Annual Business Meeting Minutes
Atlanta, GA
7:00PM to 8:30 PM
Hanover E
Saturday
April 5th, 2008
TLC Business MEETING MINUTES (7:00-8:30)
1) This year's meeting started with a the annual distinguished
scholar talk "Cooptation and Resistance: The Coup, the South,
and the State of Thai
Political Studies" presented by Dr. Duncan McCargo. This
talk is the third in the TLC "discipline series." This
year's focus is "Political Science."
Dr. McCargo's talk was provocative and lively. He had been asked
to offer a general talk for a wide audience and therefore gave
an overview of the four of the most important topics in the study
of Thai politics today: 1) Former Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra;
2) The conflict in the South; 3) The Monarchy; and, 4) The 2006
Coup.
The theme that linked these four topics together was the approach
of the scholar of Thai politics. McCargo emphasized that scholars
should no longer reserve criticism of Thai royal and government
policies out of a misplaced admiration for Thailand and should
not hesitate to study the scandalous, corrupt, and often violent
underbelly of Thai public and political life. After quoting from
Benedict Anderson's well-known paper "The Study of the Thai
State and the State of Thai Studies" published exactly thirty
years ago, he asserted that scholars of Thai politics (Thai and
non-Thai) have been generally restrained in their criticism of
the monarchy, Thai political systems, and controversial issues.
Scholars have been told to stay away from investigating common
rumors of corruption and underhanded political maneuverings. Scandal
was not the "proper" subject of the historian or political
scientist. However, this avoidance of writing about the darket
side of Thai politics has led scholars to maintain a position
of "admiration" for the Thai state. Scholars certainly
need enthusiasm for their studies and naturally enjoy working
in Thailand, but when enthusiasm slips into admiration, then critical
distance is lost. However, recent events have made it impossible
for scholars of Thai politics to maintain this admiration or even
neutrality.
The amazing success of Prime Minister Taksin Shinawatra in the
polls and voting booths despite his controversial war on drugs,
conflicts of interest, attacks on the free press, and subtle criticism
of the monarchy has forced scholars to confront the often tenuous
relationship between monarchal power and democratic rule. Furthermore,
it has forced scholars deeply to investigate the power of Taksin's
cult of personality, as he is the first Prime Minister in 40 years
who has been as successful in the creation of his public image
as he was in his economic policies. Scholars have been forced
to decide whether they wish to adopt a critical or admiring view
of Thaksin.
The Islamic militancy, brutal central government crackdown,
and related separatist movement in the South of Thailand have
also forced scholars to question their admiration for the Thai
State's ability to maintain a policy of unity through diversity.
Problems related to regionalism, ethnicity, religious violence,
local history, and economic disparity in the South have forced
scholars to enter into a debate regarding the legitimacy of the
Thai State, and to question the myth of Thailand as a peaceful
and open land of smiles.
The monarchy is another subject that has generally been off-limits
to scholars in Thailand. This is partly due to fear of reprisal,
upsetting Thai friends, and self-censorship. However, recent publications
by Thai scholars and by Paul Handley, as well as panels at the
International Thai Studies conference at Thammasat University
in January, 2008 have brought debates about the monarchy out in
the open. No longer is it sufficient for the monarchy to be described
as an apolitical force in Thailand.
Finally, the military coup of September 19, 2006 has forced
scholars to question the nature of Thai democratic politics. While
many scholars initially supported the coup as necessary to remove
Thaksin and return order, others quickly switched to criticizing
the role of the new government, the press, the Privy Council,
and the monarchy in this political upheaval. Some other scholars
have remained silent and offered tacit approval for the seizure
of power.
In the end, Dr. McCargo emphasized that like journalists, scholars
of Thai politics have to learn how to be fearless, write clearly,
and enter into the contemporary political debates in Thailand.We
cannot let our enthusiasm for Thai Studies turn into blind admiration
for the Thai State.
This talk was well-received and will certainly promote debate
for years to come in the TLC and related scholarly groups.
1) After the talk, we opened he business meeting we open the floor
to ideas for next year's "discipline" (Ethnomusicology,
Linguistics, Development Studies, Economics, Religious Studies,
Art History, etc.). Members are encouraged to send in suggestions
for ideas for next year’s “discipline” theme.
Once we have some consensus, the executive committee will start
inviting possible speakers.
2) Call for panel ideas for a T/L/C sponsored panel. This year's
TLC-Panel wa on Saturday April 5th at 2:45 pm :”Critiquing
Re-studies: Reflections by Authors of Re-studies in Northern Thailand."
Sponsored by the Thailand/Laos/Cambodia Group (Marjorie A. Muecke,
University of Pennsylvania). This panel was extremely well-received.
The room was crowded and Charles Keyes offered a comprehensive
and thought-provoking response.
Members at the business meeting suggested that next year there
should be a panel on changing agricultural patterns and policies
in Southeast Asia, as well as new developments in Art History.
The executive committee encourages members who want to be considered
for the Thai, Lao, Cambodia Studies Group designated panel for
the 2009 annual meeting in Chicago to send in proposals to the
TLC (via: justin.mcdaniel@ucr.edu) before June 1, 2008. Members
are also encouraged to think about panels which respond to recent
political, social, economic, and environmental events in Southeast
Asia.
3) Website (tlc.ucr.edu), listserv updates. The entire website
has been updated, reformatted, and reorganized. I encourage all
members to send in their photographs (digitally) to the TLC. The
TLC wants to begin archiving these photographs for future scholars
and students. For more information, please contact justin.mcdaniel@ucr.edu.
Furthermore, members are encouraged to send in announcements regarding
their (or friends or colleagues) new publications in the field,
so we can let other members know about all the exciting new work
that is being produced.
4) Member news--we have lots of new members! Many members came
to the TLC business meeting for the first time this year. There
was an excellent turn out to hear Duncan McCargo’s talk
and to participate in the business meeting.
5) Nominations and Elections:
**Continuing executive committe members: Dr. ML Pattaration Chirapravati
(California State University at Sacramento), Dr. Catherine Raymond
(Northern Illinois University), Dr. Penny Edwards (University
of California at Berkeley), Dr. Justin McDaniel (chair), (University
of California at Riverside).
These members will serve for two year terms (2007-2009).
We elected a new graduate student chair, Jonathan Padwe (Yale
University), for a one year term as Graduate Student Chair.
**This year there was a call for nominations to replace four
executive committee members. Four new members were nominated at
the meeting or through the executive committee after the meeting
based on nominations after the meeting. The new members are: Dr.
Chhany Sak-Humphry (University of Hawaii), Dr. Susan Kepner (UC
Berkeley), Kristin Lundberg (University of Kentucky), and Richard
Ruth (Cornell University).
*Lawrence Ashmun (Bibliographer) will remain the TLC bibliographer.
6) Announcements:
*Philippe Peycam announced the new activities of the Center for
Khmer Studies. There was much exciting news including: 1) Title
6 funding to help build a new library, seminar center, and scholar/student
workspaces; 2) new library acquisitions including access to JSTOR;
3) a new volume of the CKS scholarly journal Siksacakr; 4) an
increase in the number of student and scholar resident fellowships;
three recent and successful conferences on ceramics, higher education,
and minorities; 5) a new project on dance history. Please see
khmerstudies.org for more information.
*Nicola Tannenbaum announced the new Southeast ceramics exhibition
directed by Louise Cort at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC.
Please see: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/TakingShape.htm
7) Donations for the Ingrid Muan Graduate Traveling Fellowship:
• Members were extremely generous this year and we received
a record amount of donations for the Ingrid Muan Graduate Traveling
Fellowship: 325.23 dollars! This more than doubled last year’s
donations.
• Ms. Navin Moul has won this year’s fellowship for
250 dollars. Ms. Sandra Avila and Ms. Leslie Woodhouse were co-winner
for 50 dollars each. We dipped into our endowment a bit, but these
were three excellent candidates whose talks were well-received.
We look forward to more TLC/AAS graduate student contributions
next year!
8) Financial report:
Financially, the TLC is healthy. As of March 30, 2008, the TLC
has 1314.83 USD in its primary account. In May 2007 we requested
1,000 USD from SEAC. We received this funding and UCR matched
it. This funding is being used to maintain the website and hire
an undergraduate technical expert. Therefore, we have 3,314,83
in funding available. 2,000.00 of this is being reserved to fund
a student assistant to maintain the website. Averaging 5 hours
a month, we have 14 more months of funding available to fund this
student IT expert. Our goal is to maintain a minimum balance of
1,000.00 USD for future and unforeseen projects. However, we may
not need to spend all of this money on the student assistant and
may be able to maintain a balance of at least 1,500.00 USD. This
funding is separate from the 416.00 USD collected through annual
donations. This donated funding goes towards the annual Ingrid
Muan Fellowship. This year we received 325.23 dollars from donations.
This gave us a total of 741.00 USD in the traveling fellowship
account. After awarding three fellowships (350.00) we now have
a total fund of 391.23 USD. There are efforts underway to apply
for additional grants and make calls for additional donations
to partially support scholars of Thai, Lao, Cambodia Studies to
travel to the annual AAS meeting.
9) After the meeting most members joined our Southeast Asian
Studies colleagues at the Kahin Prize Reception sponsored by SEAC.
Over desert and drinks, over 200 members of various area groups
(Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia/Brunei/Singapore, Indonesia, and
Burma) learned about the groundbreaking career of George Kahin
from Thak Chaloemtiarana, Anne Hansen, and Mary Zurbuchen, among
others. Anne Hansen, the outgoing chair of SEAC organized the
very successful and memorable event. Thak Chaloemtiarana was fundamental
in raising the funds to endow this award. David Chandler was the
brainchild behind of the idea of a George Kahin Book Prize.
See you in Chicago!
