ABOUT

San Diego Independent Scholars

SDIS presents regular lectures on a variety of topics. We also encourage the pursuit of scholarly activities such as research, writing, and discussion. You will meet people from many fields who enjoy exchanging ideas, sharing resources, and encouraging each other in their projects.

Throughout the academic year we host free informative meetings that are open to the public.   Knowledgeable speakers are drawn from the San Diego community and from SDIS membership. These meetings are held eight times a year on the third Saturday of the month at 1:30 pm at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) campus. Free parking is available on specified floors in the Gilman Parking Structure.

A newsletter, Scholars Notebook, is available on the website which is published during meeting months.

SDIS is a registered not-for-profit 501(c) (3) charitable and educational corporation. SDIS subsidizes UCSD library cards for senior members who are interested. We manage two special funds, one to purchase current member publications to donate to two local libraries, and another to provide small grants for members’ scholarly research.

Our Beginnings

SDIS was founded in 1982 by a group of female PhD recipients, most married and with children, who found that a support group was important to their role as independent scholars.

Keenly aware of the especial loneliness experienced by independent scholars, the women envisaged a group that would enable such scholars to exchange ideas. A list was compiled of people who seemed to be in this category. At that time, SDIS members were expected to engage in some aspect of academic scholarship and they were to present, from time to time, the results of their current research.

There were two additional early hurdles to overcome: to secure non- profit status for the group, and to locate a place to hold meetings. A UCSD faculty member, sympathetic to our cause, located a meeting room on campus.

SDIS…IT’S FOR THOSE WHO
TREASURE A LIFE OF THE MIND.