IAS is a research body incorporated in and
funded by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS).
The Institute has been conducting
research on historical, socio-economic,
ethno-cultural and political problems
of all independent African nations.
Field work has always been one
of the brightest components of the
activities of the Institute for African Studies.
In the 1960s these expeditions became
a regular activity of the Institute.
The key feature of all field research
in African countries has been their integrated nature.
Conferences are a major part of
activities of the Institute. They brighten
up the routine, provide new impetus
to the research, open up new fields
of study and expand the boundaries
of research activities.
The Institute for African Studies carries
out its publishing activities by publishing books,
pamphlets and articles relevant to the problems
of Africa, the Arab East, Russia and the CIS.
There is the Editing and Publishing Department
and a Printing shop at the Institute.
The Institute’s Doctoral Studies Department
is an independent structural unit, which deals
with the training of scholarly experts in the problems
of Africa. For the last half century the Institute had
more than 462 Ph.D. students and 32 Doctor of Science
fellows who successfully defended their thesis.
Among them 139 persons were foreign citizens.
The Council of Young Researchers
was recreated in 2009 with the object
of uniting the young researchers,
expressing their interests, saving
scientific potential and overcoming
negative tendency of the generation gap.
The library of the Institute for African Studies is the only
comprehensive collection of scientific and reference literature
on Africa in the Russian Federation and CIS countries.
The library makes a branch of the RAS Institute of Scientific Information
on Social Sciences (ISISS). Its stock numbers about 120 thousand
of library items: books, pamphlets, dissertations and periodicals in Russian
and foreign languages covering the problems of Africa and the Arab East.
First Director Ivan Potekhin (1959-1964)
and distinguished African-American scholar W.E.B. Du Bois
The Institute for African Studies (IAS) of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) is Russia's leading academic research centre for African Studies and is considered to be among the most distinguished world institutions in this field. The IAS was founded in October 1959, on the eve of the collapse of the colonial system. The transformation of the political map of the world resulting from the emergence of several dozen independent states and the associated fundamental shift in the international situation demanded a thorough and detailed analysis, the implementation of which was entrusted to the newly created IAS.
Vasiliy Solodovnikov - Director from 1964 to 1976
The founder and the first Director of the Institute was Ivan Potekhin, who was succeeded in this capacity by Corresponding Members of the RAS Vasiliy Solodovnikov and Anatoliy Gromyko and Academician of the RAS Alexei Vasiliev. Since 2016, the IAS has been directed by Corresponding Member of the RAS Irina Abramova. Among the Institute's 73 research fellows there are an academician and three corresponding members of the RAS, 18 Doctors of Sciences and 43 PhDs. The IAS comprises 9 research centres, as well as the Centre of Information and International Relations, the Doctoral Studies Department, and the Editing and Publishing Department.
