LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Marlene J. Mayo, President of MAR/AAS, 2009

Face to Face and Face Book

            During the past few months, I have been looking back over almost fifty years of teaching and research and reflecting upon the pleasures of attending meetings of the regional and national Association for Asian Studies.  For me, direct contact has been indispensable even in the new era of the vast internet.  Meeting old friends, making new friends, attending panels, listening to younger and older scholars match wits and exchange ideas, catching up with the latest books and visual aids, engaging in cultural activities and adventures in new Asian cuisine have been great joys in my academic life.  They have brought renewal, reinvigoration, and refreshment.    

I would like to extend a special invitation to all AAS and MAR-AAS members to attend the 2009 conference, ASIA BEYOND BORDERS, at Villanova University, October 31-Nobember 1.  As I attempt the daunting task of organizing years of notes and memories, I am reminded of the first time I became involved with MAR/AAS.  Back in 1978, during the early days of MAR, I served as a member of the program committee. That followed a three year stint at the national level of AAS as a member and chair of the Northeast Asia Council.  In 1981, the University of Maryland was the host institution and repeated that distinction in 2007.  Over the years, my colleagues at Maryland and I have attended numerous MAR conferences, organized panels, given papers, or acted as discussant.  We have involved our own graduate students and been much impressed by young scholars from other institutions in the area.  As I have learned through the years, the local and regional levels are as vital and important as the national organization.  The founders of MAR were innovative in envisioning the many things a regional conference could and should do:  community outreach, pre-collegiate teaching workshops, networking with isolated scholars, and encouraging a focus on Asia at regional institutions.

            During those years, the late Dr. Marie G. Wanek, a professor of history and an early MAR officer, played a leading role in reaching out to pre-collegiate teachers and their students.  It is a great honor to remember her with the Annual Marie Wanek Prize for best high school essay.  An annual award for Distinguished Asianist was also created for retired educators and scholars as was a presidential roundtable and complementary buffet on Sunday mornings.  This year’s roundtable features the topic, “Visualizing Asian Cultures.”  Officers of MAR have worked tirelessly for several decades to serve Asianists throughout the region and to find new and better ways to promote Asian studies at all levels. What could be better than coming together, face-to-face, greeting each other annually?  We have entered a new age, and it is a time to think anew.  Our initiatives include a new website and the launching of face book while entertaining the possibility of going green in the future with our Newsletter; increased focus on the incorporation of undergraduates, especially those at the annual MAR host institutions and in the surrounding area; and providing recognition and financial support for promising graduate students. Above all, we hope to co-exist with, if not counter, the trend of working alone with a computer or blackberry and to expand membership, attendance, and personal contacts.

            At all MAR conferences, we welcome a diversity of panels and panelists, but we also welcome all members, old and new, in the region and ask you to join or to rejoin, to attend panels and baring your students, offer your views, challenge the old and the new guard, renew acquaintances, and enjoy each other’s company.

- Marlene J. Mayo, University of Maryland, MAR-AAS President, 2009