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Regional Chapters Committee
Report from the Regional Chapters Committee 2003
Annual Report of the Committee on Regional Chapters
Submitted by Jeffrey S. Miller, Chair
Membership
Members of the Regional Chapters Committee include:
Jeffrey S. Miller, Mid-America ASA, Augustana College (June 2006)
Renee Bergland, New England ASA, Simmons College (June 2006)
Thomas Bonner, Southern ASA, Xavier University (June 2005)*
Linda J. Borish, Great Lakes ASA, Western Michigan University (June 2004)
Donna M. Campbell, Pacific Northwest ASA, Gonzaga University (June 2005)
Renny Christopher, California ASA, California State University, Channel Islands
(June 2005)
Dale Cockrell, Kentucky-Tennessee ASA, Vanderbilt University (June 2004)
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)
Alex Lubin, Rocky Mountain ASA, University of New Mexico (June 2006)
Martha Swearingen, Chesapeake ASA, University of the District of Columbia
(June 2006)
Executive Director: John F. Stephens, ex officio, American Studies Association
*The president of SASA serves as Regional Chapters Committee representative. That term is two years, not the three served by other committee members.
Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences (2003)
The following regional chapters held annual conferences during the 2003 calendar year:
California: April 11-13, Holiday Inn Capitol Plaza, Sacramento. “Talking Culture” (with the California Folklore Society).
Chesapeake: April 5-6, University of Maryland, College Park. “Bridging the Divide: American Studies in Theory and Practice.“
Mid-America-Great Lakes: April 11-13, University of Iowa, Iowa City. Open theme.
Mid-Atlantic: May 1-3, Scranton, Pennsylvania. “American Migration, Immigration, Integration” (with the Pennsylvania Black History Conference/Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission).
New England: April 25-27, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, Connecticut: “God’s Country?:Religion and American Culture.“
New York Metro: November 8, New York Historical Society. “The Meaning of
Things: Ordinary and Extraordinary Objects in American Culture.“
Pacific Northwest: April 10-12, Inn at Spanish Head, Lincoln City, Oregon:
“American Dreams, American Nightmares.“
Southern: February 7-9, Florida State University, Tallahassee. “Regionalisms in This Age of Globalization.“
Regional Chapters’ Annual Conferences (2004)
The following chapters have announced their 2004 conferences:
Mid-America: April 17-19, University of Kansas, Lawrence. “Forging Communities: American Studies, Indigenous Nations Studies, and First Nations Peoples.“
Middle Atlantic: April (specific dates not yet announced), Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The conference theme will deal with media in America.
New England: April 16-18, Peabody Essex, Salem, Massachusetts. The conference theme will address “New England beyond New England.“ Co-sponsored with the Center for New England Culture.
Pacific Northwest: April 15-17, Kah-Nee-Ta High Desert Resort, Warm Springs Indian Reservation, Oregon. Conference theme to be announced.
Other Regional Chapter 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.
Great Lakes: GLASA has this year begun, in association with the Ohio University Press, an award for the best book-length manuscript dealing with the culture of the Great Lakes. The inaugural winner is Sarah Elvins (Notre Dame), for her work Local Sales and Celebrations: A History of Retailing, Consuming, and Marketing in Western New York State, 1920-1940. Her manuscript is currently is being prepared for publication by Ohio University Press.
New England: The chapter is a co-sponsor of the American Studies Distinguished Lecture Series held at Penn State-Harrisburg.
New York Metro: NYMASA continues its popular Book Salon series with discussions of recent books in American Studies scholarship.
ASA Regional Chapters’ Exhibit Booth
For the sixth year running, the 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 at least six 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’ 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.
Handbook revisions continue to be a topic for discussion. It is hoped that final amendments can be considered at the 2004 convention.
Intercommittee Activity
At the 2002 annual meeting, the Regional Chapters Committee (RCC) met with Laura Barraclough and Amy Nathan 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. 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.
The Regional Chapters’ Committee hopes to meet again with members of the Graduate Students’ Committee at the 2004 annual conference in Hartford.
In other matters, the chair of the Regional Chapters Committee looks forward to participating in the inaugural All Chairs meeting in Hartford.
Regional-National Coordination Efforts
At the national conference in Washington, D.C., members of the RCC visited with ASA President Stephen Sumida and President-Elect Amy Kaplan. Both presidents helped conduct a lively discussion on the future of the ASA and regional chapters in a post-affirmative action environment. The Regional Chapters’ Committee hopes to meet with Dr. Kaplan and President-Elect Shelley Fisher Fishkin at the 2004 conference in Hartford.
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