Vietnam Studies Group

Business Meeting, March 28, 2003

Minutes

Meeting convened at 7:10 pm. VSG Executive Committee members present: Nora Taylor, Chair, Mike DiGregorio, Frank Proschan, Judith Henchy (Ex-Officio).

Chair introduced members of the delegation of Vietnamese ethnologists supported by the Ford Foundation to participate in the both the "Vietnam in the 21st century" conference and the AAS annual meeting: Nguyen Van Huy, Director of Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, To Ngoc Thanh, Ngo Duc Thinh, Do Quang Hung, Nguyen Chi Ben, Phan Thi Yen Tuyet, Ba Trong Phu, Le Hong Ly and Truong Huyen Chi.

Minutes from 2002 meeting were approved

Chair announced that VSG donated $1,500 to the University of Washington for continuing work on the Vietnam Researcher Database. Remaining VSG funds amount to 567.64. Chair reported that the Southeast Asia Council of the AAS was very impressed with VSG funding activities and promised to help support future efforts.

With nine panels on Vietnam at the 2003 meeting, Vietnam panels are once again the largest group of panels within Southeast Asia. Kenneth George, Southeast Asia program coordinator for the 2003 meetings congratulated VSG for its high number of panel proposals.

Chair reported that Ford Foundation continues to fund the participation of Vietnamese scholars in AAS annual meetings. Southeast Asia Council also agreed to fund one or two scholars from Southeast Asia to travel to the United States whether for an AAS meeting or not.

Chair reported that the American Anthropological Association is interested in forming a Southeast Asia section and needs 250 signatures to create a group. Those interested should contact: Jennifer Munger at jhmunger@wisc.edu.

Hue Tam Ho Tai reported on the conference entitled "Vietnam in the 21st century: Journeys on the Ground and in the Imagination" held at the American Museum of Natural History March 22-23. 19 papers were presented in both Vietnamese and English.

Chair announced the "Vietnam: Journeys of Body, Mind and Spirit" exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History along with several exhibitions of Vietnamese art held in New York City galleries during the month of March including: Vietnamese Woodblock Prints at the International Print Center; Le Thiet Cuong at Plum Blossoms Gallery and Tran Luong at the Cave in Williamsburg. The exhibition at the AMNH will travel to Hanoi in 2004.

Chair asked group if anyone was interested in creating new listserves for the Vietnam scholarly community. Judith Henchy replied that she did not see a need considering Christopher Goscha's list based in France which already overlaps with VSG listserve. Michele Thompson mentioned that there are already a number of other subject specific lists, especially those lists administered by Vern Weitzel on social sciences, development and medicalsciences [devel-vn]. Chair mentioned the success of thewww.talawas.org virtual roundtable discussion as an example of possibilities for bringing scholars of Vietnam around the world together over the internet.

Chair announced that Fulbright had called on Vietnam scholars to submit applications for research in Vietnam. Frank Proschan clarified that the Fulbright scholar program administered by CIES has expanded its Vietnam and regional SE Asia opportunities and is looking for good applicants, especially in the research grants.

Future conferences were announced including: ICAS in Singapore in 2003, EUROSEAS in 2004, the International Vietnamese Studies Conference in Ho Chi Minh City in 2004 and EuroViet in 2005. Mike DiGregorio, Ford Foundation Program Officer in Hanoi, added that the Ho Chi Minh City conference aims at a 500 person attendance and has discussed a possible theme as "Vietnam on the road to development and integration."

Michele Thompson proposed a panel for the AAS meetings in San Diego in 2004 on Traditional and Colonial Period Medicine.

Jayne Werner asked about availability of Vietnamese films for classroom use. She asked "Who houses the films? Who makes them available to institutions? Judith Henchy replied that some films are housed in Wisconsin at the South and Southeast Asia Video Archive, although their Vietnam holdings are limited. See:http://webcat.library.wisc.edu:3200/SEAvideo/ . Mike DiGregorio responded that UCLA film archives has some. See: http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/access/access_f.html. One member added that two film directors came to the Joiner Center in Boston and some films may be available there. University of Washington has good holdings, both in the Libraries and the Center. See: http://depts.washington.edu/seac/media/media.html, as does the University of Hawaii. The problem is with distribution for teaching. Another member announced that there was a Vietnamese film festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last November but it was not announced on the VSG listserve. She also added that Tran Van Thuy had been at the William Joiner Center in Boston all year and travelled to various film festivals and talks and had copies of his films "Chuyen Tu Te" and "Violin at My Lai" with him. Pam McElwee commented that films are available but they are difficult to gain access to. Quang Phu Van (Vietnamese lecturer at Yale) announced that he had met with the head of Hang Chuyen Phim Viet Nam last summer and that they were open to making available a center for film distribution in the US; there is some talk that Trang Tran (who is living in Hartford and is the editor of the Vietnamese language magazine Nhip Song) may try to take this on. Anyone who wants to know if this comes through can contact quang.van@yale.edu. Susan Hammond from the Fund for Reconciliation and Development announced the availability of "Song of the South" on DVD for purchase through the FRD. Frank Proschan suggested that VSG support the development of a filmography and guide to what films are available where, in what formats; this could be a worthwhile project for getting further funds from AAS or SEAC. Nobody in attendance volunteered to undertake such a survey, but anyone interested is encouraged to contact the VSG chair.

Three new officers were elected to the Executive Committee:

Michele Thompson of Southern Connecticut State University

Truong Huyen Chi of the Vietnam National University

And Pamela McElwee of Yale University.

Continuing members are:

Nora Taylor, Arizona State University, Chair, term ending in 2005

Shaun Malarney, International Christian University, term ending in 2004

Helen Chauncey, University of Victoria, term ending in 2004

Steve Graw, Cornell University, term ending in 2004

Michael DiGregorio, Ford Foundation, Hanoi, term ending in 2004

Oscar Salemink, Free University, term ending in 2005

Frank Proschan, Smithsonian, term ending in 2005

Meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm

Post-conference announcements: Peter Zinoman was awarded the 2003 Benda award for his book Colonial Bastille: A History of Imprisonment in Vietnam 1862-1940, University of California Press, 2001; A group of VSG members drafted a letter to the editor of the New York Times denouncing the war in Iraq.

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