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Regional Chapters Committee

Report from the Regional Chapters Committee 2005

Submitted by Donna M. Campbell, Chair
October 1, 2005

MEMBERSHIP

Members of the Regional Chapters Committee:

Chair: JEFFREY S. MILLER, Mid-America ASA, Augustana College (June 2006) (through July 1)
DONNA M. CAMPBELL, Pacific Northwest ASA, Washington State University (June 2008) (after July 1)
SOPHIE BELL, Metropolitan New York ASA, Tufts University (June 2008)
RENEE BERGLAND, New England ASA, Simmons College (June 2006)
JANE E. SCHULTZ, Great Lakes ASA, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (June 2007)
DALE COCKRELL, Kentucky-Tennessee ASA, Vanderbilt University (June 2007)
JOHN HADDAD, Mid-Atlantic ASA, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg (June 2008)
DONALD E. GRECO, Texas ASA, Baylor University (June 2005)
MARK HELBLING, Hawai’i ASA, University of Hawai’i, Manoa (June 2007)
JOHN LOWE, Southern ASA, Louisiana State University (June 2007)
ALEX LUBIN, Rocky Mountain ASA, University of New Mexico (June 2006)
Council Member: JEAN M. O’BRIEN, University of Minnesota (June 2006)
S. TRAVIS SILCOX, California ASA, Sacramento City College (June 2008)
MARTHA SWEARINGEN, Chesapeake ASA, University of the District of Columbia (June 2006)
Executive Director: JOHN F. STEPHENS, ex officio, American Studies
Association

Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences, 2005

The following regional chapters held annual conferences during the 2005 calendar year:

CHESAPEAKE: April 16. University of the District of Columbia. “Creating a Space: Intellectual /Activist Practice in American Studies.“
GREAT LAKES: March 18-19. Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis, Ind. “Practices of Empire.“
KENTUCKY-TENNESSEE: April 8-9. Cumberland Lake State Resort Park, Jamestown, Ky. Open theme.
MID-AMERICA: April 15-16. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. “Worlds Within/Worlds Without.“
MID-ATLANTIC: April 1-2. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. “Cultural Landscapes.“
NEW ENGLAND: September 23-24. Worcester, Massachusetts at the American Antiquarian Society and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. “Sightlines: The Culture and Science of Vision.“
NEW YORK METRO: October 29. Hunter College, CUNY. “Public and Private in Urban Space.“
PACIFIC NORTHWEST: April 14-16. Portland State University, Portland OR. “Ports, Portals, and Passages.“
SOUTHERN: February 17-20. Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “Coastal Cultures/Islands and Rims: Remapping the Realm of American Studies.“
TEXAS: November 17-19. Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas. “A Sense of the Southwest.“

Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences, 2006-2007

The following chapters have announced their 2006-2007 conferences:

GREAT LAKES: GLASA will hold its next conference in 2007 at a site not yet determined.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN: The Rocky Mountain American Studies Association will hold its annual conference in Albuquerque, NM on March 24-26, 2006 at the University of New Mexico on the theme of “New Critical Regionalism.“
MID-ATLANTIC: The Mid-Atlantic ASA will hold its 2006 Conference in Harrisburg, PA, on March 31-April 1. This will be a joint conference with the Pennsylvania Political Science Assocation. The Mid-Atlantic ASA conference theme is “Politics, Power, & Culture.“ Additionally, the MAASA-PPSA Joint Conference theme is “100 Years Under the Dome: The Art and Politics of Pennsylvania’s State Capitol.“
MID-AMERICA: The annual meeting of Mid-America ASA will be held April 7 & 8, 2006, at St. Louis University. Its theme will be “American Public Cultures: Space, Performance, and History.“
TEXAS: Waco, TX, 2006. (date still to be determined)
PACIFIC NORTHWEST: The Pacific Northwest ASA will hold its 2006 conference on April 20-22, in Spokane, WA, in conjunction with the annual Get Lit! festival of writing and the arts.

Other Regional Chapter Activites

CHESAPEAKE: CHASA is continuing its Annual Fall Lecture that will rotate throughout the region’s schools.
NEW ENGLAND: To continue building bridges between secondary school and college teachers, NEASA will host a day-long conference entitled “The History Behind Our Everyday Life: Past Cultures in the Contemporary Classroom” on Friday, December 2, 2005 at Fitchburg State College.
NEW YORK METRO: NYMASA continues its popular Book Salon series with discussions of recent books in American Studies scholarship.

Several chapters have established or continue to offer prizes for scholarly work related to the regional organization, especially work by graduate students.

The Mid-America ASA offers a $250 prize for the best American Studies paper delivered at the 2005 conference by a currently enrolled graduate student.
The Kentucky-Tennessee ASA is planning a biennial prize for the best new publication on the culture, history, or society of the Tennessee-Kentucky area.
The Great Lakes ASA, in conjunction with Ohio University Press, offers an annual book prize for the best book on the region. This year’s winner is “Sales and Celebrations: Retailing and Regional Identity in Western New York State, 1920-1940” (Ohio University Press, 2004) by Sara Elvins.
The New England ASA offers the Lois Rudnick Book Prize, NEASA’s award for the best book in American studies published by a NEASA member in the past two years, and the Mary Kelley Prize for the best talk delivered at the conference by a graduate student, non-tenured faculty member, or independent scholar.

ASA Regional Chapters’ Exhibit Booth

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

ASA Regional Chapters’ Website and Handbook

The RCC continues its 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.

Revision work on the handbook continues, although members of the committee agreed at the 2004 meeting that the primary publication site for the handbook should be at the ASA web site, where it can be easily updated.

Intercommittee Activity and Regional-National Coordination Efforts

At the 2004 annual meeting, the RCC met with Michael Frisch, chair of International Committee, to discuss ways in which regionals, international ASAs and public organizations might work mutually to further individual goals.

For the 2005 meeting, invitations to attend have gone out to Jean O’Brien, the RCC representative to the Council; Karen Halttunen and president-elect Emory Elliott; and 2006 program chairs Alvina Quintana, Elaine Kim, and Edward Guererro. Kathleen Stoker, a member of the Secondary Schools Committee, has accepted an invitation to attend the meeting and discuss collaboration between regional chapters and secondary schools.

The 2004 annual meeting of the RCC included discussion of the proposed “Regional Projects Fund.“ Drawing initially on the unclaimed regional rebates kept in escrow by ASA, this fund would award from $500 to $3000 annually to a limited number of regional chapters. Awards would be based on innovative or special initiatives—for example, a region’s collaboration with an international ASA organization, or a special conference that brought together regional practitioners such as politicians, activists, public historians, and journalists to discuss a central issue. In late 2004, Jeffrey Miller met with John Stephens to discuss this fund, and a model request for proposals based on the ASA’s Community Partnerships Awards program is being drafted for discussion at the 2005 meeting.