African Studies Association

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

In 1968, the Black Caucus of the African Studies Association, led by John Henrik Clarke, founded the African Heritage Studies Association.

Awards given by ASA

Herskovits Award

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.^[1] In 2000, 2001, 2010 and 2011 two awards were given. Winners include:

1984 Gwendolen M. Carter 1985 Elliott Skinner 1986 Jan Vansina 1987 Joseph Greenberg 1988 Elizabeth Colson 1989 Roland Oliver 1991 Howard Wolpe 1992 Philip D. Curtin 1993 J. Ade Ajayi

1994 Leopold Sedar Senghor[2] 1995 Ali A. Mazrui 1996 Thandika Mkandawire 1997 Akin Mobogunje 1998 Ivor Wilks 1999 Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch 2000 Bernth Lindfors 2000 J.H. Kwabena Nketia 2001 Martin A. Klein

2001 Bethwell Ogot 2002 Peter Geschiere 2003 Joseph E. Harris 2004 Francis Deng 2005 John Hunwick 2006 Bogumil Jewsiewicki 2007 John Francis Marchment Middleton 2008 Edmond Keller 2009 Sylvester Ogbechie

2010 Trevor H. J. Marchand 2010 Adeline Masquelier 2011 Neil Kodesh 2011 Ugo G. Nwokeji

Presidents of ASA

Presidents of the ASA are elected annually by the membership. They include:^[3]

1957-1958 Melville Herskovits, Northwestern University 1958 Gwendolen M. Carter, Smith College[4] 1959 William O. Brown, Boston University 1960 Cornelius W. deKiewiet 1961 William O. Jones, Stanford University 1962 Vernon McKay, Johns Hopkins University 1963 E. Franklin Frazier, Howard University[5] 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

Publications

Publications include an annual journal: History in Africa: A Journal of Method.

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.^[6][7][8]

Notes

1. "Distinguished Africanist Award 2009" African Studies Association
2. 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
3. ASA, Presidents of the African Studies Association
4. Elected ex-officio.
5. Died before taking office.
6. Eric Kofi Acree. "John Henrik Clarke: Historian, Scholar, and Teacher". Africana Library, Cornell University. Archived from the original on 31 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-16.
7. Diamond, Sara (2001). "African Heritage Studies Association". In Nina Mjagkij. Organizing Black America: an encyclopedia of African American associations. Taylor & Francis. pp. 16–17. ISBN 0-8153-2309-3. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
8. Martin, William G.; West, Michael Oliver (1999). Out of one, many Africas: reconstructing the study and meaning of Africa. University of Illinois Press. pp. 99–106. ISBN 0-252-06780-0. Retrieved 2009-06-27.

External links

• Official web site