How and where is knowledge in the social sciences and humanities (SSH) produced? What role do SSH play in our societies today?

These are the questions that the MSH aims to explore as it celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2025–2026, through conferences, round tables, workshops, an exhibition, and a Spring of the Social Sciences and Humanities.

Full programme coming soon!

The core focus of the 2023 programming for Paroles menacées. Solidarity with scholars at risk was the situation of researchers who are threatened or imprisoned in countries where academic freedom and freedom of teaching are under political tyranny. It also addressed how academic freedoms are increasingly under threat within democratic societies.

The theme of academic freedom was explored in relation to artistic, journalistic, and intellectual freedoms.

MSH Events:

• 9 February 2023 – Conference: "Reframing the Armenian-Azerbaijani Past: What can scholars do?"

• 16 February 2023 – Conference & Exhibition Opening: "Standing for Freedom"

• 17 February to 16 March 2023 – Exhibition: "Standing for Freedom"

• 7 March 2023 – Conference: "Higher Education during the Russian War against Ukraine: Responsibility, Resilience, Resistance"

• 7 March 2023 – Conference: "The Evolution of University Autonomy in an EU Candidate Country: The Case of Turkey and the Academics for Peace"

• 9 March 2023 – Film screening: "Living in Truth"

• 17 March 2023 – Conference: "Memorial – Fighting for Memory in Russia"

• 18 March 2023 – Performance: "Words in Exile"

• 19 April 2023 – Round table: "The Reactionary Investment in Knowledge: A Threat to Academic Freedom?"

View the full programme of ULB’s initiative

In 2022, the MSH hosted a series of activities that brought scientific research and artistic research into dialogue.

This theme stems from the observation that scientific production in the social sciences and humanities has recently seen the emergence of new research methodologies that combine artistic practices with scholarly knowledge. At the heart of this dynamic, the role of the artist-researcher or researcher-artist raises new questions regarding methodological positioning and data analysis.

As part of this initiative, the MSH organized:

• A conference and film screening "L’anthropologue-cinéaste - dual ou duel ?",, with Baptiste Buob, CNRS/University of Paris-Nanterre, Visiting Professor at MSH-ULB

• The international conference "Penser la dualité : la place d’artiste-chercheur.e en sciences sociales", organized by Mukaddas Mijit and Fanny Arnulf

As their name suggests, the humanities focus broadly on the human.
They tend to consider the human being as a research object without systematically questioning its supposed ontological reality. But where does the human begin and end? What tensions and divisions inhabit humanity? How do these various boundaries help define the human? And what role do the academic disciplines themselves play in distinguishing between the human and the non-human?

In 2017–2018, the MSH-ULB explored these questions through a series of events, examining both external boundaries (the human and its "other") and internal boundaries (divisions within humanity) of this research object. The guiding assumption was that these boundaries are porous and fluid: they are variable, shifting, constructed — and as such, they are of interest not only in how they are defined, but also in how they evolve, their history, and their underlying dynamics. Who moves the boundaries of the human, how, and why?

The programme included:

Opening Session – Thursday, 5 October (5:30–7:30 p.m.)

• "The Future of the Posthumanities" – Rosi Braidotti (Utrecht University)

• Followed by "How to Make Music with an Artificial Intelligence" – Martin Daniel & A.I. Duet (Google Lab)

THE BOUNDARIES OF THE HUMAN

• 29 November 2017 – Conference "Des injustices structurelles à la reconnaissance de la diversité (Regard critique sur l’évolution des politiques publiques contre l’homophobie et la transphobie au Québec)" – Line Chamberland (Université du Québec à Montréal – CA / Visiting Professor at MSH)

• 4 December 2017 – Workshop "Transnational solidarities and global queer politics", organized by Atelier Genre(s) et Sexualité(s), Institut de Sociologie, ULB

• 26 February 2018 – Conference "Droits de l’homme ou droits humains? Vers une universalité inclusive" – Diane Roman (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne – FR / Visiting Professor at MSH)

• 16 April 2018 – Conference "La démocratie : un modèle humain universel ?" – Florent Guénard (Université de Nantes – FR / Visiting Professor at MSH)

• 5 June 2018 – Conference "Les humains ont-ils toujours eu un genre ?" – Sébastien Chauvin (Université de Lausanne – CH / Visiting Professor at MSH)

THE HUMAN AND ITS OTHER

• 19 February 2018 – Conference "Les prêtres sont-ils des humains comme les autres ?" – Frédéric Gugelot (University of Reims – FR / Visiting Professor at MSH)

• 19 March 2018 – Conference "La justice aux mains des machines? Algorithmes, intelligences artificielles et justice prédictive" – Antoine Garapon (Institute for Advanced Studies on Justice – FR / Visiting Professor at MSH)

• 19 March 2018 – Conference "A Japanese approach : between live and death, from nature to artefacts" – Masahiro Morioka & Hideo Iwasaki (Waseda University – Japan)

• 20 March 2018 – Workshop "Presence of the human-shaped body : about life and death"

• 14 May 2018 – Conference "L’humain, l’inhumain et le magique : exemples asiatiques" – Peter Jackson (Australian National University / Visiting Professor at MSH) & Françoise Lauwaert (ULB)

• Spring 2018 – Film Club "Les frontières de l’humain dans le cinéma de science-fiction"