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Minority Scholars Committee
Report from the Minority Scholars’ Committee 2006
Since I was appointed the chair of the Minority Scholars’ Committee (MSC) in June, I have been thinking about what direction the group should go in. I have reviewed the minutes of last year’s meeting at the annual conference and have also looked at the committee’s mid-year report. These documents make clear that the MSC lacks direction. Some of the reasons for this lack of focus, as the previous chair has noted, seem to be that the committee has no institutional history, has been staffed primarily by junior faculty, and this in turn has created a lack of understanding about the committee’s mandate/purpose. Given this lack of direction, it seems imperative that the MSC be reenergized and in so doing be put back on track.
The MSC’s function, according to the ASA’s bylaws, is “to keep the Council and the association’s membership informed of the issues affecting minority scholars in the profession and shall have responsibility for special tasks involving minority scholars in the membership.” To that end, in the past the MSC has sponsored panels, met with the president and executive director, worked in conjunction with the Women’s Committee, and the Ethnic Studies Committee (in its original incarnation as a task force). When I previously served on the committee we sponsored two successful panels on Affirmative Action at consecutive meetings and helped initiate the Lora Romero Prize. We also helped start the Minority/Women’s/Queer Reception that has now become a regular part of the program. These actions have ensured that the MSC has a presence at the annual meeting and has also guaranteed that in some ways it has been institutionalized. The success of the MSC coupled with the diversification of the ASA’s membership and leadership, has perhaps made some people take the committee’s work for granted and made it lose its sense of purpose.
Given this recent history, I would like to ensure that the MSC have an institutional history and a sense of direction and that it be able to constantly reproduce itself and therefore maintain its presence in the association, and not be taken for granted. Perhaps the best way to achieve this is to have the committee think about its role within the association. The ASA’s diverse membership requires that the Minority Scholars’ Committee define its work more clearly and understand that as opposed to the Ethnic Studies Committee, which looks at the institutional relationship of that field vis-à-vis the American Studies Association, the MSC is concerned with individuals, their concerns and their roles within the ASA and profession in general. Although the committee last year proposed that an award be instituted for senior scholars, I believe that we would better serve the ASA’s membership by looking to the future rather than the past, and initiate a graduate student dissertation research funds prize. This would be modeled after the Organization of American Historians’ Huggins-Quarles Prize. Another way to make the committee more visible would be to continue sponsoring an annual panel and perhaps have a session on the role of minority scholars within the field of American Studies. Since Curtis Marez, the new editor of the American Quarterly is an ex-officio member of the MSC, we should discuss the possibility of having as many of the committee’s panels appear as forums in the journal. Also, the MSC, as in the past, should ensure that one of its members is on the ASA conference program committee and we should pass on the names of minority scholars to the Nominating Committee to enhance the possibility of their inclusion on various committees and offices in the association.
In addition, instructing the MSC members to “work” the annual meeting by talking to their friends and acquaintances to find out how to best serve the committee’s constituency is imperative. This can be done at the Minority/Women’s/Queer reception, but ideally it should be done whenever they come across conference attendees who are sympathetic and interested in the MSC’s work. As in any group, the key to success is to make sure that its members understand, are committed, and work to propagate its vision. The MSC’s members must be truly committed to the committee’s goals and carry on the committee’s work beyond the annual meeting. The only way to ensure that this happens is to make the members aware of the MSC’s history and mandate, and in so doing instill creative ways to carry out its work. I look forward to working with my fellow Minority Scholars’ Committee members to fulfill our mandate.
Respectfully Submitted,
Ernesto Chávez, ASA Minority Scholars’ Committee Chair
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