I just got word of this via an Education in Second Life mailing list:

“The Synthetic Worlds Initiative is a research center at Indiana University whose aim is to promote innovative thinking on synthetic worlds.”
…
“The first Kuurian Expedition has been founded in World of Warcraft, on the Silver Hand server, Alliance side.”

I’ll be joining the guild as soon as I restart my WoW subscription

Related posts:

1. Collecting stuff to do on my return
2. Social Networking for Gamers
3. Large Tauren, Small World
4. The patch could be going a bit smoother.
5. Discovering Battlegrounds