About DISI

A new community exploring intelligence, mind, and cognition in all its forms

Our world is full of intelligences—diverse manifestations of mind and cognition, of agency and awareness. How do these radically different forms come about? What core properties do they share? What can we learn from minds that are nothing like our own? How can we better understand intelligences by modeling, building, and programming them? Answering these questions will not be easy. It will require breaking down the boundaries that divide traditional academic disciplines; it will require forging new frameworks and imagining radically new approaches. With generous funding from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute is building a new community: a vibrant network of early-career scholars who are devoted to bold, transdisciplinary inquiry into the origins, nature, and future of intelligences.

Breakthroughs in our understanding of diverse intelligences will also require new stories. The community we are building also includes storytellers who can provoke, challenge, and startle us—who urge us to consider intelligences of radically different character and to contemplate what these intelligences mean for humanity.

The Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI) brings this nascent community together for a few intense weeks each summer. Admitted fellows and storytellers engage with our world-class faculty in a rigorous program of lectures, seminars, projects, meals, salons, and more. Beyond the residential program, DISI alums enjoy access to programming and opportunities throughout the year, as well as lifelong membership in a one-of-a-kind research network.

“This experience was unparalleled to any other I’ve ever had. DISI provided me with a platform to meet others outside my field and develop procedures to answer questions beyond my expertise. I would recommend this program to anyone with an open mind and a fervent curiosity for all questions related to diverse intelligences.”

“DISI 2018 was a deeply enriching and inspiring event for me. I frequently felt like I was taking part in the synthesis of a new intellectual paradigm that transcended traditional disciplinary boundaries. I expect that the transformations in my thinking and the new collaborators I have gained by virtue of this experience will stay with me throughout my academic career.”

“This was one of the most stimulating experiences I’ve had in the past decade. There is so much lip service about interdisciplinarity but this conference was truly interdisciplinary in a deep way. I got tons of new ideas for my own work and am now collaborating with one of the participants on a paper on social interaction among baboons. I can confidently say this never would have happened without DISI!”

Photo by Stephanie Meredith