As I write this, the first virtual AAS Annual Conference is still going on. It has been a strangely floating experience for me, with heights of exhilaration (music!) as well as deep poignancy for the contact that cannot be. A big thank you to the AAS Secretariat staff, who pulled this off with energy, commitment, […]
Greetings from Honolulu where there have been recent snow sightings on the peaks of Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Haleakala! For us, this calls for the annual donning of socks and sweatshirts, cherished because it is inevitably short-lived. The AAS Board of Directors just completed its day-long retreat to tackle thorny issues of governance under […]
To all, Shinnen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy Year of the Ox! I write this on New Year’s Day, although I know that it will not be posted until a few days later. In Honolulu, the weather is a cool 73 degrees, breezy, and a little rainy, which is good for washing away the red-paper remains […]
Greetings to all from across the Pacific! Autumn is only a concept in Hawai`i, since our temperatures do not fall and neither do our leaves. We sweat through Halloween and keep our beach towels on the clothesline for ready use. This fall, however, was momentous because of the U.S. Presidential election. The many firsts of […]
The 2020 meeting of AAS-in-Asia wrapped up in splendid fashion with a splashy media presentation and warm farewells. Many thanks to Joe Haldane and the IAFOR staff for stepping in and making the event possible with their can-do attitude and energetic efforts. It was my first full all-virtual conference and one could see very much […]
I write this on the first day of classes at my university in our strange pandemic world of non-campuses and virtual classes. I mourn with the rest of you the losses incurred by the pandemic. We have lost lives and time and certain kinds of experiences. Few could have fathomed the degree to which we […]
It has been fifty years since the Journal of Asian Studies published William Theodore de Bary’s by now iconic presidential address, “The Association for Asian Studies: Nonpolitical but not Unconcerned” (Aug. 1970, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 751-759). De Bary spoke in the context of very different, but not unrelated, times, marked by debates over […]
Warm greetings from Honolulu! Our pandemic lives filled with numbers define us and the places in which we live. Hawai`i: 643 cases confirmed, 589 recovered, 17 deaths. Sheltering in place and keeping tourists out have produced these optimistic results. Nevertheless, the pandemic globally has brought with it much pain, misery, loss of life, loss of […]
Greetings from lush Manoa Valley in sunny Honolulu! It is a strange time to become AAS President with the cancellation of our Boston conference and the realization of just how important these meetings are in renewing our friendships and ties to each other. We all feel the loss deeply. Many thanks to those who generously […]
In my September President’s Column I wrote about the impact of geopolitics on international scholarly exchanges and on conditions of higher education, particularly in the humanities and social sciences. Indeed, from the perspective of AAS this problem has intensified. I am referring of course to the protests and shutdown of universities in Hong Kong, where […]
Recently I was jolted by a piece of bad news that I probably should have anticipated. Reflecting on how I might have done so led me to the train of thought in this blog post, concerning new challenges in the era of contemporary global politics I invited Professor Wen Tiejun from Beijing’s Renmin University to […]
With this first blog of my Presidential tenure, I would like to express my gratitude for your support and confidence in electing me to this position. Coming into the Presidency of the Association in these deeply troubled geo-political times has been very challenging, and I will need your support and participation more than ever. What […]
