The Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship, commonly called just the Ronin Institute, was an independent scholarly research institute located in

Montclair, New Jersey Montclair is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated on the cliffs of the Watchung Mountains, Montclair is a commercial and cultural hub of North Jersey and a diverse ...

, United States. The institute was dedicated to multidisciplinary study of science and the humanities and supports the work of

independent scientist An independent scientist (historically also known as gentleman scientist) is a financially independent scientist who pursues scientific study without direct affiliation to a public institution such as a university or government-run research and ...

s and

scholars A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a terminal ...

.Keith O'Brien
"The Ronin Institute for Wayward Academics"
''Boston Globe'', May 27, 2012 The institute consisted of research scholars from a range of fields and disciplines, such as

computational economics Computational economics is an interdisciplinary research discipline that combines methods in computational science and economics to solve complex economic problems.''Computational Economics''."About This Journal"an"Aims and Scope" This subject e ...

high energy physics Particle physics or high-energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The field also studies combinations of elementary particles up to the scale of protons and neutrons, while the stu ...

earth sciences Earth science or geoscience includes all fields of natural science related to the planet Earth. This is a branch of science dealing with the physical, chemical, and biological complex constitutions and synergistic linkages of Earth's four spheres ...

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a science and as the ar ...

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

and

philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. The majority were independent, while others hold faculty appointments at traditional universities. The institute meets regularly for seminars, conferences, and grants management. A new Ronin Institute is scheduled to be incorporated in California in 2025 under a different board.

History

In 2012, Jon F. Wilkins, an

evolutionary biologist Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes such as natural selection, common descent, and speciation that produced the diversity of life on Earth. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biol ...

, and former member of the

Harvard Society of Fellows The Society of Fellows is a group of scholars selected at the beginnings of their careers by Harvard University for their potential to advance academic wisdom, upon whom are bestowed distinctive opportunities to foster their individual and intellect ...

and

Santa Fe Institute The Santa Fe Institute (SFI) is an independent, nonprofit theoretical research institute located in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States and dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the fundamental principles of complex adaptive systems, inc ...

, founded the Ronin Institute in New Jersey. The institute's original mission was to aggregate "fractional scholarship" happening outside the academy by creating a new model to support independent researchers.Samuel Arbesman
"The Rise of Fractional Scholarship and the Ronin Institute"
''Wired.com'', May 1, 2012 According to its official mission, the institute remains "devoted to facilitating and promoting scholarly research outside traditional academic research institutions"Ronin Institute
''Mission''
Organizational Website, accessed September 2020 and providing an alternative to the traditional academic career path and

tenure track Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

appointments. The name "Ronin" derives from the legend of

Rōnin In feudal Japan to early modern Japan (1185–1868), a ''rōnin'' ( ; , , 'drifter' or 'wandering man', ) was a samurai who had no lord or master and in some cases, had also severed all links with his family or clan. A samurai became a ''rō ...

: samurais who broke with the code of feudal Japan by refusing to commit suicide upon the deaths of their masters. According to Wilkins, the metaphor is analogous to scholars who leave the academy, but continue to pursue scholarly research: As of 2024 the Ronin Institute is "no longer in operation and has officially closed its doors". A new Ronin Institute is scheduled to be incorporated in California in 2025 under a different board.

Organization

The institute was governed by a board of directors with grants and financial administration and a community-level advisory board. Each member of the advisory board led a working group that focused on one essential aspect of the community: governance, communications, events, infrastructure, membership, and research. The institute had a single academic rank, the "Research Scholar", to create a more egalitarian structure. Research Scholars met virtually and in-person, with researchers from 33 countries.

Notable scholars

Lee Altenberg Lee Altenberg is an American theoretical biologist. He is on the faculty of the Departments of Information and Computer Sciences and of Mathematics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. He is best known for his work that helped establish the ...

, evolutionary theory *

Laurel Haak Laurel L. Haak, known as Laure, was the founding Executive Director (2012-2020) of ORCID, an international non-profit which generates and maintains unique identifiers for individuals to participate in the research lifecycle. Haak received BS and ...

, research policy * Arkadiusz Jadczyk, quantum theory *

Kristina Killgrove Kristina Killgrove (born March 10, 1977) is an American bioarchaeologist, science communicator, and author who primarily covers anthropology and archaeology news and engages in research on ancient Roman skeletons. She is a regular contributor to ...

, biological anthropology *Jocelyn Scheirer, technology

References

External links

* {{Coord, 40.8416, -74.1980, display=title Research institutes in New Jersey 2012 establishments in New Jersey Montclair, New Jersey Research institutes established in 2012 Organizations disestablished in 2024