27 September 2025 (10:00 - 16:00)
The Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Edinburgh is one of the world's premier Institutes for Advanced Study. We support innovative research across the arts, humanities and social sciences through a range of interdisciplinary and international projects and programmes. The Institute, an iconic Victorian tenement building, adjoins 6 Hope Park Square - originally Hope House, an 18th century villa built by Sir Thomas Hope of Rankeillor who gifted the Meadows in front of his house to the city. It was once home to author and critic Dame Rebecca West, and appears in her 1922 novel The Judge as the home of her teenage heroine Ellen Melville. In the mid-20th century, the building was the University’s Department of Artificial Intelligence, developing the world’s first thinking robot to combine a seeing eye and feeling hand, “Freddy I”, whose brother (“Freddy II”) can be seen in the National Museum of Scotland. After IASH took over in 1985, the Institute has featured in three novels by Sir Alexander McCall Smith, connecting the Institute’s homely atmosphere to ground-breaking research in the humanities.

Following exhibitions will be on display:
Literary Lives at Hope Park Square (ground floor):
Our exhibition explores the life of journalist and author Dame Rebecca West, who lived at 2 Hope Park Square, and featured the building in one of her novels. We also celebrate the Isabel Dalhousie series of books by Sir Alexander McCall-Smith often including scenes at the Institute, and the host of plays written at IASH by our playwrights-in-residence, from David Harrower’s multi-award-winning Blackbird to Rona Munro’s The Last Witch.
A Home for Research (first floor):
A display of recent books written at IASH by our Fellows. Explore cutting-edge research in history, literature, law, psychology, music, social science and much more. Free copies of texts in our Occasional Papers series are available.
The Pill: Angry Chuckles. A poetry exhibition on contraceptive experiences (first floor):
Explore a display of poems, interview excerpts, and artworks that reflect experiences of real individuals with contraceptives, sexual and reproductive health, and pregnancy and STI prevention. As a society, we need more open, honest and caring conversations around these issues. Have you used contraception or contraceptive services? Have you, or might you, experience abortion, pregnancy or STIs? Do you help to design policy? Are you a researcher or healthcare provider? This exhibition invites you to reflect on your own experiences and think about how you might help improve contraceptive experiences or support people in your life navigating these issues. Curated by Dr Marie Larsson, the exhibition is part of a pilot project focusing on creative methods and interdisciplinary collaboration in contraceptive research.

The ground floor and exhibition space are fully accessible including a wheelchair accessible toilet. The first floor, where our Library and Seminar Room are located, is only accessible via a flight of stairs. Water bottles can be filled up in the ground floor kitchen.

Address
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) - University of Edinburgh, 2 Hope Park Square, Edinburgh, EH8 9NR