The International Herder Society (IHS/IHG) was founded in 1985 in Monterey, California, by scholars from various disciplines at universities in the US. It is the aim of the International Herder Society to promote the interdisciplinary study of all aspects of the work, life, and era of Johann Gottfried Herder, one of the most influential personalities of Eighteenth-century German intellectual history, through meetings and publications without regard to national boundaries or disciplines. In doing so, Herder and his philosophy of humanity are constistently seen in the traditions of European Enlightenment. The IHS is open to scholars from all countries and all disciplines. You may view or download the constitution of the Society here.

At present, there are about 170 members from countries all over the world, such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Russia, the United States, Canada and Brasil. The IHS maintains close contact with other organizations such as the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), the Lessing Society, the Goethe Society, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts; the IHS is member of the Arbeitsgemeinschaft literarischer Gesellschaften und Gedenkstätten.

As of now, seventeen biennial international conferences have been held in Monterey (1985), Stanford (1987), Charlottesville (1990), Bochum (1992), Weimar (1994), Monterey (1996), Madison (1998), Weimar (2000), Houston (2002), Saarbrücken (2004), Madison, Wisconsin (2006), Jena (2008), Notre dame (2010), Schloss Beuggen (2012), West Lafayette (2014), Kassel (2016), Parainen (2018) and Ottawa (2021). The papers of thirteen of these conferences have been published as books.

From 1996 on, papers have been integrated into the Herder Yearbook. As an affiliate society, the IHS organizes special sections at the annual national meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). On an irregular basis, the IHS organizes sections on the annual meetings of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the German Studies Association (GSA).

Since 2004 the International Herder-Society awards the Herder-Medal for excellent merits in Herder-research. Further information may be got here: