Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom visits HYI partner institutions in Vietnam
To help the Harvard-Yenching Institute’s partner institutions in Vietnam better understand the publication enterprise of Asian studies journals in the West, the Institute invited Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom (University of California –Irvine), Editor of the Journal of Asian Studies, to give a series of lectures at three universities and research institutes in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
In addition to a joint-presentation with Peter Zinoman (UC Berkeley; Editor of the Journal of Vietnamese Studies) on June 29 at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi, Prof. Wasserstrom also gave a talk on “Asian Studies Journals in the West: a Look at a Changing Publishing Landscape” on June 30 and July 1 at the Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences (Hanoi) and the College of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City (with the participation of researchers from the Southern Institute of Sustainable Development), respectively.
Prof. Wasserstrom’s presentation described a variety of developments that have recently taken place in English language Asian studies journals specializing in the humanities and the social sciences. The well-attended talks received positive feedback from the Vietnamese audience—as described by attendees at the College of Social Sciences and Humanities in Hanoi, Prof. Wasserstrom’s talk not only helped Vietnamese scholars understand the paper submission procedure, but also provided them with a clear description of the paper selection process practiced in the West; through the talk, the audience also learned methods to better present their research.