FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2025
Contact: Alix Saba, Executive Director, asaed@africanstudies.org
PDF Press Release for Distribution: Download Here
African Studies Association Announces the Robertson Fund
PISCATAWAY, New Jersey – The African Studies Association is pleased to announce the establishment of the Robertson Fund to support the ASA Dependent Care Grant, the Robertson Engagement Grant, and the Student Volunteer Attendance Stipends.
The Robertson Fund will provide ASA Dependent Care Grants to support dependent care for ASA members attending the Annual Meeting. The grant will realize a founding goal of the ASA Women’s Caucus in 1970, as stated in the Resolutions on the Status of Women. The ASA is honored to invest in ASA families and achieve this longstanding objective through the Robertson Fund. The Robertson Engagement Grant will support first-time attendee graduate students and junior faculty Annual Meeting attendees starting in 2026. The Student Volunteer Attendance Stipends will engage local student volunteers who will support the ASA Women’s Caucus Marketplace.
The Robertson Fund was made possible by a generous gift from Dr. Claire Robertson. Dr. Robertson is Professor Emerita of History and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at The Ohio State University, where she taught from 1984 to 2012. She received her MA from the University of Chicago in early modern European history and her Ph.D. in 1974 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in African history. She has published over sixty articles and six books on women and slavery, African women and trade, education, socioeconomic structure, genital cutting, racism in the military, life histories, with particular reference to Ghana and Kenya, and Atlantic World histories, among others. She received the African Studies Association Best Book Award (formerly the Herskovits Book Prize) for Sharing the Same Bowl: A Socioeconomic History of Women and Class in Accra, Ghana (Indiana University Press, 1984), and the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association’s Peggy Koppelman Book Award for Transnational Sisterhood and Genital Cutting: Disputing U.S. Polemics (University of Illinois Press, 2005), co-edited with Stanlie James. Dr. Robertson is a founding member of the ASA Women’s Caucus and former co-convener.
Please find complete information on the ASA Dependent Care Grant, the Robertson Engagement Grant, and the Student Volunteer Attendance Stipends on their respective pages on the ASA website.
About the ASA
Established in 1957, the African Studies Association is the flagship membership organization devoted to enhancing the exchange of information about Africa. The ASA is based in the United States and aims to cultivate a better understanding of the continent, by providing access to path-breaking research and facilitating interdisciplinary exchanges with African scholars and institutions. The ASA Annual Meeting fosters global networks by convening people with scholarly and other interests in Africa, and ultimately broadens professional opportunities in the field. The organization publishes two leading journals on Africa, African Studies Review and History in Africa and promotes an informed understanding of Africa to educational institutions, the public, businesses, media, and other interested communities.
