Kathleen Sheldon

My other primary focus in African studies is with the Portuguese-speaking nations. I initiated, and continue to chair, the Lusophone African Studies Organization (LASO), beginning with an informal meeting in 1999 that brought over thirty scholars together for breakfast at the ASA annual meeting. As an outgrowth of that, I am a co-founding editor of h-luso-africa, a listserve which now has nearly 300 subscribers from all over the world and which serves as an important link between scholars (http://www.hnet.org/~lusoafri/).

Kathleen Sheldon: Statement of Candidacy

I have been enthusiastic about the African Studies Association since my early years of graduate school in the 1970s, and have attended every national meeting since 1984. The single exception was in 1994, when I missed the ASA only because I was a United Nations observer in Mozambique for that country's first multi-party elections. At most of the ASA meetings I presented a paper or was on a panel as chair or discussant, and I have also organized numerous panels on women and on Lusophone Africa. I have been centrally involved in the Women's Caucus since the 1980s, and served as treasurer and membership coordinator from 1997 to 2003. I initiated and still chair the Lusophone African Studies Organization (LASO), which has been very successful in organizing panels and events and in supporting attendance by scholars from the Portuguese-speaking nations of Africa.

After many years of work with organizations affiliated with ASA, I would like to make use of my familiarity with ASA procedures by serving on the board of directors. The ASA has had a real impact internationally in cultivating scholarly networking, and I am particularly interested in working with the board to further those activities, focusing on two important areas. The first is continuing and improving ASA work with scholars based in Africa. Recognizing the position of relative privilege of scholars based in the U.S., I believe ASA can continue to develop mechanisms to support scholars in Africa. These activities include support for developing depositories of materials in Africa, especially national archives that in many countries are already suffering environmental and political damage. In one example with which I am familiar, the national archive in Mozambique is housed in a deteriorating structure, and members of LASO have adopted this as a special project, working closely with the Mozambican archivist to identify funding sources and to provide other kinds of support. The ASA can also ensure that current research produced outside of Africa reaches libraries and depositories in Africa, and support African scholars' visits to American institutions.

The second area for ASA efforts concerns outreach in the U.S. There are a variety of venues for improved outreach activities. One important area is further developing training for kindergarten through secondary teachers so that they are better prepared to incorporate information on Africa into their social studies curriculums. Another area is to monitor American media coverage of African topics. ASA can help make experts available and can help coordinate the spread of accurate information to counter the prevailing negative views which still, after all these years, are the dominant way that Africa is portrayed on American television in particular.