African and African American Studies Resources

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• Wright State University
• Social Organizations
• Professional Organizations

Wright State University

• Bolinga Center
• Office of Equity and Inclusion

Social Organizations

Professional Organizations

• African Studies Association
  Established in 1957, the African Studies Association is the flagship membership organization devoted to enhancing the exchange of information about Africa. With almost 2,000 individual and institutional members worldwide, the African Studies Association (ASA) encourages the production and dissemination of knowledge about Africa, past and present. Based in the United States, the ASA supports understanding of an entire continent in each facet of its political, economic, social, cultural, artistic, scientific, and environmental landscape.

• Asian American Psychological Association
  The Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA) was founded in December 1972 by a group of Asian American psychologists and other mental health professionals in the San Fancisco Bay Area. Throughout its history, AAPA has published journals and newsletters focused on the education and training of Asian American psychologists, Asian-American psychological topics, and methods of improving mental health services for Asian Americans. The Association leads and guides other professional organizations on Asian American psychology and is in the forefront of the multicultural psychology movement.

• Association for the Study of African American Life and History
  Established on September 9, 1915 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson, [they] are the Founders of Black History Month and carry forth the work of [their] founder, the Father of Black History. [They] continue his legacy of speaking a fundamental truth to the world—that Africans and peoples of African descent are makers of history and co-workers in what W. E. B. Du Bois called, “The Kingdom of Culture.” ASALH’s mission is to create and disseminate knowledge about Black History, to be, in short, the nexus between the Ivory Tower and the global public.

• The Association of Black Sociologists
  Founded in 1970, the Association of Black Sociologists emerged out of a series of conversations in the Caucus of Black Sociologists about how to best advocate for the interests of black sociologists and black people domestically and globally. Since its inception, the organization has supported and cultivated scores of black social scientists and black community activists in service of intellectual and social organizing for the betterment of black folks’ lives at all intersections.

• The Association of Black Psychologists
  The Association of Black Psychologists was founded in San Francisco in 1968 by a number of Black Psychologists from across the country. They united to actively address the serious problems facing Black Psychologists and the larger Black community. Guided by the principle of self determination, these psychologists set about building an institution through which they could address the long neglected needs of Black professionals. Their goal was to have a positive impact upon the mental health of the national Black community by means of planning, programs, services, training, and advocacy. Their objectives were to organize their skills and abilities to influence necessary change, and to address themselves to significant social problems affecting the Black community...The Association of Black Psychologists has grown from a handful of concerned professionals into an independent, autonomous organization of over 1400 members.

• Association of Black Anthropologists
  The Association for Black Anthropologists (ABA) was founded in 1970 by a small group of intellectuals who sought to break down barriers that impeded their full participation in the discipline of Anthropology. By creating scholarship that linked anthropological theory to struggles for social justice, these elders transformed anthropology and helped create generations of intellectual leaders. ABA seeks to ensure that people studied by anthropologists are not only objects of study but active makers and/or participants in their own history. In a larger sense, [the ABA] intend[s] to highlight situations of exploitation, oppression and discrimination.

• Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
  [The Association of Concerned Africa Scholars (ACAS) was] founded in 1977 by scholars who sought to organize scholarly analysis and action to work toward “moving U.S. policy toward Africa in directions more sympathetic to African interests.” The ACAS is an organization of scholars and students of Africa dedicated to formulating alternative scholarly analysis of U.S. government policy, mobilizing support in the United States on critical current issues related to Africa, developing communication and action networks among scholars in the United States and Africa, and collaborating with other organizations that share [their] concerns.

• International Chinese Sociological Association
  The International Chinese Sociological Association (ICSA) was recently renamed from the North American Chinese Sociologists Association (NACSA), a nonprofit association that aims to promote social scientific research on Chinese societies, cultures, and populations in the world.  The association functions to foster scholarly exchanges and to facilitate a continuing dialogue among sociologists of Chinese and non-Chinese descent in North America, Pacific Asia, and elsewhere in the global community.  To achieve this goal, the NACSA organizes conferences, publishes newsletters, and carry out cooperative activities, including professional exchanges, joint research, information networks, and scholarly visits.

• National Association of African American Studies
  The National Association of African American Studies and Affiliates (NAAAS) was founded in 1992 on the campus of Virginia State University in Petersburg, Virginia. [It] serve[s] as a resource for scholars in the field who desire information and support for research related to the African and African American, Hispanic, Latino(a) and Chicano(a), Native American and Asian experiences.

• National Conference of Black Political Scientists
  The National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS)[, founded in 1969,] is organized to study, enhance, and promote the political aspirations of people of African descent in the United States and throughout the world. It aims to contribute to the resolution of the many challenges that black people confront. [The] organization promotes research in and critical analysis of topics usually overlooked and/or marginalized in political science scholarship.

• National Economic Association
  The National Economic Association (NEA) was founded in 1969 as the Caucus of Black Economists to promote the professional lives of minorities within the profession. In addition to continuing its founding mission, the organization is particularly interested in producing and distributing knowledge of economic issues that are of exceptional interest to promoting economic growth among native and immigrant African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color.

• National Latinx Psychological Association
  The National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA)[, founded in the 1970s and reorganized in 2002,] is a national organization of mental health professionals, academics, researchers, and students whose objective is to generate and advance psychological knowledge and foster its effective application for the benefit of the Latinx population.

• Society of Research on African Cultures
  The Society of Research on African Cultures (SORAC) was founded in 1997 by Dr. Daniel Mengara and Dr. Mutombo Nkulu N’Sengha. SORAC is an organization with an academic/scholarly focus whose purpose is to evolve into a major center for the diffusion and promotion of African cultures and related research, not only in the State of New Jersey and North America, but also worldwide.