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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Adian:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>As member of the AAS program committee I feel
compelled to comment. The Korea panels reflect the applications for panels
to the committee last year. We had a very large number of applicants so we
were choosing on the basis of quality first. Some might find this slate
unbalanced by discipline, but then you go with what comes in. If you are
bemoaning the lack of disciplinary balance, then you might re-think what is
going on in academe generally and the Korean studies field reflects faithfully
the same trends. Many of these papers and panels are new work by people
just finishing, or early in their careers. The questions they are asking
of the Korean area reflect the dominant trend toward multi-disciplinary
topics. "Cultural Studies" (whatever that is) is nothing if
multi-displinary. Moreover, the lack of social science panels is not for
lack of trying as the program committee has for that last years actually had our
own affirmative action program for the social sciences at the meetings.
Political science is under-represented because comparativists are now rare in
that increasingly narrowing field. The "hard core" social science scholars
who might be working on Korea are also not well-served by delivering their
papers at the AAS....it is not a conference valued by social scientists....and
papers go first to the refereed SS journals. If you had been going
to the AAS 25-30 years ago you would have been astounded at the lack of balance
in the direction favoring the Korean War, Political Science, and development
studies. In my opinion the paper topics this year represent a broad
diversity of topics and approaches that enriches the field. Pure
post-modernism has been dead for quite a while, I don't see much post-modernism
in the conference offerings at all. I'm sorry you won't be there to hold
up the subjects of whose absence you object. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Mike Robinson </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=Afostercarter@aol.com
href="mailto:Afostercarter@aol.com">Afostercarter@aol.com</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws
href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Friday, March 31, 2006 4:13
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [KS] AAS Korea panels
announcements</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=arial,helvetica><FONT lang=0
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face="Times New Roman" size=3 FAMILY="SERIF"
PTSIZE="12" BACK="#ffffff">Many thanks to Hyung Il Pai for this.<BR><BR>For
those of us not going to San Francisco<BR>(be sure to wear some flowers in
your hair),<BR>this guide to what's going on is very useful too.<BR>AAS surely
offers a unique cornucopia.<BR><BR>That said, the dominant flavours are
changing.<BR>I was at Chicago last year (sort of: I had the flu),<BR>and
formed the same impression that I got from<BR>reading this packed programme of
Koreana too.<BR><BR>Namely: <B>Cultural studies rules!</B> Which is fine. Yet
<BR>unless memory plays tricks, back in the 1980s AAS <BR>Korean sessions used
to offer a more balanced menu.<BR><BR>Isn't it odd, and sad, that in 2006
there are hardly any <BR>panels on the mainstream politics or economics of
<BR>contemporary Korea? Were it not for independent<BR>scholars and ASCK, this
would look even thinner.<BR>(Pity about ASCK/ISKS clash on Sat. evening, by
the way.)<BR><BR>But maybe I misunderstand the US conference scene.<BR>Do
Korean politics and economics now have their own<BR>separate circuits?
(Anything policy-related is of course<BR>quite well-served in Washington, if
not elsewhere.)<BR><BR>And since we must all now earn our crust in a
capitalist<BR>marketplace, one does wonder about supply and demand.<BR>Can all
you bright young things, dizzy with postcolonialism,<BR>count on getting jobs?
There are so many of you!<BR><BR>As Scott McKenzie (whom I've already
quoted)<BR>put it almost 40 years ago:<BR><BR>"All across the nation<BR>Such a
strange vibration<BR>People in motion<BR>There's a whole generation<BR>With a
new explanation..."<BR><BR>Indeed. Have a great conference,
y'all.<BR><BR>cheers<BR>Aidan<BR><BR><BR>AIDAN FOSTER-CARTER<BR>Honorary
Senior Research Fellow in Sociology & Modern Korea, Leeds University
<BR>Home address: 17 Birklands Road, Shipley, West Yorkshire, BD18 3BY, UK
<BR>tel: +44(0) 1274
588586 (alt) +44(0) 1264
737634 mobile:
+44(0) 7970 741307 <BR>fax: +44(0) 1274
773663 ISDN:
+44(0) 1274 589280<BR>Email:
afostercarter@aol.com (alt)
afostercarter@yahoo.com website:
www.aidanfc.net<BR>[Please use @aol; but if any problems, please try @yahoo
too - and let me know, so I can chide
AOL]<BR><BR><BR>_________________<BR><BR><BR><BR>In a message dated 31/03/2006
20:15:31 GMT Standard Time, hyungpai@eastasian.ucsb.edu
writes:<BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff"
face=Arial color=#000000 size=2 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="10"
BACK="#ffffff"><BR>
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TYPE="CITE">Subj:<B>[KS] AAS Korea panels announcements
</B><BR>Date:31/03/2006 20:15:31 GMT Standard Time<BR>From:<A
href="mailto:hyungpai@eastasian.ucsb.edu">hyungpai@eastasian.ucsb.edu</A><BR>Reply-to:<A
href="mailto:Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">Koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR>To:<A
href="mailto:koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws">koreanstudies@koreaweb.ws</A><BR><I>Sent
from the Internet </I><BR><BR><BR><BR>Dear Koreanists,I am writing to inform
you all that the Korea related panels ( A record of 40 this year) at the
S.F. AAS annual meeting (April 6-9) as well as CKS (Committee on Korean
Studies) meetings, KF receptions etc. are all now all up on on our CKS
site at :<BR><A
href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~korea2">http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~korea2</A><BR>I
want to thank our web designers Joe and Sue for all their help in making
such neat time-tables printable for everyone. I will be giving a short
presentation on our CKS website and ask for comments and suggestions at our
general meeting. Please come and feel free to make recommendations.
<BR><BR><BR></FONT><FONT lang=0 style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff" face=Arial
color=#000000 size=3 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" PTSIZE="12" BACK="#ffffff">Hyung Il
Pai<BR><BR>Associate Professor<BR><BR>East Asian Languages and Cultural
Studies,<BR><BR>HSSB Building, University of California, Santa Barbara CA
93106<BR><BR>Fax: 805) 893-3011, Phone: 805) 893-2245<BR><BR>Email: <A
href="mailto:Hyungpai@eastasian.ucsb.edu">Hyungpai@eastasian.ucsb.edu</A><BR><BR>Dept.
Web-site -http://<A
href="http://www.eastasian.ucsb.edu/">www.eastasian.ucsb.edu</A>/<BR><BR><BR><BR>=</BLOCKQUOTE><BR></FONT><FONT
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