In August 1969, Dr. Shih-Chieh Wang, the late President of Academia Sinica, realizing the importance of American Cultural Studies, proposed the establishment of a center for American Studies in the Republic of China with the help of the Sino-American Cooperation Committee on Humanities and Social Sciences. As a result, the Center for American Studies was founded on March 12, 1972. In July 1974, the Center was officially incorporated as the Institute of American Culture Studies, Academia Sinica. In response to the increasing importance of European Studies in recent years, the name of the Institute was changed to the Institute of European and American Studies (IEAS) on August 3, 1991.

In addition to individual research projects, the research members of the IEAS have also collectively contributed to five cross-area and interdisciplinary thematic research projects. They are as follows:
1) Cultural Studies
2) Language, Cognition, and Society: Trends in Contemporary Western Philosophy
3) European Union
4) US-Taiwan-China Relations
5) Social Development and Policy in the US and Europe

Academic research is characterized by continuity, accumulation, and systematization. Therefore, future major tasks of the Institute include not only encouraging its research members to expand and strengthen their own respective research projects, but also actively promoting the abovementioned five thematic research projects. It is hoped that, on the basis of previous achievements, new topics and methods will be introduced that will expand and strengthen these projects. The IEAS also plans to collaborate with other outstanding research institutions to pursue topics of common interest.

Due to the unique characteristics of its research, the IEAS is particularly active in encouraging interactions with academic communities abroad, visiting and attending conferences to further academic exchange and collaboration. In addition to promoting such exchange programs with academic communities in Europe and the United States, the Institute endeavors to deepen its understanding of research trends on European and American Studies among research communities in neighboring countries and regions. The Institute aspires to play a central role in this regard in the near future.