Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments The essays in this volume originated at a research conference on “Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges” held in February  at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The conference represented part of a larger effort to build bridges between the various fields of area studies scholarship that focus on well-defined world regions by accentuating the links between them, thereby contributing to the development of transregional and global historical analysis. The idea of drawing area studies associations into dialog emerged in  as a project of the American Historical Association (AHA). Conceived by Sandria B. Freitag (then executive director of the AHA) and the Program Committee planning the AHA annual meeting of  (cochaired by Renate Bridenthal and Patrick Manning), it was later developed as a series of grant proposals for two research conferences and three summer seminars for community college instructors, all held at the Library of Congress. It would have been impossible for this family of projects to succeed without the intense collaboration of educational institutions, funding agencies , scholarly associations, and energetic individuals. The AHA and the Library of Congress provided an institutional home for the projects in Washington . Arnita Jones, executive director of the AHA, generously supported the projects both with her own time and with AHA staff resources. Particular thanks go to AHA staffers Debbie Doyle and Brandon Schneider, both of whom devoted enormous time and energy to the projects. At the Library of Congress, Carolyn Brown, Prosser Gifford, and Les Vogel offered gracious hospitality in making the Library’s incomparable resources and facilities available to project participants. Under the leadership of Executive Director David Berry, the Community College Humanities Association provided essential logistical support. Funding for the projects came principally from the Ford Foundation. Thanks go especially to the Foundation’s enterprising program officer, Toby Alice Volkman, and its visionary vice president, Alison Bernstein, both of whom supported the projects as efforts to build constructively on the legacy of area studies scholarship, which the Ford Foundation itself had generously sponsored for more than fifty years. The editors would ix also like to express particular appreciation to Debra Sasaki for her careful attention as she helped prepare the book for publication. Planning for the “Seascapes” conference was the work of a steering committee chaired by Jerry H. Bentley representing the World History Association and Renate Bridenthal representing the AHA. Other members of the Steering Committee representing area studies associations and other constituencies included David Newbury from the African Studies Association ; Thomas Bender, Volker Berghahn, Nadine Ishitani Hata, Arnita Jones, and Dane Kennedy from the AHA; Kären Wigen and Anand A. Yang from the Association for Asian Studies; David Berry from the Community College Humanities Association; Ann Twinam from the Conference on Latin American History; Thomas Holloway from the Latin American Studies Association; Carolyn Brown and Prosser Gifford from the Library of Congress ; and Leila Fawaz from the Middle East Studies Association. On February , , the steering committee lost one of its most dedicated and faithful members when Nadine Ishitani Hata died peacefully following a lengthy illness. Nadine was a woman of both courage and grace. She was a scholar and teacher, an administrator and educational leader, a wonderful colleague, collaborator, mentor, and friend. In recognition of her support for the “Seascapes” conference as well as her many contributions that made the world a better place, this volume is dedicated to the memory of Nadine Ishitani Hata. x Acknowledgments ...