On November 22—29, the 100th anniversary celebration of the International Union of Academies (Union académique international, UAI–IUA), the most prestigious international organization in the humanities and social sciences, was held in Paris. Askold Ivantchik, Head of the Centre of Classical and Oriental Archaeology and Vice‑President of the International Union of Academies, served as an organizer of the event.
Created in 1919 in Paris, the UAI is comprised of national academies from 63 countries as well as a number of international academies. On behalf of the Russian Academy, Academic Mikhail Rostovtsev was one of the founders of the Union. However, the USSR did not recognize its own membership, and it was not restored until 1999.
The UAI support 92 projects that require cooperation among national academies, including well-known projects such as Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Tabula Imperii Romani, Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, Encyclopaedia Iranica, etc. For more information about the Union and its projects, see the UAI website.
The celebration event included eight conferences and an exhibition at the Louvre Museum devoted to the 100th anniversary of the UAI first project ‘Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: ‘1919. La science et l’art pour la paix des peuples: la création du Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum’. Askold Ivantchik delivered a welcome address at the conference, ‘Société humaines et changements climatiques: une longue histoire’ (organized by the UAI project ‘L’Homme face aux changements climatiques dans la préhistoire et la protohistoire: adaptation et développement durable’). The other conferences included ‘Louis Grodeci et le vitrail’ and ‘Le Corpus Vitrearum: méthode, usages, perspectives’ (in connection with the project ‘Corpus Vitrearum’); ‘Sources for African History. Some Reflections’ (the ‘Fontes Historiae Africanae’ project); ‘Le Dictionnaire du Latin médiéval: réflexions méthodologiques à propos du tournant numerique’ (the ‘Le Dictionnaire du Latin médiéval’ project); ‘La céramique milésienne et apparentée à l’époque archaïque’ (the ‘Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum’ project); ‘Les actes pontificaux: un trésor à exploiter’ (the ‘Epistolae Pontificum Romanorum’ project); ‘Knowledge of the Past for the Future of Collections’ (the ‘Corpus Antiquitatum Americanensium’ project).
Following the UAI General Assembly, a ceremonial academic meeting was held, during which some leading guest experts in the humanities delivered speeches. Nikolai Makarov (Vice-President, Russian Academy of Sciences) represented archaeology. He gave a lecture entitled 'Archaeology in the Time of the New Challenges: Perspectives and Risk'. At the end of the meeting, two UAI awards were given to young scholars.
The culmination of the celebrations took place during the annual ‘under the dome’ ceremony of the Institute of France offered to the UAI by the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres. This ceremony was dedicated to the Centenary of the International Union of Academies.
Programme