North Dakota Institute For Regional Studies

The Institute for Regional Studies, founded at North Dakota State University in 1950, stimulates and coordinates the activities of NDSU in regional scholarship. The Institute rests on the assumptions that scholars in a land-grant university have a particular interest in the affairs of their own region and that regional scholarship is a good thing. However, good regional scholarship is informed by national developments, international context, and comparative studies. It recognizes the cultural diversity that exists within every region, and it draws on the insights of many academic disciplines.

The activities of the Institute fall into four categories: collections, publications, outreach, and the Center for Social Research. The research collections of the Institute are administered by the NDSU Libraries. The publications program is housed in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Outreach activities involve various units of the University and include radio and television production, public programs, and oral history. Finally, the Center for Social Research, established in 1976, exists to facilitate such social science research as conducting focus-group research and computerized telephone surveys.