About the institute
The Institute was founded in August 2004 through a merger of the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) with the Institute of United States Studies (IUSS), both of which had been founded in 1965 at 31 Tavistock Square. Like its predecessors, the new Institute forms part of the University of London's School of Advanced Study. In 2008, the Institute launched its United States Presidency Centre to provide a forum for research and analysis of the presidency in terms of its historical, political and cultural significance.
The Institute plays a national and international role as a coordinating and information centre for all sections of the hemisphere at the postgraduate level in the universities of the United Kingdom.
As well as serving and strengthening national networks of North Americanist, Latin Americanist and Caribbeanist scholars, the Institute actively maintains and builds ties with important academic, cultural, diplomatic and business organisations with interests in the region.
The Council of the University of London approved the establishment of ISA on the understanding that it would be dedicated to teaching and research, not just on the USA and Latin America, but to the Americas as a whole, with proper attention to Canada and the Caribbean. ISA will uphold the dedication to area studies and multi-disciplinarity that animated its predecessors. No other institution in Europe offers such a combination of approaches.
The Institute greatly values collaboration with colleagues in the Colleges of the federal University as well as those in London's other universities. Such fellow scholars are encouraged to play an active part in the research and teaching programmes and so become Associate Fellows. At the same time, as an integral part of the School of Advanced Study, ISA has a mission to foster scholarly initiatives at a national level, ensuring an energetic and original British presence in the international, and especially trans-Atlantic, study of the western hemisphere.