REMINDER: Letters of interest due FEBRUARY 15, 2008

JAAS Executive Editor
Tony Peffer’s term as JAAS executive editor comes to a close in June 2009. To effect a smooth transition, we would like to have an editor-elect in place by April 2008. This individual will work alongside Tony Peffer for the final year of his term. Therefore, at this time, we invite letters of interest for editor-elect, in preparation for assuming the position of executive editor. The executive editor must be a tenured faculty member and an active scholar in the field of Asian American studies. Responsibilities include building and expanding a substantial cadre of qualified manuscript evaluators; managing the submission/evaluation process; making the final publication decision for issues, in keeping with the journal’s mission; collaborating with the reviews editor(s) in planning both volumes and individual issues; serving as the journal’s representative to the AAAS executive board; functioning as the AAAS executive board’s primary liaison to The Johns Hopkins University Press; leading the JAAS editorial board and organizing its work; maintaining all of the journal’s records; and keeping abreast of developments in all disciplinary and group-specific branches of scholarship in Asian American Studies as well as in the field more generally. In the letter of interest, explain your perception of the field’s principal issues in the present and what you see as emerging themes and concerns in the next five years. Describe specific strengths you could bring to the job of executive editor. The deadline for submission is February 15, 2008. The board will review the applications and announce its decision at the Chicago conference in April 2008.

Clarifying and Redrawing the AAAS Regions

At the October meeting, the board took a careful look at existing regions and the corresponding membership numbers (see below).

Mid-Atlantic/South 93 members (22%)

Pacific NW 21 members (5%)

Midwest/Mountain 72 members (17%)

S. California 89 members (21%)

N. Cailfornia 63 members (15%)

New England/Canada 52 members (12%)

Hawai’i 14 members (3%)

International 24 members (5%)

Total: 428 members (100%)
(as of February 2007)

In addition, it considered the arguments put forward at the 2007 annual conference for representation of the “Interior West” and Canada. To reflect the current membership distribution and to respond to the changing realities of Asian American population distributions, the board proposes a redrawing of the regional map. The new regional demarcations will be voted on at the 2008 Chicago conference at the general business meeting.

The proposed regions are:

- New England and Eastern Canada (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, Ontario and Quebec provinces)

- Mid-Atlantic (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Washington, D.C.)

- Mid-West (Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana)

- Interior West and the South (W. Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, S. Dakota, N. Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Utah, Idaho)

- Northern California (Zip codes >94xxx)

- Southern California (Zip codes <94xxx)

- Pacific Northwest, Hawaii, and Western Canada (Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Pacific Islands, Alaska, W. Canada)

Seeking JAAS Executive Editor

Tony Peffer’s term as JAAS executive editor comes to a close in June 2009. To effect a smooth transition, we would like to have an editor-elect in place by April 2008. This individual will work alongside Tony Peffer for the final year of his term. Therefore, at this time, we invite letters of interest for editor-elect, in preparation for assuming the position of executive editor. The executive editor must be a tenured faculty member and an active scholar in the field of Asian American studies. Responsibilities include building and expanding a substantial cadre of qualified manuscript evaluators; managing the submission/evaluation process; making the final publication decision for issues, in keeping with the journal’s mission; collaborating with the reviews editor(s) in planning both volumes and individual issues; serving as the journal’s representative to the AAAS executive board; functioning as the AAAS executive board’s primary liaison to The Johns Hopkins University Press; leading the JAAS editorial board and organizing its work; maintaining all of the journal’s records; and keeping abreast of developments in all disciplinary and group-specific branches of scholarship in Asian American Studies as well as in the field more generally. In the letter of interest, explain your perception of the field’s principal issues in the present and what you see as emerging themes and concerns in the next five years. Describe specific strengths you could bring to the job of executive editor. The deadline for submission is February 15, 2008. Please send your letters of interest to: AAAS Secretariat, Cornell University, 420 Rockefeller Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-2502. The board will review the applications and announce its decision at the Chicago conference in April 2008.