[2] AAAS holds an annual academic conference dedicated to research in Asian American Studies.

The general membership of the association unanimously approved, at its annual meeting held on April 20, 2013, a resolution endorsing the boycott of Israeli universities.

AAAS president Mary Yu Danico stated that the AAAS will "discourage partnerships with Israeli academic institutions, whether they’re curriculum partnerships or study abroad partnerships, because that would be becoming complicit with the discriminatory practices of Israeli institutions, and we would be encouraging faculty, staff and students to forge alliances with Palestinian faculty and Palestinian students who now have so much difficulty engaging in conversations with scholars from the rest of the world."

[4] In justifying the boycott, the resolution stated that Israeli academic institutions not only failed to oppose “the occupation and racial discrimination against Palestinians in Israel” but also charged that they are “directly and indirectly complicit in the systematic maintenance of the occupation and of policies and practices that discriminate against Palestinian students and scholars throughout Palestine and in Israel.” The resolution also claimed that Israeli academic institutions are "deeply complicit in Israel’s violations of international law and human rights and in its denial of the right to education and academic freedom to Palestinians.

[6] The boycott was criticized by Zionist activist groups Scholars for Peace in the Middle East,[7] and the Anti-Defamation League.