March 11, 2021 Meeting of Area Studies

Area Studies Division Meeting

May 13, 2021

10:00am-11:00am

Online Zoom Meeting

1. Sign up for Note Taking
2. Approval of the Minutes from February and March
3. Discussion Items:
   1. UGL/Main Library Integration
   2. IAS/Mortenson Center Collaboration and Collocation
4. Reports

Area Studies Division Meeting

March 11, 2021

10:00am-11:00am

Online Zoom Meeting

Present: Antonio Sotomayor, Atoma Batoma, Marek Sroka, Robert Geraci, Kathleen Ebeling, Joe Lenkart, Laila Hussein Moustafa, Mara Thacker (note taker)

1. Sign up for Note Taking
   1. Mara agrees to take notes
2. Approval of the Minutes from February
   1. Delay until next time
3. Questions About Chai Wai
   1. Atoma asks: Do we need more than two panelists? So far there are only two
      1. African Christian life in the time of the pandemic will be the topic
   2. The third panelist was worried he’d be frustrated about not being able to talk to us (from Burkina Faso)
   3. Feedback from Mara, Joe, and Antonio with suggestions
4. Mara Thacker Research Presentation
   1. Recently submitted book chapter on comics in academic libraries and special collections explored crowdfunded comics using survey data. Most libraries that collect comics do not collect crowdfunded comics. Crowdfunded comics are important because they often represent underrepresented voices that are left out of mainstream publication or are geared towards niche audiences. Of the 51 respondents, only five said they collect crowdfunded comics and 4 of those institutions were private academic libraries. There are some needed policy changes that would help change this.
      1. Antonio asks for clarification on how crowdfunded comics are similar or different to chapbooks, zines, self-published materials.
   2. Another manuscript in progress is on the collaborative buying trips and the affordances of applying an ethics of care to overseas fieldwork and how that impacts collective collections. This research will also be aligned with current discussions on decolonizing libraries and archives.
      1. Atoma mentions panel discussion on ephemera that happened a few weeks ago and shared that my Ellen Ambrosone had mentioned our work together
   3. Next project will be a submission to a book on popular culture collections in academic libraries. Considering a survey of area studies colleagues and their activities related to popular culture collections
5. Discussion Items:
   1. Scholarly Progress in Light of the Pandemic
      1. Antonio brought this discussion item up in light of the recent messages from the Provost and Chris Prom concerning tenure roll backs and impact of the pandemic on scholarly progress
      2. We have no untenured people this would apply to because Kit is going through the system

• For IAS the concern is how the pandemic is impacting mid-career and associate professors and how to move forward

1. There wasn’t much attention in that communication for midcareer and how we are doing. Antonio is still trying to actively build his case and it has been difficult during the pandemic to do his research. So shared experiences and ideas. How will this impact sabbatical? Antonio had a timetable including when apply and the pandemic disrupted that.
2. Laila agrees, there are things that have slipped out of our control. Laila’s sabbatical idea had originally been to use archives and she had to adjust, and her new idea isn’t as impactful as her original idea. How can the library support us in using archival material?
3. Kit and Laila had both applied for sabbatical in 2022

• How can the library help us when archives and conferences are open in other countries but the campus/library policy is not to allow travel?
• Wondering about missed opportunities as we are building case to go up for full, the research activity we are doing might not be as strong as we wanted to and how will that impact our cases when we submit our paperwork. Will we be penalized for reduced productivity?

1. Even when you submit an article it doesn’t go through on the same timetable is used to because the reviewers are also experiencing pandemic conditions.
2. Full professor bottleneck and extended timeline for going to full is a concern
3. Third component about changes to Provost Communication #9. Not sure how this will impact us and what those changes mean.

• Marek says there will be some meetings with Chris Prom and campus promotion and tenure committee with our FRC and PTAC—maybe after that meeting which is in April/May Chris will communicate about it. Marek will specifically ask questions about associate to full. Are those changes just for tenure track.
• Marek: If you can, there will be more conferences in 2021 or 2022 even participating virtually will be good for you
• Mara will invite Chris Prom as future ASD guest to talk about the email from the Provost, changes to communication 9, discuss it here in the context of mid-career and moving on

1. Antonio does have upcoming virtual presentation

6. Reports
   1. Reminder about meeting on March 18 at 9:30am to discuss IAS Phase 5 planning