Soheb Niazi

I joined IIAS in April 2023 after experiencing a couple of years of uncertainty following my PhD submission in a post-Covid world. My successful application for the IIAS fellowship helped restore my confidence in the research I had passionately pursued for many years. Within days of arriving at IIAS, I met brilliant co-fellows working across diverse Asian contexts and disciplines, many of which were completely new to me. There was much to learn from one another, and our Fellowship Coordinator, Laura Erber, designed the program to encourage substantial intellectual exchange that extended beyond formal academic settings. This was in fact, a key emphasis of the fellowship.

IIAS offered a refreshing platform, providing a welcome escape from the suffocating pressures of neoliberal academic conventions that focus on quantifying research output—a culture of "publish or perish" that is forcing young scholars out of academia. For my own my peers it was impossible to continue with our individual research projects without collectively thinking about ways to deal with these issues. IIAS enabled us to reflect on an important question: How do we, as a collective of researchers, challenge the structural norms of current academic practices? Special events were organized to explore various interests of the fellows beyond their primary academic pursuits, featuring ‘Inspiration Sessions’ that included storytelling, film screenings, poetry readings, and other creative activities.

For me personally, my time at IIAS was an opportunity for reflection—not only on my own niche research interests but also on alternative ways to seek knowledge together as a collective. Engaging with fellows from diverse international backgrounds was immensely helpful in discovering new approaches to research and in sharing the challenges posed by structural constraints. Conversations in seminar rooms, as well as casual chats in the kitchen over lunch and drinks in the institute garden, fostered a sense of fellowship among researchers and staff, allowing for the cultivation of collegiality and friendship that contributed to my intellectual growth. Being deeply embedded in the Indian academic context, I was previously unaware of many fundamental aspects of other Asian contexts such as China, Indonesia, Japan, and the Philippines. My interactions with co-fellows from these regions at IIAS significantly expanded my understanding.

One of my most memorable experiences at IIAS was a poetry session co-organized with Laura Erber, a poet herself, along with other fellow researchers who also wrote poetry. This session served as a powerful reminder that many scholars, though primarily evaluated based on their research output, possess creative talents in poetry and other art forms. These skills can not only enrich their research but also facilitate meaningful conversations with their peers, on aspects beyond their research, revealing the vulnerabilities that connect us as human beings. In that same spirit, I continued these conversations during a roundtable, “Is that What We’re All to Become? Remaking Academic Sociality”, co-organized with Lisa Richaud at the ICAS ConFest, held in Surabaya in July-August 2024, organized by an exceptionally dedicated team of IIAS staff. This event was unique for me, as it brought together not only former IIAS fellows like myself but also local staff and students from nearby institutions, alongside thousands of international scholars attending the ConFest.

The fellowship also provided me with the opportunity for a short-term exchange at the University of Turin, where I engaged in academic activities and delivered lectures on my research to students across various Humanities departments. I was warmly hosted by Prof. Alessandra Consolaro and Prof. Marzia Casolari, with whom I enjoyed inspiring intellectual exchanges. Following my fellowship, I spent two months at the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH) in Paris as part of my IIAS fellowship, which maintains a partnership with the French institution. During my time in Paris, I met numerous researchers focused on India within the French context and presented my research at CESAH, EHESS Paris. These opportunities, facilitated by the robust institutional network that IIAS has developed over the years, were invaluable in helping me establish connections that extend beyond my research stays, paving the way for potential collaborations on future research grants.

Lastly, I have been highly impressed by the newsletter published by IIAS, one of the few of its kind, with large circulation of print copies subscribed to by numerous scholars and institutions across various disciplines and regions of the world. Since my introduction to it, reading the newsletter has become a cherished habit, as it consistently offers well-curated articles on fascinating aspects of diverse Asian societies. I was fortunate to contribute to both the newsletter and the podcast channel run by the editorial team, from whom I learned a great deal during my time at the institute.

IIAS is a unique global academic institution where top-tier excellence seamlessly crosses interdisciplinary boundaries, fostering a culture of fellowship and collegiality. It is crucial to strengthen IIAS, especially because it serves as a model for replication in various international academic contexts.

Soheb Niazi is a Gerda Henkel postdoctoral fellow affiliated with the Friedrich-Meinecke Institute, Freie Universität, Berlin. He is also a co-editor of the project Tazkira-e Jamia: Retrieving Past Lives from Jamia , a collaborative initiative of the Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies and the Center de Sciences Humaines in New Delhi.