Elite in retreat 2

Katharine Ellis's suggestion that the Warburg and the various uncoordinated institutes at Senate House constitute the national Institute for Advanced Study for which I called is a classic case of English academics thinking too narrowly and too small. The School of Advanced Study at London could indeed have been the nucleus of the sort of IAS I propose. I'm afraid, however, that, whatever its mission, as it stands it is too lacking in ambition, too parochial and too invisible to approach that.

Kevin M. Sharpe, Professor of Renaissance studies, Queen Mary, University of London.