Minutes 2019

Vietnam Studies Group Annual Meeting 2019 (Denver CO)

Minutes (compiled by I. Small)

Excomm members present: Maggie Bodemer (Chair), Tuan Hoang (Treasurer), David Biggs, Christina Schwenkel, Mitch Aso, John Phan, Ivan Small

New excomm members: Diane Fox, Richard Tran

Ex-officio: Michele Thompson

Excomm Regrets: Sean Fear

1. Self-introductions of the Excomm were conducted.

2. Self introduction of VSG Meeting attendees conducted. Attendees signed in on sign up sheet. (Total of 45 attendees, including excomm.)

3. Minutes for 2018 were unanimously approved

4. Chair announced results of election, new excomm members: Mitch Aso, Diane Fox, Sean Fear. Outgoing excomm: David Biggs (treasurer), Christina Firpo (chair), Michele Thompson (ex-officio).

5. Call for Dues and Donations by Treasurer (Tuan), can be paid via AAS website or collected in envelopes at meeting. A reminder email will be sent to members who have not renewed.

6. Chair (Maggie) report on SEAC: VSG very active among country sections, and has been successful in fundraising supporting many current activities and possible additional ones.

7. Treasurer (Tuan) report: $5,553.82 in current account. $210 were received in dues from February, plus there have been nearly $1000 in additional donations. There are currently 65 VSG members.

8. Journal of Vietnamese Studies (JVS) report: New journal co-editors are Charles Keith and Christina Schwenkel. Charles made a broad call for submissions on all topics and from all levels from graduate students to senior scholars. The journal is trying to be creative with novel submission formats such as interviews, translations, obituaries, etc. There is also support for publication in other languages – Vietnamese but also others, and there may be some support for translation. JVS invites proposals for special issues. Sarah Grant, the new multi-media editor for JVS, introduced a new journal cover design, which will have rotating images that can be submitted by faculty or students, with photo credit attributed. Sarah also invites film and art review contributions.

9. VSG website report: Maggie on behalf of Judith reported that the website is getting multiple visits, 2300 in the last 90 days. Top sites include 3 pages from the archived discussions and the Guide to Archives page. The total listserv membership is 1,096. There is a monthly compiled bibliography on new publications on Vietnam (based on a basic search for “Vietnam” in the title), sent out over VSG list serv. The scholar directory is being overhauled and needs updating, members should go to http://db.lib.washington.edu/vietscholars/ to update their entry, or add their name if they have not done so already. Managing the directory will require more money since UW student worker salaries are going up.

10. Grad Paper Prize: David Biggs announced the 2019 award for Cindy Nguyen (UC Berkeley) for her paper “The Social Life of Reading”.

11. VSG Panel: Christina Schwenkel announced the winner of this year’s VSG AAS sponsorship: “Regional Interpretations of Vietnam’s Revolution” with papers by Jessica Chapman, Christian Lentz and Nguyen Diu Huong.

12. Travel Award: Maggie announced this year’s travel award went to Kevin Li (UC Berkeley), who presented his paper “The Making of a Political-Criminal Nexus”

13. Rules: Maggie reported that enforcement of the VSG listserv rules has improved communication. There are posted guidelines for participating on the list-serv and a 3 strike rule.

14. Expanding Excomm: there was a Vote to expand the Excomm to 9 members (from currently 8), unanimously approved.

15. Website/Listserv: there was a Vote to raise the budget from $500 to $1000, unanimously approved.

16. There was a Vote to continue funding ($500) for grad prize, continue funding for grad travel ($200), and continue funding for travel awards ($1600), all unanimously approved.

17. New Business: there was discussion of what to do with the extra money VSG has raised including a possible pre AAS Vietnam conference, a workshop at UC Riverside, supporting Columbia’s digital Vietnamese archives, and a methods and/or other types of workshops relevant to Vietnamese studies. Since this would require some planning, there was a proposal and motion to set aside $2000 for future special projects, and the creation of a new VSG committee to oversee a CFP and review proposals for special projects. This was seconded and voted on, with unanimous approval.

18. New Business: there was a motion to expand the number of excomm members to 9, seconded and voted on with unanimous approval. Richard Tran, currently one of the excomm alternates, will fill that role. There was also a motion to create 4 officer positions within the excomm (up from 2 currently), this was seconded and approved. The excomm will decide who would like to volunteer for the additional officer positions.

19. Recognition of Service: Michele Thompson was presented with an award by the excomm for her many years of dedicated service to VSG.

20. Announcements: all attendees introduced themselves and announced recent publications, forthcoming conferences, and other professional achievements.

21. The next VSG meeting will be at AAS 2020 in Boston, MA.

22. Attendees: George Dutton, Haydon Cherry, Ann Marie Leshkowich, Mark Sidel, Janet Hoskins, Ben Kerkvliet, Melinda Tria Kerkvliet, Hang Ngo, Pingtjin Thum, Hoang Minh Vu, Richard Tran, Lan Ngo, Maggie Bodemer, Michele Thompson, Christina Schwenkel, Sarah Grant, Jamie Anderson, Christian Lentz, David Biggs, Diu-Huong Nguyen, Jacob Weger, Paul Schuler, Pham Thi Thanh Huyen, Binh Ngo, Hoang Cam Giang, Christian Culas, Alec Holcombe, Cindy Nguyen, Dat Nguyen, Anh Le, Kevin Li, Ken Maclean, Diane Fox, Chan Phan, Tuong Vu, Pam McElwee, Ngoc-Mai Phan, Thuy Tranviet, Charles Keith, Ivan Small, John Phan, Mitch Aso, Sean David Christensen, Nhu Truong.