Scholarly and professional associations typically provide many of the following resources and services:

• Publications (bibliography [e.g. MLA International Bibliography, online and print], scholarly journals [e.g. PMLA], books, journal, teaching guides, and newsletters)
• Annual convention
• Jobs list and career services (e.g. interviewing at convention)
• Task force reports, surveys (state of the profession, issues of concern)
• Committees & commissions
• Prizes & awards
• Guide to doctoral programs

Locate associations by:

• searching Google using terms such as "Association" or "Society" along with subject term
• accessing a metasite for the discipline (see "Resources" box below)
• using research guides to the discipline (listed on this guide's homepage)
• noting publishers of scholarly journals or subject databases (often affiliated with a scholarly association)

Sometimes a major national or international association may have regional subgroups or chapters.

There are associations devoted to a single person (example: Dante Society of America).

Metasites (general lists):

• Scholarly Societies Project (University of Waterloo)
• Humanities Resource Center Online  (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)
• Voice of the Shuttle  (UC Santa Barbara)

Literature and Languages:

• Modern Language Association
• Modern Humanities Research Association (Britain)

Religion:

• Society of Biblical Literature
• American Academy of Religion
• North American Academy of Liturgy
• North American Patristics Society
• American Society of Church History
• Association of Professional Chaplains
• American Schools of Oriental Research
• Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
• Israel Exploration Society
• Egypt Exploration Society
• American Anthropological Association

History:

• American Historical Association
• Southern Historical Association
• Appalachian Studies Association
• Renaissance Society of America
• Sixteenth Century Society
• ASA-American Studies Association
• GSA-German Studies Association

Music: branches of the discipline and related associations:

• Performance (American Guild of Organists)
• Composition (ASCAP: American Society of Composers and Publishers)
• Theory (Society for Music Theory)
• Musicology = music history studies (AMS: American Musicological Society)
• Ethnomusicology = anthropological study of music (Society for Ethnomusicology)
• Education (MENC: Music Educators National Conference; NATS: National Association for Teachers of Singing)
• Music librarianship (MLA: Music Library Association)
• Arts management/administration (Association of Arts Administration Educators)

      Music metasites with more associations:

• Online Resources for Music Scholars  (Harvard)
• Classical Net
• Music Resources  (Sibelius Academy)

Art, Theatre & Dance

• ATDS-American Theatre and Drama Society
• CAA-College Art Association
• Dance Studies Association
• International Center of Medieval Art
• National Trust for Historic Preservation
• SETC-Southeastern Theatre Conference
• SAH-Society of Architectural Historians
• SCMS-Society for Cinema and Media Studies
• VASTA-Voice and Speech Trainers Association
• AEA-Actor’s Equity Association
• SAG-Screen Actor’s Guild

Many associations represent a whole discipline (history, literature) or branch of a discipline (American history, English literature), or other broad subject area (Renaissance studies, Romanticism). So you can start with a quite broad search, to see what the major association(s) are for your discipline, then add some keywords to see if there are any groups that specialize further in the subject area of your topic.

There are also associations devoted to a single person. So if your topic centers around a major writer, artist, etc., try searching their name combined with "association" or "society."