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[ Regional Conference Dates | Regional Forum ]
MIDWEST CONFERENCE ON ASIAN AFFAIRS (MCAA) | SOUTHEAST REGIONAL CONFERENCE
These are the first of several articles that will focus on the history, development, and perhaps evolving roles and priorities of the AAS regional conferences. Similar contributions from the other regional groups are encouraged, and should be directed to Michael Paschael, mpaschal@aasianst.org.
by Sidney DeVere Brown, the University of Oklahoma
Unlike some others, the Midwest regional conference began operations independently of the national organization, meeting for the first time at the University of Oklahoma in Norman during Thanksgiving vacation of 1952 as the Far Eastern Affairs Conference. A decade later, in 1962, it was renamed the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs (MCAA), and came formally under the wing of the Association for Asian Studies in 1967.
The handful of Asianists at universities in the region most remote from the coastal universities served by AAS were a "lonely bunch," and responded readily to the invitation of Percy W. Buchanan, our founder, to gather at his university in 1952. A former Presbyterian missionary to Japan, Buchanan became a missionary to the cause of promoting Asian studies, served as first president of the foundling organization, and then its executive secretary until it was up and running on its own.
Older prewar Asia hands who joined the new group reached accommodation with new Ph.D.s from the fledgling postwar centers, and for some of them loyalty to the conference lasted a lifetime. Rudolph Bjorgan of Wartburg College in Iowa, for example, attended every meeting from the beginning in 1952 up until his death in 1998. Research scholars in neighboring universities of the region befriended their counterparts; professors exchanged information on classroom teaching and summer institutes for teachers; and collegiality with peers in one’s own field became possible for the isolated scholar. We met, dispersed, but always kept in touch, and encouraged one another in an era when being an Asianist was not easy in the remoter parts of the Midwest.
MCAA has developed a sense of its own history by publishing the list of past presidents and of conference locations in its program annually. A glance at the roster of presidents reveals that a substantial number of them are of Asian descent, more than in the national organization, a point which Samuel Chu of Ohio State University makes. Several women have served as president, and in one instance husband and wife of Asian heritage have served as president (at different times), John Oh of Marquette University, and Bonnie Oh of Loyola University. In the early years conference meetings were held more often in Kansas than in other states, but after the conference leaped the Mississippi River for the first time in 1959 to gather at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, the state of Illinois became the most favored meeting ground, in recognition of the larger membership in that part of the Midwest. Early on the Big Eight universities were central to the organization, but more recently the Big Ten universities have held meetings most frequently. Meantime, two of the original states were pared off by a national committee of the AAS in 1973 when Oklahoma was assigned to the Southwest Conference and Colorado to the Western Conference, while still allowing some choice of conference membership for individuals. Throughout its existence, meetings of the MCAA have commonly alternated between major universities and small colleges, in recognition of the boost which it gives to Asian studies locally in either setting.
An early president, Robert K. Sakai of the University of Nebraska, established and edited a handsome, hardcover annual volume of selected papers which was published by the University of Nebraska Press for eight years, 1960–67, then after he left the region, was put out for two more years by the University Press of Kansas. Grant Goodman, another past president, set up the MCAA archives at the University of Kansas library, so that the organization’s most important records are carefully preserved to this day. Although meetings move around, some continuity is provided by having the executive secretary serve for three years, and by finding unusually conscientious people for that position, which is currently held by Roy S. Hanashiro, University of Michigan, Flint.
Annual meetings which first attracted 15–20 registrants now have 200–300 people in attendance, and have grown in comprehensiveness. The president of AAS usually speaks (George C. Cressy was the first in 1959), prominent guest speakers are often featured (C. Northcote Parkinson, on "The Renaissance of Asia," in 1959, for example), professionals in the performing arts usually have an evening (Indrani and her dancers, 1961), feature films are shown (Snow Country, a Japanese film, in 1969), and workshops are held for secondary school teachers (as in the program featuring Frank Gibney at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, 1995).
Annual prizes for graduate essays, an undergraduate essay, and public service suggest conference priorities, and each is named for persons who have made significant contributions to the organization: the Percy W. Buchanan Graduate Prizes (one each for China and Inner Asia, Northeast Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia), the Sidney DeVere Brown Undergraduate Prize; and the Jackson and Caroline Bailey Outreach Prize.
The conference has endured, then developed, and now flourishes as it approaches its forty-ninth annual meeting at Indiana University in Bloomington. It is nearing the half-century mark with an important record of accomplishment, and expects that the coming half-century will be a time of growing interest in Asia, and of organizational development.
by Kenneth W. Berger, Duke University and Howard Federspiel, Ohio State University
The Southeast Regional Conference first met in January 1962 at Duke University under the sponsorship of Duke University and the Duke Endowment. The first meeting was attended by about 60 people, mostly from colleges and universities in the region, and featured three panels, on Asian Literature, Asian Communism and South Asian Politics.
Robert Crane, then a faculty member at Duke University, and formerly Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Asian Studies, led the founding effort supported by a number of other scholars from Florida, the Carolinas and Virginia. This group acted as godparents during the first decade, providing formal leadership from its members and locating places for the annual session to meet. In that initial period much of the financial support came from the colleges and universities that acted as host; that still remains the case to some degree. A subvention from the national organization was instrumental in keeping membership fees nominal, thereby aiding recruitment of members.
Membership in the Conference in the first decade remained at about sixty people, followed by a surge to about two hundred in the era of the early 1970s. Since that time the attendance has hovered between 150 and 175. Geographical location of the meeting has affected attendance, with meetings in Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia more likely to draw larger attendance than those in the peripheral regions.
Organizational direction is centered in a group of officers, some elected and others appointed, that has grown in size as the conference has taken on new functions. Currently the elected officials are the vice president, who in turn serves as president, past president and past past president; and members-at large, who now number three and serve staggered three-year terms. Foremost among the appointed officials is the secretary-treasurer, the main resource of stability for the organization; since first appointed in 1970 there have been only four incumbents: John R. C. James, Robert Mildram, David White and Derek Waller. The editor of SERAS is also a position demanding continuity, with the four editors (Howard Federspiel, Hal French, Ken Berger and Larry Kessler) each having served a minimum a five years. The program and local arrangements chairs are one-year appointments, while the outreach coordinator serves a multi-year term. Also serving on the executive committee are the Council of Conferences representative, and, in an ex-officio capacity, the conference archivist.
This executive committee meets several times during the conference meeting and keeps in touch throughout the remainder of the year. The main activity is, of course, planning and running the annual meeting, but over time other issues have included the relationship with AAS organization and whether holding our meetings in January—even in the southeast!—is the best time to challenge the weather. There are also annual tasks dealt with by committees, such as nominations and the student paper prizes.
The meeting has followed a general format, similar to those of the other regional conferences, since its inception, although there has been some variety. For example, the meetings once ran Thursday evening through Saturday noon, and now run Friday evening through Sunday noon. Typically there are just a few roundtables or panels on the first evening; three sessions of panels on the full day, along with a business luncheon, the AAS president’s presentation, and an evening reception and cultural performance; concluding with a session of panels on the final morning. The topics of the panels—scholarly, educational, informational—are also similar to those of the other conferences, though over time those on China and India have predominated, with a healthy selection on South Asia and Southeast Asia (especially Vietnam).
The conference is particularly proud of several special and even unique activities.
Publications: For two decades the conference has published the Annals, beginning in 1979 under the editorship of Howard Federspiel. It includes the best papers presented at the annual meeting, as judged by a set of readers and editors, as well as other meeting materials: program, registrants, abstracts, etc. In 1994, the name of the publication changed to the Southeast Review of Asian Studies (SERAS). In addition, there are two series of Occasional Papers, one on special collections in the region, and the other on conference history.
Archives: The SEC/AAS has also the first conference archives, begun under Ken Berger in 1985. It is at the Duke University Library, and contains papers presented at meetings, official documents and miscellaneous correspondence and materials related to the annual meetings, publications, interactions with AAS, etc.
Student Prize Papers: In 1985, the conference began its student prize competition. Submissions nominated by faculty in the region are reviewed by members of the executive committee, with awards (including a $100 prize) to the outstanding undergraduate and graduate papers.
Outreach: There is a long tradition of presenting panels and programs specifically focused on the needs of primary, middle school and secondary school teachers. There is now a position on the executive committee for the outreach coordinator.
Further information about the conference, its meetings, publications and activities is available at its website: http://www.uky.edu/Centers/Asia/SECAAS/
See also:
Howard M. Federspiel (ed. and comp.), A Guide to the Programs of the Southeast Conference, Association for Asian Studies, for the Years 1962–1986. S.l.: Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, 1986.
Kenneth W. Berger (ed.), Asian Studies in the Southeast: A Twenty-Five Year Retrospect. S.l.: Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, 1987.