International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations
The International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (ISCSC) is an international scholarly organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of civilizations. Based at Western Michigan University in the United States,[1] the ISCSC holds an annual conference and publishes the journal Comparative Civilizations Review.
Brief history
The ISCSC was founded in Salzburg, Austria, in 1961 during a meeting organized by Othmar Anderle. Among those attending this initial gathering were Arnold J. Toynbee and Rushton Coulborn.[2] Its first president was Pitirim A. Sorokin.[3] Since Benjamin Nelson became its first American president in the 1970s,[4] the bulk of the membership has resided in North America,[5] although members can be found in more than 30 countries. The Annual Conference has frequently been held abroad in cooperation with notable institutions. Recent international conference sites include Dublin (1994), Tokyo (1998), Jamaica (2002), St. Petersburg (2003) and Paris (2006).
Activities
The ISCSC is a multidisciplinary scholarly organization that has connections with comparative studies programs throughout the world. The society holds an annual conference, often with the cooperation of other scholarly organizations based in the conference locale. One example of this is the 1998 conference held at Reitaku University in Japan together with the Japan Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations; the two organizations continue to have a close relationship.
The ISCSC publishes the semi-annual Comparative Civilizations Review, a peer-reviewed journal. The ISCSC also publishes a regular newsletter that is distributed both electronically and by post.
Presidents
- Pitirim Sorokin (1961–64)
- Othmar Anderle (1964–71)
- Benjamin Nelson (1971–77)
- Vytautas Kavolis (1977–83)
- Matthew Melko (1983–86)
- Michael Palencia-Roth (1986–92)
- Roger W. Wescott (1992–95)
- Shuntaro Ito (1995–98)
- Wayne Bledsoe (1998–2004)
- Lee Daniel Snyder (2004–07)
- Andrew Targowski (2007–2013)
- David Rosner (2013-)
References
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