Co-ordinating Council for Area Studies Associations

The Co-ordinating Council for Area Studies Associations (CCASA) was founded in 1980 to lobby for area studies in the face of government cuts in higher education. It represents the interests of scholars and researchers working specifically on regional cultures and languages. Members include the African Studies Association of the UK; Association of South East Asian Studies in the UK; British Association for American Studies; British Association for Canadian Studies; British Association for Chinese Studies; British Association for Japanese Studies; British Association for South Asian Studies; British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies; British Society for Middle Eastern Studies; Society for Caribbean Studies; Society for Latin American Studies; Standing Conference of Directors of Institutions and Centres of Latin American Studies; Standing Committee on University Studies of Africa, and the School of Oriental and African Studies. The CCASA looks at issues such as government strategy for funding allocation in the social sciences, represented through bodies such as the Economic and Social Research Council. It was in part as a result of the pressure from CCASA that more money was provided for Oriental and African languages following a report published in 1988. More specifically in recent years, the CCASA has approached the government with requests for the modification of policy towards the British Library, and for the increase in financial support for students on study tours in Japan.