The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is a scholarly, non-political and non-profit professional association focusing on Asia and the
study of Asia. It is based in
Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor is a city in Washtenaw County, Michigan, United States, and its county seat. The 2020 United States census, 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851, making it the List of municipalities in Michigan, fifth-most populous cit ...
,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
,
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
.
The Association provides members with an Annual Conference (a large conference of 3,000+ normally based in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
each spring), publications, regional conferences, and other activities.
History
Shortly after
World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, the
American Council of Learned Societies
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) is a private, nonprofit federation of 75 scholarly organizations in the humanities and related social sciences founded in 1919. It is best known for its fellowship competitions which provide a ra ...
(ACLS), with the support of the
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
, gave
Mortimer Graves a mandate to develop Chinese studies.
Kenneth Scott Latourette would recall in 1955 the "people of the United States and those who led them knew little of the peoples and cultures of the Far East" and that was "in spite of political, commercial and cultural commitments in the region and of events which already were hurrying them on into ever more intimate relations." Graves worked with
Arthur W. Hummel, Sr. of the Oriental Division of the Library of Congress, the
Institute of Pacific Relations, the
Harvard-Yenching Institute, the
American Oriental Society
The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...
, as well as with colleges, universities, and museums. Twenty-eight people attended the first meeting of the planning group, which was held at the Harvard Club in New York in 1928, and further meetings were held over the next decade. In 1936, the group began publishing the ''Far Eastern Bibliography''. On 6 June 1941 the Far Eastern Association was formed and issued ''
The Far Eastern Quarterly'' as its organ, with
Cyrus Peake as Managing Editor. The ''Quarterly'' survived the war with the financial help that
Kenneth W. Colgrove obtained from
Northwestern University
Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
.
After the war, an organizational meeting of some 200 people was held at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
on April 2, 1948, following the annual meeting of the
American Oriental Society
The American Oriental Society is a learned society that encourages basic research in the languages and literatures of the Near East and Asia. It was chartered under the laws of Massachusetts on September 7, 1842. It is one of the oldest learned ...
, to which many of the Far Eastern group belonged. The Constitution of the new group was drafted by
Edwin O. Reischauer,
Woodbridge Bingham, and
Earl H. Pritchard. The Association's inaugural president was
Arthur W. Hummel, Sr.
In 1956, the organization was renamed to the Association for Asian Studies to expand its scope to cover all areas of Asia, including South and Southeast Asia. Attendance grew from 200 for the organizational meeting in 1948 to 605 at the first annual meeting in 1949 and to 2,434 in 1963.
The organization was further restructured in 1970, when four elective area Councils were formed, representative of each of the four areas of Asia:
South Asia
South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...
(SAC),
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
(SEAC),
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Inner Asia (CIAC) and
Northeast Asia
Northeast Asia or Northeastern Asia is a geographical Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia. Its northeastern landmass and islands are bounded by the Pacific Ocean, North Pacific Ocean.
The term Northeast Asia was popularized during the 1930s by Ame ...
(NEAC). The councils were formed so that each area of Asia could have a proportionate voice in the Association and on the Board of Directors. In 1977, a Council of Conferences (COC) was established both to co-ordinate the regional conferences held by the Association and to discover ways to better serve the needs of Asia studies scholars in various parts of the United States. Area library organizations have been formed for South Asia (
CONSALD),
South East Asia
Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
, and
East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
(CEAL).
Background and controversies
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
brought many academics into the government, some in the active military and some in the
Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
or the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...
, both of which were intelligence agencies which used academic disciplines and scholarly forms of analysis. When the war was over, political scientists, historians, and social scientists continued to be concerned with contemporary affairs. The Far Eastern Association reflected an
Area studies
Area studies, also known as regional studies, is an interdisciplinary field of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/ federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what a ...
approach, geographically grounded division of labor, rather than by academic discipline, with the association subdivided into East Asian, Southeast Asian, and South Asian Studies. (In the late 20th century, the field of Central and Inner Asia was added.) The
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
provided money and co-ordination to area studies centers, which, in turn, supported the AAS.
Some members were critical.
Bruce Cumings, writing in the ''
Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars'', charged that for the AAS to participate in this way of funding scholarship on Asia led to confusing academic research and government intelligence work. He further argued that the areas studies approach in general emphasized contemporary social science theory, not the classic approaches of Oriental studies, which used philology and studied ancient civilizations. Cumings called that an "implicit Faustian bargain."
In the 1960s, some members agitated for the AAS to express
opposition to American involvement in Vietnam. AAS President
William Theodore de Bary called for the organization to take a position on the war that was "nonpolitical but not unconcerned." The active opposition to the war was left to the much smaller
Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars
The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) was founded in 1968 by a group of graduate students and younger faculty as part of the Opposition to the Vietnam War, opposition to the American participation in the Vietnam War. They proposed a "rad ...
.
Annual conference
Each spring, the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) holds a four-day conference devoted to planned programs of scholarly papers, roundtable discussions, workshops, and panel sessions on a wide range of issues in research and teaching, and on Asian affairs in general. The 2013 Conference was held in San Diego; Philadelphia (March 27–30, 2014); Chicago (March 26–29, 2015); Seattle (March 31–April 3, 2016); Toronto (March 16–19, 2017); Washington, D.C. (March 22–25, 2018).
Book prizes
The AAS administers and awards a number of prizes:
*
Joseph Levenson Pre-1900 Book Prize (China) in honor of
Joseph Levenson.
*
Joseph Levenson Post-1900 Book Prize (China).
*
E. Gene Smith Book Prize (Inner Asia) in honor of
E. Gene Smith.
*
Patrick D. Hanan Book Prize for Translation (China and Inner Asia) in honor of
Patrick D. Hanan.
*
John Whitney Hall Book Prize (Japan) in honor of
John Whitney Hall
John Whitney Hall (September 13, 1916 – October 21, 1997)"John Whitney Hall papers, 1930–1999", Yale University Library was an American historian of Japan who specialized in premodern Japanese history. His life work was recognized by the Japan ...
.
*
James B. Palais Book Prize (Korea) in honor of
James Palais.
*
Bernard Cohn Book Prize (first book on South Asia) in honor of
Bernard Cohn.
*
A.K. Coomaraswamy Book Prize (South Asia) in honor of
Ananda Coomaraswamy.
*
A.K. Ramanujan Prize for Translation (South Asia) in honor of
A.K. Ramanujan.
*
Harry J. Benda Prize (first book on Southeast Asia) in honor of
Harry J. Benda
*
George McT. Kahin Prize (Southeast Asia) in honor of
George McT. Kahin
*
Franklin R. Buchanan Prize for Curricular Materials in honor of
Franklin R. Buchanan.
Publications
*''The Bibliography of Asian Studies'': Now an online database, the BAS is the single largest record of research and scholarly literature on East, Southeast, and South Asia written in Western languages. It comprises over 800,000 citations and can be electronically searched. Started as an annual section of the ''Far Eastern Quarterly'' edited by members in 1941, the BAS grew to an annual supplement produced by a specialized professional staff. However, by the mid-1980s, gathering the burgeoning data and printing the increasingly thick volumes led to the annual editions falling several years behind. The Association determined to transfer BAS to an electronic database, incorporating all entries from the print volumes for the years 1971 to 1991 and entering new citations from 1991 onward. It is considered the "standard bibliographical tool for Western language resources in the field of Asian studies" and the "single most important record of research and scholarly literature on Asia written in Western languages." It is compiled on the basis of "durable scholarly interest"
*''Key Issues in Asian Studies''
*''Asia Past and Present'': a scholarly monograph series covering all countries of Asia and all disciplines.
*''The Journal of Asian Studies'': ''
The Journal of Asian Studies
''The Journal of Asian Studies'' is the flagship journal of the Association for Asian Studies, publishing peer-reviewed academic scholarship in the field of Asian studies. Its acceptance rate is approximately 6%. Each issue circulates over 8,20 ...
'' has been published quarterly since 1941, when it was founded as ''The Far Eastern Quarterly''. ''JAS'' publishes multidisciplinary work on Asia, spanning the arts, history, literature, the social sciences, and cultural studies.
* ''Education About Asia'': ''
Education About Asia'' (EAA) is a journal published three times a year which contains scholarly articles and practical teaching resources for secondary school, college, and university instructors, as well as for students, scholars, libraries, and others with an interest in Asia. Topics include anthropology, Asian studies, business and economics, education, geography, government, history, language and literature, political science, religion, and sociology. The complete run of the journal was put online for free access in 2014
Education About Asia
'
Notes
Sources and further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
{{authority control
Asian studies
Non-profit organizations based in Michigan
Organizations established in 1941
Professional associations based in the United States
1941 establishments in Michigan
Member organizations of the American Council of Learned Societies