About the ISCSC
The
International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations was
formally established in 1961 at a meeting in Salzburg, organized by
historian Othmar Anderle and attended by fellow historians Arnold
J.Toynbee and Rushton Coulborn. Sociologist Pitirim Sorokin was the
Society's first president. In 1970 the Society's leadership crossed the
Atlantic as Benjamin Nelson became it's first American president.
Under
the guidance of anthropologist Roger Wescott; historian Carroll
Quigley; political scientist David Wilkinson; literary comparatist
Michael Palencia-Roth; sociologists C.P. Wolf, Vytautas Kavolis,
Matthew Melko, Benjamin Nelson the ISCSC developed into a dynamic
international organization. Although a majority of its members reside
in the United States of America, over thirty foreign countries are
represented in its membership. The dynamism of the society has been
maintained over the years in part through its Annual Meeting and the
participation of scholars such as Talcott Parsons, Hayden White,
Immanuel Wallerstein, Gordon Hewes, André Gunder Frank,
Marshall
Sahlins, Lynn White Jr. and Jeremy Sabloff.
The ISCSC is
committed to the notion that complex, civilizational problems need
diverse, multidisciplinary analyses. Initially the members of the
Society came from history, anthropology, and sociology; now, the
Society includes such disciplines as philosophy, psychology,
comparative religions, economics, political theory, literary criticism
and textual analysis, art history, comparative government, comparative
literature, science and technology, linguistics, archaeology,
architecture, geography, biology, physics and ethnohistory. The Society
is affiliated with comparative studies programs worldwide and actively
fosters internationalism through its annual meetings and its
publications.
* View our by-laws
Our History
Our Presidents:
Pitirim A. Sorokin, 1964-71
Othmar Anderle, 1964-71
Benjamin Nelson, 1971-77
Vytauta 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, 2007-2010
Our Conferences:
1961: Salzberg, Austria
1964: Salzberg, Austria
1971: Philadelphia, with the
American Academy for the Advancement of Science
1972: Washington, DC, with the AAAS
1974: Boston University, with the
Society for Cross-Cultural Research
1975: University of Pittsburgh
1976: University of Pennsylvania,
Philadelphia
1977: Bradford Junior College,
Bradford, MA
1978: The University of Milwaukee
1979: California State University,
Northridge
1980: Syracuse University, NY
1981: Indiana University,
Bloomington
1982: The University of Pittsburgh
1983: The State University of New
York at Buffalo
1984: Appalachian State
University, Boone, NC
1985: Antioch College, Yellow
Springs, OH
1986: The College of Santa Fe, NM
1987: Ohio University, Athens, OH
1988: Hampton University, Hampton,
VA
1989: The University of
California, Berkeley
1990: The University of Illinois,
Urbana
1991: Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic
1992: Eastern Kentucky University,
Richmond
1994: University College, Dublin,
Ireland
1995: Wright State University,
Dayton, OH
1996: California Polytechnical
Institute, Pomona, with the World History Association
1997: Brigham Young University,
Provo, UT
1998: Reitaku University, Reitaku,
Japan
1999: St. Louis, MO
2000: The University of Alabama,
Mobile
2001: Rutgers University, Newark
2002: Frenchman’s Cove,
Port Antonio, Jamaica
2003: St. Petersburg, Russia, with
four Russian associations
2004: The University of Alaska,
Fairbanks
2005: The University of St.
Thomas, St. Paul, MN
2006: Paris, France, with the
Ecole Practique des Hautes Etudes
2007: ASILOMAR, Monterey,
California
2008: New Brunswick, Canada
2009: Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA