Promoting, supporting and encouraging the study of the United States since 1955

Welcome

The British Association for American Studies was founded in 1955. It exists to promote, support and encourage the study of the United States.

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BAAS Schools Conference 2024

Find out more about the one day BAAS schools Conference 2024, US Politics and Modern History Schools Conference, “We the People: Rights and Citizenship in Modern America”, taking place on the 25th October.

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BAAS 2025 – University of Hertfordshire 23-25 April 2025

We are excited to announce details of the British Association of American Studies’ 70th Annual Conference. We will be celebrating BAAS’ birthday as well as the state of the field over the past seventy years.

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2025 BAAS Awards Now Open

The 2025 BAAS awards are now open! Each year, BAAS offers a growing list of awards, prizes, teaching assistantships, and research assistant awards, supporting the development of American studies in Britain. The 2025 Awards will close on 16 December 2024.

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Join BAAS

Thinking of joining the British Association for American Studies? Find full details of what membership of the association includes and how you can registered and purchase your membership.

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Welcome

The British Association for American Studies was founded in 1955. It exists to promote, support and encourage the study of the United States in the Universities, Colleges and Schools of the United Kingdom, and by independent scholars. It welcomes all those engaged in or connected with the study of the United States.

The website is the hub of the BAAS community with information on our awards, annual conferences, schools’ liaison work, calls for papers, publications, job listings, related networks and a media contacts database through which we share our expertise. On these pages you can find BAAS news, resources and links, as well as information on our committee structures. We welcome communication from our members and from anyone interested in the work we do to promote the study of the United States in the UK.

2024 BAAS Climate Action Plan

Green BAAS is the environmental and sustainability network of the British Association for American Studies (BAAS). It was founded in 2019 to respond to increasing concerns about the environment and the United States’ relationship to climate change, and to consider and direct the changes that BAAS can make to contribute to collective global climate action. We have recently published our climate action plan.

Read the Climate Action Plan

The BAAS Awards

The 2025 BAAS Awards are now open for submissions with a deadline of 16 December 2024.

Each year, BAAS offers a growing list of awards, prizes, teaching assistantships, and research assistance awards. In recent years, we have added a new essays award for students of colour at school, undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and, in light of the climate crisis and our commitment to promote low-carbon research practices, we transformed the travel assistance awards into research assistance awards, offering the possibility of hiring research assistants to pursue archival research remotely.

Find out more about the BAAS Awards and how to apply, on our BAAS Awards Page.

Latest News and Events

Announcing the BAAS How To Video Series

The first episode of the new BAAS How To series has been released on YouTube. This episode features Dr Michael J. Collins speaking about how to write a cover....

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2025 BAAS Awards

The 2025 BAAS Awards are accepting submissions through 16 December....

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Sign up for YSoTAL (Young Scholars of Transnational Anglophone Literature) Network

YSoTAL Network is a new and growing network of young scholars who share an interest in transnational anglophone literature. Thematically, this kind of....

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View Full List of News & Events

Submit to the BAAS Weekly Digest

Every week, BAAS sends out a mailing of Calls for Papers, Fellowship and Job Opportunities, and all Events of interest in American Studies scholars in Britain and beyond. These events are also posted here on the BAAS website under our News & Events section.

If you have an item you’d like to submit to the weekly digest, please click below to complete our submission form.