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Regional Chapters Committee

Report from the Regional Chapters Committee 2002

Submitted by Gena Caponi-Tabery, outgoing Chair
1 October 2002

Membership

Members of the Regional Chapters Committee include:

JEFFREY S. MILLER, Mid-America ASA, Augustana College (June 2003)
MARY BATTENFELD, New England ASA, Wheelock College (June 2003)
LINDA J. BORISH, Great Lakes ASA, Western Michigan University (June 2004)
DONNA M. CAMPBELL, Pacific Northwest ASA, Gonzaga University (June 2005)
DALE COCKRELL, Kentucky-Tennessee ASA, Vanderbilt University (June 2004)
RENNY CHRISTOPHER, California ASA, California State University, Channel Islands (June 2005)
JESSICA A. DORMAN, Mid-Atlantic ASA, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg (June 2005)
ANNA MAE DUANE, Metropolitan New York ASA, Fordham University (June 2005)
DONALD E. GRECO, Texas ASA, Baylor University (June 2005)
MARK HELBLING, Hawai’i ASA, University of Hawai’i, Manoa (June 2004)
CRISTINE LEVENDUSKI, Southern ASA, Emory University (June 2004)
AMANDA COBB, Rocky Mountain ASA, University of New Mexico (June 2003)
DONALD SNYDER, Chesapeake ASA, University of Maryland, College Park (June 2003)
Executive Director: JOHN F. STEPHENS, ex officio, American Studies Association

Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences, 2002

The following regional chapters held annual conferences during the 2002 calendar year:

CHESAPEAKE: March 8-10, University of Maryland, College Park. “Crossroads: Intersection of Race, Ethnicity, Place and Life History.”
GREAT LAKES: April 11-13, Ohio University, Athens. “Reading Region: Cultures, Histories, Literatures, Landscapes & Maps.”
KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE: April 5-6, Fall Creek Falls State Park, Pikeville, Tennessee.
MID-AMERICA: April 5-6, St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri. “Americans Study Their Environment.”
MID-ATLANTIC: March 22-23, Philadelphia, Holiday Inn-Independence Mall. “The Measure of America: Social and Humanistic Perspectives.”
NEW ENGLAND: April 26-28, Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston. “‘The Tyranny of Facts’: Cultural Institutions and the Authority of Evidence.”
NEW YORK METRO: October. “September 11: One Year After.”
PACIFIC NORTHWEST: April 18-20, Spokane, Washington. “Affirmative Actions.”
TEXAS: November, Sam Houston State University. “Crossroads in America, in Texas and the Southwest, and in American Studies.”

Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences, 2003

The following chapters have announced their 2003 conferences:
CALIFORNIA: April 11-13, Sacramento. A joint conference with the California Folklore Society.
CHESAPEAKE: April 4-6, University of Maryland, College Park.
GREAT LAKES and MID-AMERICA: April 11-13, Iowa City. A joint conference.
NEW ENGLAND: April 25-27, Hartford, Connecticut. The conference will address the multiple ways in which religion has been a force in American history and culture.
PACIFIC NORTHWEST: April 10-12. Lincoln City, Oregon. SOUTHERN: Biennial conference February 7-9, Florida State University. “Regionalisms in the Age of Globalization.”

Other Regional Chapters Activities

CHESAPEAKE: CHASA is inaugurating an Annual Fall Lecture that will rotate throughout the region’s schools. The newly revived Chesapeake ASA coordinated several activities at last year’s national ASA conference in Washington, D. C., including the National Museum Crawl, a Regional Chapters Panel, and a reception for graduate students.
NEW ENGLAND: The chapter is a co-sponsor of the American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series held at Penn State Harrisburg.
NEW YORK: The NYMASA continues its popular Book Salon series with discussions of recent books in American Studies scholarship.

ASA Regional Chapters’ Exhibit Booth

For the fifth year running, the RCC will sponsor an Exhibit Booth in the Book Exhibit. Jeffrey Miller chairs the Booth Committee, which publicized the booth in the ASA Newsletter and on the webpage. The booth will be fully staffed throughout the conference by members from a majority of the Regional Chapters. Chapters will bring examples of their activities, such as chapter newsletters, calls for papers, journals, and annual conference flyers were available for browsers.

ASA Regional Chapters’ Annual Website and Handbook

The RCC has a new presence on the ASA Website, thanks to the ASA staff. By clicking on the heading “Resources,"web viewers may proceed to the following options:

Contacts and general information about chapters
Regional Chapters Committee Members
Chapter Officers
Individual chapter web pages
Links to the on-line Regional Chapters’ Column for the ASA Newsletter
Links to the Handbook

The on-line Newsletter is updated continually, and changes in chapter information can be sent to the ASA staff as needed. Regional chapters are responsible for maintaining their own web pages.

At the 2003 Business Meeting, New England representative Mary Battenfeld will discuss progress of her committee in revising the Handbook.

Intercommittee Activity

At the 2002 annual meeting, the Regional Chapters Committee (RCC) met with Colin Johnson and Adam Golub of the Graduate Students Committee to continue discussion of the best way to involve graduate students in chapter activities. The RCC continues to support the Graduate Students Committee through participating in the Hospitality Lounge and Mock Interviews. Several chapters noted that graduate students comprise an important part of their membership and encouraged the Graduate Students Committee to remind students that they are welcome to present papers at Regional Chapters’ meetings. At the suggestion of the Graduate Students Committee, members of the RCC agreed to recommend that chapter conferences include panels on issues of special interest to Graduate Students.

Many chapters—Chesapeake, Mid-America, New England, Southern, and Texas among them—offer monetary prizes to the best student papers presented, hoping to stimulate graduate student participation. Finally, the Chesapeake chapter offered a reception for graduate students at the 2001 national conference.

The Regional Chapters’ Committee hopes to meet again with members of the Graduate Students’ Committee at the 2003 annual conference in Houston.

Regional-National Coordination Efforts

At the national conference in Washington, D.C., members of the RCC visited with ASA President George Sanchez and President-Elect Stephen Sumida. Both presidents helped conduct a lively discussion on the future of the ASA and regional chapters in a post-affirmative action environment. Sanchez also encouraged the RCC to think about ways to publicize and take advantage of Community Partnership Grants opportunities.