Since its founding in 1964, the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT) has sought to promote American and Turkish research related to Turkey in all fields of the humanities and social sciences. ARIT sponsors a multi-faceted program of research fellowships for American, Turkish and Central European scholars as well as Turkish language study. ARIT fellows, Turkish scholars, and researchers from other countries participate in the active series of lectures and trips organized by the ARIT centers and contribute to the rich intellectual and academic exchange that ARIT seeks to foster.

ARIT maintains separate facilities in Ankara and Istanbul. The ARIT-Ankara library holds approximately 8,000 volumes focused on archaeological studies, but also includes resources for scholars working on modern Turkish studies. The library at ARIT-Istanbul includes approximately 11,000 volumes and covers the Byzantine, Ottoman, and modern Turkish periods. The recent gift of the library of Dr. H. Kenneth Snipes has made the ARITIstanbul library a prime center for research on the Byzantine period in Turkey.

Archives, libraries, and museums in Turkey provide resources for research into many fields of study and geographical areas. For example, the Ottoman archives offer documentation of the Ottoman period in Eastern Europe, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula, as well as in Turkey. The remains of many successive phases of Anatolian civilizations survive in Turkish museums and archaeological sites. As a modern republic, Turkey offers opportunities for comparative research in economics, politics, and anthropology.

Thirty-two United States and Canadian universities and colleges compose the institutional membership of ARIT. The U.S.-based ARIT office is located at the University of Pennsylvania.