The ASA

The ASA is the professional association for social anthropology. It was founded in 1946 to promote the study and teaching of anthropology and to uphold the interests and status of the discipline, primarily in the UK, but also extending to the Commonwealth, where it works collaboratively with fellow anthropology associations. The ASA’s major role is to assist its members in planning and conducting research, and to represent social anthropology and anthropologists in the academy, and in relation to policy and funding.

The ASA maintains a searchable directory of members, which is in effect a register of professional social anthropologists. It publishes the annual ASA monograph; the peer-reviewed open access journal ASAonline and the Firth lectures. It supports the communication of social anthropology in various social media.

For more details about the ASA’s activities, past and present, please click here.

Call for Expressions of Interest – ASA Ethical Guidelines Review Working Group (EGG)
In 2011, the serving ASA Executive Committee members developed and then published on the ASA website a set of Ethical Guidelines. These guidelines continue to act as an invaluable resource for anthropologists and other scholars to assist them to consider the ethical issues and implications of their research and to refer to during submission for formal ethical review and approvals. However the rapidly changing research and regulatory landscape, most notably the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, means that the current ASA Executive Committee have identified the need to revisit the original guidelines, and propose to consult with the ASA community to produce a set of revised guidelines, as tabled and discussed at the AGM in September 2018 in Oxford. An outline of the process can be accessed here.

Expressions of interest are invited from current ASA members to join the ASA Ethical Guidelines Review Working Group (EGG). We anticipate meetings will be virtual and much of the work will be communicated via email, and so no travel will be involved. Depending on the scope of the review, we expect EGG members will spend about an hour a week on the review, with additional meetings and some more intense periods of work as we report on our findings. EGG will consist of 8-12 people and will include PGRs and ECRs as well as senior academic anthropologists from departments of anthropology and other departments, and anthropologists from outside academia.

Expressions of interest in EGG should be sent to Jude Robinson (ASA Ethics Officer) at Ethics@theasa.org, stating name, contact details, and a brief statement of your interest and experiences in ethics and an indication of your availability to work on this area in 2019. The deadline for applications is end-January.

Jude Robinson, ASA Ethics Officer
(Professor of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow)

ASA18: Sociality, matter, and the imagination: re-creating Anthropology
The ASA annual conference held its annual conference at the University of Oxford 18th-21st September 2018. With 82 panels, 13 labs, and 740 delegates, spanning all four fields and beyond the discipline, this was the largest ASA conference to-date. Thanks to all those who contributed to making this a memorable, enjoyable and intellectually diverse event.

ASA18 Home Panels Theme Plenaries Events

AIA Anthropology in Action
Anthropology in Action is the journal of the combined Apply and Anthropology in Action networks. It is an international peer-reviewed journal publishing articles, commentaries, research reports and reviews. Contributions reflect the use of anthropological training in policy- or practice-oriented work and foster the broader application of these approaches to practical problems. Read more.

The ASA considers individual requests for financial assistance by members to support activities that will further the aims of the ASA and professional anthropology in the UK. The maximum amount that any applicant can apply for is £100. Read more.

The ASA is a member of the World Council of Anthropological Associations.

Read the ASA's Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions, in relation to sale of membership and conference services.