The Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) was founded on October 24, 2007 by Bernard Lewis

Bernard Lewis

Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...

 (Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

) and Fouad Ajami

Fouad Ajami

Fouad A. Ajami , is a MacArthur Fellowship winning, Lebanese-born American university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues. He is currently a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution....

 (Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University

The Johns Hopkins University, commonly referred to as Johns Hopkins, JHU, or simply Hopkins, is a private research university based in Baltimore, Maryland, United States...

). ASMEA is a learned society

Learned society

A learned society is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline/profession, as well a group of disciplines. Membership may be open to all, may require possession of some qualification, or may be an honor conferred by election, as is the case with the oldest learned societies,...

 dedicated to promoting research and teaching in Middle Eastern and African studies, and related fields. It is a non-partisan, non-profit organization that seeks to achieve these goals through programs, publications, and services that support its members and the international community of scholars and concerned citizens.
ASMEA is a community of concerned scholars committed to protecting academic freedom and promoting the search for truth to reach new heights in inquiry. ASMEA will offer its assistance to established and new scholars in the field to expand the body of scholars and knowledge. It is a response to the mounting interest in these increasingly inter-related fields, and the absence of any single group addressing them in a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary fashion.
ASMEA’s officers are responsible for running the organization. They include Mark T. Clark (California State University at San Bernardino, President), J. Peter Pham (James Madison University

James Madison University

James Madison University is a public coeducational research university located in Harrisonburg, Virginia, U.S. Founded in 1908 as the State Normal and Industrial School for Women at Harrisonburg, the university has undergone four name changes before settling with James Madison University...

, Vice-President), and Joseph Skelly (Secretary).

Among ASMEA’s offerings and services are a website, an annual conference, an annual journal and quarterly newsletter, job bank, syllabi bank, book review service, and other such programs and activities necessary to helping scholars enhance their efforts.

Inaugural conference

ASMEA’s inaugural conference—entitled "The Evolution of Islamic Politics, Philosophy, and Culture in the Middle East and Africa: From Traditional Limits to Modern Extremes"—was held in Washington, D.C., April 24-26, 2008. The conference featured a combination of panels and roundtables with academics and policy makers focused on the profound Islamic influence in these regions. The Association's chairman Bernard Lewis delivered the keynote address entitled "Studying the Other: Different Ways of Looking at the Middle East and Africa," in which he discussed the threat to the freedom of scholarly inquiry regarding these two regions and the prospects for enhancing the body of knowledge in an open and inter-disciplinary manner.