The Institute for Humane Studies (IHS) is a

non-profit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that promotes the teaching and research of

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition Political culture describes how culture impacts politics. Every political system is embedded in a particular political culture. Definition Gabriel Almond defines it as "the particular patt ...

higher education in the United States Higher education in the United States is an optional stage of formal learning following secondary education. Higher education is also referred as post-secondary education, third-stage, third-level, or tertiary education. It covers stages 5 to 8 ...

. IHS offers funding opportunities, programs, and events for faculty and graduate students seeking careers in academia as well as various fellowships. Founded by F. A. "Baldy" Harper in 1961, Quote: "and he moved to transfer the bulk of the Volker funds to a new Institute for Humane Studies, which would expand the Volker concept and would provide a permanent home for libertarian fellowships, scholarship, conferences, and publications." the organization later began an association with

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

and in 1985 moved to

Fairfax, Virginia The City of Fairfax ( ), colloquially known as Fairfax City, Downtown Fairfax, Old Town Fairfax, Fairfax Courthouse, FFX, or simply Fairfax, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth ...

. The institute is currently located at 3434 Washington Blvd. on the Arlington campus of George Mason University. It is partially funded by the

Charles Koch Foundation The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created b ...

History

The Institute for Humane Studies was founded in 1961 in

Menlo Park, California Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County within the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; ...

, by F. A. Harper in order to promote peace, prosperity, and

social harmony The Harmonious Society (; also known as Socialist Harmonious Society) is a socioeconomic concept in China that is recognized as a response to the increasing alleged social injustice and inequality emerging in mainland Chinese society as a result ...

by fostering a greater understanding of human affairs and freedom. Initially serving as the secretary and treasurer, Harper became the institute's president in 1966, a position he held until his death in 1973.The Writings of F. A. Harper, Volume 1: The Major Works
The Writings of F. A. Harper, Volume 1: The Major Works, 1978

Murray Rothbard Murray Newton Rothbard (; March 2, 1926 – January 7, 1995) was an American economist of the Austrian School, economic historian, political theorist, and activist. Rothbard was a central figure in the 20th-century American libertarian m ...

played a key role as speaker at IHS conferences in the 1970s, promoting

Austrian economics The Austrian School is a heterodox school of economic thought that advocates strict adherence to methodological individualism, the concept that social phenomena result exclusively from the motivations and actions of individuals. Austrian school ...

. On May 18, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Nobel Prize-winning economist

Friedrich A. Hayek Friedrich August von Hayek ( , ; 8 May 189923 March 1992), often referred to by his initials F. A. Hayek, was an Austrian–British economist, legal theorist and philosopher who is best known for his defense of classical liberalism. Hayek ...

, who had been "instrumental in helping F.A. "Baldy" Harper found the Institute in 1961", IHS staff and friends gathered to honor Hayek. Following Harper in the role of president were Louis M. Spadaro and

Leonard Liggio Leonard P. Liggio (July 5, 1933 – October 14, 2014) was a classical liberal author, research professor of law at George Mason University and executive vice president of the Atlas Network in Fairfax, Virginia. Career In 1965, Liggio gave lectu ...

, who served as president from 1980 to 1989. From 1998 to 2000

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

graduate David C. Nott, now with the

Reason Foundation The Reason Foundation is an American libertarian think tank that was founded in 1978. The foundation publishes the magazine ''Reason''. Based in Los Angeles, California, it is a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. According to its web site, the f ...

, led the organization as president. The current president and CEO, Emily Chamlee-Wright, served as provost and dean at

Washington College Washington College is a private liberal arts college in Chestertown, Maryland. Maryland granted Washington College its charter in 1782. George Washington supported the founding of the college by consenting to have the "College at Chester" name ...

from 2012 to 2016 and was previously the Elbert H. Neese Professor of Economics and associate dean at

Beloit College Beloit College is a private liberal arts college in Beloit, Wisconsin. Founded in 1846, when Wisconsin was still a territory, it is the state's oldest continuously operated college. It is a member of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest and has ...

. Her predecessor,

Marty Zupan Martha "Marty" L. Zupan (born April 5, 1949) is the President Emeritus of the Institute for Humane Studies. Biography Zupan received a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy and psychology from the State University of New York at Fredonia. In 1975, she ...

, served as president and CEO from 2001 to 2016 after serving as editor of ''Reason'' magazine. After beginning an association with George Mason University, Liggio, Walter Grinder, and John Blundell moved the institute to Fairfax, Virginia in 1985. The organization is currently located on the George Mason University Arlington campus, along with sister organization the

Mercatus Center The Mercatus Center is an American Libertarianism in the United States, libertarian, free-market-oriented non-profit think tank. Located at George Mason University and directed by the American economist Tyler Cowen, the Mercatus Center works with ...

Organization and funding

The institute's board of directors includes

Scott Beaulier Scott Beaulier is an American economist and academic administrator who is Dean of Business and Professor of Economics for the University of Wyoming's College of Business. He was previously Dean of North Dakota State University's College of Busines ...

, Christopher Coyne,

Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog ''Marginal R ...

, David Humphreys, Charles G. Koch (Chairman Emeritus),

Brian Hooks Brian Hooks (born July 27, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, producer and director. He is best known for his roles as protagonist Rob Douglas in the screwball comedy '' 3 Strikes'', and Nick Delaney on the UPN television sitcom '' Eve''. ...

Art Pope James Arthur Pope (born May 5, 1956) is an American businessman, attorney and former government official. Pope is the owner, chairman and CEO of Variety Wholesalers, a group of 370 retail stores in 16 states. He is also the president and chairm ...

(Chairman), Chris Rufer, Virgil Storr, Ryan Stowers, and

Todd Zywicki Todd Joseph Zywicki (born January 18, 1966) is an American lawyer, legal scholar and educator. He is a George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at George Mason University School of Law, teaching in the areas of bankruptcy and contracts. ...

. IHS has received funding from a number of foundations, including the

Sarah Scaife Foundation The Scaife Foundations refer collectively to three foundations in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The three subdivisions are: the Allegheny Foundation, the Sarah Scaife Foundation, and the Scaife Family Foundation. A fourth foundation, the Carthage Fo ...

, the

John Templeton Foundation The John Templeton Foundation (Templeton Foundation) is a philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who became wealthy via a career as a contrarian investor, and wanted to support progress in religious an ...

, the F.M. Kirby Foundation, the Marcus Foundation, the

John William Pope Foundation The John William Pope Foundation is a non-profit 501(c)(3) private charitable foundation based in Raleigh, North Carolina, that contributes to conservative public policy organizations and think tanks, educational institutions, humanitarian char ...

, the Ed Uihlein Family Foundation, the Ralph Smeed Private Memorial Foundation, the

Koch Family Foundations The Koch family foundations are a group of charitable foundations in the United States associated with the family of Fred C. Koch. The most prominent of these are the Charles Koch Foundation and the David H. Koch Charitable Foundation, created ...

, the

Searle Freedom Trust The Searle Freedom Trust is a 501(c)(3) grant-making foundation located in the United States. It was established by business executive Daniel C. Searle in 1998. As of 2017, the trust had an endowment of $141 million. Origins Searle considered h ...

, the E.L. Craig Foundation, and the

Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, commonly known as the Bradley Foundation, is an American charitable foundation based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that primarily supports conservative causes. The foundation provides between $35 million and $4 ...

. In March 2012, in the midst of a legal dispute between Charles Koch and the

Cato Institute The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was founded in 1977 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, and Charles Koch, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Koch Industries.Koch Indust ...

that caused renewed scrutiny of Koch's political philanthropy, IHS's chief financial officer told the ''New York Times'' that Koch is "a longtime and generous supporter of ours, but we're not involved as a political organization." Charles Koch donated a total of $12.4 million to the organization from 2008 to 2012. The John William Pope Foundation has donated $2.1 million to the Institute since 1986. IHS fundraising appeals have been targeted to specific projects in the past. In 2011,

Rand Paul Randal Howard Paul (born January 7, 1963) is an American physician and politician serving as the junior U.S. senator from Kentucky since 2011. A member of the Republican Party, he is a son of former three-time presidential candidate and 12 ...

signed a 10-page fundraising letter seeking gifts for the institute's Learn Liberty project, which IHS describes as a "resource for exploring the ideas of a free society." Learn Liberty was acquired by Students for Liberty in 2019.

Programs

Seminars

Each summer, IHS runs several free, weekend-long summer seminars for university students from around the world. Seminars are interdisciplinary and include lectures on history, economics, philosophy, law, and political science. Seminar themes include the value of property rights,

limited government In political philosophy, limited government is the concept of a government limited in power. It is a key concept in the history of liberalism.Amy Gutmann, "How Limited Is Liberal Government" in Liberalism Without Illusions: Essays on Liberal Theo ...

, peace, natural rights,

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econo ...

individual autonomy Self-ownership, also known as sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty, is the concept of property in one's own person, expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller ...

, and

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any o ...

s. There are introductory and advanced seminars. IHS also runs weekend on-campus seminars during the academic year. IHS and

Liberty Fund Liberty Fund, Inc. is an American private educational foundation headquartered in Carmel, founded by Pierre F. Goodrich. Through publishing, conferences, and educational resources, the operating mandate of the Liberty Fund was set forth in an un ...

co-sponsor the Advanced Topics in Liberty program, which is an invitation-only, discussion-based weekend conference series. For graduate students pursuing academic careers, IHS sponsors an annual research colloquium, policy research seminars and invitation-only Career Development Seminars designed to help students "land a job in academia, gain tenure, and contribute to the academic and intellectual conversation."

Scholarships and grants

Each year IHS awards over $1 million in scholarships to students from universities around the world. Through its Humane Studies Fellowship program, IHS awards up to $15,000 in scholarships to graduate students embarking on "liberty-advancing careers in ideas." Each summer, through the Summer Graduate Research Fellowship, IHS gives $5,000 stipends to young academics "to refine and complete a publishable scholarly article or thesis chapter that engages ideas within the classical liberal tradition." The IHS PhD Scholarship awards $1,500 to "students dedicated to developing, teaching, and applying the principles of a free society." Other various grants are awarded to graduate students and junior faculty to aid in their ability to present research or interview at academic or professional conferences.

Online projects

In 2010, IHS launched LearnLiberty.org, a website producing educational videos on

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

ideas. The site's stated goals are "to provide a starting point for conversations on important questions: What is the nature of man and society? What are the best ways to organize human society? What is the proper role for government?" Notable guest lecturers featured on Learn Liberty include David Schmidtz of the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

and

Jeffrey Miron Jeffrey Alan "Jeff" Miron (; born January 31, 1957) is an American economist. He served as the chairman of the Department of Economics at Boston University from 1992 to 1998, and currently teaches at Harvard University, serving as a Senior Lectur ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Internships

Each summer, for more than 20 years, IHS hosted the Charles G. Koch Summer Fellow Program. The program is now hosted by the

Charles Koch Institute The Charles Koch Institute is a libertarian-oriented public policy research, programming, grant-making, and fellowship-funding organization based in Virginia. Named after Charles Koch, its founder and primary financier, it pursues conservative ...

. The program ran for 10 weeks, and included a paid public policy internship with two career and policy seminars. Fellows were placed at one partner think tanks and policy organizations across the United States. IHS also ran a year-round journalism internship program that placed aspiring journalists at media companies and non-profit newsrooms, but both the journalism and policy internship programs have been discontinued. In 2019, it was reported that John Elliott, who had directed IHS's journalism internship program from 2008 to 2013, had ties to the

alt-right The alt-right, an abbreviation of alternative right, is a far-right, white nationalist movement. A largely online phenomenon, the alt-right originated in the United States during the late 2000s before increasing in popularity during the mid-2 ...

movement. IHS issued a statement which said "After careful review, we have uncovered no incident during his tenure at IHS in which Elliott exhibited anti-Semitic or bigoted views."

Alum award

Each year, IHS awards an alumnus of its programs with the Charles G. Koch Outstanding IHS Alum Award. The award is given in recognition of "significant contributions to advancing liberty." Past award winners include libertarian legal theorist and law professor

Randy Barnett Randy Evan Barnett (born February 5, 1952) is an American legal scholar. He serves as the Patrick Hotung Professor of Constitutional Law at Georgetown University, where he teaches constitutional law and contracts, and is the director of the Georg ...

; Kris Mauren, co-founder of the

Acton Institute The Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty is an American research and educational institution, or think tank, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, (with an office in Rome) whose stated mission is "to promote a free and virtuous society ch ...

; law professor Todd Zywicki; Kristina Kendall, executive producer for

John Stossel John Frank Stossel (born March 6, 1947) is an American libertarian television presenter, author, consumer journalist, and pundit. He is known for his career as a host on ABC News, Fox Business Network, and Reason TV. Stossel's style combines r ...

; political science professor John Tomasi; Scott Bullock, senior attorney at the

Institute for Justice The Institute for Justice (IJ) is a libertarian non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. It has litigated ten cases before the United States Supreme Court dealing with eminent domain, interstate commerce, public financing for e ...

; economist

Peter Boettke Peter Joseph Boettke (; born January 3, 1960) is an American economist of the Austrian School. He is currently a professor of economics and philosophy at George Mason University; the BB&T Professor for the Study of Capitalism, vice president for ...

; John Hood, president of the

John Locke Foundation The John Locke Foundation (JLF) is a conservative think tank based in North Carolina. The organization was founded in 1990 to work "for truth, for freedom, and for the future of North Carolina." It is named after the philosopher John Locke, who w ...

; and David Schmidtz, a professor of philosophy and economics.

References

External links

Institute for Humane Studies website

Guide to the Institute for Humane Studies Miscellaneous Records
an
selected sound recordings online
at the Hoover Institution Archives,

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Institute For Humane Studies Organizations established in 1961 1961 establishments in Virginia George Mason University Libertarian organizations based in the United States Libertarian think tanks Non-profit organizations based in Arlington, Virginia Classical liberalism 501(c)(3) organizations