Question What You Know
The Institute on the Formation of Knowledge provides an incubator for multi-disciplinary thinkers to challenge accepted perspectives within and outside the University. We foster collaborative inquiry to spark breakthroughs, create new fields of knowledge, and educate a new generation.
What we know and how we claim to know it
What people, institutions and cultures know and how they claim to know it are ever more important questions in the time of the internet, social media, and so-called fake news, but these topics have always been significant. In the sciences, they drive the formation of the very questions that lead to future progress; in humanistic endeavors, they are implicated in self-formation and cultural norms.
Innovative courses on knowledge formation
"From ‘Dune’ to climate change, UChicago scholar draws from unique experiences in new course" -- check out this article on Dr. Katherine Buse's spring 2022 course Gaming History, taught in conjunction with Dr. Brad Bolman.
Rigorous inquiry beyond traditional constraints
Our research in action: listen to James Evans and Shannon Lee Dawdy on Big Brains Podcast
What We're Researching
In keeping with UChicago’s tradition of rigorous inquiry, the Institute brings together scholars, researchers, and educators from around the world to communicate across boundaries and develop new dialogues around knowledge in varying contexts. Our research spans histories, cultures, and disciplines. Click on an image to learn more about our research projects.
2022-24 Research Theme: Knowledge in Diaspora
Every two years IFK identifies a new research theme designed to shape some of the work undertaken at the Institute during that period, and to be the focus of our biennial conference.
Meet Our Scholars
Get to know our people and their research, from our core faculty to our postdoctoral researchers.
Learn About the Institute
Our mission is to educate a new generation to approach contemporary problems with historical worldviews, interdisciplinary methodologies, and cross-cultural understanding.
Discover Our 5 Tenets in the Study of Knowledge
Curious about what it means to study the formation of knowledge? Read the 5 tenets that guide our research at IFK.
Cross-unit, cross-university participation; creating an ecosystem of interdisciplinary and team-based thinking
IFK's interdisciplinary orientation modeling Richard Utz's perfect union of Humanities-STEM integration
Register now for A Meeting of the Minds: Corporations, Secrecy & Ethics
In collaboration with Chicago Booth
Register now for summer Novel Knowledge Series courses at Graham!
Embrace new knowledge and ways of learning. Taught by IFK Postdocs. Open to the public.
Academic Spotlight: Katherine Buse
Learn more about IFK Postdoc Katherine Buse's work including her book project, "Dune", and new courses.
Exhibition: [Re]Framing Graphic Medicine: Comics and the History of Medicine featuring IFK Faculty Brian Callendar
Monday, May 9, 2022 - 9:00 AM to Friday, July 15, 2022 - 4:45 PM at the Regenstein Library, The Special Collections Research Center
Explore Formations | The IFK Blog
In our blog series, Formations, IFK's researchers explore the limits of empathy, how we visualize disease, what constitutes a person, and more.
Register now for Cultures & Knowledge Workshops
“Visualizing planetary urbanization: critical spatial media and the critique of urban ideologies" presented by Alexander Arroyo, Grga Basic & Neil Brenner on 5/23
2021-22 BA and MA thesis awards portal now open!
Open to students across campus whose theses explore the formation of knowledge.
IFK course Diasporic Narratives visited the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture
Check out our interdisciplinary courses with multiple cross-listings! Spring KNOW courses include Diasporic Narratives, Normal People, Gaming History, and more.
Watch previous Cultures & Knowledge workshops on our Youtube!
IFK Postdoc Katherine Buse presenting "Immerseless Media: Climate Models, Science Fiction, and the Experience of Planetary Change"
Spring at IFK!
Take a study break or work outside in the IFK garden
James Evans' Research Featured in "The Cost of Zoom"
All those Zoom meetings could be stunting innovation at work.
IFK Postdoc Jordan Bimm on the history of the Russian space program and space politics
“Space is not this utopian, transformative place... [it's] is a place where all of our problems on Earth are reproduced or amplified.”
Ada Palmer's Wired Magazine Feature
"The past we think we know is wrong and so is the future." IFK Faculty Ada Palmer talks about dystopias, her science-fiction series Terra Ignota, and more with Wired Magazine.
IFK Faculty Eve Ewing and Michael Rossi receive the 2020 and 2021 Laing Awards
"Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side" by Eve Ewing and "The Republic of Color: Science, Perception, and the Making of Modern America" by Michael Rossi are the recipients!
There is no Planet B
Science fiction scholars and IFK postdocs, Katherine Buse and Anastasia Klimchynskaya, offer insight on sci fi history and planet speculation in Popular Science.