The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a non-profit organization based on classical liberal ideas that assists students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. It acts as a talent scout, identifying, developing, and supporting the brightest young students with classical liberal ideas or interest who are seeking careers as academics or intellectuals. Each year, IHS awards over $600,000 in scholarships to students from universities around the world.
The Institute for Humane Studies was founded in 1961 by Floyd "Baldy" Harper as a successor to his projects for the William Volker Fund, for which he had worked previously. The IHS inherited Volker's staff, approach, and the strategy of its directors, Loren Miller and Herb Cornuelle. Other founding members, many of whom had been associated with the Volker Fund as well, included Leonard P. Liggio, George Resch, Kenneth S. Templeton, Jr., and Dr. Neil McLeod; and among the earliest business supporters of the IHS were R. C. Hoiles, founder of Freedom Communications, J. Howard Pew, a president of Sun Oil Company and a founder of the Pew Charitable Trusts, Howard Buffett, William L. Law, and Pierre Goodrich, who later established the Liberty Fund.
For many years, IHS had an extensive book and monograph publishing effort, and published the magazine Literature of Liberty: A Review of Contemporary Liberal Thought from 1980-82 (originally published by the Cato Institute). Prior to its move to Virginia, it ended its publishing.
Based for many years in Menlo Park, California, the IHS moved to Fairfax, Virginia in 1985 and associated with George Mason University. It is currently on GMU's Arlington campus.
For decades the IHS has run seminars for university students from around the world. They include general seminars on classical liberal thought, as well as seminars focused on topics such as war and peace, globalization, tolerance, environmentalism, and other topics. Specialized seminars are also offered for students in journalism, film, and literature and for students who are planning careers in academia.
In 2004, IHS launched aBetterEarth.org, a student-oriented website that states its goal as exploring "pragmatic approaches to solving environmental problems." The site discusses "alternative environmental approaches, including locally based 'eco-innovation,' outcome-based regulations, quasi-market pricing strategies, corporate and individual stewardship, property rights enforcement as a means of protecting the environment from polluters, and the cultivation of environmental aesthetics." The site criticizes traditional environmentalists for being anti-capitalist and for pushing counterproductive government regulations. In 2005 IHS added aWorldConnected.org, which promotes a cosmopolitan free-trade approach to globalization issues and criticizes cultural and economic nationalism. IHS has also produced a series of interactive games to illustrate the functioning of spontaneous orders.
The IHS receives funding from a base of individual donors, as well as from several classical liberal, libertarian and conservative foundations, including the Sarah Scaife Foundation, the Koch Family Foundations, Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and the Carthage Foundation.
The IHS has inspired a number of organizations around the world to emulate its activities, including the Centre for Civil Society in India, the Imani Center in Ghana, and the Institute for Economic Studies - Europe in France.
As of 2007, the president of the IHS was Marty Zupan, formerly editor of Reason magazine.
References
- Institute for Humane studies website
- John Blundell, "Waging the War of Ideas", speech to the Heritage Foundation, January 1990, accessed January 12, 2004.
- Radley Balko, Private Investment Protects Environment Where Government Fails, FOXNews, April 8, 2004.
- Institute for Humane Studies, MediaTransparency.org
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- This article uses content from the SourceWatch article on Institute for Humane Studies under the terms of the GFDL.
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