The Institute for Humane Studies is a unique organization that assists undergraduate and graduate students worldwide with an interest in individual liberty.

Our Mission

The Institute for Humane Studies was founded in 1961 by Dr. F. A. "Baldy" Harper, a former economics professor at Cornell University. Part of a generation that had lived through two devastating world wars and seen the rise of numerous totalitarian dictatorships, Harper set up an institute devoted to research and education in the conviction that greater understanding of human affairs and freedom would foster peace, prosperity, and social harmony.

History demonstrated the great capacity of humans to solve their problems through "the practice and potentials of freedom," and Harper envisioned this as the primary focus of the Institute for Humane Studies. "Not in government or force, not in slavery or war, but in the creative, and thereby spiritual, power of freedom, shall our inspiration be found," he wrote in an early proposal for the Institute.

Based for many years in Menlo Park, California, the Institute moved in 1985 to Fairfax, Virginia, and associated with George Mason University. At George Mason, the Institute has been able to pursue its mission more effectively in cooperation with other organizations affiliated with the university.

Today, with a primary focus on students, the Institute continues the work begun by Baldy Harper. The mission of IHS is to support the achievement of a freer society by discovering and facilitating the development of talented students, scholars, and other intellectuals who share an interest in liberty and who demonstrate the potential to change the climate of opinion to one more congenial to the principles and practice of freedom.

Each year IHS awards over $600,000 in scholarships to students from universities around the world. IHS also sponsors the attendance of hundreds of students at its summer seminars and provides various forms of career assistance to students and recent graduates pursuing careers in academia, journalism, public policy, and film and writing. Through its programs, the Institute promotes the study of liberty across a broad range of disciplines, encouraging understanding, open inquiry, rigorous scholarship, and creative problem-solving.

Institute for Humane Studies
at George Mason University
3301 N. Fairfax Dr., Ste. 440
Arlington VA 22201-4432
800.697.8799 (toll-free)
703.993.4890 (fax)
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