The International Herder Society (IHS/IHG) was founded in 1985 in Monterey, California, by scholars from various disciplines at universities in the US. It is the aim of the International Herder Society to promote the interdisciplinary study of all aspects of the work, life, and era of Johann Gottfried Herder, one of the most influential personalities of Eighteenth-century German intellectual history, through meetings and publications without regard to national boundaries or disciplines. The IHS is open to scholars from all countries and all disciplines.

At present, there are about 140 members from countries all over the world, such as Australia, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Russia, and the United States. The IHS maintains close contact with other organizations such as the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS), the Lessing Society, the Goethe Society, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für die Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts.

As of now, ten biennial international conferences have been held in Monterey (1985), Stanford (1987), Charlottesville (1990), Bochum (1992), Weimar (1994), Monterey (1996), Madison (1998), Weimar (2000), Houston (2002), Saarbrücken (2004), Madison, Wisconsin (2006) and Jena (2008). The papers of eight of these conferences have been published as books. The next IHS conference will take place in 2010 at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana.

From 1996 on, papers have been integrated into the Herder Yearbook. As an affiliate society, the IHS organizes special sections at the annual national meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ASECS). On an irregular basis, the IHS organizes sections on the annual meetings of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and the German Studies Association (GSA).