The Southern American Studies Association began in 1989 when three ASA chapters – Southeastern, Lower Mississippi, and a segment of Virginia – merged to become the geographically largest regional ASA chapter. SASA covers the following geographic region: Virginia (zip codes 224-246), West Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. SASA has a mailing list of over 600 and an active membership of approximately 500 members.
The biannual conference meetings usually feature between 20 and 35 panel sessions and include between 120 and 200 conference participants. SASA engages in an interdisciplinary investigation of American culture in order to better understand the institutional patterns, beliefs, and values of America’s pluralistic society and an increasingly global hemispheric South.
Past conferences overview:
1999: SASA was held in Wilmington, North Carolina. The theme was “Memory and the American Century.”
2001: SASA was held in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference focused on “Commencement de Siecle: American Culture for New Centuries.”
2003: SASA was held in Tallahassee, Florida. The theme was "Regionalisms in this Age of Globalization." For more information, please visit http://www.fsu.edu/SASA2003
2005: SASA was held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The conference theme was “Coastal Cultures / Islands and Rims: Remapping the Realm of American Studies.” For more information, visit http://www.lsu.edu/sasa