[KS] Robert Buswell's candidacy for AAS vice-president

[Duncan, John]

Dear Koreanist Colleagues:  

Our colleague, Robert Buswell, has been nominated for AAS
vice-president. I would like to take this opportunity to urge all of you
to vote for Robert in the election.  As you know, Robert has rendered
many years of dedicated service to the field, years during which he has
demonstrated strong leadership skills.  

 

Those of you who are AAS members should have by now received your voting
instructions by regular mail.  In case you haven't, you can follow the
instructions below.

 

Go to the AAS website:  www.aasianst.org 
Click on the vote now button. 
Click on login and vote 
Enter your last name (as it appears on the AAS mailing label) 
Enter you AAS member number (also on the mailing label) as your Member
ID. 
 

That will get you into the ballot.    The closing date for voting is
November 7.

 

I am appending Robert's statement below.

 

Thanks,

 

John Duncan
Professor and Chair, Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
Director, Center for Korean Studies
UCLA

 

 

 

Statement

Robert Buswell

AAS Vice-Presidency/Presidency Candidacy Statement

 

I was humbled and frankly stunned when I received the call from the
Nomination Committee inviting me to be a candidate for vice-president of
the AAS. It is truly an honor to run, especially against such a
distinguished opponent as my UC Colleague to the North, T. J. Pempel. 

 

Since there has never been a Koreanist elected to the presidency of the
AAS (Edwin Reischauer fifty years ago came closest), and a Buddhist
specialist only once (Stanley Tambiah), my candidacy may seem quixotic
to many in the Association.  Let me try to make a case why it is not. My
colleagues will know me primarily as a specialist on Korea, specifically
Korean Buddhism, but I have always looked at the peninsula from a broad
regional, indeed continental, perspective. My appointment at UCLA is in
fact in Chinese (there was no Korean position when I started twenty-one
years ago), and several of my books have looked at the intersection
between Korean, Chinese, and even Indian Buddhist cultures.  My MA was
in Sanskrit and I have also published on the Indian Abhidharma tradition
of Buddhism. And before I returned to academe, I studied for one year in
Thailand and continue to have long-standing interests in Southeast Asia
as well.  As a Koreanist with interests across the Asian continent, I
would seek to foster as president broad-based interconnections between
the various area committees in the Association, especially between Korea
and the rest of the Asian Studies field. 

 

These wide interests account for the direction I helped take my
department at UCLA where, during the nine years I was chair, we not only
built up the largest Korean Studies program on the continental United
States (from colleagues who all specialize in at least one another East
Asian culture), but also expanded into both South and Southeast Asian
Studies.  At the end of my term, we had grown so far beyond the usual
EALC model that we re-launched ourselves as a department of Asian
Languages and Cultures.  Rather than being "just" a Koreanist,
therefore, I believe I have proven the breadth and depth of my support
for and interest in the full range of other Asian cultural traditions. 

 

As AAS president, I would work hard both to raise the profile of Asian
Studies in the Humanities curriculum more broadly, as well as to promote
the value of profound area knowledge even in the more disciplinary-based
fields of the Social Sciences. Because Buddhist Studies as a field
focuses on the movement of civilizations across cultural boundaries, I
also strongly support the AAS's current border-crossing initiative. I
would also seek to expand ties between the AAS and other professional
organizations, to try to build a larger presence for Asia and
Asia-related topics in the broader academy. As the main professional
organization dedicated to the study of Asia, I would also like to see
the AAS play a larger role in expanding the profile of Asian Studies in
both secondary and post-secondary curricula.  And finally, I would try
to put my experience in fund-raising to work in building the AAS's
endowment in order to support its revamped publishing plan and to
provide support to scholars from less developed nations to participate
in our activities. 

 

I would appreciate your support for my candidacy, as a symbol of the
maturation of Korean Studies into a full and equal partner in the
activities of the AAS. Thank you.