HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

Volume 35 Number 2 Article 18

January 2016

Association for Asian Studies Conference

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The Annual Conference of the Major: The Intersection of Cultural Speaking both to and beyond Nepal Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Identity and Infrastructure Develop- and the Himalaya, keynotes, plenary ment in Western China.” sessions, and roundtables at the 2015 Chicago, IL AAS conference also presented fresh In addition to empirical and regional insights and new approaches to the specificity, numerous panels at the 26-29 March 2015 study of Asia. Ma Thida’s keynote 2015 AAS conference also discussed address, “Myanmar, Still at the Fork The 2015 Annual Conference of the critical themes and conceptual in the Road,” provided rich food for Association for Asian Studies (AAS) frameworks of interest for scholars thought and complicated conven- was held March 26-29 at the Sher- of Nepal and the Himalaya. Broadly tional area studies frameworks (and aton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The construed as Inter-Asian Connec- advanced the question of Myanmar’s premier gathering of scholars from tions, these included but were not place in the ANHS community). Mri- all corners and disciplines of Asia, limited to Comparative Politics, nalini Sinha’s presidential address, the conference featured a vast array Travel Histories, and the importance “Premonitions of the Past,” revisited of panels, workshops, films, lectures, of Place and Space between South, the present import of colonial history plenaries, and receptions of interest East, and Central Asia. A sample of and complexity of post-colonial iden- to members of the Association for these sessions include: “Dispossession tity in South Asia. Two plenary panels Nepal and Himalayan Studies. While by ‘Development’: Adverse Impacts on “Asia Beyond the Headlines” were the conference and AAS more broadly of State-Sponsored Development also of particular relevance to the are framed according to sub-region- Schemes on Land Security of Rural current political moment in Nepal: al categories of Asian Studies – i.e., Communities”; and, “Does Election “Protest and Dissent in Asia” and South Asia, Southeast Asia, Japan, Matter? Election and Democratization “The New Asian Strongmen: Abe, Korea, China, and Inner Asia – this in South Asia”; “Engaging with the Modi, Xi, and Others.” Finally, the year’s conference also followed a Concept of Indigeneity in Southeast mid-conference roundtable “Think- theme particularly relevant to schol- Asia”; “Collecting Kashmir: The Arts ing Across Regions and Disciplines: A ars of Nepal and the wider Himalaya: of Kashmir and Their Legacy in the Conversation on Inter-Asia Research” Border Crossing/Inter Asia. Western Himalayas”; “Peripheral advanced conversations central to Accounts: South Asian Travel Writing The 2015 AAS conference featured the ANHS community on the regional from Burma to Bukhara”; “Bounding a number of panels specific to the and disciplinary location of Nepal and Space: Natural Resources, Borders, Himalaya region and Tibetan Plateau. the Himalaya in the context of wider and State Formation in Asia”; “Place, These include: “Sacred Landscapes in Asian and area studies frameworks. Space, and Travel.” Key conversations the Himalayas”; “Agents of Change: were also generated at the Coomaras- Members of the ANHS community Authority, Social Coherence, and wamy Prize Panel, “Responses to also received awards and partici- Assimilation in Tibet and the Diaspo- Akhil Gupta’s Red Tape: Bureaucracy, pated in research workshops at the ra”; “Constructing Collectivization Structural Violence, and Poverty in AAS Chicago conference. For “out- and the Cultural Revolution in Tibet India,” that contribute towards a standing and innovative scholarship and Xinjiang: Ethnic Identity and the better understanding of the current across the discipline and country of Contestation of Historical Memory”; political moment in Nepal and con- specialization for a book on Inner “Urbanization and Resettlement on testations over ethnic identity, rights, Asia,” the Gene E. Smith Book Award the Tibetan Plateau: Adapting to New and representation under new federal was awarded to Emily T. Yeh of the Space”; and, “Making the Minority structures. University of Colorado Boulder for

164 | HIMALAYA Fall 2015 HIMALAYA Volume 34, Number 2 | 164 her 2014 monograph Taming Tibet: South Asia Across the Disciplines Se- itself not only at the forefront of the Landscape Transformation and the Gift of ries Board Meeting. In addition to the region’s cultural politics, but also its Chinese Development. Yeh is on the ed- above-mentioned panels, lectures, geopolitics. Fredrik Barth’s Ethnic itorial board of HIMALAYA. AAS con- and themed events, the conference Groups and Boundaries signified a ma- ferences are also an excellent oppor- also featured an impressive array of jor shift in the approach to the study tunity for graduate student research film screenings and a large book fair. of ethnic groups (Fredrick Barth. and dissertation development. With [1969] 1998. Ethnic Groups and Bound- Finally, while there was strong support from the Henry Luce Founda- aries: The Social Organization of Culture representation from scholars on tion and the Social Science Research Difference. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Nepal and the Himalaya across panels Council (SSRC), Dannah Dennis of the Press). Barth argued that if we focus and presentations at AAS 2015, this University of Virginia participated in on boundaries, we can see that the author hopes for even greater ANHS the AAS-SSRC Dissertation Workshop forms ethnicity takes are relation- engagement at AAS conferences in Series under the 2015 theme: Religion al—it is the boundary, in fact, which the years ahead. Situated at the cross- and the State in Asia. makes salient the cultural content roads of South, East, and Central Asia, of ethnic groups. This conference The annual AAS conference is a rich ANHS has much to offer AAS. This engaged with and utilized Barth’s and rewarding event for both estab- is particularly true with respect to early insights to investigate the role lished and emerging scholars and expanding conversations across Asian of language in boundary maintenance remains a professional gathering of landscapes and further disrupting among Himalayan peoples. intellectual rigor and social engage- traditional area studies frameworks ment. Numerous meetings of profes- in the academy and policy realms. Articulating Ethnicity: Language sional associations and academic ini- Towards a greater production of crit- and the Boundaries of the Hima- tiatives were held in Chicago. These ical knowledge and cross-disciplinary layas, organized by Walter Hakala meetings and receptions included but dialogue, these kinds of interventions (University at Buffalo) and Joseph were not limited to: the AAS South are among the most important con- Stadler (Gannon University), was a Asia Council and AAS China and Inner tributions to be made by scholars of workshop-style conference hosted Asia Council; the American Insti- Nepal and the Himalaya. at the University at Buffalo in April tute of Indian Studies; the American 2015 that brought together a re- Center for Mongolian Studies; the markable group of researchers for a Burma Studies Group/Burma Studies Galen Murton thought-provoking discussion. The Foundation as well as the Commit- University of Colorado-Boulder workshop was divided into three pan- tee on Teaching about Asia and the els that focused on (1) language, (2) Society for Asian and Comparative Himalayan populations living abroad, Philosophy. Many universities with and (3) land and territory. These unique histories in Asian Studies Articulating Ethnicity: Language three panels, which were chaired by also held receptions and networking and the Boundaries of the Elizabeth Mazzolini (University at events, including: University of Chi- Himalayas Buffalo), Elen Turner (Himal Southasia cago Affiliates Reception; University magazine) and Vasiliki Neofotistos of Washington Reception; Yale Asian University at Buffalo (University at Buffalo), respectively, Studies Councils’ Joint Reception; structured the conference’s conver- Stanford University Reception; UC 18 April 2015 sations. Berkeley Reception; and University To begin the workshop, Mark Turin of Michigan Reception. Meetings Situated at the peripheries of the (University of British Columbia) and planning sessions in Chicago for world’s two most populous na- succinctly arranged and discussed a other organizations committed to the tion-states—India and China—the number of issues related to language growth of Asian Studies across the Himalayan region represents an and ethnicity throughout the Hima- academy include: the AAS Editorial exceptional site for the study of the layan region. Addressing the politics Board Meeting; the Asian Librari- intersection of language and ethnic of language and the language of pol- ans Liaison Committee meeting; the and national politics. As the Hima- itics as both expressions of political Midwest Conference on Asian Studies layas are home to both contested identity and public displays of cultur- (MCAA); the National Endowment ethno-nationalisms and disputed and al belonging, he argued that the rapid for the Humanities meeting; and the shifting borders, language often finds

165 | HIMALAYA Fall 2014 HIMALAYA Volume 35, Number 2 | 165