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, including in particular the
region between the Mississippi River and the frontal range of 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 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 it 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 30 to
40 individual members from a 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 well over a dozen institutions, including
the University of Kansas, Kansas State University, Pittsburg State University,
Wichita State University, and Johnson County Community College in Kansas;
the University of Missouri-Kansas City, University of Missouri-Columbia, University
of Missouri-Saint Louis, Central Missouri State University, Southwest Missouri
State University, Truman State University, Washington University in Saint
Louis, and William Jewell College (all in Missouri); as well as the University
of Oklahoma, Langston University (Oklahoma), Loras College (Iowa), University
of Iowa, Saint Norbert College (Wisconsin), University of Nebraska-Omaha,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, University of Arizona, Southern Illinois University
Edwardsville, Collin County Community College (Texas), University of Texas,
Indiana University, and a number of senior and junior high schools.
MAAAS has had annual meetings in the Fall of each year since its founding
in 1995. The 2002 conference was hosted by the University of Oklahoma at Norman,
and the University of Kansas hosted the 2003 conference. Southern Illinois
University at Edwardsville hosted the Fall 2004 Conference. The 2005 Conference
was held at Soutwest Missouri State University September 30-October 1,
2005. The 2006 Conference will be held in St. Louis, Missouri at the St. Louis Hilton at the Ballpark in conjunction with the International Studies Assocaition-Midwest, ISA Foreign Policy Section,and the Central Slavic Conference joint Annual Meeting The theme for the conference is Creative Africa and it will be held November 3rd and 4th For further information please see the following URL (http://www.missouri.edu/~isa-m/AnnualMeeting/index.htm) 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 celebration.
Garth Myers,
MAAAS Vice President/President- Elect
Kansas African Studies Center
10 Bailey Hall, 1440 Jayhawk Boulevard
University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7574
gmyers@ku.edu
June 2006
