## Background ![[Dream.png]] In 2011, A free of charge, online qualified educational institution dedicated to uncensored Social Sciences and Humanities was a fantastic concept and vision. However, it looked like an unachievable dream. ISSH has accomplished remarkable milestones since 2012 (the year it was established). It was not "an unachievable dream" anymore, thanks to the dedication, tenacity, optimism, and assiduous follow-up of its visionaries, faculty members, managers, and volunteers, as well as the enthusiasm, motivating feedback, and heartwarming success of its students and graduates. Dedicating to the project's fundamental values, safeguarding academic autonomy, and the professional commitment of everyone involved in the initiative are the reasons and means for these achievements and any prospects for growth and advancement. ISSH's execution and management teams are determined to safeguard the projects developed over the past decade in accordance with the academic freedom, right to education, and demands of the civil society. They are gratified with the splendid community of professors, students, alumni, researchers, authors, thinkers, and supporters of quality education that has evolved around this endeavor. They continue to dream and extend their best wishes and appreciation to everyone who has been contributing, in any way, to ISSH's day-to-day efforts in the last decade. --- ## 2012 ![[Research.png]] >The results of a year's research on multiple solutions and rigorous efforts were presented and debated with a number of prominent thinkers and scholars at the first conference of ISSH. Subsequently, the first Persian-language university in the diaspora became an official reality. ## 2013 ![[Conference.png]] >The second ISSH conference focused on establishing and producing an interdisciplinary curriculum that corresponds to the needs of Iranian students, as well as examining the possibilities of forming the faculty. ## 2014 ![[Curriculum.png]] >Despite all impediments, the application and admission procedure for the following academic year began, and ISSH's graduate school was publicly inaugurated in its third conference in November 2014 in The Hague, The Netherlands. ## 2015 ![[Students.png]] >With 75 students, the first academic year of the graduate school began. Another collaboration was the establishment of People's University (a TED-like platform), in collaboration with UvA, to deliver brief public lectures in order to bridge the gap between scholarly works and the general public. ## 2016 ![[Qualification.png]] >ISSH was validated as a higher education institution based on European Qualification Framework (EQF) to offer education at multiple levels. Subsequently, its graduate program in [[Graduate School|Social Studies]] was qualified and classified at [[About ISSH#^2380a6|EQF level 7 (Master's level)]]. ## 2017 ![[Agora.png]] >ISSH's educational content and publications necessitated a publicly accessible platform. [[Explore#Agora|Agora]] (Academia Tribune) was developed and launched as a multimedia platform in response to this demand to provide the outputs of approximately ten different projects of ISSH at the time. ## 2018 ![[MOOC.png]] >The birth of [[Explore#AcademiX|AcademiX]] (a Coursera-like MOOCs platform) was a significant step toward democratizing access to education where everyone can access courses free of charge and with minimum requirements. OpenedX was chosen and developed as an open-source software upon which AcademiX was built. ## 2019 ![[ICCI.png]] >ISSH organized the first [[Explore#ICCI (Bilingual)|ICCI]], in collaboration with Leiden University. The first iteration of the "Human Rights; Beyond Headlines" Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) with the co-instruction of twelve lecturers and practitioners, attracted over a thousand enrollments. ## 2020 ![[Press.png]] >ISSH [[Explore#Press|University Press]] made significant progress in digital scholarly content publication. ISSH teams developed advanced publishing systems and workflows utilizing open-source technologies to facilitate publishing properly indexed multilingual journals, books, and conference papers. ## 2021 ![[Certificate.png]] >AcademiX hosted eight successful MOOCs on Gender, the Middle East, advocacy, accountability, right to information, and cyber security with the involvement of over sixty instructors. This excellent collection was made available during 2021 and 2022. ## 2022 ![[Webdesign.png]] >ISSH five platforms were entirely redesigned, merged and realigned with the latest web technologies after 1,200 hours of work. The first scientific books and journals were released in accordance with the new digital publishing standards adopted by ISSH University Press. The Second International Conference on Contemporary Iranian Studies (ICCI) was organized, in collaboration with ISS. ## 2023 ![[attachments/issh-info/History attachments/Endowment.png]] >ISSH's endowment project made significant steps towards its establishment. >The ISSH Research and Innovation, was initiated with the focus on interdisciplinary research and innovative educational theories and technologies. ## 2024 ![[Legacy.png]] > ISSH was approved as a nonprofit tax-deductible 501(c)(3), regulated by the US Department of Treasury through the IRS. > Endowment Program became a reality receiving its first generous fund from Prof. Nayereh Tohidi and Prof. Kazem Alamdari. [[ISSH Endowment|(read more)]] > ISSH started the process of its second qualification to be accredited in developmental studies. > The Third International Conference on Contemporary Iranian Studies (ICCI) was successfully organized by ISSH in Frankfurt, in Goethe University with more than 60 panels in English and Persian.