In the movie "Oppenheimer" by Christopher Nolan, a significant scene features Albert Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. This institute, which has been home to many influential figures, is now hosting Sean Keller, an Associate Professor from the College of Architecture. Keller has joined as a 2024–2025 member in the School of Historical Studies.
Keller describes his experience at IAS as profound: “You definitely have a feeling that you’re at a place where there have been quite important people and ideas.” The IAS annually welcomes over 250 researchers and scholars globally to advance their work collaboratively. While most fellowships are awarded to math and science researchers, Keller is one of three architectural historians selected this year. He views this as “a strong endorsement from the outside of what I’ve been working on.”
During his fellowship as Agnes Gund and Daniel Shapiro Member, Keller will work on a book about architecture and art from the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich with Christine Mehring, an art history professor at the University of Chicago. Their research delves into post-war architectural history with a focus on technical, aesthetic, and political aspects.
“West Germany was trying to display itself as an entirely new country,” says Keller regarding the 1972 Olympics context. He notes that while Germany used it to showcase change since hosting under Nazi rule in 1936, it was marred by a terrorist attack on the Israeli delegation.
The Olympic complex took four years to construct with innovative designs by architects Behnisch & Partner who avoided traditional structures: “Instead there is a large swooping draping roof made from steel cable net covered with plexiglass panels... Nothing like it had ever been done at that scale," explains Keller.
For Keller, one major benefit of this fellowship is having dedicated time for research: “From an academic’s point of view...the greatest advantage...is simply the time to focus solely on one’s research.” After extensive archival research in Germany, he aims to complete his book for publication by Yale University Press.