In 1996 the Institute for Anarchist Studies (IAS) was founded to financially assist radical writers. We saw a need to assist the further development of anarchist and antiauthoritarian revolutionary thought. We sought to do this by providing grants to writers, so they could do things like take time off work and hire child care. The IAS supports people involved in social movements to reflect on their work, and to share their insights and ideas, in part by publishing their essays in our journal Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, as one of our Anarchist Interventions book titles, or by directing and assisting them to other publishers. 

Since 1996, the IAS has provided tens of thousands of dollars to over eighty people, including Jessica Lawless, Marina Sitrin, Matt Hern, Tamara Lynne, Kristin Herbeck, Eric Forman, Anne Yukie Watanabe, Dawn Paley, China Martens, Will Munger, Kristian Williams, and Theresa Warburton (to name a few). These folks and countless others have produced compelling and timely work, which has appeared in movement journals, books, and pamphlets.

The IAS is a volunteer organization, run collectively, with a paid, part-time administrator. We function through the mutual aid and generous support of people like yourself. We recently lost our non-profit status, and as we struggle to regain it, we really need your help.

One of our grantees, Eric Stanley, had this to say regarding our support, “Amidst the continuing collapse of support for researchers and writers, the IAS remains one of the last grant sources that directly funds people without institutional affiliation. Further, their dedication to expanding what constitutes the parameters of “anarchism” has helped proliferate anti-colonial, trans, queer, crip and otherwise disappeared tendencies in anti-authoritarian history and theory. With their support I was able to write "Fugitive Flesh," the introduction to Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex.”

Layne Mullett, who wrote “Brick by Brick: Toward a World Without Prisons,” had this to say, “Getting a grant from the Institute for Anarchist studies allowed me to carve out time to think through and put down on paper some of the lessons I've learned from years of doing anti-prison organizing. The patient, thoughtful engagement and assistance from my (IAS) grant adviser pushed me to move forward with a project I otherwise would have given up on and helped deepen my political thinking about the daily work of building a movement to end mass incarceration.”

In time, the IAS developed into other areas. We began to publish our in house journal, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. We developed the Anarchist Interventions (AI) book series co-published with AK Press. We began to coordinate a speakers list and host tracks at conferences, organize the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conferences, and most recently we have begun collaborating with AK Press on books outside of the AI series.

• For the last six years the IAS revitalized Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, with Justseeds artist Josh McPhee doing the cover design and layout. Recent themes have included Care, Strategy, and the Politics of Climate Change, with the next issue on Justice. The issue on Justice, currently in production, will feature essays by five people who have received IAS grants recently. These works address issues including a critique of the colonialist logic often deployed in community accountability initiatives; anarchist organizing around Hepatitis C and HIV; and former US military vets who have embraced anarchism as a result of their time in the military. In addition, Perspectives posts new essays on our website: http://anarchiststudies.org/2015/01/23/communit...

http://anarchiststudies.org/perspectives/

• In 2010 we launched our Anarchist Interventions book series with AK Press with Cindy Milstein’s Anarchism and Its Aspirations. In the last five years we have published five more books in the series, including titles by Harsha Walia, IAS board member Maia Ramnath, Andy Cornell, Anarchists Against the Wall, and Javier Sethness-Castro on subjects including the history of Movement for a New Society, undoing borders and immigrant freedom, climate change, Palestinian liberation, and decolonizing anarchism.

http://www.akpress.org/anarchistinterventions.html

• We are currently working with AK Press to publish the next two books by Walidah Imarisha, noted author, speaker and organizer. The first, Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, co-edited with adrienne brown, is a collection of essays. It is due out April 1st of this year. The second, Angels with Dirty Faces, focuses on the nuances and complexities of prison abolition, and will appear early in 2016.

http://www.akpress.org/octavia-s-brood.html

We need to raise $6,000 in order to award our annual writing grants in 2015, pay to print 1,000 copies of Perspectives, and financially support our part-time administrator to do things like wade through all the paperwork of restoring our 501(c)3 status.

To do all this, and more, we need your help! Please consider making a generous donation, and check out the list of perks available. As we approach out twentieth anniversary in 2016, please help to ensure that the Institute for Anarchist Studies continues to thrive! Thank you!