The American Association for Australian Literary Studies (AAALS) is an organization of scholars in North America that studies and promotes research in the literature of Australia. Its activities are partially funded by the Literature Fund of the Australia Council for the Arts. It publishes the journal Antipodes, A North American Journal of Australian Literature and holds an annual conference, rotated between locations in the United States and Canada. The most recent AAALS conferences were held at Harvard University in 2005; at McGill University in 2006; at Georgetown University in 2007, at the University of Texas in 2008; in Washington, DC in 2010, Fort Worth, TX in 2011, and planned conferences in Toronto (2012 and Washington DC (2013)). The organization was founded in 1986 by Robert L. Ross (1934-2005) and has since then assumed an increasing international profile. Featured guest speakers have included Peter Carey, David Malouf, Lily Brett, John Tranter, Frank Moorhouse, Thomas Keneally, Alan Wearne, Kate Grenville, Janette Turner Hospital and John Kinsella. In 1996 the AAALS became an Allied Organization of the Modern Language Association, at which it holds sessions annually.