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Regional Chapters Committee
Report from the Regional Chapters Committee 2000
Gena Caponi-Tabery, Chair
Membership:
New members replacing those whose terms ended June 2000 are: Jeffrey Miller, Augustana College (Mid-America ASA); Mary Battenfeld, Wheelock College, (New England ASA); and Eric Porter, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (Rocky Mountain ASA) The Chesapeake ASA region did not submit a nomination. Thus, the position for the ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee from the Chesapeake region is open. The Regional Chapters’ Committee is willing to extend any feedback and assistance in efforts to support the Chesapeake chapter. Because of a transition in regional chapter officers, there is one new member serving a replacement term: Linda Borish, Western Michigan University (Great Lakes ASA). Gena Caponi-Tabery, (University of Texas, San Antonio) from the Texas ASA chapter was selected by the ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee to chair the Committee for the 2000-2003 term.
Regional Chapter Revivals-Updates:
The New York Metro ASA (revived in 1996) and the Middle Atlantic ASA (revived in 1998) Chapters continue to thrive. The Rocky Mountain ASA has recently elected officers and is rebuilding membership in the region. The chapter hopes to announce a regional meeting for 2001.
The Chesapeake Regional Chapter continues to visit the possibility of reorganization, it is not officially active at the moment.
Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences, 2000:
Several regional chapters have announced upcoming annual conferences. Great Lakes ASA has announced its 2001 conference at Ball State University on the theme: Community, Family, and Youth: ‘Growing’ America, America Growing.“ Mid-America ASA’s 2001 conference at the University of Wisconsin-Madison addresses the theme “The Cultural Agencies of American Institutions: Analyzing Sites for the Production, Dissemination and Appropriation of Cultural Capital.“ Middle Atlantic American Studies Association will hold its 2001 conference on the theme “Remembering the Twentieth Century” Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The New England ASA has announced “Making Spaces: Travels, Tourism, Geographies, and the Construction of Place in the Americas and Abroad,“ as the theme of its annual 2001 conference. “Commencement de Siecle: American Culture for New Centuries” is the theme for the Atlanta, Georgia 2001 biennial conference of the Southern ASA. The Pacific Northwest ASA 2001 conference has chosen “Archiving the Past and Present, Envisioning the Future” as its conference theme for its Lincoln City, Oregon site. The ASA of Texas will hold its 2000 conference at Baylor University on the theme “Engaging American Studies with Society/the Engagement of Society with American Studies.“
Regional Chapters begin planning for their annual or biannual conferences at their annual business meetings. Calls for papers for the Fall 2000 and Spring 2001 conferences have appeared in the June and September ASA Newsletters. Regions will distribute conference/call for papers flyers in Detroit, Michigan.
Other Activities of ASA Regional Chapters:
The Middle Atlantic American Studies Association, with the American Studies Program and Center for Pennsylvania Culture Studies at Penn State Harrisburg will sponsor an American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series at Penn State Harrisburg for 2000-2001. The theme for activities will be “Remembering the Twentieth Century,“ and will include lectures by Emily Bernard on the Harlem Renaissance, and Miles Orvell on documentary photography in the 1930s.
ASA Regional Chapters’ Exhibit Booth:
The ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee will sponsor an Exhibit Booth in the Book Exhibit at the Detroit, Michigan conference—the third annual conference for this booth. The Committee organized a Sub-committee (chaired by Jeffrey Miller of the Mid-America ASA) and publicized the booth prior to the conference in the September ASA Newsletter, on the ASA Regional Chapters’ home page on Crossroads, and on H-AMSTDY. Participation from the regional chapters has been high: regional chapters from New York, Northeast, Great Lakes, Texas, and Mid-America have volunteered representatives to staff the booth during the 2000 conference, and most regional chapters have sent materials to illustrate chapter activities, from annual conferences to newsletters to journals. The following announcement distributed through the above channels illustrates the goals of the exhibit booth:
What do regional chapters offer ASA members? For the third year, the ASA Regional Chapters will sponsor a booth in the book exhibit at the 2000 Annual Meeting. Here you can see how these organizations add to the life of American Studies. At the booth, you will find journals (from American Studies to Border States to the Journal of the American Studies Association of Texas); information about books published from conference proceedings; chapter newsletters and brochures; calls for papers for upcoming conferences; and information about a variety of other regional chapter activities. Throughout the annual meeting, representatives from the various chapters will be present at the booth to talk about chapter activities and ways to become involved. At a time when American Quarterly and the national ASA convention programs are overflowing, the regional chapters extend and create settings for sharing scholarship, for talking about teaching, and for localized collegiality. Stop by and see how the grassroots grow!
ASA Regional Chapters’ Homepage on Crossroads, “ASA Regional Chapter News” in the ASA Newsletter, and “Handbook for Regional Chapters of the American Studies Association:
With the assistance of ASA staff, chapters post conference programs and registration materials on the ASA Regional Chapters’ Homepage. In addition, chapters usually elect new officers and/or board members during the spring and summer months and post the election results with new contact information. Other information about chapter activities is also posted by different chapters. Some chapters also have links to their own homepages. Regions regularly post announcements and calls for papers on H-AMSTDY. The “ASA Regional Chapter News” section appears in each ASA Newsletter. Most chapters regularly update their activities for ASA members in this publication.
The Regional Chapters’ Committee discussed updating and revising of the Handbook for Regional Chapters of the American Studies Association at the Montréal Regional Chapters’ business meeting and will do so again at the 2000 business meeting. The Committee wants to establish a regular schedule for updating the handbook and will discuss options of two, three, or five years.
Session Sponsored by the ASA Standing Committee on Regional Chapters:
The ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee with the Great Lakes ASA will co-sponsor a panel proposal for the Detroit, Michigan 2000 ASA Annual meeting.
SESSION TITLE: INDUSTRIAL LIFE IN THE GREAT LAKES REGION: Session Co-Sponsored by the Great Lakes American Studies Association and the ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee. CHAIR: BARBARA S. HAVIRA, Department of History, Western Michigan University; PAPERS: GERALDINE WOJNO KIEFER, Department of Art History, Kent State University, Steel and Stone Soliloquies: Margaret Bourke-White, Cleveland, and the Landscape of Corporate Identity; MATTHEW L. DALEY, University Archives, Special Collections, University of Detroit, Mercy Alexander McDougall and his “Pigs”: Financial Wizardry, the Gospel of Progress, Technological Failure, and Shipbuilding Innovation on the Great Lakes, 1888-1899; MARTHA I. PALLANTE, Department of History, Youngstown State University, To Work and Live: Brickyard Laborers, Immigration and Assimilation. COMMENT: ELIZABETH FAUE, Department of History, Wayne State University.
Since the ASA Annual Meeting will be held in Washington D.C. in 2001, the Chesapeake ASA regional chapter should co-sponsor the Session Proposal submitted by the ASA Standing Committee on Regional Chapters.
ASA Annual Conventions and Regional-National Coordination Efforts:
Recently, regional chapters have sought to respond to the ASA National Committee’s invitation to be involved in activities which exhibit a coordination of efforts toward regional/national planning for national ASA annual conferences.
For the 2000 annual ASA convention in Detroit, Michigan, ASA President-Elect Michael Frisch appointed Great Lakes ASA chapter members as Co-Chairs of the Pre Convention Collaboratives/Local Arrangements Committee: Linda J. Borish, GLASA President, Department of History, Western Michigan University; Nora Faires, Department of History, University of Michigan-Flint; and Sheila Lloyd, Department of English, Wayne State University. These members have worked closely with ASA President-Elect Michael Frisch to establish an innovative regional-national affiliation and to integrate Detroit and the GLASA region into ASA events. A report of the collaboration is included in the September 2000 Newsletter under the Regional Chapters’ Committee Column, in the News from Great Lakes ASA section.
Current officers and council members of New England ASA (NEASA) have begun preliminary conversations about coordination of planning pre-convention collaboratives for the 2003 ASA convention if it were to be held in Hartford, Connecticut, including the formation of a NEASA Hartford 2003 Committee. Exchanges of emails regarding planning have begun with current ASA officers. The NEASA Hartford 2003 Committee will be holding a meeting in Fall, 2000 to begin discussion of ideas and making contacts to provide a wide range of different ways for the annual ASA convention to interact with the site of Hartford. The Committee will make contacts with local academic institutions, performers in the arts, museums, public history projects and exhibits, and community organizations in areas of social justice.
Texas ASA chapter has begun internal discussion about collaboration with the ASA for the Houston conference, and will open the discussion officially at its annual meeting in November.
The ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee will be seeking feedback from the Great Lakes ASA region and from the ASA National Council regarding how the notion of “Pre Convention Collaboratives/Local Arrangements” cooperation will be interpreted as regions and the national ASA work together in the future.
ASA Students’ Committee and ASA Regional Chapters’ Collaboration:
The chairs of the Students’ Committee and the Regional Chapters’ Committee attended portions of their respective business meetings in Montréal to discuss collaborative efforts with committee members. A significant number of ideas emerged from these meetings for efforts which could be pursued to involve graduate students as fully as possible in the life of the regions.
Regional Chapter representatives will report about initiatives in their regions at the Detroit annual business meeting. Plans are underway for the respective chairs to again attend each other’s business meetings.
Mock Interview: There will be one interview “demonstration” at the Detroit conference with a member of the ASA Regional Chapters’ Committee acting as an interviewer.
Secondary Education:
The Secondary Education Committee and the Regional Chapters’ Committee have communicated about the ways that regional chapters might work with and include secondary educators in their activities. The Chair of the Secondary Education Committee has been invited to the Regional Chapters’ business meeting to further this discussion.
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