Institute For Advanced Study Receives Luce Foundation Grant

The Institute for Advanced Study has received a $2 million grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to establish a professorship in East Asian Studies.

"We are very grateful for the support and encouragement of the Henry Luce Foundation as we move to establish a permanent presence in East Asian Studies in our School of Historical Studies," said Phillip A. Griffiths, Institute director. "This generous contribution, enabling us to establish a Luce Foundation Professorship in East Asian Studies, provides a tremendous starting point from which to build an endowment for this program."

"The gift will enable the School to expand its scope to include East Asian Studies on a permanent basis," observed Professor Giles Constable, executive officer of the School. "In addition to the intrinsic interest of such studies, we hope that there will be significant interaction between scholars in this new area and those in the traditional fields covered by the School."

The Institute "hopes to play an important role in drawing together eminent scholars in East Asian studies from around the world, providing a venue for sustained research," Griffiths noted. The Institute has had East Asian scholars in residence and offered special seminars and colloquia in East Asian history and culture for three years; this year, there are five scholars in residence who focus on East Asia.

The Henry Luce Foundation, based in New York City, is particularly known for its efforts to encourage American-Asian understanding. The Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, cofounder and editor-in-chief of Time Incorporated, who was born in China's Shandong Province. He intended the foundation as a tribute to his parents, who were Presbyterian educational missionaries in China. Concerns of the Luce Foundation are not limited to the study of Asia, but also extend to higher education, theology, American art, public policy and the environment, public affairs, and women in science.

The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, NJ, is a private, independent center founded in 1930 to support advanced scholarship and fundamental research across a wide range of disciplines.