MINUTES

ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING JANUARY 21, 2006

SOUTHEAST CONFERENCE, ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES

45^TH ANNUAL MEETING, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

President Farley Richmond called the meeting to order at 12:30 in the banquet room of the Sheraton Atlanta.

Local Arrangements Chair Susan Walcott introduced Dr. Lauren Adamson, the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgia State University, who welcomed the association to Atlanta. Dr. Adamson spoke of the good health of Asian Studies at Georgia State, as manifested in its various programs and international agreements.

President Richmond recognized Association of Asian Studies President Barbara Watson Andaya and the Executive Committee of the Southeast Conference.

The Minutes of the 2005 Annual Business Meeting in Lexington, KY, distributed in advance, were approved as written.

Local Arrangements Chair Susan Walcott reported that 189 people had registered in advance, and there had been a number of walk-ins; twenty teachers had registered for the teacher outreach program in Asian music. She listed a number of local sights within walking distance of the conference.

Program Chair Mark Ravina reported that the program included 102 participants and 35-36 panels. He asked for feedback on the intellectual coherence of the program’s 2006 theme and the small, two-person panels he’d set up this year.

President Richmond asked that the graduate students who had received the $200 SEC travel grants to attend the Atlanta meeting to stand, and told them to see the Secretary Treasurer, Charlotte Beahan, to get their grant checks.

Nominating Committee Chair and Vice President Bill Head announced that James Gillam of Spelman and Mark Ravina of Emory had agreed to stand for election to the position of vice president and directed attendees to the vitae on the tables. Head also announced that Veena Khandke and David Blaylock were the candidates for the three-year At-Large position on the Executive Committee. SEC members were asked to mark their ballots and turn them in to the official counters.

Charlotte Beahan gave the Council on Conferences report for outgoing SEC representative Kristin Stapleton. The AAS has voted to increase its subvention of the annual meetings of the regional associations from $1,000 to $2,000 for 2006 meetings; Stapleton thought that the Atlanta meeting would qualify for the additional money. Graduate paper prize winners in each of the regionals would be awarded a one-year membership in the AAS. A dissertation workshop is a possibility for the 2007 Nashville SEC meeting, possibly in conjunction with Vanderbilt. The Bibliography of Asian Studies is now available on-line for $5 for AAS members, a boon for scholars from smaller schools whose libraries do not subscribe to the print version. February 15 is the deadline to submit an application for an AAS outreach grant for teachers for the 2007 meeting in Nashville.

Editor Daniel A. Métraux reported on the 2005 edition of the Southeast Review of Asian Studies. Thirty-six articles were submitted for the current issue. SERAS is thoroughly peer-reviewed; three editorial readers read all the articles, and several specialists participated in several cases. Ten articles were eventually published. He encouraged SEC members to contribute to the new “Scholarly Notes” feature and to review new books on Asian studies. This year’s deadline for paper submissions is March 1; for reviews and scholarly notes, April 1. He particularly encouraged contributions by graduate students and young scholars.. The on-line version of SERAS will be posted in July. Abstracts were requested; they will appear only in the on-line version . Steven E,Gump will be the official associate editor.

Charlotte Beahan delivered the Treasurer’s Report, which had been distributed in advance. Major sources of income included dues and the AAS subvention and outreach grants; major costs included SERAS printing and distribution of the outreach grant and subvention. SEC took in $3,231 less than it spent, but still has one of the healthier cash reserves among the regional associations. She reported the Executive Committee’s decision to raise the annual SEC dues from $15 to $20 and student dues from $5 to $10. Approval of the treasurer’s report was moved and seconded; the report was approved.

Ed Krebs reported that the Auditing Committee of Ed Krebs and Marc Gilbert had found the 2005 account book in order, and thanked the secretary treasurer for her efforts.

Kate Kaup, chair of the Graduate Student paper Prize Committee, cited Lindsay McCune of Florida State University for Honorable Mention for her paper, “Dinner with Mira: The Legacy of Colonialism and Globalization in Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding.” The graduate prize went to Ricky Law of UNC Chapel Hill for “Mosaic under a Kaleidoscope: Germany in the Japanese Press, 1919-1933; his sponsor was Miles Fletcher.

Lucien Ellington of Education about Asia announced the there were currently 3,500 subscribers to EAA, and reminded the audience that AAS members got a reduced rate of $15 a year. He reminded the meeting that EAA was not just for K-12 teachers, but was very useful for undergraduate courses as well. The winter issue would be the last of the tenth anniversary year of EAA, and contained a number of special sections.

Vice president Bill Head announced that the 2007 annual meeting would be in Nashville, TN, hosted by Belmont University with Ronnie Littlejohn handling local arrangements. Harry Kuoshu of Furman University would be in charge of the 2007 program. The 2008 meeting would be in Hilton Head, with Hal French handling local arrangements.

Election results were very close. Mark Ravina was elected as the incoming vice president and David Blaylock the at-large member.

Dorothea Martin reported that four very good papers had been submitted for the 2006 Undergraduate Paper Prize, and asked members to solicit such papers from their students for future contests. This year’s prize went to Andrew Bozio of the University of Kentucky for “Interpreting Power in the Political Poster.” His sponsors were Shengqing Wu and Kristin Stapleton. There were two Honorable Mentions: Roxanne Russell of Mary Baldwin College for her paper, “Understanding Japanese Suicide in Terms of the Interaction of Multiple Variables” and Elizabeth Metraux, also of Mary Baldwin College,

For her paper, “Can the Democratic Peace Permeate the Arab World? The Dangers of Political Idealism.”

Farley Richmond asked for announcements from the floor. There was no response to Richmond’s request for further business from the floor. He then asked the teachers who had attended the music workshop to stand; most had left. He repeated SEC’s interest in reaching into the K-12 classroom. President Richmond thanked the executive committee for its interest in the smooth and effective running of the Southeast Conference and gave special thanks to Susan Walcott and Mark Ravina , and declared the meeting adjourned at 1:15 pm.