Edward A. Alpers
University of California, Los Angeles
National Program Chair

Young Scholars Initiative

Mindful of the need to nurture the next generation of Africanist scholars, the Board of Directors of the African Studies Association wishes to encourage as much graduate student participation at its annual meetings as possible. To that end, at this year's annual meeting we are sponsoring several different activities designed to encourage and support the efforts of young scholars.

1. There will be a special set of Young Scholars Panels designed to highlight both research in progress and reports from the field. The panels will consist of 25 minute sessions to allow for 15 minute presentations and a 10 minute question period. Young scholars will be scheduled at half hour intervals to facilitate efficient transition from one presentation to another. A senior scholar will chair each panel. This design worked very well at the Boston meeting in 1993, so we hope to repeat that success at Houston. In order to encourage as much graduate student participation as possible, we are extending the deadline for the Young Scholars Panels to April 15. Please submit your paper proposal to the ASA on the regular ASA form, which is available on the web at
http://www.africanstudies.org/paper44.html.

2. The Board of Directors has established a new annual prize for the best graduate student paper presented at the previous year's Annual Meeting. All papers presented by graduate students at the 44th Annual Meeting at Houston will be eligible for the new prize, which will be awarded for the first time at the 45th Annual Meeting in 2002.

3. There will be a set of special workshops designed to support the efforts of young scholars to secure funding for their research and to publish the results of their research, both with respect to placing articles in Africanist journals and in turning the dissertation into a book. Details of these workshops will be announced in the Preliminary Program for the 44th Annual Meeting.

4. There is a special discounted student pre-registration rate of $35. Undergraduate and graduate students with valid student identification cards can take advantage of this low rate.