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International Committee
Report from the International Committee 2005
Michael Frisch, Chair
The International Committee’s work this past year is best understood within the context of the International Initiative, for which a distinct report is being submitted. Rather than recapitulating that summary and detail, I will focus here on a concise presentation of how the IC has engaged and been engaged by the International Initiative, how the committee’s makeup and mission have changed, what we are doing now, and what can be expected in the coming year.
From the point at which I assumed the Committee chair in summer 2004, work necessarily focused on the ambitious and experimental plans for the first International Initiative presence at the annual meeting in Atlanta. This involved facilitating and leading a number of key events.
The main one was an “internationalized” Program Directors’ breakfast and follow-up workshop, the latter featuring a roomful of participatory round-tables at each of which both US-based and international participants joined in direct conversation with each other around a broad agenda of issues facing American Studies programs. These discussions were facilitated by leaders, many of whom were drawn from our committee’s ranks. At the end of the workshop rapporteurs brought to the group as a whole the results of each discussion, so that the range and resonance of themes could be appreciated by all.
The experiment was a dramatic success, both in the range and depth of participation and in the format innovation. More than 90 participants from some 29 different countries participated, and by all accounts the quality of discussion and engagement was very high. A spreadsheet listing participants and countries, as well as a summary table, accompanies this report.
The second major event was the luncheon for promoting international partnerships, which our committee again helped to facilitate. The event drew broadly and seems to have been very constructive, although the focus here—in a necessarily compacted time, including lunch—was more on networking and potential “matchmaking,” itself supported by introductory statements made by each participant to the luncheon group as a whole. This took most of the time, but it seemed time very worthwhile spent. An interesting indicator was how substantive most of the self-presentations became, rather than the perfunctory introductions one might have expected. Participants felt at home in the group, and offered generally insightful and useful brief presentations of their home program’s interest and focus, and their own connection to an internationalizing approach to American Studies.
The IC had a more tangential relation to the other Initiative events, especially the editors’ meetings, but we discussed all of this at our lively committee meeting, and there was widespread support in the committee for helping to deepen and widen the work of the Initiative as a transformative force for the annual meeting, and for the field itself. A roster of the 2004 committee, and the agenda for our Atlanta meeting, is also appended to this report.
In 2005, this commitment has informed our ongoing work, with the particular difference that the committee took on for the first time an active planning and administrative role at the center of the Initiative. So as to enhance our capacities it to play such a role, The ASA Council broadened substantially the size and reach of committee membership—it grew from twelve to sixteen members, and an additional Council liaison—giving us a significantly internationalized membership representing a very diverse set of international connections and experiences.
Our primary responsibility, in this context, involved administering the selection and award of travel fund grants under the renewed Mellon Foundation grant for enhancing the international composition and impact of our Annual Meeting. Working with Shelley and Kate Delaney, and crucial support from John Stephens’ office, an application form was developed and posted on the International Initiative page of the ASA web site. A six-person IC subcommittee (three form the US, three from outside the US) evaluated the 35+ proposals received, scoring each on each of three distinct criteria—a) international leadership, program development and networking, b) broadened world-wide representation and AMS development in underserved areas, and c) scholarly significance.
We then ranked the applications on each criterion, and by the summary scores. These vantages permitted us to approach the allocation of funds flexibly, to be sure that applications with important strengths in any variable were not overlooked because of a lower summary score. We were then able to adjust the award amounts so as to spread the available funding to as many worthy candidates as possible—being careful to not cut requests so much as to be counterproductive in the sense of leaving travel prohibitive in terms of otherwise uncovered costs. Through such adjustments, we have been able to offer significant funding to twenty of thirty four applicants for competitive funds; five other scholars from China are being covered through matches to funding from the US China Educational Trust, as was done last year, and another five from Taiwan are being offered ASA supplements to generous travel support from the National Science Council of Taiwan. As we are informed of any awarded funds are not needed or used, we will be able to redistribute support to other applicants.
All in all the process seems to have worked smoothly, and we are pleased that the Mellon support is going to be able to assist such a large and diverse number of international scholars to attend the meeting and to participate fully in the International Initiative activities planned for Washington.
The International Committee has also played a leadership role in refining plans for a new feature of this year’s initiative—two “TalkShop” events that build on the roundtable discussions featured in last year’s Program Director’s workshop. Modifying a similar “TalkShop” format derived from the EAAS meetings, we will offer will feature a major topic for facilitated discussion at an appropriate number of round tables, together with some initiating panel remarks and rapporteur summary discussion. One session will focus on ‘Teaching the Cold War/1950s,” and the other “Teaching American Studies in a Time of Terror”. The idea in each is to offer some framing questions and ideas, but to draw all participants attracted to the event into roundtable discussions, by linking themes to diverse practice around the world. These plans are just now coming into final shape; the events will be posted on the web and promoted at the meeting as a different kind of experience, with a central comparative international dimension, adding to the International Initiative and to the ASA meeting as a whole.
In this sense, it is our hope that the work of these several years is not simply helping to internationalize the annual meeting, but to broaden as well a more general understanding of the many different functions the meeting can serve, beyond the formal program of sessions. As such, the links in our work between different ASA committees and concerns seems especially encouraging, and a base to be built on.
At our International Committee meeting in Washington, we will consider ways to do just this—looking as well beyond the annual meeting. In particular, we will consider ways to deepen and broaden the capacities of the International Initiative website as a focus for substantive international exchange and collaboration at every level, from major research programs to graduate students to community public practice.
Working as part of the International Initiative has helped to give the International Committee new focus and direction. We have the sense, in return, that it is proving helpful for the Initiative to be grounded in a standing committee that can help advance it, rather than seeming to be a somewhat ad-hoc project of a few dedicated individuals, however well-supported by the wonderful Mellon Foundation grant.
We think this synergy is important, and augers well for the committee’s work over the next several years. While it is important to see our work as in no way restricted to the Initiative as such, the solidity of this engagement and foundation makes imaginative and ambitious planning in other areas more possible, not less. It gives us as well something an occasional committee composed of too-busy people really needs if it is to be more than an annual discussion group: some concrete, substantial tasks that can be the object of focused, concrete attention, the kind of involvement that builds confidence, commitment, and capacity among members.
Respectfully Submitted,
Michael Frisch, Chair, ASA International Committee
October 3, 2005
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