for ignoringpolitics and the individual's influence over his fate during a period in which the colonial wars of liberation were taking place.[citation needed]
The work ofBraudel,Le Roy Ladurie and other historians working under their influence greatly affected the research and official teaching of history in France beginning in the 1960s. The work ofJean-Marie Pesez renewed interest in the issue of methodology in medieval archeology and created the idea of "material culture".[citation needed]François Hartog, who serves as the director of the school's ancient and modernhistoriography department, is also noted for proposing that the problems of modern time schema are not entirely caused by an imperialist past.[9] He is also known for challenging theEurocentric reflection of history and the present.[10]
During the 1970s, EHESS became the center ofNew History under the influence ofJacques Le Goff andPierre Nora. During this period, a generation of ethnologists working under the ideas ofGeorges Balandier andMarc Augé were critical of the French colonial tradition and applied modern sociological concepts to third world countries.
In 2019, held theNew Polish School of Holocaust Scholarship conference. The conference was disrupted by Polish nationalists.[11][12][13] EHESS President,Christophe Prochasson, said he could not recall such a violent disturbance at any scientific conference.[14] MinisterFrédérique Vidal condemned Polish authorities.[15][16]
Pierre Bourdieu,Luc Boltanski,Alain Touraine,Jean-Claude Passeron have all been associated with EHESS.
EHESS has always been a central place for economic debate in Europe. In France this debate is also enabled by the proximity of the researchers in Paris with national economic institutions: In this sense EHESS's advisors who have been drawn from economic professors have enjoyed a large media audience (one notable example wasJean Fourastié). The diversity of viewpoints has been a priority, and liberal and Marxist economists have had the chance to debate in EHESS. Since the 1970s and 1980s EHESS has focused on quantitative economics, with classes led by well-known professors such as Louis-André Gérard-Varet, Jean-Jacques Laffont, François Bourguignon and Roger Guesnerie. They initiated not only the Paris School of Economics but the Toulouse School of Economics and Grequam (Aix-Marseille).
The school is a founding member of theParis School of Economics,Toulouse School of Economics, and Aix-Marseille School of Economics, the three French leading centers inQuantitative Economics. Since 2014 it is an associated member of the Paris Research University (PSL).
EHESS has exchange programs with universities such asOxford andCambridge in the United Kingdom;Columbia,Yale,University of California, andUniversity of Michigan in the United States;Heidelberg in Germany;Tokyo andKyoto in Japan;Peking University in China; and theEuropean University Institute inFlorence, Italy. It also has exchange programs with universities in Asia and the Middle-East, and holds research centers on Asian Studies and Islamic Studies.
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Past and presentfaculty (includingEPHE's VI Section):
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48°51′0.86″N2°19′36.33″E / 48.8502389°N 2.3267583°E /48.8502389; 2.3267583
