About IIAS

The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a postdoctoral research centre based in Leiden and Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and promote national and international cooperation. The institute focuses on the human and social sciences and on their interaction with other sciences.

IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing various parties together. In keeping with the Dutch tradition of transferring goods and ideas, IIAS works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, constructing international networks, and setting up international cooperative projects and research programmes. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Asia and Europe.

Academic Cooperation
IIAS considers academic cooperation indispensable to top-level research. In the present environment of globalisation, the distinctive national traditions of research and scholarship need to be brought together into complementary partnerships. IIAS, therefore, actively promotes, facilitates, and initiates academic cooperation at various levels nationally as well as internationally. One of these networks is the so-called European Alliance for Asian Studies. (Asia Alliance): a cooperative framework of institutes specializing in Asian Studies, consisting of IIAS, Leiden/Amsterdam; the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), Copenhagen; European Institute for Asian Studies (EIAS), Brussels; Institute of Asian Studies, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg; Centre for International Studies and Research (CERI Sciences Po), Paris; Swedish School of Advanced Asia-Pacific Studies (SSAAPS), Stockholm; Centro de Estudios de Asia Oriental (CEAO, Centre for East Asian Studies), Madrid and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. Activities of the Asia-Alliance include regular Asia Updates, jointly organized workshops and conferences, and a structural cooperation with the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) by jointly organizing the Annual Asia-Europe Workshop Series. www.asia-alliance.org

Since 2001, IIAS serves as the permanent secretariat for the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS). ICAS was set up to strengthen contact between researchers from Asia, Europe, and the USA working in Asian Studies. The first convention - ICAS 1 - was organised in 1998 in the Netherlands. ICAS 2 was organised in 2001 at the Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany; ICAS 3 was organised in 2003 at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Asia Research Institute and the National University of Singapore; ICAS 3 was organised in 2005 at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China; ICAS 4 was organised in 2007 at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China; ICAS 5 was organised in 2007 and hosted by the Institute of Occidental Studies (IKON) and the Institute of the Malay World and Civilization (ATMA), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. ICAS 6 will be held from the 6th to the 9th of August 2009 in Daejeon, Korea. For details regarding ICAS and the upcoming events, please surf to: www.icassecretariat.org

At a broader level, IIAS strives to link up with other groups in society, such as business people, policy makers, and the media by making expertise on Asia available to non-academic organizations through updates, consultancy services, and the like.

The IIAS logo
The IIAS logo is a chandrasa, or bronze axe-head, found in East Java. It was probably produced during the Early Bronze Age (c. 500 BC) in North Vietnam (Dong Son). The flying bird holds another chandrasa in its claws. The function of the object is unclear.

For publishing purposes (print or web), please download and use the logo (eps format) provided below.