Welcome to the The American Portuguese Studies Association (APSA) is a leading organization for scholars and educators focused on Portuguese and the Lusophone world. Founded in 1996, our association has grown a great deal since its founding. As a result of this growth, we now have hundreds of members working and studying in several countries around the world and on least four different continents.
Our mission is straightforward. We work to foster the expansion and spread of knowledge on the languages, peoples, and cultures of the many countries where Portuguese is spoken. We achieve this through a twin focus on research and outreach. In terms of research, we actively promote the dissemination of new scholarly work on the Portuguese-speaking world through our open-access, peer-reviewed academic journal, the Journal of Lusophone Studies. Through the journal and our biennial international conferences, we also foster intellectual and scholarly contact between people working in diverse fields of inquiry. As for outreach, we have developed programs to increase awareness of Portuguese-speaking cultures in various academic programs and communities. We also actively support the development of Portuguese language programs in North American schools.
All are welcome to join APSA. Our members receive a wide range of benefits. These include: 1) the opportunity to connect with other scholars and teachers focused on Portuguese; 2) discounted registration for our bi-annual international conference (to held at Brigham Young University in 2020); and 3) a chance to shape the field by serving on APSA’s executive committee. For more information, please consult our bylaws and current list of officers.