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ASA-JAAS
ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee 2005
Since 1989 the ASA has sent delegates to the annual conferences of the Japanese Association for American Studies (JAAS) in late May or early June. The ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee consists of members of the ASA who work with their JAAS counterparts to select ASA delegates by means of a call for paper proposals, to advise about and coordinate the delegates’ travels to and within Japan for various speaking engagements, to assign themes to conference sessions where ASA delegates will speak, and to work on the annual and three-year cycles of grant proposals for funding of the project. Since 1989 the ASA-JAAS project has been funded by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC). The ASA-JAAS project collaborators frame and propose themes for three-year cycles of funding; annually the ASA reports to the JUSFC and proposes a budget and themes for the ASA delegates’ workshop sessions for the next JAAS conference, within the three-year cycle. Once the JUSFC approves a three-year cycle, approval is needed as well for each year. The President of the ASA travels to Japan to deliver a plenary speech in the JAAS conference and to speak elsewhere. This travel by the President is funded by the Cultural Affairs Office of the US Embassy in Tokyo. In all, an aim of the ASA-JAAS Project is to foster lasting collegial relationships among the participating American and Japanese scholars. To this end, through its “Next Generations Initiative” the Project enables young scholars to participate: graduate student members of the JAAS who are studying in the US are selected to receive travel subsidies to attend the annual ASA conference.
In 2005 a new three-year cycle began, under the overall theme of “Bridging the World(s): Contributions of American Studies in Times of Conflict.“ The session theme for one ASA delegate was “Negotiating the National and International in the American Experience”; the other was “Hiphopping America: Dimensions of Mainstreaming Cultures.“ Professor Carla Peterson addressed the former theme with a paper on “African-American Cosmopolitanism in the Nineteenth Century.“ Professor Patricia Chu spoke on the theme of her session with a paper on “Hopping to Japan and Back: Japanese American Narratives of Return.“ As President of the ASA, Professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin delivered her plenary address, “Asian Crossroads: The Transnational Turn in American Studies.“ The JAAS conference took place on 3-4 June 2005 at Kyoto University. Immediately following the conference, Professor Naoki Onishi, the Chair of the JAAS International Committee, reported warmly on the success of the ASA participants for their work in the conference.
The annual meeting of the ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee with members of the JAAS International Committee will take place on Friday, 4 November 2005 at the annual conference of the ASA. Joining the Committee following the conduct of business will be the JAAS graduate students who have been awarded travel grants, other Japanese scholars participating in the conference, and other guests. Current members of the Committee are this year’s ASA delegates, Professors Chu and Peterson; the ASA President who led this year’s delegation, Professor Fishkin; and Professors Gary Okihiro, Gail Nomura, Hiroko Sato, and myself, who were serving while the Committee was being established in its present form in 1998 and have remained on the Committee since then. John Stephens is an ex officio member and has been vital to the continuance of the project.
In addition to selecting ASA delegates to the next JAAS conference, at the November 2005 meeting the Committee will discuss how best to rotate the membership of the Committee. Another item on the agenda is the elaboration of a website for the Project, to include such information as the names and addresses of ASA delegates and JAAS International Committee members, papers delivered by the delegates and ASA Presidents, travel advice, and more.
The 2006 JAAS conference will mark the organization’s fortieth anniversary. It will be held at Nanzan University, in Nagoya, on 9-10 June. On 8 June a special international symposium (on the occasion of the anniversary) will be devoted to “Framing American Studies in Trans-Pacific Perspective,“ featuring speakers from six countries. Professor Okihiro has been invited to be a speaker. Professor Karen Halttunen, President of the ASA, will lead the ASA delegation. The two ASA delegates, to be selected, will be placed in workshops with the themes, “Relocating ‘America’ in American Studies” and “New Dynamics between the United States and the Asian/Pacific Community.“
By far the busiest part of the work of coordinating the Project falls not on the Project Advisory Committee at the ASA end of things but on members of the JAAS International Committee, some of whom work year-round and especially at their conference time to host our ASA travelers and to help arrange for their talks at other universities in Japan. With gratitude, I name them again: Professors Juri Abe, Noriko Shimada, Julie Higashi, Hisako Yanaka, Masako Iino, Masako Notoji, and Naoki Onishi (Chair). In his enthusiastic, informal report following the 2005 JAAS conference, Professor Onishi cited Professor Yanaka for special praise and thanks for her tireless and efficient work in arranging for the visits. This year Professor Onishi himself had a special accomplishment related to the Project: he procured a grant to subsidize the travel of a graduate student from Japan to the ASA conference (travel from Japan to the US not being fundable by the JUSFC). Mr. Mark Davidson, the Cultural Affairs Officer at the US Embassy, Tokyo, made this grant. Thanks to both Professor Onishi and Mr. Davidson, who has long been a friend of the Project.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen H. Sumida
University of Washington
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