The African Studies Association (ASA) is an association of scholars and professionals in the United States and Canada with an interest in the continent of Africa. Started in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North America. The associations headquarters are Rutgers University in New Jersey. The ASA holds annual conferences
As a result of racial and political disputes over exclusion from leadership positions of black academics and ASA leaders' ties with the US intelligence and military, the ASA split in 1968, when the Black Caucus of the ASA, led by John Henrik Clarke, founded the African Heritage Studies Association (AHSA).[1][2]
The Herskovits Award is given annually for the best scholarly work (including translations) on Africa published in English in the previous year and distributed in the United States. The award is named after Melville Herskovits, one of the founders of the ASA.
Distinguished Africanist Award
Beginning in 1984, the association has awarded the Distinguished Africanist Award.[3] In 2000, 2001, 2010 and 2011 two awards were given. Winners include:
The Bethwell A. Ogot Book Prize of the African Studies Association is awarded annually at the ASA Annual Meeting to the author of the best book on East African Studies published in the previous calendar year. Initiated in 2012, the award was made possible by a generous bequest from the estate of the late Professor Kennell Jackson, the award honors the eminent historian, Professor Bethwell A. Ogot.
Winners of this award are:
2012 Andrew Ivaska, Cultured States: Youth, Gender, and Modern Style in 1960s Dar es Salaam (Duke University Press)
2013 James R. Brennan, Taifa: Making Nation and Race in Urban Tanzania (Ohio University Press)
2014 Shane Doyle, Before HIV: Sexuality, Fertility and Mortality in East Africa 1900-1980 (British Academy Press)
2015 J.J. Carney, Rwanda Before the Genocide: Catholic Politics and Ethnic Discourse in the Late Colonial Era (Oxford University Press)
Presidents of ASA
Presidents of the ASA are elected annually by the membership. They include:[5]
1957–1958 Melville Herskovits, Northwestern University
1963 James Smoot Coleman, University of California, Los Angeles
1963 Hans Wolff, Michigan State University
1964 Paul J. Bohannan, Northwestern University
1965 Joseph H. Greenberg, Stanford University
1966 Rupert Emerson, Harvard University
1967 William A. Hance, Columbia University
1968 James S. Duffy, Brandeis University
1969 Benjamin E. Thomas, University of California
1970 L. Gray Cowan, Columbia University
1971 Philip D. Curtin, University of Wisconsin
1972 Carl G. Rosberg, University of California, Berkeley
1973 Immanuel Wallerstein, McGill University
1974 Absolom Vilakazi, The American University
1975 John Marcum, University of California, Santa Cruz
1976 Victor Uchendu, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
1977 Edris Makward, University of Wisconsin–Madison
1978 J. Gus Liebenow, Indiana University
1979 Ali Mazrui, University of Michigan
1980 Peter Gutkind, McGill University
1981 Norman Bennett, Boston University
1982 Richard Sklar, University of California, Los Angeles
1983 M. Crawford Young, University of Wisconsin–Madison
1984 Laura Bohannan, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle
1985 Robert J. Cummings, Howard University
1986 Gerald J. Bender, University of Southern California
1987 Aidan Southall, University of Wisconsin–Madison
1988 Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Howard University
1989 Simon Ottenberg, University of Washington
1990 Ann Seidman, Clark University
1991 Martin A. Klein, University of Toronto
1992 Edmond J. Keller, University of California, Los Angeles
1993 David Robinson, Michigan State University
1994 Edward A. Alpers, University of California, Los Angeles
1995 Goran Hyden, University of Florida
1996 Iris Berger, State University of New York at Albany
1997 Gwendolyn Mikell, Georgetown University
1998 Sandra Greene, Cornell University
1999 David Wiley, Michigan State University
2000 Lansine Kaba, University of Illinois
2001 Catharine Newbury, University of North Carolina
2002 Allen Isaacman, University of Minnesota
2003 Beverly Grier, Clark University
2004 Sandra T. Barnes, University of Pennsylvania
2005 Bruce J. Berman, Queen's University
2006 Joseph C. Miller, University of Virginia
2007 Pearl T. Robinson, Tufts University
2008 Aliko Songolo, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2009 Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Loyola Marymount University
2012 Aili M. Tripp, University of Wisconsin–Madison
2013 Abdi Samatar, University of Minnesota
2014 James A. Pritchett, Michigan State University
2015 Toyin Falola, University of Texas, Austin
2016 Dorothy Hodgson, Rutgers University
2017 Anne Pitcher, University of Michigan
2018 Jean Allman, Washington University in St. Louis
2019 Maria Grosz-Ngaté, Indiana University
Publications
Publications include an annual journal: History in Africa: A Journal of Method, and African Studies Review. The Association publishes a quarterly newsletter ASA News for its members, and runs a blog.
African Heritage Studies Association
The African Heritage Studies Association is (or was) an offshoot of the African Studies Association, and was founded in 1968 by the ASA's Black Caucus and led by John Henrik Clarke.[1][8][9]
↑Wiley, David (2013). "Militarizing Africa and African Studies and the U.S. Africanist Response". African Studies Review55 (02): 147–161. doi:10.1353/arw.2012.0041. ISSN0002-0206.
↑The award to Senghor was not without controversy. Bensaid, Alexandra and Whitehead, Andrew (1995) "Literature: Award to Senghor Triggers Debate" IPS-Inter Press Service, 18 April 1995, accessed via the commercial service Lexis/Nexis, 30 December 2008