About IHCS

History

After Iran's Islamic Revolution, in 1981, twelve institutions in various disciplines of the humanities, including the Iranian institute of Philosophy and Hikmat, the Foundation of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh , the Iranian Cultural Foundation, the Iranian Foundation of Culture and Arts, the institute for Communication and Development, the institute for Humanities, the Iranian Academy of Literature and Arts, the Iranian Academy of Language, the Iranian Academy of Science, Center for Asia's Cultural Documents, the Iranian Center for Historical Research, and the Iranian Centre for the Study of Cultures, were merged into a new institute and named the Center for Cultural Research and Studies, which was affiliated to the Ministry of Culture and Higher Education. In 1990, following organizational changes, the Council for Extending Higher Education changed this center into a research institute. The organizational structure of this institute was finally approved by the Organization for Administrative and Employment Affairs in June 1993. In 1994, the Supreme Council of the Research Center, giving prominence to humanities in research studies, named this institute «the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies» (IHCS), which was approved by the Council for Extending Higher Education. Following the approval of the law of organizing boards of trustees in the Ministry of Higher Education and the formation of the board of trustees of universities and research centers in 1992, the institute became a member of the Board of Trustees of Tehran's fourth district. Since then, all of the affairs of this institute have been carried out under the supervision and direction of the board of trustees. The institute is a research institute, which is mainly responsible for performing research in the humanities – Literature, Linguistics, Social Sciences, History, Philosophy, Law, Religion, Quranic Studies, Theosophy, Comparative Economics, and Political Science.

 

Development Plan

In 2014, the development plan of the institute was formulated and it was approved by the Board of Trustees, on the basis of wisdom-based principles, collective wisdom, and the establishment of strategic thinking; so that, the ideals of the recent decades of performed research in the institute could be realized.

 

Outlook and Mission

The development plan and the outlook of the institute has been defined as follows: with reliance on God's eternal power and in the light of faith and common wisdom, through hard work, systematic, continuous and target oriented efforts, and with the aim of realizing the ideals of the Islamic Revolution in a Twenty-year Perspective Plan, «the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies has been established as an organization that enjoys pioneering, knowledgeable, efficient, well-inspired, and effective human resources who are committed to the development and efficiency of humanities, with their theoretical and practical authority, their responsively to the scientific and technological needs of the society, and their constructive participation in national, regional, Asian, and international scientific collaborations». In this plan, the mission of the institute has been defined as follows: «the Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies is a scientific-research organization affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology and aims at achieving the higher goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Humanities, culture and civilization of Iran and Islam, in coordination with the national system of innovation, in order to create and develop networks of human sciences at the national level and help research in the humanities for excellent achievement sat the highest level of scientific development in Asia».

 

Vice Chancellor for Research and Post-Graduate Education

The institute, with half a century of experience in scientific research in humanities, tried to accomplish its mission for performing research in the humanities and cultural studies and establish a constructive interaction with experts. In other words, the scientific achievements of many outstanding scholars and institutions in humanities in Iran have been in different ways affected by their collaboration with this institute.

Responsibilities

*Managing and supervising the implementation of research and technology, affairs related to the libraries and databases of the institute in accordance with the related legislation, rules and regulations;

*Developing plans and policies to enhance the level of scientific and international cooperation;

* Prioritizing innovation in theoretical knowledge and applied research studies;

 *Developing, improving, and directing research projects, while giving priority to applied research, based on the perspective plan, development programs and the Comprehensive Scientific Map of the Country;

*Monitoring and controlling the research processes in the institute based on the timeline of the approved plans;

 *Conducting comprehensive studies on the evaluation of research activities performed and presenting annual reports to the rector of the institute;

*Establishing relationships with domestic and foreign institutions;

*Cooperation for providing scientific, cultural and social services and holding scientific seminars and conferences and carrying out research and service contracts between the institute and other institutions;

*Collaboration in implementing short-term research programs for non-academic institutes;

* Providing faculty members with educational opportunities inside and outside the country based on the approved regulations;

*Developing research programs for the institute, presenting objectives and determining research priorities in form of short-term and long-term programs;

*Examining and evaluating the activities of the institute within the framework of the development plan of the country based on the objectives of the perspective plan and development plan and the Comprehensive Scientific Map of the country for higher education to be presented to the board of directors;

* Identifying and defining joint scientific and research programs and allocating funds to scientific-research interactions between universities and seminaries.

 

Graduate Education

The institute holds for MA and Ph.D. courses with the aim of educating researchers in Humanities since 1989. The three faculties of Persian Language and Literature, General Linguistics, and History of Iran in the Islamic Era constituted the first graduate schools of the institute. In 1997, the program of the Political Sciences was established, and the institute started to accept Ph.D. students in this field as well. Since 2020, the higher education of students is limited to the Ph.D. level at the following institutes:

* Persian Language and Literature

* General Linguistics

* Ancient Iranian Languages and Culture

* Political Sciences

* Philosophy of Science and Technology

* History of Science in the Islamic Era

* Revolution and the Islamic Civilization

* History of Islam

* Transcendent Theosophy

* Philosophy of Religion

Up 2022, more than 226 graduate programs (157 MA and 69 PhD) have been held, 925 graduates and researchers have been educated, and more than 700 dissertations in various fields of humanities are published. Based on the document of the Strategic Plan, the main objective of the graduate school of the institute is to improve problem-oriented education and to promote the quality rather than quantity of the researches; and accordingly, as a major part of the plan, this institute aims at increasing the number of PhD students as part of complementary research programs and accept MA students in special innovative fields to be educated under the supervision of knowledgeable experts and professors.

 

Cultural and Social Vice Chancellor

Based on the importance of socio-cultural issues in the development perspective plan, the role of culture in the structure of beliefs and approaches and due to the vast range of cultural and social issues, IHCS has established the Cultural and Social Vice Chancellor with the following objectives:

*Expanding cultural concepts and teachings, including the institutionalization of the culture of dialogue and interaction among members of the institute;

*Monitoring cultural issues, aiming at the reduction and elimination of social problems;

*Developing cultural values in society and communicating with other cultural institutions in the country.

Responsibilities

*Directing and supervising the implementation of social and cultural affairs at the institute

among professors, students and staff members, in accordance with rules, regulations and

procedures and in cooperation and coordination with other related institutes;

*Collaborating with other departments for better implementation of research programs;

*Adopting and implementing strategic policies of the Supreme Council of the Cultural

Revolution(SCCR) in order to promote and spread the Islamic culture in cultural and social

issues;

*Establishing close communication and collaboration with intellectual and cultural centers and

institutions;

* Providing plans for the development of cultural, political and moral education through

educational courses and seminars, and cultural, intellectual and political communities using

the potentials of the Islamic and revolutionary institutions;

* Promoting the culture of dialogue, methodical criticism, and open-mindedness and pave the

way for communication among researchers and scientific, cultural and political experts;

*Directing, managing and implementing cultural, artistic, Quranic, religious, social and political

activities at different levels of the institute;

* Planning and monitoring the implementation of projects and programs in culture, science,

research and arts;

* Publishing and promoting Islamic values through the provision of audio-visual resources;

*Collecting artistic, social, political and cultural journals of the country for students and creating

archives;

* Planning and organizing training, cultural, artistic and pilgrimage camps for students;

* Promoting and supporting the cultural activities of students, faculty members and staff members in accordance with the cultural objectives and responsibilities of the Social and Cultural Vice chancellor;

* Preparing and presenting regular reports of activities to superiors and authorities;

* Communicating with different departments of the institute in order to coordinate activities in connection with the objectives of the institute;

*Expanding ethical, spiritual and educational spaces in the institute;

 * Interaction with the cultural, artistic and social centers and institutes of the country.

 

Programs of the Cultural and Social Vice Chancellor

*Holding specialized meetings;

 * Provincial trips;

* International cultural exchange;

 * Specialized book reading meetings and presenting the best specialized books to encourage book reading, in cooperation with public libraries;

 *Making documentaries;

*Rewarding best theses and presenting their content through class discussions;

 *Creating a cultural environment for the activities of the students;

*Developing a socio-cultural atlas;

* Supporting the establishment of professional and cultural associations;

 *Conducting student programs such as:(Holding one-day cultural scientific tours, Publishing student journals, conducting film festivals; Organizing dormitories› affairs.)

 

The Socio-cultural Atlas

With the aim of collecting and classifying accessible cultural information in the country and developing indexes related to culture and in order to develop research and planning across the country, the cultural Vice Chancellors, for the first time, made a socio-cultural atlas through the following sources of information:

1. Census data from 4 statistical projects, in the years 1986-2011, available in the Statistical Center of Iran;
2. Registered data in the period from 2001 to 2012, by the Statistical Center of Iran;
3. Organizational data and updated and comprehensive information from relevant institutions and organizations; and
4. Survey and assessment of data, based on other surveys conducted in the country, including cultural surveys of values and attitudes of Iranians, re-analyzed and replicated, and new surveys conducted with respect to nowadays cultural requirements.

 

Financial, Administrative and Resource Management Vice Chancellor

Financial, Administrative and Resource Management Vice Chancellor performs its duties by administrative, financial and budget management to increase the productivity of the institute. In order to enhance and accelerate the administrative and financial services, update the organizational structure of the institute and obtain a dynamic budget system based on the approved programs, the Administrative Vice Chancellor has employed skilled staff to increase the organizational satisfaction among staff and faculty members and to improve the level of legal empowerment of the institute.

Responsibilities

*Communicating all legislations, rules and regulations on behalf of the head of the institute to relevant units and supervising their implementation;

* Formulating the duties of vice chancellor, which should be presented to the authorities;

* Presenting reports to the rector of the research institute and proposing qualified individuals for the management positions in the institute;

*Managing and supervising the implementation of all administrative, financial and organizational affairs of the institute, in accordance with the related rules, by-laws and regulations;

*Dealing with the administrative objectives of the institutes, directing and monitoring workflow and working methods in different units in order to coordinate the activities of different units to help realize the administrative objectives of the institute;

*Monitoring the use of credits in different units allocated, based on the budget approved by the board of trustees and other financial rules and regulations applied in the institute, and finally presenting a report to the board of trustees;

*Determining the current status of the institute by identifying the strengths, limitations, problems, opportunities and threats in order to develop strategies to improve the current situation;

* Presenting reports about the responsibilities of the related units to the head of the institute;

*Collecting the required information based on the comprehensive plan of the institute and developing plans and proposing the annual budget;

*Establishing the process of identifying revenues and controlling the financial cycle in order to provide reports of financial management in order to create financial discipline in different parts of the institute;

*Developing appropriate administrative methods for maintaining buildings and equipment in order to preserve national resources;