From: Haiyan Lee <haiyan@stanford.edu>
Dear China, Taiwan and Inner Asia Studies Colleagues,
Each year the China and Inner Asia Council (CIAC) of the Association for Asian Studies appeals to colleagues in the field to ask for your support for the CIAC Small Grants Awards program — one of the AAS’s most effective outreach efforts. As Chair of CIAC, I write now to encourage you to consider making a donation to this worthy cause, which is truly making a difference in our field. In the words of one former recipient: “Without the travel grant from CIAC, I would not have been able to make this trip…I very strongly feel that this grant has done a great deal in helping me to keep working towards my goals while building strong collaborative opportunities with my Mongolian colleagues.”
Participating in the Small Grants Awards process is one of the most rewarding opportunities for those of us working in China and Inner Asia Studies. The awards are “small,” as suggested by the program name — $2,000 or less – and yet their impact cannot be underestimated. Most of the awardees are early in their careers (more than half of the awards are given to graduate students) and many of the faculty recipients are located at colleges and universities where research funds are extremely limited, or even entirely unavailable. While senior faculty also receive funding each year, the Council especially encourages applications from dissertation-level graduate students, junior faculty, independent scholars (including language pedagogues and librarians), and adjunct faculty. These grants are often crucial for advanced graduate students to complete their dissertations, or for junior faculty to undertake projects not funded by their departments: providing, for example, an air ticket to a research site in China or Tibet, or the extra funds needed to make possible an archive workshop for graduate students. The CIAC Small Grants Program has also provided money for the completion of a vital translation project, to build a digital archive, and to sustain a digital newsletter.
In addition, receiving one of these grants brings welcome recognition of one’s scholarly achievements. Time and again recipients have told us that our grants have made all the difference. In the words of one: “I am profoundly grateful to the CIAC grant, which made my summer 2013 research possible.” It is truly amazing to learn that $2,000, and sometimes even less, can matter so much. The range of topics covered by this year’s grant recipients – everything from studies of Chinese Buddhism and Pentecostal Christianity, to Tibetan language, environmental history, women’s labor issues, literary texts and performance, Chinese civil society, and cross-border marriage – is impressive indeed. We are further excited that the grants program has enabled support of innovative new platforms for sharing scholarship, including a website as well as an avant-garde multimedia theatrical performance.
Unfortunately, we are far from able to meet fully the need for such support and recognition. We currently receive over 100 applications per year, and were only able to approve 28 in the last grants cycle. Sadly, a large number of outstanding proposals cannot be funded each year due to funding limitations. The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation has long been the mainstay of the CIAC Small Grants Awards program, and its generosity is much appreciated. The CCK Foundation in fact recently increased its level of support in response to the CIAC’s request for more help. Yet, the CCK Foundation’s generous philanthropy also serves as an important reminder to the Council that we as AAS members in the China, Taiwan and Inner Asia field(s) should be doing more ourselves. We cannot appeal effectively to any large donor unless we show that we as individual members value the Small Grants Awards program.
As a result, the CIAC, with the approval of the AAS leadership, is making this appeal to establish an annual fund to increase the number of Small Grants Awards we are able to offer each year. Thanks to generous donations from members like you, CIAC was able to raise the total number of small grants made in 2013 and 2014. Please join us now in this effort by making a generous, tax-deductible contribution. Several of us gave $500 last year and have pledged to ourselves to continue budgeting funds for this cause in the coming years. We obviously need participation from as many of us as possible in amounts both large and small to generate sufficient funds to make a real difference. We all have other institutional affiliations that demand financial contributions, but here is a unique opportunity to provide immediate help to colleagues in the “invisible university” of China, Taiwan and Inner Asia Studies at a moment of need when budget cuts and employment insecurity loom large. Our financial contributions will give a much-needed and well-deserved boost to fellow scholars and will enable us to repay in some measure the moral and financial support we have each received at critical points in our own careers. All of the money you contribute will go directly to Small Grants Award recipients. Please see the form that follows this letter for information on how you can help to make a significant difference in the careers of fellow scholars who need our assistance.
You may also go directly to the AAS website for donations to the CIAC Small Grants Awards fund at: https://www.asian-studies.org/about/donate.htm. Your generosity will go a long way toward building the network of China and Inner Asia scholars in AAS, and sustaining innovative scholarship in the field.
Sincerely yours, Emma J. Teng 2014-2015 Chair, CIAC