| Administrative History | The British Association for American Studies (BAAS) was founded in 1955 by a group of British University teachers to promote the serious study of the United States within universities, colleges and schools of the United Kingdom. The term 'American Studies' is taken to embrace the history, government and politics, economics, sociology, geography and literature of the United States. The BAAS has had close links with American award-giving organisations including the Rockefeller Foundation and American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The Rockefeller Foundation made money available to the University of Manchester to be administered in conjunction with the BAAS to encourage research by scholars in history, literature and institutions of the United States. The ACLS is a federation of scholarly organisations and societies in the USA, founded in 1919, concerned with humanities and the humanistic elements of the social sciences. From the early 1960s, it offered fellowships to scholars from around the world for research in the fields of American Studies. From 1978, the BAAS and the ACLS have jointly funded the fellowship programme and the BAAS has raised its funds by appeals and voluntary contributions from members. In addition to these fellowships for longer term research (for visits of six months to a year), the BAAS also introduced its own programme of Short Term Travel Grants
BAAS publications include the Journal of American Studies, a series of Pamphlets in American Studies, and two important bibliographical volumes: A Guide to Manuscripts relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland and American Newspaper Holdings in British and Irish Libraries. A large body of material has been selected and microfilmed in the series British Records relating to America, sponsored by BAAS and published by Microform Ltd |