Edge of Knowing

How do new ideas emerge, and how can collaboration across disciplines transform our understanding of the world? The Edge of Knowing provides an insight into the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) at the University of Amsterdam – an environment where curiosity, complexity and collaboration converge.

The IAS brings together researchers from a variety of disciplines to address the defining challenges of our time, such as climate change, health, technology, governance, and the evolving nature of knowledge itself. Through a rich collection of essays and interviews, this book explores what ‘advancement’ in research truly means, examining how it unfolds, what it requires, how it generates impact and how it can be sustained within and beyond institutional boundaries.

By tracing the experiences and reflections of scholars working at the intersection of disciplines, The Edge of Knowing explores the conditions that enable innovation and the collective pursuit of understanding. It is both a portrait of a unique institute and a broader inquiry into how research evolves in the face of complexity.

Huub Dijstelbloem is professor of philosophy of science, technology, and politics and director of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) of the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He is co-director of the UvA research priority area Shaping Interfaces between Science and the Public and co-founder of the Platform for the Ethics and Politics of Technology. His current research concerns the politics of borders, migration and long-term climate policy. Previously, he was affiliated to the Netherlands Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) and the Rathenau Institute. At the WRR, he advised the Dutch government on food policy, international security, European cooperation and climate justice. At the Rathenau Institute, he advised the government and stimulated public debate on emerging technologies, privacy and information technologies, and biomedical developments. After having worked as an attorney-at-law in Amsterdam and New York, Sanne decided to follow her true passion — writing. She has authored five non-fiction books, she has co-edited two essay collections and has written innumerable articles for newspapers and magazines. Currently she is a contributing writer for Dutch weekly magazine De Groene Amsterdammer and Dutch newspaper NRC. Her most recent, critically acclaimed book, Pijn - een expeditie naar onbestemd gebied (Pluim, 2023) deals with the complexities of chronic pain from a scientific, societal and personal perspective. During the years 2024-2025 Sanne was the first journalist-in-residence at the IAS.