IWM - Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

03/09/2026

Tomorrow evening, historian Michael David-Fox, the IWM's incoming fourth rector, will deliver his inaugural lecture on the crisis of the humanities and social sciences, opening the Month of Ideas.

David-Fox examines the perfect storm of interconnected challenges at the heart of this crisis and takes his own discipline, history, as a concrete illustration of how this crisis can be both studied and addressed.

While the event itself is by invitation only, everyone is welcome to join us via livestream:
https://www.youtube.com/live/t53Pv690kX0

02/09/2026

From 23 to 27 September, the Vienna Humanities Festival once again gathers leading intellectuals in the city for a week of open debate, critical reflection, and fresh perspectives. This year's edition, which marks the culmination of the IWM's first-ever Month of Ideas, is a call to reclaim agency amid chaos and uncertainty.

The full festival program is now available:
https://www.humanitiesfestival.at

In 2026, the Vienna Humanities Festival is organized by the IWM and Time to Talk (TTT) in cooperation with ERSTE Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, the City of Vienna (Stadt Wien), the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien), Ö1 Intro, the Volkstheater Wien, the Wien Museum, TU Wien, and the Bruno Kreisky Forum for International Dialogue.

© Klaus Ranger

27/08/2026

Vienna was once a cradle of ideas that shaped the world. Devoted to reviving this spirit of intellectual inquiry, the IWM will kick off the new academic year with a densely packed program of events dedicated to critical reflection, candid and open discussion, and, above all, the exploration of new perspectives:
https://www.iwm.at/news/time-for-ideas-vienna

27/08/2026

We warmly congratulate Lea Ypi on being awarded the 2026 Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought!

Ypi most recently joined the IWM as a Europe’s Futures Fellow and delivered the 2025 Speech to Europe, reflecting on migration, citizenship, and democracy in Europe.

Revisit her speech here:
https://youtu.be/0RPWchPsGPA?si=18Wkt2qhjOjatAy4

17/08/2026

Why does religious language reappear in societies that understand themselves as thoroughly secular, and what does its return reveal about crisis and the limits of the modern public sphere?

Reflecting on a recent conference held at the IWM, Clemena Antonova, research director of the Institute’s World in Pieces Program, and Arundhati Virmani (EHESS Marseille) weigh in on some of the key arguments that emerged from the discussions:

Clemena Antonova: I would like to start with a general question: what ideas that came out of the conference sounded promising to you, and what avenues of thought were opened that, in your opinion, deserve to be explored further?

14/08/2026

What if asylum accommodation is a diagnostic window into the internal restructuring of our own societies, a reflection of how inequality and opportunity are being redistributed within the places we inhabit?
Read Paolo Novak's reflections on the divides that have emerged against the backdrop of migration:
https://www.iwm.at/publication/iwmpost-article/this-is-not-a-migration-crisis-asylum-accommodation-and-the-real-divide

10/08/2026

Preparations for the Vienna Humanities Festival are in full swing.
Under the title "Agency/Tu was", this year's festival highlights the importance of agency and explores ways to counteract the pervasive sense of anxiety and helplessness.
The full program will be published in early September.
Stay tuned and save the date!
https://www.humanitiesfestival.at

05/08/2026

Historian Richard Cockett was a guest at the IWM earlier this year.
In the latest issue of the IWMpost, he explores the century-old intellectual clash between Hans Kelsen and Carl Schmitt, and how their opposing visions continue to shape political debates today:
https://www.iwm.at/publication/iwmpost-article/the-quarrel-of-our-age

30/07/2026

On 20 June 2026, the Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulić passed away at her home in Istria. She was associated with the IWM for over 30 years, serving as a visiting fellow (on three occasions) and participating in numerous conferences, discussions, and events. Her contributions resulting from these engagements appeared in Transit, IWMpost, and Eurozine.

In lieu of an obituary, we let her speak for herself once more with her unmistakable voice:
https://www.iwm.at/news/in-memoriam-slavenka-drakulic