The EHESS (École des hautes études en sciences sociales) emerged from the sixth section of the EPHE (École pratique des hautes études) created under the leadership of Lucien Fébvre in 1947, inheriting from it three decades of reflection and debate towards the establishing of the social sciences as an epistemological domain in its own right and as a forum for interdisciplinary exchange in view of a common object: man in society.
Under the aegis of Jacques Le Goff, president of the sixth section of the EPHE from 1972, the EHESS officially came into existence as an autonomous institution on the 25th of January 1975.
The EHESS is made up of over 47 research centres, 37 of which are shared with the Centre national de la recherche scientifique. It nevertheless does not constitute a research institute in the conventional sense of the word. Life at the school is centered on research training in which students work alongside experienced researchers, a perspective from which they gain privileged access to the mechanics of research in progress. The school can boast of an unparalleled range of research seminars, programs and publications, all of which embrace an interdisciplinary and multidimensional approach.