ANU - Asian Studies cuts
Judith A. Henchy judithh at uw.edu
Mon Mar 28 11:22:41 PDT 2016
Very grim news forwarded from the TLC list. I see that Vietnamese is one of the languages slated to be cut.
Judith
Judith Henchy
Head, Southeast Asia Section
University of Washington Libraries
-----Original Message-----
From: rels-tlc-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu [mailto:rels-tlc-bounces at groups.sas.upenn.edu] On Behalf Of Ian H
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2016 7:28 AM
To: rels-tlc-request at groups.sas.upenn.edu; rels-tlc at groups.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: [tlc] ANU
ANU celebrates excellence in Asia-Pacific studies by axing it
Ian Hollingworth
Liam Kelley liam at hawaii.edu
Mon Mar 28 21:18:54 PDT 2016
Thanks for forwarding this, Judith,
Yes, this is grim news, but what I find even grimmer is the larger lack of
attention on the part of people in area studies to think about and address
the fact that interest in languages/area studies has been declining
precipitously for years now in many places (certainly at my home
institution).
The time is long overdue for a collective "re-invention" of area studies,
such that it will have meaning for people today. In the absence of that, I
think we can only expect more of the Australian model. . .
Liam Kelley
University of Hawaii
Benedict Kerkvliet ben.kerkvliet at anu.edu.au
Tue Mar 29 00:29:23 PDT 2016
28 March 2016, Honolulu, 9 pm
Dear Liam, Judith, and other VSG folks,
Several others in the VSG list can better describe and explain what is happening to the School of Culture, History, and Language in the ANU's College of Asaia and Pacific. Being an emeritus at the ANU and not living in Canberra, I have only glimpses of what's happening to that School and to Asian studies more broadly at the ANU.
One significant aspect to highlight, though, is that the threats posed to Asian studies at the ANU have already happened in many other universities in Australia. Consequently, for some years now, the ANU has been one of but two universities or even the only university in Australia teaching Vietnamese, Thai, and other Southeast Asian languages and having credible teaching and research programs in Southeast Asian culture, history, and linguistics beyond Indonesia. Now it seems even those aspects of Southeast Asian studies will diminish or even disappear from the ANU unless protests can force the university's administrators to step back.
Myself and others have written to the top ANU officials and to the head of the College of Asia and Pacific. I've received no reply. Meanwhile, according to a recent newspaper item from Canberra, the ANU will add administrative staff to carry out the cuts (http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/anu-asian-studies-academics-face-the-axe-20160225-gn3vum.html)!!
ANU Asian Studies academics face the axe - Canberra Times<http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/anu-asian-studies-academics-face-the-axe-20160225-gn3vum.html>
www.canberratimes.com.au
Fifteen academic positions will be axed from the Australian National University's esteemed School of Culture, History and Language, which will also be renamed as part ...
Liam suggests a re-invention of area studies is needed. I'd like to learn what that might mean, how we in VSG can contribute, and what, perhaps, the AAS and other Asian studies organizations around the world might do.
Sadly,
Ben
Ben Kerkvliet
Emeritus Professor
Australian National University
Canberra
Affiliate Graduate Faculty
University of Hawai'i
Honolulu
Liam Kelley liam at hawaii.edu
Tue Mar 29 09:12:44 PDT 2016
Hi Ben,
Ah, if only I had the answer(s). What I can say is that I've definitely
observed a major change over the past 20 years, particularly the last 5-10.
This is a perspective from a single university, but it is definitely an
"area studies" university. 20 years ago I saw many more people who wanted
to learn about a place they had no connection to. I rarely see that now
(Korea perhaps is the exception). Meanwhile, the smaller number of people
who are studying about different parts of the world increasingly have a
connection to the place they are studying about (from there/emigrated when
young/1st generation immigrant) which reduces or eliminates the need for
language study.
Why do fewer people today want to learn about places they have no
connection to? I think there are multiple reasons. 1) There is not much
"mystery" or "excitement" to it anymore. In the 1990s, the Japan of the 80s
was still fresh in people's minds, China had yet to become as familiar to
people as it is today, Cambodia and Vietnam were both "opening," etc. The
"Asian Century" was on the horizon. But now a lot of that "excitement" has
passed. 2) Language study is often linked with the humanities and social
sciences. Some of the social sciences might be doing ok, but the humanities
are not. My own department has 1/2 as many History majors as 5 years ago
(basically a precipitous decline since "the Great Recession"), and 1/3 as
many as 20 years ago. The numbers of students who major in philosophy and
religion, meanwhile, is even smaller. Anthropology might be faring a little
bit better, but it has also seen declining interest. In other words, some
of the core area studies disciplines are not attracting students the way
they used to, and that has an impact on language study.
2) What job can you get that requires a language? Academic jobs are far and
few between. You don't need a foreign language to make an iPhone app.
English is getting ever more prevalent, so why study a language?
I think we can see this as related to a change from a Cold War world where
it was difficult to access and learn about different parts of the world to
a globalized world where it is easier for people from different parts of
the world to move about and bring their knowledge and linguistic skills
along with them, and easier for people to use English everywhere.
So how do you make language study important in a globalized world where
English is ever more prevalent, where you have people who know languages
through their life experiences and where people don't see how humanistic
knowledge can fit into their lives/careers? I think that question itself
shows that there are many issues that need to be addressed, but one guess
would be to look for ways to link it more clearly to things that people
actually want to do, and for which there might actually be a job. At the
moment I think in the US there is still a Cold War era mindset of "it's
important to know about other parts of the world" (and governments and
universities should realize that and support language programs, etc.). Yes
it is, but the students I see want to get a job too, so what is the link
today between learning Thai/Khmer/Vietnamese, etc. and the careers that
people can engage in? And what is the attraction?
Some universities have addressed this issue by developing more focused
study abroad programs where you go to a place to "do something" (like
sustainable development, community outreach, etc.) rather than to "learn
about the culture," which is what study abroad programs were about in my
day. Many of those programs, however, either do not require previous
language study or incorporate only a small amount of it in the program, so
they don't increase the study of languages, but I think that the emphasis
on clearly "doing something" points to an aspect of life today that is
different from when area studies developed. Students want to be able to "do
something" that aligns with their career goals, and it's not always clear
how studying a language fits with or enhances that (and one problem of
course is that in many cases it doesn't).
In a sad irony, I think a great example of a dynamic approach to area
studies that highlights that you can "do things" in foreign countries and
which certainly would attract me if I was young is the New Mandala blog at
ANU. The people who post there are from different fields, and all have a
deep knowledge of Southeast Asian languages and cultures and are all very
actively engaged with Southeast Asian societies "doing something"
(analyzing media, studying borders, etc.). I don't know why area studies
centers in the US haven't followed that model of highlighting (online) a
vibrant and multidisciplinary engagement with another part of the world, as
I think it's brilliant.
In my humble opinion, if it was the norm for area studies to be as vibrant
and as "digitally visible" as it is on that blog (rather than that blog
being unique), then perhaps perhaps perhaps that would inject some energy
into area studies and could attract some people to study languages. That's
my best guess.
But I definitely agree that the ANU case is egregious. You would think that
an argument for "national interest" would at least preserve language
programs at the national university. And the online/foreign PhD student
alternatives are ugly. So I certainly don't agree with what the
administration is doing, but at the same time that people tell
administrations and governments that languages are important, they also
need to find a way for students to see importance in languages and area
studies, as I think those of us who are already in the profession have
students who see the world and their future career paths very differently
from the way we did. That's at least what the changing dynamics at my own
area studies university suggest to me.
Liam Kelley
University of Hawaii
Tue Mar 29 14:51:13 PDT 2016
May I, a non-specialist on SE Asia but specialised on S. Asia, add a few words to this interesting discussion. We have similar problems in the USA with cutting Humanities and some languages, and several EU countries’ universities have cut revered ancient languages (e.g., Sanskrit). I’ll wager, however, that some higher education institutions in the EU have been beefing up their courses in Farsi and Arabic.
Australia presents a unique situation, perhaps. Its borders are not being crossed by hordes of migrants who speak no or little English. Recall the attempts, a few years ago after Taleban atrocities began outside of S. Asia, of desperate official calls (at least in the US) for Arabic speakers. Australia does not seem to have a desperate jihadist situation, either—as we tend to assume that we do in the USA.
I’m betting that here and across the Atlantic the study of Middle Eastern history and languages will soon be upgraded, and that concerns over Chinese expansionism will lead to more study of east Asian languages, such as Chinese, Vietnamese, and Indonesian.
Best wishes,
Joanna Kirkpatrick, PhD
Independent
www.artsricksha.com/readings
Tue Mar 29 20:07:09 PDT 2016
I had an interesting experience last year. I tutored a couple of students in Viet who wanted to do language studies and advised them to contact ANU - I'm not sure if they did, but both those students ended up enrolling in a uni and college in HCMC because it was cheaper, available online as well internal and in country. In such a context it seems a sensible choice.
Maybe another problem for area studies is simply this increased competition from the areas concerned.
Brett
Benedict Kerkvliet ben.kerkvliet at anu.edu.au
Wed Mar 30 12:31:50 PDT 2016
30 March 2016, 9:30 am, Honolulu
Thank you, Jo, for your comment, and thank you, Liam, for your thoughtful observations about area studies. The New Mandala blog folks would certainly appreciate your praise, Liam, for the site. Perhaps you've already conveyed that to them.
Ben
Wed Mar 30 15:00:56 PDT 2016
Dear All,
I wanted to say also but forgot-that the New Mandala website is outstanding
and hope its idea will be borrowed by other unis. with similar issues-loss
of Humanities and student inability to see that learning "other" languages
is a ticket to the future.
Best
Joanna K.
David Marr david.marr at anu.edu.au
Wed Mar 30 17:51:06 PDT 2016
With so many VSGers going to the AAS Conference, that's a good opportunity for you to talk about the future of Asian Studies in general and Vietnam Studies in particular. Some of us have been around long enough to remember the decade or more after 1975 when no university wanted to think about Vietnam. Then in the late 1980s (?) the Ford Foundation bailed out of area studies. Yet Vietnam studies did pick up steam during the 1990s for various reasons. The VSG list demonstrates that there are lots of lively minds out there. It's the institutional dilemmas that continue to bedevil.
David Marr
ANU
Thu Mar 31 16:45:15 PDT 2016
Hi
re the comment from David: It’s the institutional dilemmas that continue to bedevil.
You know I am not so sure about that though them again I am not sure what you mean by that. I was speaking to a more senior colleague yesterday about this very problem and his comment was quite salient: "I don't know anyone who is not on a 3 year contract". Bingo - that is the reality for us. Administration staff seem to stick round for longer but academics seem to constrained to 3 and 5 year contracts. I was sppeaking to another senior guy last year who was bemoaning the outcome of his supernnuation as his contract was cut short, while the reality for most junior colleagues also there was that they can't get a housing loan. Little room for compassion.
Add to that the idea of centralising Asian studies/language studies in one institution in one of the major centres - as distinct from regional centres, and the you have to wonder what battle is being fought.
I think "Asian Studies/languages"somehow failed to make itself relevant. I don't see the AAS organising itself into a cohesive position.
I think language and place are more more important in this interconnected world but somehow these fields need to strengthen themselves in that context.
regards
Brett