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Minutes of VSG Business Meeting, 2005 Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Chicago, April 1
At 8:10pm, VSG Chair Michele Thompson called the meeting to order. The minutes of the last VSG business meeting from spring 2004’s meeting in San Diego were unanimously approved by the attendees.
The chair gave a report on the AAS business meetings. Thompson is the VSG representative to the Southeast Asia Council of AAS. The Council is thinking of using funds to support publications on Southeast Asia but the members have not yet worked out the details nor have they decided to definitely pursue this until each representative elicited feedback from the members of each country group. The initiative was unanimously approved.
Judith Henchy then gave a report on the Translations Project Group which was founded in the 1970s, with some Ford money that supported a number of translations published by Ohio UP, now Swallow Press. Many works from this project are still commonly taught in classes, including David Marr, ed., Reflections from Captivity, including Phan Boi Chau's “Prison Notes” and Ho Chi Minh's “Prison Diary”, translated by Chris Jenkins, Tran Khanh Tuyet and Huynh Sanh Thong and Red Earth: a Vietnamese memoir of life on a colonial rubber plantation by Tran Tu Binh as told to Ha An and translated by John Spragens, Jr. Henchy also reported that the Project was considering instigating a translations prize to encourage translations.
The chair then finished the Southeast Asia Council report by informing the members that CORMSEA was considering sponsoring library and conservation research in Southeast Asia. Members of VSG can get in touch directly with CORMSEA if they knew of a particular library or archive that would be interested.
The chair then turned to discuss the financial status of VSG, which is controlled by AAS. As of now, there is $567.64 in the VSG bank account. VSG is doing about average compared to other country councils. The board, however, has some ideas on what to do with the money.
The chair asked for the members who were present at the meeting to introduce themselves:
Michele Thompson works on history of traditional Vietnamese medicine and interaction with Chinese and French medicinal practices. She also interested in other indigenous forms. She is revising her dissertation for publication under the title Northern Treasures and Southern Essences.
Patricia Pelley teaches at Texas Tech University and is currently doing research on Catholicism in Vietnam, especially evangelical work.
Judith Henchy is the Southeast Asia librarian at University of Washington where she is finishing her dissertation. She is social and intellectual historian of Vietnam in the 1930s.
Lien-Hang Nguyen is a predoctoral fellow at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC) at Stanford where she is finishing up her dissertation on the international history of the Vietnam War, 1968-1973 and will submit to Yale this summer.
Edward Miller is a teacher at Dartmouth College. He is a professor of U.S. foreign relations and Vietnam. He focuses on the Diem period.
Frank Proschan is at the Smithsonian Institute and dreams to research once again. Instead he does a lot of training, particularly of Vietnamese in the museum sector.
Wynn Wilcox teaches at Western Connecticut State University. He is interested in historiography and 19th & 20th C literature.
Olga Dror teaches at Texas A&M and has a variety of interests.
Keith Taylor teaches at Cornell University and he specializes in history and literature. As time goes by, he is becoming interested in 17th & 18th centuries.
Peter Zinoman teaches Southeast Asian history and Vietnamese history at Berkeley and is currently writing a biography on Vu Trong Phung.
Lorraine Paterson teaches at Cornell University and is interested in the Chinese connection with Vietnam at the turn of the century as well as captivity narratives of the 1890s.
Rick Ruth is a Ph.D. student at Cornell and is working on the experience of Thai soldiers in South Vietnam.
Virginia Shih is the UC Berkeley librarian. She has an M.A. from Berkeley where Peter Zinoman is her advisor. She is helping preserve Han-Nom texts.
Liam Kelley teaches world history and Vietnamese history at Manoa. He would love to do research on pre-20th century history.
Ann Marie Leshkowich teaches at Holy Cross in Anthropology. She is interested in gender entrepeneurship.
Ivan Small is a first-year Anthropology student at Cornell interested in modernization and development issues and NGOs in the Viet economy.
Dan Duffy edits website on Vietnamese literature. He taught a course at UNC on Asians in North Carolina and just finished writing about a writer-soldier who died in 1895.
Hillary Douglas is in Connecticut’s Immersion Program. She is interested in the socialization of Vietnamese threatre and the development of arts, social, cultural creativity inVietnam.
Jared Cahners is a first year Anthropology student at Madison and is interested in the Central Highlands and discourses in the multiethnic countryside.
Natalie Porter is a first year Anthropology student at Madison interested in development.
Larry Ashmun is the Southeast Asia librarian at Madison. He is giving a paper at the Thai Studies conference and is interested in Ho Chi Minh and the Highlands.
Chan Phan works at Harvard’s Yenching Library.
Van Tran is the assistant director at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) on Vietnam. She has a law background and is interested in development.
Jack Yeager is in French and gender studies at LSU. He is interested in Francophone literature with some connection to Vietnam, for example Marguerite Duras.
Rie Nakamura is at the Southeast Asia Initiative, Open Society Institute and works on ethnic minorities in Vietnam.
Jamie Anderson is at UNC-Greensboro and works on China-Vietnam relations in the 11th Century.
The chair made announcements regarding awards and prizes. The Harry J. Benda Book Prize went to Andrew Hardy for his book, Red Hills: Migration and the State of Highlands of Vietnam. In addition, Frank Proschan and Laurell Kendall were awarded the Friendship Medal from Viet Nam.
Dan Duffy announced the launching of the Viet Nam Literature Project (VNLP). Aside from publishing translations on the web, Duffy stated that he promotes the VNLP by speaking to the public and to schools. In particular, the VNLP is most interested in finding people to work with in promoting the use of Vietnamese literature including teachers who will use the materials in classrooms and who will write pedagogical suggestions that VNLP can publish. Duffy announced that as a result of his talks in March and April, VNLP has decided to change launch schedule from quarterly to monthly and will resume on that schedule in June, with a unit on the contemporary Saigon dissident poet, Nguyen Quoc Chanh.
Announcements were made regarding past conferences and exhibits on Vietnam. The chair discussed the Nom conference that took place in November 2004. The conference took place over two and a half days at the National Library. Almost all of the attendees were Vietnamese and overall, the conference was very exciting. The conference was also accompanied by a major exhibit including materials from the Vien Han-Nom such as scrolls and artwork. Thompson then asked for report on Vietnam Studies conference held in Ho Chi Minh City this summer. Proschan commented that the conference was rather sad and poorly put together. Compared to the first Vietnam Studies conference, Proschan stated that there was a drop in quality and content and although there was more democratic participation, people came to see the big names but they were missing or encouraged not to attend. Henchy stated that there was a lot of criticism from people in Saigon since the academic community was not invited. Henchy commented that there were a lot of logistical problems. For instance, Henchy did not know when she was due to present and why she was placed on a panel on literature even though she is a historian. However, Henchy stated that the conference was very interesting with many people pushing boundaries but she concurred with Proschan that the conference was partisan and not scholarly.
The chair then announced that the next AAS conference will be held in San Francisco from April 7-9. Submissions for panels will be due August 1 to AAS but regarding the VSG-sponsored panel, proposals are due to Thompson by July 10. The chair asked for suggestions of panels in the works. Proschan suggested an examination of key words and concepts generated from the Vietnam Studies listserv. For example, the montagnard discussion, the van hoa/van minh, etc. Henchy commented that it might be too difficult to put together and Thompson raised the point that it could be presented as a roundtable.
Peter Zinoman made an announcement that a group of Vietnam Studies scholars from the UC system put together a proposal to the Luce Foundation regarding a journal that would focus on three different areas: social sciences and the humanities on Vietnam; the war; and scholarship on the diaspora. The journal would be peer-reviewed and formally, though not politically, conservative. Zinoman commented that presently, there exists no journal dedicated to Vietnam Studies. Compared to other fields, Vietnam Studies is relatively young: in 1994, seventy people were hired in the U.S., England, France, and Australia. In addition, there are a growing number of graduate students working on Vietnam as well as younger faculty who do not have a journal to publish their works. The absence of a peer-reviewed journal in the field limits the availability for these younger scholars to submit their works, thereby placing them at a disadvantage on the job market or in the tenure-review process vis-à-vis other Asianists. The primary mission of the journal, then, is to recruit and publish rigorous work on Vietnam. However, funding is not completely secure and the Luce Foundation has expressed concern about the audience for such a journal. In response, Zinoman suggested linking membership of VSG to subscription of the journal.
Patricia Pelley, commenting on the overall state of the field, remarked that there is difficulty in teaching Vietnam history courses. Unlike other national histories, there is no textbook which is needed to make it a normal discipline. However, the challenges inherent in such an endeavor are immense: one would need to know Chinese, Vietnamese, Han-Nom. Nonetheless, there is a definite need to support movement in that direction.
Paul Kratowska who is the chair of SEAC stopped by the meeting to find out if the VSG had any questions and discussed the issue of declining membership of the Association. At its peak ten years ago, there were 8,000 members and has now slipped to under 7,000. Kratowska then solicited how the VSG, and particularly the younger generation including graduate students, would like to redress the decline. In addition, Kratowska asked what SEAC could do including subventions for publication and funding speakers. Conversely, he noted that 43 panels out of 213 were devoted to Southeast Asia, over-representing actual Southeast Asianist membership of AAS. Nonetheless, all of the country groups of SEAC need to address the decline in membership since it carries financial repercussions. In particular, Kratowska suggested a major development campaign including donations from members. Proschan then asked if SEAC had ever addressed the segregation of book reviews by geographic areas which works to marginalize the fields of Southeast Asia since it always comes last on the list. Kratowska responded that he does not know if the issue has ever been brought up and pointed out that the chairmanship only lasts one year so there is not much in the way of continuity making it difficult to address anything outside of elections.
The chair then turned the discussion over to membership dues which was raised last year but was left unresolved. Thompson reported that the board feels that membership is too amorphous and impinges on the board’s duty to enact some projects that come up at every VSG general meeting. In the past, VSG required its members fill out a brief form and mail in a check for $10. Due to the listserve and international database, the fee came into disuse. Since the listserve is open and unmoderated, there is no way of tracking membership and in addition, most of the subscribers do not belong to AAS. The chair noted that SEAC financially supports VSG and assumes that the discussion list subscribers are AAS members. However, the chair noted that the solution is not to do away with the list but perhaps to separate it from VSG. With a more formal organization that collects dues, the VSG could apply for more funding and could enact more of its projects. Thompson suggested a two-tiered system proposed by the board: $10 for students, $20 for non-students although exceptional cases would be handled on an individual basis. The chair also reported that George Dutton, who was not present, has already volunteered to be treasurer. In addition, part of the dues could be used to support the Vietnam Studies journal as well as broaden and democratize the elections process onto the VSG board. Votes could be made before the AAS meeting rather than be determined by members who happen to attend AAS in any given year. Proschan noted that professionalization of the field needs this move towards collecting dues and offering student paper awards. Duffy asked if there was a webservice that could run elections and the chair responded that voting process hasn’t been worked out yet.
Discussion turned over to membership fees and Vietnam Studies journal. The chair stated that the board did not know the journal would be on the agenda but suggested ways in which membership fees could help linked to support the journal. For instance, Thompson suggested that if collection started this year, Zinoman could take that to Luce Foundation. Proschan asked if membership dues could include discount to journal subscription while Henchy asked if that would also include editorial input and control option. Zinoman responded that he preferred Proschan’s suggestion and that as it stands, it looks like subscription fee would be $40/year.
Proschan then brought up issue that board was grappling with: since VSG was a child of AAS, should membership be limited to the latter’s members? Lorraine Paterson thought it was not a good idea to link the memberships which Thompson remarked then that VSG should withdraw from SEAC then. Paterson stated that graduate students are likely to let AAS membership dues lag but not for VSG. Henchy also pointed out that linking VSG and AAS membership would limit membership for the overseas contingent. Proschan suggested that membership’s benefits should only include voting and possibly discount for the journal subscription. The chair then put fees-based dues system for the VSG to vote and it was unanimously approved.
Ed Miller announced that the Vietnam Center in Lubbock would like to undertake an initiative to form an academic advisory committee to facilitate better communication between the VSG and the Vietnam Center. The initiative was a response to the exchange between VSG members and Steve Maxner regarding the CDEC documents on the VSG listserve. Miller summarized the discussion thread which included VSG members objecting to the scanning and posting of CDEC materials, which included the names of individuals, prisoners, and defectors from the war period, on-line by the Vietnam Center and Archives. Miller stated that a productive dialogue did not result on the VSG list and that communication ultimately broke down. During the Vietnam Center’s symposium this year, Miller spoke with Jim Reckner and Maxner regarding the formation of an academic advisory committee which would include seven individuals, including Reckner, Maxner and five other scholars. The Vietnam Center would like VSG to appoint one member who would serve a term of four years including attendance at an annual meeting in Lubbock that would coincide with the Center’s yearly conferences. Miller asked if VSG would be interested in participating in this initiative and if so, VSG would have to nominate a representative to the committee. Miller also stated that he could not be the VSG representative since he is already on the committee. Henchy then asked if Maxner was a trained archivist. Pelley responded that Maxner is finishing up his dissertation and does not have formal training though he has worked at the archives a long time. Henchy suggested that an archivist, perhaps from NARA, also be appointed to the committee in light of the lack of formal archival training at theVietnam Center and Archives staff.
Proschan then turned discussion toward whether VSG should partake in the initiative since it may imply endorsement with the Vietnam Center, an endeavor that should not be taken lightly. Henchy stated that VSG is already involved and given the extent of overlapping interests, there is a need for a better mechanism of engagement. Miller concurred with Henchy. Pelley then stated that VSG participation in the advisory committee would not imply that it would take part in any specific agenda but that the committee could serve as a useful function. Pelley further stated that the committee represents an extraordinary opportunity to have someone with training in Vietnam Studies at the Center which has been dominated by veterans. Duffy understood Proschan’s point but disagreed with him since he believes that Reckner and his staff do listen. Duffy further stressed the need for theVietnam Center to listen to VSG point-of-view. Miller reiterated the point that the VSG has a vested interest in joining the committee and emphasized that the Vietnam Center really does want to improve ties with VSG. Paterson then asked what the role of the VSG representative would be. Miller responded that the representative would be the contact person and serve in a communication role which would mainly be done through email. The chair called for a vote on VSG’s participation in the Vietnam Center initiative to form an academic advisory committee. One opposed, one abstained and the rest voted yes. Zinoman and Henchy nominated Lien-Hang Nguyen as VSG representative to the committee which was seconded and approved. Funding for the committee was put to a vote and denied.
In final business, the chair then announced the need to nominate and elect new board members. Next year, the chair stated, there will be a call for nominations prior to the AAS meeting but this year, there was a need to nominate three board members from the floor. In particular, the terms of Oscar Salemnik, Frank Proschan, and Hy Van Luong had expired. Proschan stated that he was willing to serve again and his nomination was seconded and approved. Duffy nominated Jack Yeager, which was seconded and approved. Miller nominated Lorraine Paterson which was seconded and approved.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:42pm.
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