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Ethnic Studies Committee
Ethnic Studies Committee 2004
Committee on Ethnic Studies Annual Report
In May 2002, the Task Force on Relations with Ethnic Studies Programs, Faculty and Students (1998-2002) proposed the creation of a standing Committee on Ethnic Studies. This Committee was approved and appointed by the ASA Executive Committee in May 2003. At the core of the Task Force proposal was a presence at the ASA Annual Meeting, in particular the creation of an annual Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar, to occur on Thursday afternoon, preceding the Minority Scholars Committee, Women’s Committee and Queer Caucus reception. In addition, the Task Force envisioned collaboration with committees across the association.
In a few short months, we have begun to address this ambitious agenda. The Committee on Ethnic Studies met for the first time at the Hartford Annual Meeting. We focused our work on the Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar which will take place at the Atlanta Annual Meeting, with the support of the Women’s Committee and the Minority Scholars’ Committee. The Seminar is composed of a roundtable, a panel and the annual reception of the Minority Scholars’ Committee, Women’s Committee, Queer Caucus and now the Committee on Ethnic Studies.
The roundtable and panel will take place on Saturday morning. The roundtable, “A Conversation on the Status of Ethnic Studies in the Academy,” brings together ethnic studies practitioners from a variety of institutions. For this first Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar, we sought to explore how ethnic studies is being conceptualized and lived in a broad range of institutions. The roundtable includes representatives from liberal arts, state, Historically Black, Latina/o-serving and Ivy League institutions. It is our hope that this extremely diverse group will produce a lively discussion of how ethnic studies work is being done in the most varied of circumstances. The roundtable is chaired by Duchess Harris (Macalester College), and includes: Robert Bullard (Clark Atlanta University), Norma Cantú (University of Texas, San Antonio), Robert Lee (Brown University), Alvina Quintana (University of Delaware) and Danille K. Taylor (Dillard University).
The panel, “Color-lines and Borderlands in American Studies,” explores the concepts of color lines and borderlands in ethnic studies and its relationship to American studies. We emphasize the New South, as the site of the 2004 annual meeting, but also work to bring in the transnational perspective that has so influenced American Studies and Ethnic Studies work in recent years. The panel will be chaired by Alicia Camacho (Yale) and includes: Lisa Cacho (University of Illinois), Matthew Guterl (Indiana University), Moon-Ho Jung (University of Washington, Seattle) and Diana I. Williams (Harvard University).
It is our hope that these two sessions will create the space for an exchange of ideas on Ethnic Studies and American Studies within the ASA, provide concrete ideas and suggestions for practitioners from different types of institutions and introduce us to exciting new work being done in the field, broadly defined. We hope this is the first of many Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminars, which will draw on local communities and talents and explore challenges being faced within Ethnic Studies and American Studies.
The Committee on Ethnic Studies will co-sponsor the Thursday evening reception with the Minority Scholars’ Committee, Women’s Committee and Queer Caucus. We are also co-sponsoring events with the Women’s Committee ("Lifting as We Climb") and Students’ Committee ("Breakfast with Champions"). It is our pleasure to join these groups in their important work within the Association.
The Committee on Ethnic Studies would like to see the Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar become a permanent part of the ASA Annual Meeting agenda. We understand the importance of empowering the annual program committee to select panels and sessions. However, we are concerned that the Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar will not be able to achieve the status envisioned in the recommendations of the Task Force without the broader commitment of the Association to this project. Our hope was to have the roundtable and panel immediately precede the reception so that conversations begun in those settings could continue well into the evening. That will not be the case this year, but we hope such an arrangement may be secured in 2005.
The Committee on Ethnic Studies envisions a program more focused on the transnational and overlaps between ethnic studies and area studies in the 2005 Comparative Ethnic Studies Seminar. We would also like to introduce a Comparative Ethnic Studies paper prize in 2005, to encourage and support this type of work within the Association.
Respectfully submitted,
Committee on Ethnic Studies
Rachel Buff
Alicia Camacho
Sarika Chandra
David S. Goldstein
Matthew Guterl
Anne M. Martínez, chair
Alvina Quintana
Danille K. Taylor
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