2003 EASIA Annual Report

East Asian Studies in Anthropology

November 24, 2002~November 23, 2003

1. Year's Activities

a. Membership and Budget

The East Asian Studies in Anthropology section came into existence as a new section in 2001-2002, so we are still focusing on membership expansion. Our membership grew to 391 as of October 2003, an increase of 17 from the prior year. Our balance as of October 2003 was $7,119.07. We had no expenditures from the 2003 budget, but have allocated money for section prizes that we will inaugurate in 2004 (see e. below). After many months of exploring the possibility of arranging subsidies for journal subscriptions for section members, we decided not to pursue this option.

b. Executive Board

Outgoing Executive Board Members in 2003 were Ted Bestor (President), Sarah Soh (Treasurer), Jerry Eades (Councillor), Laura Nelson (Councillor), Yunxiang Yan (Councillor) and Pearl Chan (Student Councillor). We held elections in Spring 2003 and the Executive Board members for 2004 are:

Laura Miller (President) lmille2@luc.edu

Fuji Lozada (Secretary) erlozada@davidson.edu

Yunxiang Yan (President-Elect) yan@anthro.ucla.edu

Ted Bestor (Past President) bestor@wjh.harvard.edu

Joseph Bosco (Treasurer) josephbosco@cuhk.edu.hk

Gordon Matthews (Councillor) cmgordon@cuhk.edu.hk

Millie Creighton (Councillor) milliecr@interchange.ubc.ca

Sonia Ryang (Councillor) sonia.ryang@jhu.edu

Avron Boretz (Councillor) aboretz@uts.cc.utexas.edu

Dawn Grimes-MacLellan (Student Councillor) maclelln@gol.com

Priscilla Song (Student Councillor) psong@fas.harvard.edu

Jerry Eades (2004 Program Editor) jse@apu.ac.jp

c. Meeting Program

Given our small membership we had a strong presence on the 2003 annual meeting program in Chicago. The papers and panels were all of high caliber, and all of them drew moderate to large audiences. Our section had a total of nine sessions on the program (1 invited, 3 organized, and 5 created from individually volunteered papers), for a total of 70 papers. The 2003 Invited Session was "The Politics of Appearance in East Asia," organized by Susan Brownell and Bonnie Adrian. A problem our section experienced this year at the Annual Meeting was that for the second time in a row the cash bar reception we requested did not materialize. We had a large turnout for our section's general meeting, and many parched and frustrated members afterwards.

The 2004 Program Committee is:

Jerry Eades (2004 Program Editor) jse@apu.ac.jp

Susan Blum (2005 Program Editor) sblum@nd.edu

Brian McVeigh mcveighyuen@cox.net

d. Nominations

During 2003 we succeeded in setting in place a nominations procedure for future elections. We began planning for a new slate for the spring 2004 elections and appointed a new

Nominations Committee. Members of the 2004 Nominations Committee are Fuji Lozada, Joe Bosco, Millie Creighton and Dawn Grimes-MacLellan.

e. Inauguration of Section Prizes

During 2003 we finalized our deliberations for three new prizes to be given by our section, a book prize, student paper prize and media award, each with a cash award of $200. The prizes are:

Francis L.K. Hsu Book Prize: Awarded annually to recognize outstanding work in the Anthropology of East Asia, the Hsu Prize is given to the English-language book published in the previous calendar year judged to have made the most significant contribution to the field. Reference works, translations, textbooks, edited works and anthologies are not eligible. Members of the Hsu Book Prize Committee are judges Laurel Kendall and William Kelly (with a China-area specialist to be added), and Laura Miller (clearinghouse only).

Ted Bestor Best Student Paper Prize: A prize will be awarded annually for the best student paper on any aspect of East Asian Anthropology and/or East Asian Anthropology's contribution to the broader field. Individuals must be in a degree-granting program at the time of their submission, and must be a member in good standing of the East Asian Studies in Anthropology section. Members of the Bestor Best Student Paper Prize Committee are Fuji Lozada, Gordon Mathews and Avron Boretz.

David Plath Media Award: A prize will be awarded annually for the best Work (Film, Video, Audio, and Multimedia) on any aspect of East Asian Anthropology. Members of the Plath Media Award Committee are Laura Miller, Mayfair Yang and Nancy Abelman.

f. Communications

Communication channels for the East Asian Studies in Anthropology for 2003 included the section column in Anthropology News, the EASIANTH listserve, and the AAA Website.

Anthropology News column: We appointed two new co-editors for the section column in AN. Our column has consistently been one of the best in AN, and we are confident the new Editors will continue the superior job begun by our first Editor, Fuji Lozada. Our column has featured recent research by specialists of Korea, mainland China, Taiwan, Chinese ethnic minorities, Japan, Okinawa, and Japanese ethnic minorities.

Anthropology News column Co-Editors:

Bonnie Adrian badrian@du.edu
Ann Frechette afrechet@hamilton.edu

AAA Website: Because we have had the services of David Wiggins, a talented member who designs our website, the East Asian Studies in Anthropology section has one of the best AAA websites. It has excellent graphics, links, member lists of publications, calendar, event listing, and other rich aspects. AAA Website Webmaster:

David Wiggins wigdawei@yahoo.com

EASIANTH Listserve: EASIANTH is an unmoderated list with more than 300 members. It has been in existence for several years and continues to be an active vehicle for membership news and announcements, brainstorming for session ideas, and lively debate. EASIANTH Listserve Managers:

Ted Bestor bestor@wjh.harvard.edu
Denise O'Brien d-obrien@vm.temple.edu

2. Future Activities

The main project we will be focusing on in 2004 is getting the word out about our section prizes and making sure we have good submissions for consideration. In 2003 we decided that our section would publish and mail out an annual newsletter in 2004. The Editor for the newsletter will be Fuji Lozada (erlozada@davidson.edu). Our membership is concerned that the concept of area studies is under assault by the U.S. government, and we are working on ways to help members counter this threat. In addition to suggestions on how to write letters in support of area studies, we are considering holding an open forum or other event at the 2004 annual meeting. We will continue to plan for the eventual production and mailing of a multilingual brochure (with Chinese, Japanese, Korean). We have also been discussing the idea of posting syllabi, course materials, lesson plans and other materials on our section website for access by members only, and will continue to explore this idea. Finally, we will continue to brainstorm on ways to increase contacts and collaborations between the section and counterpart anthropological organizations based in East Asia and elsewhere.

About AAA / Join AAA / Jobs & Careers / AAA Meetings / AAA Publications
Sections & Interest Groups / Staff Directory / Anthro Links / Support AAA

Questions or comments? We want to hear from you!
Contact us / AAA Privacy Policy