Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars
Encyclopedia
The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS) was founded in 1968 by a group of graduate students and younger faculty as part of the opposition to the American war in Vietnam
. They proposed a "radical critique of the assumptions which got us [The United States] into Indo-China and were keeping us from getting out." The caucus was held at the Association for Asian Studies
convention in Philadelphia, but was a radical critique of that professional association's values, organization, and leadership. Most of the original members were graduate students or junior faculty in Area Studies
programs at Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University, although there were also independent scholars and those with no affiliation in the field.
The group soon passed the following Statement of Purpose:
Bruce Cumings
John W. Dower
Tom Engelhardt
Joseph W. Esherick
Edward Friedman
David Horowitz
Richard Kagan
Ngo Vinh Long
Victor Nee
Jim Peck
Elizabeth Perry
Mark Selden
Orville Schell
Susan Shirk
Marilyn B. Young
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
. They proposed a "radical critique of the assumptions which got us [The United States] into Indo-China and were keeping us from getting out." The caucus was held at the Association for Asian Studies
Association for Asian Studies
The Association for Asian Studies is a U.S. society focused on facilitating contact and information exchange among scholars of Asian fields. It is the self-proclaimed largest society of its kind. The Association consists of eminent Asianists, and is a non-profit organization...
convention in Philadelphia, but was a radical critique of that professional association's values, organization, and leadership. Most of the original members were graduate students or junior faculty in Area Studies
Area studies
Area studies are interdisciplinary fields of research and scholarship pertaining to particular geographical, national/federal, or cultural regions. The term exists primarily as a general description for what are, in the practice of scholarship, many heterogeneous fields of research, encompassing...
programs at Harvard, Stanford, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, and Columbia University, although there were also independent scholars and those with no affiliation in the field.
The group soon passed the following Statement of Purpose:
- We first came together in opposition to the brutal aggression of the United States in Vietnam and to the complicity or silence of our profession with regard to that policy. Those in the field of Asian studies bear responsibility for the consequences of their research and the political posture of their profession. We are concerned about the present unwillingness of specialists to speak out against the implications of an Asian policy committed to ensuring American domination of much of Asia. We reject the legitimacy of this aim, and attempt to change this policy. We recognize that the present structure of the profession has often perverted scholarship and alienated many people in the field.
- The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars seeks to develop a humane and knowledgeable understanding of Asian societies and their efforts to maintain cultural integrity and to confront such problems as poverty, oppression, and imperialism. We realize that to be students of other peoples, we must first understand our relations to them. CCAS wishes to create alternatives to the prevailing trends in scholarship on Asia, which too often spring from a parochial cultural perspective and serve selfish interests and expansionism. Our organization is designed to function as a catalyst, a communications network for both Asian and Western scholars, a provider of central resources for local chapters, and a community for the development of anti-imperialist research. (28-30 March 1969, Boston)
Founding Members and Contributors
Herbert BixBruce Cumings
Bruce Cumings
Bruce Cumings is the Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Distinguished Service Professor in History at the University of Chicago and the chairperson of the history department...
John W. Dower
John W. Dower
John W. Dower is an American author and historian.Dower earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Amherst College in 1959, and a Ph.D. in History and Far Eastern Languages from Harvard University in 1972, where he studied under Albert M. Craig...
Tom Engelhardt
Tom Engelhardt
Tom Engelhardt is the creator of the Nation Institute's tomdispatch.com, an online blog. He is also the co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of the 1998 book, The End of Victory Culture: Cold War America and the Disillusioning of a Generation.Engelhardt graduated from Yale...
Joseph W. Esherick
Edward Friedman
David Horowitz
David Horowitz
David Joel Horowitz is an American conservative writer and policy advocate. Horowitz was raised by parents who were both members of the American Communist Party. Between 1956 and 1975, Horowitz was an outspoken adherent of the New Left before rejecting Marxism completely...
Richard Kagan
Ngo Vinh Long
Victor Nee
Victor Nee
Victor Nee is the Frank and Rosa Rhodes Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Economy and Society at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at Harvard University in 1977...
Jim Peck
James Peck
James Peck may refer to:*James H. Peck , American judge in Missouri impeached for abuse of power*Sir James Peck , British civil servant and local government officer...
Elizabeth Perry
Mark Selden
Mark Selden
Mark Selden is a Coordinator of the open access journal The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, a Senior Research Associate in the East Asia Program at Cornell University, and Bartle Professor of History and Sociology at Binghamton University. He graduated from Amherst College with a major in...
Orville Schell
Orville Schell
Orville Hickock Schell III is an activist and writer working on China, and is the Arthus Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society in New York...
Susan Shirk
Susan Shirk
Susan L. Shirk is an expert on Chinese politics and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State during the Clinton administration. She was in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs . She is currently a professor at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the...
Marilyn B. Young
Publications
- Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars., China! Inside the People's Republic (New York,: Bantam Books, 1972).
- Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars., The Indochina Story; a Fully Documented Account (New York,: Pantheon Books, 1970).
- Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars., Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars (Cambridge, Mass.: Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1969-2000). 32 vols. 1968-2000 issues (Volumes 1-32) available online free of charge http://criticalasianstudies.org/bcas/back-issues.html?page=1 . From 2001 published as Critical Asian Studies http://bcasnet.org/about-us/