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.

MAAAS has had annual meetings in the fall of each year since its founding in 1995. The conference in 2002 was hosted by the University of Oklahoma at Norman and the 2003 conference was held at the University of Kansas. 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.

The organization’s official Website may be found at http://www.kasc.ku.edu. The Website includes the bylaws of the organization, a list of executive committee members, and a statement on “Who and What We Are,” from which to information above is excerpted. All interested Africanists from the region and beyond are encouraged to become members. Membership dues are $20 for faculty, $15 for independent scholars and students, and $30 for institutions.