Minutes 2020

VSG Annual Meeting 2020 Report - Revised after July 9th Zoom^[1]

The following were present at the Zoom July 9th meeting: Frank Proschan, Maggie Bodemer, Tuan A Hoang, Bradley Camp Davis, Christina Schwenkel, Michitake Aso, George Dutton, Judith A.N. Henchy, Ivan Small, Wynn Wilcox, John Phan, Merav Shohet, Rachel Tough, C. Michele Thompson, Martina Nguyen, Richard Tran

Membership
1. If you are reading this you must be a member! If not, please go to the AAS secure online payment link: https://members.asianstudies.org/donate-now
2. Membership dues are $20 for professionals and $10 for students/retired members.
3. Any additional funds donated will contribute to our Graduate Paper Prize and Travel Funds to the AAS Annual Meeting for students and unfunded junior faculty.
4. When you join or renew, make sure to send your receipt to VSG Treasurer Tuan Hoang at tuannyriver@gmail.com
Committee Reports

1. VSG Graduate Paper Prize (Chair: Mitch Aso): "Feeling for Fate: The Significance of the Senses in Vietnamese Buddhist Nuns’ Ordination Narratives" by Sara Ann Swenson, PhD Candidate, Communities and Identities Religion at Syracuse Univ. has won this year's graduate paper prize competition. There were a number of high quality submissions this year. The graduate paper prize winner is awarded $500 plus a $200 travel award to attend AAS, as well as a year-long membership in VSG (the travel award was not given due to the cancellation of AAS). The Committee also selected a paper for Honorable Mention: Anh Nguyen, PhD Student in History at the University of Chicago. The committee also works with the editors of JVS to encourage the paper winner to submit their paper for publication with JVS.
2. Sponsored Panel (Chair: Ivan Small): We received 4 submissions for the VSG-Sponsored Panel at AAS. Among those, the panel “Biopolitical Vietnam” organized by Claire Edington and Martha Lincoln with Chair/Discussant: Ann Marie Leshkowich and presenters Anh Sy Huy Le, Claire Edington, Martha Lincoln and Natalie Porter was selected for VSG sponsorship. VSG sponsorship is noted in the AAS program, but does not guarantee selection in the program. Happily, the VSG-sponsored panels have an excellent track record in this regard, and this year the panel was slated to take place in Boston.
  1. NOTE: AAS has decided not to do country-group sponsored panels at the next AAS, which SEAC Chair Richard Fox, told the country group chairs this month. The decision was made due to the complexity that the program committee deals with in creating the annual conference. Apparently we can still add a label “VSG” to a specific panel, once it gets accepted into the program (which is a different process than before). AAS and SEAC are still encouraging country groups like VSG to work with people to submit strong panel proposals to AAS so that part has not changed.
3. VSG Travel Award (Chair: Richard Tran): We were able to provide four travel awards this year, to individuals participating in AAS: Anh Sy Huy Le, Pham Vu Loc, Ho Thanh Tam and Nguyen Quoc Vinh. Notably, three of the awardees are scholars from Viet Nam, who were slated to participate in the Boston meeting. The awards were not paid out due to the AAS cancellation.
4. Special Projects (Chair: Christina Schwenkel): We had two awardees: Merav Shohet and Dat Nguyen, who organized a pre-AAS Vietnam workshop entitled “Silences and Reverberations.” The VSG funding of $1700 was slated to be used to support the workshop’s meals and partial-costs of housing for select participants. The workshop is tentatively re-scheduled for this Fall, depending on Covid-19 situation. Secondly, Dr. Ngo Thanh Nhan of Temple University was awarded $500 for the support of a junior scholar to participate in The First International Conference on Preservation and Advancement of the Arts of Hát Xẩm in Contemporary Society, postponed due to Covid-19. Nhan notified us that the Hat Xam conference is now planned for May 21-22, 2021 in Ninh Binh, working with VICAS and the Ninh Bình Department of Culture (cf.

http://yeswecanmusic.us/hatxam/call.html). Besides the proceedings, four papers will be selected for publication.

1. Rules: The rules committee noted that the listserve seemed to be operating smoothly, with people paying attention to the rules for the most part. ExComm discussed ways to increase discussion on VSG and to make it more lively.
2. Website (Judith Henchy): requests to keep the annual amount at $1,000 to support student work to update the website and listserv, and $60 for zotero software for compiling the bibliographies of Vietnamese studies that Judith compiles and sends out.

Financial report (Tuan Hoang, Treasurer)
1. As in previous years, the finances of VSG depended largely on dues and donations. We began the year 2019 with an opening balance of $6453.82. From January 1, 2019 to December 31, 2019, it received $1650.00 in dues and donations. Prior to the conference in Denver in 2019, VSG received $500.00 from SEAC to be used towards travel awards and support for the graduate essay prize. In other words, VSG received $2150.00 during 2019. With interest of $2.41, the total rises to $2152.41.
2. VSG’s largest expense during 2019 was $1000.00 for the VSG web services. VSG also gave out $200.00 to travel support of the winner of the Graduate Essay Prize on top of $500.00 prize money to the same winner. It gave one other travel grant in the amount of $400.00. Miscellaneous expenses came to $48.00, raising the total of expenses to $2148.00.
3. The total balance of VSG’s treasury is $6458.23 as of December 31, 2019. Since January 1, 2020 there has been an addition of $80.00 in dues and donation. It means that the balance is $6538.23 as of March 1, 2020.
4. It should be noted that VSG has committed $2000.00 to two special projects spearheaded and led by AAS/VSG members. Due to the Covid-19 cancellations, these expenditures have been postponed to 2021.
5. Membership call for 2020-2021 has gone out on VSG.
6. SEAC has committed $500 to us this year (the same as last year)
Discussion:

1. The Executive Committee discussed increasing the travel award amounts, which have been very low for some time ($200-400) and giving two graduate paper prizes or doing 1st, 2nd, 3rd prizes ($500, 250, 150?), if there are sufficient submissions that are deserving.
2. We also discussed whether to offer special projects funding again next year but it was noted that there was a burden on the Organizers and ExComm to plan and carry out the workshop. Additionally funds must be used in such a way that follows donors intentions.
3. ExComm discussed the idea of creating a “subvention” for editing submissions to JVS to help non-native English speakers to publish their research. The suggestion was that JVS editors would select the papers and VSG would fund (4 at $250/paper?). Now that JVS has been further ranked and indexed, there is more interest from scholars abroad, including Viet Nam. However an obstacle is the need for editing help, beyond what the JVS editors can do. There was discussion that this would also support junior scholars abroad, and help to further internationalize Vietnamese studies.
  1. During the meeting, we discussed more details about this idea and shared concerns. On the need for it, Christina explained that there has been an increase in submissions to JVS from Vietnamese scholars, as their requirements have increased, and also since JVS has become ranked and indexed such as in Web of Science. However there is a need for more support for many of these submissions, beyond what the JVS editors can do. This would be a way for us to support our colleagues abroad. Some suggested that we could facilitate a mentoring network that could accomplish some of these goals by pairing volunteers with those who needed help.
  2. There was the concern that helping edit papers might give the wrong impression that publication would be guaranteed. Another concern was whether graduate student members or junior faculty would want their VSG dues to be used to help others publish. Also concerns about what the process would look like, and if paying editors overseas, there are also logistical concerns.
  3. VSG members also responded to this proposal via email, seeking clarification and not necessarily agreeing with the proposal as initially described. Some wondered why it should be directed to JVS (only) and others pointed out the relationship between JVS and VSG which is parallel to that between AAS and JAS.
  4. Calvin emailed: I'd like to vote for "making Vietnamese scholarship more widely available internationally" and "Priority would be given to scholars within Vietnam, especially those who have not yet published in refereed international journals."
  5. In sum, several members present are interested in participating in some mentoring; and the proposal will be presented again at a later date.
4. We also discussed increasing the travel award budget. Usually it is $1600, for 4 awards of $400. Members agreed that $500 would be more reasonable, 4 could be offered for $2,000 total. We discussed raising the grad student travel award to $400 (double current). Members also discussed that limits need to be set on how many times a person can receive travel funding from VSG, that applicants also need to report other funding received and that lastly, to help scholars come from abroad they may need more support (all of which will be reflected on the call for applications next year and the website). Once the total amount is approved, the Travel Award committee can discuss how to disburse, depending on the applications next year.
5. It was also discussed that in future numbers these numbers may fluctuate as the balance goes down, or depending on membership. Further, since we basically did not spend our allocations for this year, it makes sense to increase everything for next year although it may need to change in future.

Voting Items (Usually we do a vote at the annual meeting, by show of hands)

1. Continue funding Website & Listserv, up to $1,000 + $60 for Zotero - APPROVED
2. Increase funding for Graduate Paper Prize from $500 to a total of up to $1,000 ($500 First Prize, $300 Second Prize, $200 Third Prize or Honorable mention). Note: multiple prizes would be awarded only if the committee deemed it suitable, given the quality of papers submitted. Additionally, these amounts may not be sustainable in future years depending on the budget. APPROVED
3. Create a Subvention for editing specific papers to be overseen by JVS editors Schwenkel and Keith for JVS $1,000 (4 x $250) “Members did not support the proposed measure as written and asked for a more extensive proposal to vote on.” POSTPONED FOR FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
4. Increase funding for Grad Travel (for paper winner) $400 APPROVED
5. Increase funding travel awards up to $2,000 (4 x $500) APPROVED

Dues: There was a suggestion to raise the dues to $25, from George. Dues have not been raised in quite some time. The group seemed to agree that this is a reasonable plan. The Chair suggested however that we wait a year when we have a meeting with the larger group. Also, since the economy is taking a massive hit from Covid, and we are still balancing our budget which is unusually high due in part to Covid and the cancellation of the meeting, so we didn’t pay out our normal costs. At the next meeting, hopefully we will be able to meet in Seattle for AAS 2021, we could bring this suggestion to the members and vote on it.

1. We can also consider making a “Vietnam” dues - probably at the grad student/retiree/adjunct rate? This should be discussed and voted on at the 2021 meeting

Listserve

1. Proposed additional rule (#7): Participants shall obtain consent and give proper attribution to VSG submissions, before posting, reposting, publishing or intentionally facilitating the publication of any post from VSG. To do so without prior approval from the original author or unless the information in the post(s) is an announcement meant for wider distribution is considered a violation of professional courtesy.
  1. Rationale: There have been several incidents of VSG posts being published or posted on people’s blogs, or in articles, without permission or approval from the authors. This lack of courtesy may serve to stifle discussion. While selected VSG posts are archived on our website and then become more or less public, the comments made on the list are not intended to be published elsewhere without permission from the author.
  2. We altered the language a bit to be less legalistic and more supporting of principles of professional courtesy. We discussed a bit also about how email is “permanent” whether we like it or not.
2. Proposed additional rule (#8): Violators of the rules may be removed by ExComm after two strikes/violations. Additionally if a person is warned by the ExComm, and replies in an abusive or belligerent way, or violates professional courtesy, ExComm reserves the right to remove that person from the list immediately. In short, an abusive response to a warning will result in immediate expulsion.

- 1. If approved, these will be posted with the other existing rules on our website: https://sites.google.com/a/uw.edu/vietnamstudiesgroup/discussion-networking

1. Formalizing a mission statement, centering dues on grad student support and support for VN based scholars *and under-funded scholars? We need to clarify the donors’ desires and create a more specific statement on our website. Donations must be used in donor’s intended purposes.
2. We discussed how to make the list more dynamic. Everyone agreed that VSGers should be encouraged to send their publication announcements or other news to the list. One idea was to ask for the community to circulate reviews of new works, and/or syllabi. Discussion also centered on modeling what we want to see on the list.
3. Internationalization: ExComm discussed increasing international participation in VSG. Ideas included reaching out to colleagues in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere. We welcome more ideas.

Member News:

1. Christina Schwenkel’s new book Building Socialism, from Duke will be out soon
2. Rachel, a PhD student at University of East Anglia shared her research plans in Saigon, which have been postponed due to Covid, on war memory among youth (or lack thereof)
3. Merav shared with us the experience of planning the pre-AAS workshop at Boston Uni, which was slated to be supported as a VSG special project. She and co-organizer Dat Nguyen expressed their regret about the postponement and communicated that it seems unlikely that the conference will proceed in the Fall as they had initially hoped. Among other things the hotel they secured a good rate with has closed due to the economic crisis.
4. Some members discussed the idea of creating a pre-AAS workshop in Seattle, or moving the Boston workshop.
5. Mitch and Ivan shared that they will be on sabbatical next year. Ivan will be in Singapore at ISEAS and Mitch in Kyoto at CSEAS.
6. Frank reported on his shortened experience as a Fulbright senior scholar in Hanoi this past year (cut short due to Covid). He reported that there was a need to work with colleagues in Vietnam to submit Fulbright proposals.

New initiatives?

1. Do people have any ideas or desires for VSG?
2. Do we want to explore facilitating or leading some sort of virtual exchange? Could send out a google doc sign up to facilitate people exchanging info. We have the scholars directory but have had trouble updating it due to software/technology. VSG could help people connect to work collaboratively across borders.
3. Do we want to explore facilitating online lectures or workshops? Due to Covid-19 many people are now teaching online, this might be a way for folks to collaborate and build their networks across borders. It seemed that there is general support for this in theory but not necessarily a strong desire to organize anything.

Elections: 6 of 9 ExComm members have terms that expire in 2021. ExComm members may choose to “re-up” for another term; and if needed we can create short terms to lessen the bad timing of this as ideally there wouldn't be that large number changing at the same time. If seats will be open, we will need to hold an election this Fall, prior to the AAS meeting in March 2021 at which the new ExComm members are inducted. Anyone who is a member of VSG may nominate or be nominated. ExComm terms are three years. Keeping up with email, serving on a committee and supporting VSG’s mission are the only requirements (besides being a dues paying member). Attendance at the annual meeting at AAS is encouraged but not required. ExComm members are asked to consider their plans, and if stepping down, to think of possible nominee(s).

1. We also discussed opening up a Graduate Student representative (which we have had in the past)
  1. There was interest in this and the group seemed to be in support. The Grad student rep, which we have had in the past, can serve on committees (except for the paper prize). If we want to do this we can add a seat at the election and ask for nominations.
2. Terms ending in 2021:

- 1. Chair: Margaret Bodemer
  2. Christina Schwenkel
  3. Ivan Small
  4. Tuan Hoang
  5. John Phan
  6. Mitch Aso

1. Terms ending in 2022:

- 1. Diane Fox
  2. Sean Fear
  3. Richard Tran

Future AAS: 2021 Seattle, 2022 Honolulu

1. Next VSG Meeting: Friday of each AAS, with ExComm/Board meeting prior to the Annual Membership Meeting

^[1] Since AAS 2020 was cancelled due to the Covid-19/Coronavirus outbreak, VSG could not have its annual meeting in person. VSG’s Executive Committee met via Zoom, then shared our report with the Membership, and opened it for comments by email and/or participation in a Zoom meeting.