58th Annual Meeting of the
Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs
October 16-18, 2009
Miami University


Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Welcome to the 58th annual meeting of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Professor Mieko Ono, the Program Chair, has put together an excellent program with panels on a wide variety of topics. Special events include:

  • Welcome reception and annual banquet, followed by a keynote address by Professor Robert Hefner, President of the Association for Asian Studies, on “Asia's New Religious Pluralism.” Professor Hefner is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University.
  • The annual Presidential Plenary Panel, a roundtable on “Ethnicity and the Nation State,” with Linda Benson (History, Oakland University), Michael Robinson (History, Indiana University), and Thomas Williamson (Anthropology, St. Olaf College).
  • Performance by Eric Shepherd, a practitioner of the Shandong kuaishu tradition of storytelling.
  • “The Study of Oneself and One’s People in Prose,” a writers’ workshop with Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir.
  • A tour of the Asian art collection at the Miami University Art Museum at and “Seeing is Believing,” an exhibition of recent work by photographer Jon Yamashiro, at the Hiestand Galleries.
  • Encountering Asia: A Workshop for K-12 Teachers.
  • Awarding of student prizes at the Friday evening banquet.

The MCAA has a strong tradition of encouraging public service and student involvement. The Sidney DeVere Brown and Mikiso Hane prizes for undergraduate papers and Perry Buchanan Graduate student prize papers will be awarded at the conference.

Best wishes for a great conference,


Robert Entenmann
MCAA President