What was the Institute for Intercultural Studies (IIS)?
The Institute for Intercultural Studies (IIS), founded by Margaret Mead in 1944, was a nonprofit organization concerned with “advancing knowledge of the various peoples and nations of the world, with special attention to those peoples and those aspects of life which are likely to affect intercultural and international relations.” A large part of our mission has been to strengthen public understanding of anthropological research and interdisciplinary cooperation. Beginning in 1997 through the end of 2001, the efforts of the Institute were directed toward the centennial year of Mead’s birth. In 2004 we marked Gregory Bateson’s centennial. These celebrations led to multiple conferences around the world and the reissue of some twenty books, as well as new publications and the stimulus for a new generation of researchers. The events of the new millennium have made us even more sharply aware of the need to seek intercultural understanding, through research and by promoting Mead’s vision of e
