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ASA-JAAS
ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee 2006
The purpose of this committee is to coordinate the participation of delegates from the ASA to the annual conference of the Japanese Association for American Studies (JAAS), under a grant from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission (JUSFC). Coordination, in active collaboration with the International Committee of the JAAS, includes the writing of grant proposals and reports to the JUSFC, the selection of delegates through a call for applications from the ASA membership, and the promotion of long-term benefits to scholars and the organizations on both sides of the exchange.
On 9-10 June 2006 at Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan Professors Curtis Marez and Paul Kramer, the two ASA delegates, and the ASA President, Karen Halttunen, spoke in the fortieth annual conference of the JAAS. On the day prior to the conference, they also took part in an anniversary symposium, “Framing American Studies in Trans-Pacific Perspective.” The three went on also to deliver talks and speak with other university and public audiences in Japan. President Halttunen’s itinerary included talks and meetings in South Korea as well, thanks to our colleagues in the American Studies Association of Korea (ASAK) and to the US Embassy, Seoul. The two ASA delegates to the conference in Japan were funded by a grant from the Japan-US Friendship Commission (the ASA President by the US Embassy, Tokyo). According to the reports of the travelers and of Professor Naoki Onishi, the Chair of the JAAS International Committee at the time, the project was again eminently successful.
In July 2006 Professor Onishi, Professor Juri Abe (who has succeeded Onishi as Chair of the JAAS International Committee), Professor Gary Okihiro (who had spoken and met with the other two at the anniversary symposium in Nagoya), and I worked together to propose the themes for the two workshops that the ASA delegates will join for the JAAS conference in 2007. The proposal is for the third year of the three-year cycle titled “Bridging the World(s): Contributions of American Studies in Times of Conflict.” The two workshop themes are: “Migrating Cultures,” concerning cultures and their movements, interactions, and outcomes; and “Whose ‘America’ in American Studies?,” a question increasingly asked when “international” scholars of American Studies ponder how to see and signify their relation to “America,” the object of their studies, compared with how “we” American scholars may somewhat liberally use the term “we” to include ourselves in our object of study, America. Both themes have been raised in discussions of other themes in previous years. The attempt this time is to make the themes explicit and central to the workshops. The call for applications based on the proposed themes has been disseminated. The JUSFC has approved the proposal for continuing the grant into the final year of this cycle.
The ASA annual conference in Oakland, 2006, will feature an ASA-JAAS Roundtable: “The American Studies Association-Japanese Association for American Studies Project: Critiques and Accomplishments.” Executive Director John Stephens has sent an announcement of this session (Friday, 13 October, 12:00 p.m.-1:30 p.m.) to as many “alumni” of the project as could be contacted by email. The roundtable was proposed by Professor Hiroko Sato upon her retirement from the ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee. The roundtable speakers include Professor Gail Nomura, who did major work on organizing the roundtable, Professors Masako Notoji, Naoki Onishi, Vicki Ruiz, Natsuki Aruga, Fumiko Fujita, and myself. Obviously, each of us will have to speak only briefly. It is hoped that the discussion will be by the audience, among them participants in the project over the years since 1989-1990.
The Advisory Committee will meet at noon on Saturday, 14 October 2006, at the ASA conference, to select the next two delegates. The membership of the Committee this year includes Professors Marez and Kramer and our outgoing President, Karen Halttunen. Thanks to them for doing a highly commended job in Japan.
Respectfully submitted,
Stephen H. Sumida
Chair, ASA-JAAS Project Advisory Committee
University of Washington
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