From: S. Kalyanaraman
Date: Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 3:01 PM
Subject: Please reconsider the theme of keynote for 2014 AAS conference and choice of keynote speaker
To: twinicha@wisc.edu, sinha@umich.edu, ted_bastor@harvard.edu, gbhers@ucsc.edu, dorisoli@uci.edu, ckaneac2013@gmail.com, Anne Grimes <grimesae@state.gov>, anne.feldhaus@asu.edu, nhungtuyet.tran@utoronto.ca, pclark@mail.wtamu.edu, jwassers@uci.edu, ann.sherif@gmail.com
Cc: fmir@umich.edu, novetzke@u.washington.edu, rogersjohnd@aol.com, barfield@bu.edu, rf12@cornell.edu, kerndl@fsu.edu, saadia.toor@csi.cuny.edu, zitzewit@msu.edu
Date: Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 3:01 PM
Subject: Please reconsider the theme of keynote for 2014 AAS conference and choice of keynote speaker
To: twinicha@wisc.edu, sinha@umich.edu, ted_bastor@harvard.edu, gbhers@ucsc.edu, dorisoli@uci.edu, ckaneac2013@gmail.com, Anne Grimes <grimesae@state.gov>, anne.feldhaus@asu.edu, nhungtuyet.tran@utoronto.ca, pclark@mail.wtamu.edu, jwassers@uci.edu, ann.sherif@gmail.com
Cc: fmir@umich.edu, novetzke@u.washington.edu, rogersjohnd@aol.com, barfield@bu.edu, rf12@cornell.edu, kerndl@fsu.edu, saadia.toor@csi.cuny.edu, zitzewit@msu.edu
Dear AAS Directors and Officers:
We are in the cusp of change as many Asian states assert their own world views getting out of the slumber of colonial era and traumas of colonial loot.
I strongly urge you to reconsider your decision to make Ms. Doniger the keynote speaker of 2014 annual AAS conference. Choice of Ms. Doniger is likely to be viewed as biased and also send a wrong signal that AAS as a responsible body is allowing the forum to a member to defend her follies, instead of introspecting and independently investigating as to why the L'affaire Doniger has arisen in the first place.
It would have been appropriate in the context of the ongoing debate about Ms. Doniger's flawed work and critiques highlighting shoddy scholarship bordering on porno, to focus on Academic responsibility and role of ethics in the pursuance of academic researches.
The nature of academic scholarship in Asian studies is a challenge given the untranslatability of many texts in many language streams. While herlding academic freedom as formulated in the 1940 statement, it has become increasingly necessary to pay attention to the social responsibility of academics to the institution they tenure for, to the community which supports the institution and the code of ethics of an Association to which a member belongs.
L'affaire Doniger has attracted attention to the issues of academic responsibility, hate literature versus free expression.
Questions of academic integriy are also likely to be raised against the AAS itself, as was done with American Academy of Religion in a recent debate related to L'affaire Doniger.
I think it will be appropriate if AAS anticipates a similar inquiry about AAS and prepares appropriately for answering questions on how AAS enforces its own code of ethics and if there is any need for revision of this code itself.
Such a review through a keynote can also include a need for revisions to approaches of Asian studies since most Asian states are now sovereign, independent democracies and sensitive to interventions by 'outsiders' or 'academics' questioning their autonomy and their decisions made according to the laws in force.
It will be outstepping AAS' role if AAS allows the selection of keynote speaker for 2014 conf. and gets critiqued for allowing the forums of the body to interfere with the laws in many Asian states and thus interfere with the friendly and constructive relations between non-Asian Asian states.
AAS has a responsibility to ensure that harmful material as defined in US Penal Code is not encouraged which is likely to arouse the prurient interests of minors since AAS studies ultimately percolate down to the middle school level in many regions and school curricula.
Thanking you for your consideration,
S. Kalyanaraman, Ph.D.
Sarasvati Research Center
March 21, 2014