A History of the National Association of Student Anthropologists

By Eric Haanstad, University of Wisconsin-Madison, NASA President 2001-2003; Alex Orona, Cambridge University, NASA President 2014-2015

Last updated 2-February-2018

Establishment of NASA in 1985

The official origins of the first national-level student anthropology organization began when Roland Foulkes (at the time, a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley) wrote a “Call for a National Association of Student Anthropologists” in the April 1985 issue of the American Anthropological Association’s (AAA) Anthropology Newsletter (AN). Until this time, Foulkes wrote, “if a student is not presenting a paper, participating in a roundtable discussion or hosting a special session, then there is no mechanism through which such student(s) can contribute to the overall structural and functional activities of AAA” (28). Foulkes proposed creating the National Association of Student Anthropologists (NASA) made up of student members of all the subsections of anthropology. Several months later, Foulkes wrote that although Margaret Mead stressed that students should be “solicited, seduced and systematically included” in AAA business, and despite the unprecedented student participation in the 1968 reorganization of the AAA, little had changed since then to insure broader student participation in the association (“An Update on a Proposal” AN. Oct. 1985). Foulkes wrote:

I am convinced that, for the first time in the history of the AAA, there is an opportunity for systematic and genuine graduate and undergraduate student participation in every facet of the Association’s work. This opportunity presents itself through the inauguration and the institutionalization of the proposed NASA as a Unit of the Association. It is through this important new venture that true student representation at every level of the Association can be achieved. After all, we are anthropologists who occupy, currently, the status of student. While such status does not necessitate special privilege, it does, nonetheless, provide for us a unique perspective within the anthropological community and we should want to make this perspective known. This essentially temporary condition of – graduate and undergraduate – student is not necessarily an insuperable barrier to the formation and operation of NASA. Hopefully, a fully functioning NASA could ensure that the imminently professional students are an integral part of the Association, thereby serving to enliven student interest and participation in the AAA and in its regional associations. It is hoped ultimately, that NASA could combine skillfully, as one 1968 delegate suggested (on behalf of a possible future student organization), “a minimum of structure with a maximum of benefit” to all members (24).

Foulkes applied for initial funds for NASA through the Wenner-Gren Foundation and, building from the initial support of graduate and undergraduate students from four universities, formed an interim executive committee. An initial organizational meeting for NASA was part of the December 1985 AAA meetings in Washington D.C. chaired by the first President of NASA, Paul Sledzik (U Connecticut).

Formative Activities 1986-1987

NASA was one of six new units (later called sections) officially recognized by signing “articles of merger” with the AAA at the 85th Annual meeting on Dec. 4, 1986 (AN, Jan. 1987, 1). Christopher Dore (U New Mexico), the first Contributing Editor for NASA further defined NASA’s purpose within AAA in its first AN column in Feb. 1987.

NASA was founded by students in 1985 to serve the interests of graduate and undergraduate anthropology students by providing a communication network through which to exchange information and to sponsor scholarly activities on a national and international level. Since student make up nearly one-third of total AAA membership, an additional goal was to provide students with a formal channel of input into AAA policy. It was for this latter goal that a merger between NASA and AAA was sought (10).

NASA’s structure was augmented by several committees, initially including Nominations, Funding, Journals, and Scientific Program. In addition, a network of members served as NASA University Representatives who were encouraged to use the emerging technology of Bitnet to communicate and collaborate with other members. The main responsibility of the University Representatives was disseminating NASA information locally as well as sending local news back to NASA. The representatives acted as contact people for local student activities, provided their perspectives on their departments, and served as hosts if majo