Who and What We Are

     The Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS) is an organization for the promotion of African Studies in Mid-America, especially the region between the Mississipi River and the Rocky Mountains. Founded at the University of Kansas in 1995, MAAAS seeks to encourage scholarship and teaching in African Studies regionally and sub-regionally through conferences, seminars, workshops, consortia, faculty and student exchanges, cooperative relations between libraries, and the promotion of African language teaching, among other endeavors. MAAAS is open to all with an interest in scholarship and teaching within an African Studies focus, and seeks especially to provide a forum for far-flung Africanists in the middle of the US, where great distances exist between relatively small pockets of African Studies enthusiasts.

     Throughout its years of existence, MAAAS has characteristically had thirty to forty members from half-dozen states. Most MAAAS members are Africanist faculty members in regional institutions, but MAAAS also has students and independent scholars within its ranks. Members and participants at the MAAAS annual conferences have come from dozens of institutions from throughout the US and abroad.

     MAAAS has had annual meetings in the Fall of each year since its founding in 1995. Annual Conferences have featured a wide range of scholarly paper presentations, workshops on pedagogy, and plenary sessions on politics, development, and cultural issues in African Studies, as well as excellent African food and cultural presentations at the meeting's annual dinner celebrations.

     Membership dues are $20 for faculty, $15 for independent scholars and students, and $30 for institutions.