IPSA’s Research Committee on Asian and Pacific Studies (RC18), will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its establishment at the 24th IPSA World Congress of Political Science in Poznań, Poland (July 23-28, 2016) to establish the Asian and  Pacific Studies Foundation. The foundation will award outstanding scholars who conduct research on Asian and Pacific Studies, provide travel grants for young scholars to participate in the IPSA Word Congress and develop programs for Asian and Pacific Studies.
 
The Asian and Pacific Studies Foundation is based on fundraising from public donations as well as from benefit concerts from the RC18 Co-Chair Angelin Chang, who is a GRAMMY winning pianist.

RC18 was established at the 8th IPSA World Congress, held in Edinborough (Scotland) in 1976 to adopt the proposal of Teh-Kuang Chang with the co-signing of 23 political scientists. Teh-Kuang Chang was elected as the founding chairman and has been re-elected to serve consistently in each Congress.
 
The RC18 organizes panels for each World Congress and holds regional international conferences. The first Asian Studies panel was organized for the 1979 IPSA World Congress in Moscow and the first regional international conference was held in Tokyo in 1980. The latest two regional international conferences were held in India in 2014 and in New Zealand in 2015.

For more information and to make donations, please contact Prof. Angelin Chang (Co-Chair, RC18): a.chang75@csuohio.edu