MISSION
The American Institute of Iranian Studies (AIIrS) is a scholarly non-profit and non-advocacy consortium of American universities and museums created to support academic research and cultural understanding between the US and Iran. The specific objectives of AIIrS are to represent American institutions of higher education and research in the field of Iranian Studies, and to expose new generations of students and scholars to Iran and the wider Persianate world. Its purview comprises the historical Iranian world of Central Asia, the Middle East and South Asia as well as the modern political state of Iran. AIIrS is the only organization in the country dedicated to funding research in Iranian Studies. The Institute's fellowships and grants aim to create and maintain expertise on an important geographical region and interest in bi-national cooperation. Opportunities for research and direct contact invigorate the academic resource base and increase the depth of knowledge in the field. The Institute is managed by a Board of Trustees composed of representatives of member institutions. Additional Trustees-at-large and Advisory Committee members are elected to the Board from among distinguished scholars in the field, irrespective of institutional affiliation.

HISTORY

Founded in 1967 to establish an overseas center in Tehran for the purpose of supporting and hosting American scholars in the interdisciplinary study of Iranian civilization, AIIrS acted as an academic liaison for visiting American students and faculty pursuing humanities research in Iran. Following the 1979 Revolution, the center in Tehran was obliged to suspend its activities and AIIrS furthered Iranian Studies in the US by offering dissertation research grants to students and holding conferences in the field. In 1998, when American students were once again able to obtain visas for travel to Iran, AIIrS began offering grants for graduate students to study Persian language in established language programs there. Over the ensuing years, AIIrS developed academic support fellowships for American scholars for research travel to Iran or other resource-relevant countries. It has also awarded occasional discretionary grants for public programs concerning Persian culture, including conferences, lectures and exhibitions.

AIIrS is a founding member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) in Washington, D.C.: www.caorc.org

The American Institute of Iranian Studies: Half a Century of Foundational Research is now available from Penn State University Press: https://www.eisenbrauns.org/books/titles/978-1-64602-307-3.html