Call for Nominations
In advance of the 2023 AGM (which will be held at Keele University on Thursday April 13th 2023), elections will be held for the following posts:
Current incumbents of these positions may stand for re-election if not disbarred by the Constitution’s limits on length of continuous service in Committee posts, nor by clauses relating to particular roles.
Deadline for nominations: March 23rd 2023 (see below for further instructions).
Role Descriptors
Secretary (x1) – three-year term
The Secretary’s duties include: record-keeping for the Association, answering members’ queries, arranging and running virtual and in-person meetings, working with the Co-Treasurers to ensure the Charity Commission records are accurate and up to date, and administering the annual elections to the Executive Committee.
Prospective candidates are welcome to contact the current Secretary, Dr Rachel Williams (secretary@baas.ac.uk) for more information.
Ordinary Members (x4) – three-year term
Ordinary Members will be invited to sit on one of the four BAAS sub-committees: Publications, Awards, Conferences, or Development and Education. As part of their portfolio, they will be encouraged to contribute to and report back on new and ongoing BAAS projects (including work with schools, collaborations with other academic organisations, and engagement with HE/FE strategy).
In addition to this work, all Executive Committee members are invited to contribute to the judging of our annual Awards schemes. More broadly, Ordinary Members help to promote and advance the discipline in the UK and beyond, and to make BAAS an inclusive, accessible, transparent, and responsive organisation which proactively champions the needs of its diverse community of members.
EAAS Representative (x1) – five-year term
The EAAS representative acts as a liaison with the European Association for American Studies. They represent BAAS at EAAS biennial conferences/occasional symposia and at EAAS board meetings. They communicate opportunities and collaborative schemes to BAAS members, and help foster cooperation and mutual support for the discipline across national borders.
Interested parties are welcome to contact the incumbent, Dr Jenny Woodley (jenny.woodley@baas.ac.uk), for further information.
Early Career Representative (x1) – two-year term
The Early Career Representative promotes the interests of early career scholars (broadly defined). This includes working closely with the Development and Education Sub-Committee to tackle precarity and exploitation in higher education, and ensuring that BAAS opportunities (including awards, conferences, and grants) recognise and promote the diverse talents of early career scholars. Per the Constitution, candidates for Early Career Representative must have an institutional affiliation (including honorary affiliation) and be working on any aspect of American Studies. To be eligible to stand, candidates for Early Career representative must be within three years of successfully completing their PhD and must have submitted the final post-viva version of their PhD at least two weeks before the ballot opens. An Early Career representative who has completed one full term in office may not stand for re-election as Early Career representative. Interested parties are invited to contact our current representative, Dr Emily Brady (emily.brady@baas.ac.uk) to discuss the role.
Further information for Trustees
All elected candidates will be made Trustees of BAAS. BAAS will reimburse travel (and, where appropriate, accommodation) expenses for attendance at Executive Committee meetings, along with registration costs for the BAAS annual conference and/or the BAAS PG conference for members of the Executive Committee. Currently, all Executive Committee meetings are being held remotely; as part of BAAS’ ongoing commitment to access, inclusion and environmental sustainability, we are likely to conduct a mixture of in-person meetings (coinciding with the annual conference, for instance) and remote meetings.
Instructions for Candidates
Nominations should reach us by the strict deadline of 17.00 GMT on Thursday March 23rd 2023. Candidates should email the following information to our Secretary, Dr Rachel Williams (secretary@baas.ac.uk), copying in their proposer and seconder as confirmation of their support:
Where possible, the proposer and seconder should not be from the candidate’s own institution.
Your supporting statement should outline your educational background, areas of teaching and/or research interests and your vision for BAAS, and for the role for which you are standing, in the upcoming years. We also ask that those standing for election give consideration to matters of equality and diversity in their statements, and include any suggestions for approaches or initiatives in this area.
Election Information
The AGM will take place at 11.45am BST on Thursday, April 13th 2023. Election results can only be confirmed if the meeting is quorate; if you are attending the conference at Keele University, please make every effort to attend the AGM.
As permitted by the 2016 constitution (amended 2021), BAAS elections will take place via advance electronic voting. There will be no in-person ballot.
Those standing for election are expected to be BAAS members and, where possible, to attend the AGM. We particularly welcome nominations from groups traditionally underrepresented in the Association.
