The British Association for American Studies (BAAS) is calling a special election for the following post on the BAAS Executive Committee as a Postgraduate Rep (two-year term).
Deadline for nominations: May 30th, 2025 (see below for further instructions).
Role Descriptor
The Postgraduate Representative works as part of a team of two (elected at staggered intervals to maintain continuity) to advocate for postgraduate members. Duties include assisting the yearly postgraduate conference (which includes selecting and guiding the conference organisers) and representing the thoughts and concerns of the wider postgraduate community.
To be eligible, candidates must be a registered postgraduate student. The position is for two years. A Postgraduate Representative who has completed one full term in office may not stand for re-election as Postgraduate Representative. The successful candidate will work alongside David Malcolm, who has one year remaining of his term.
Interested parties are invited to contact our current representative David Malcolm (da***********@ba**.uk) to discuss the role.
Instructions for Candidates
Nominations should reach us by the strict deadline of 17.00 GMT on Friday May 30th 2025. Candidates should email the following information to our Secretary, Dr Kate Ballantyne (se*******@ba**.uk), copying in their proposer and seconder as confirmation of their support:
- Name:
- Role you are standing for:
- Department/Programme/Role:
- Institution (or other affiliation):
- Proposer:
- Proposer’s Institution:
- Seconder:
- Seconder’s Institution:
- Brief supporting statement (max 500 words):
Where possible, the proposer and seconder should not be from the candidate’s own institution.
Your supporting statement should outline your educational background, areas of teaching and/or research interests and your vision for BAAS, and for the role for which you are standing, in the upcoming years. We also ask that those standing for election give consideration to matters of equality, diversity, and inclusion in their statements, and include any suggestions for approaches or initiatives in this area.
Further information for Trustees
Those standing for election are expected to be BAAS members and to attend the AGM. We particularly welcome nominations from groups traditionally underrepresented in the Association.
All elected candidates will be made Trustees of BAAS, which is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. For this reason, nominations from candidates living and working in the UK are preferred. Trustees are expected to promote and advance the discipline of American Studies in the UK and beyond, and to work to make BAAS an inclusive, accessible, transparent, and responsive organisation which proactively champions the needs of its diverse community of members. All Trustees are required to abide by the BAAS Code of Conduct. All Executive Committee members are expected to contribute to the judging of our annual Awards schemes.
BAAS will reimburse travel (and, where appropriate, accommodation) expenses for attendance at Executive Committee meetings, along with registration costs for the BAAS annual conference and/or the BAAS PG conference for members of the Executive Committee. Most Executive Committee meetings are held remotely; as part of BAAS’ ongoing commitment to access, inclusion and environmental sustainability, we are likely to conduct a mixture of in-person meetings (coinciding with the annual conference, for instance) and remote meetings.
Election Information
As per the BAAS Constitution, if there is more than one candidate for any position, an election will be held. BAAS elections will take place via advance electronic voting. There will be no in-person ballot.
For more information, click here.
