Institute of Civilizations

This institute, founded in 2012, aims to bring together, coordinate, and develop the chairs, research teams, and specialized libraries located on the Cardinal-Lemoine campus within an interdisciplinary entity. This institute arose from the observation that the libraries at the Cardinal-Lemoine site—originally part of “research offices” associated with academic chairs—do not conform to the traditional standards of French university libraries. Rather, they function as research centers that draw on a variety of documentary resources, and the new architectural framework has helped to enhance this synergy. The consolidation carried out at the Institute of Civilizations also contributes to the development of interdisciplinarity, which takes the form of shared research projects led collaboratively by various professors and based on the pooling of specific expertise as well as a number of services and facilities. While not claiming to be exhaustive, the institute draws on long-recognized areas of excellence, such as the study of the Greco-Roman world and the various Orientalist specializations that emerged in the 19^th century, as well as others developed more recently.

The establishment of the Institute of Civilizations followed the complete renovation of the Cardinal-Lemoine campus. Construction began in December 2016, and the move into the renovated facilities took place gradually beginning in the summer of 2020. The Institute of Civilizations is organized into four divisions: “Ancient Egypt and the Near East,” “Mediterranean and African Worlds,” “Asian Worlds,” and “Anthropology.” It brings together numerous specialized libraries, heirs to a rich history and also providing access to abundant digital resources: while there are multiple locations for consulting documents, the catalogs are now consolidated.

UAR 2409 (“Documentation and Publications of the Institute of Civilizations at the Collège de France”) enables the CNRS to provide personnel and funding support to the institute’s libraries and publications. The site hosts, in whole or in part, several research units that link the Collège de France to the CNRS and various academic institutions: the “Laboratory of Social Anthropology” (UMR 7130 “LAS”) and “Near East – Caucasus: Languages, Archaeology, Cultures” (UMR 7192 “PROCLAC”), as well as the “Center for Byzantine History and Civilization” (one of the components of UMR 8167 “Orient and the Mediterranean”), the “Center for Ottoman Studies” (one of the components of UMR 8032 “CETOBAC”), and the “Center for Research on East Asian Civilizations” (UMR 8155 “CRCAO”).

Institute of Civilizations
52, rue du Cardinal-Lemoine - 75005 Paris
Phone: 01 44 27 11 70

Portraits of Researchers at the Institute of Civilizations

Researchers from the Institute of Civilizations discuss their career paths and their work.

Architectural Project

The winning firm, Moussafir Architectes, in partnership with François Cusson, began design studies in January 2015 based on a functional and technical program developed in 2013–2014 by Bernard Coby and the firm ABCD in close collaboration with the users.

The project was led by the Collège de France as part of the Campus initiative and the IDEX (Initiative of Excellence) program, for which PSL University was the recipient.

Some details about the project

a shared general reception area
a conference hall and exhibition spaces
a redesign of the central garden, which has become the unifying element of the new institute
7,000 m² of workspace
17,000 linear meters of documentary collections, with expansion capacity increased to 19,000 linear meters
5 seminar rooms
200 reading seats distributed across 6 rooms

Funding

Project funded with a total budget of 30 million euros as part of the “Campus” initiative under the Investments for the Future program, with financial support from the Île-de-France region under the State-Region Planning Contract, support from the Collège de France Foundation and its donors, and equity contributions from the Collège de France.