President's Letter

February 2008

Dear NEASA Members,

First, allow me to thank the outgoing members of the NEASA Council for their superior dedication and service to the organization. Next, let me extend a warm welcome to the many new members who only took their seats on the Council last month. You have a collegial and intellectually enriching experience ahead of you.

NEASA is as vibrant as it has ever been. Between grants from ASA, institutional conference sponsorship, and the success of the 2007 conference, "SEX/CHANGES: Transformations of Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the United States," the group has, perhaps, more financial resources than it has ever had. These resources will translate into even better programs at future conferences and will support American Studies scholarship and teaching throughout New England.

I am also delighted that the papers delivered at this year's conference were of such a fine caliber. Clearly, NEASA is meeting its charge in showcasing some of the most exciting new work by emerging and established scholars from around New England.

In addition to panels with such titles as "Science and Sexuality" and "Sex, Coercion, and the State," which highlight NEASA's interdisciplinarity, the 2007 conference also attracted talks that were more explicitly activist, such as "The History of Transgender Organizing" and "Activism Coast to Coast." As well, we hosted a plenary session with leading voices in the debate over same-sex partnership. This lively discussion included representatives from an LGBT advocacy group, a state legislator, a journalist, and a plaintiff. The keynote gathering was exceptional in that it featured two of the most important figures working on the history of gender and sexuality in the U.S., Yale professors Joanne Meyerowitz and George Chauncey. In all, more than 120 registrants participated in the Brown conference.

Also this year, NEASA inaugurated a new prize for the best undergraduate paper written each year by a NEASA member's student. The Lisa MacFarland Award was given out for the first time at the 2007 conference. Additionally, work funded by the ASA continues to establish better means of making connections with-and serving the faculty development needs of-secondary schools in the region.

The 2008 conference, "Infectious Democracy: Histories and Cultures of American Politics," will take place at Yale University September 19-20 and is shaping up to be an impressive event. As ex-officio president I will now textually-if not literally-step aside to allow J. Kehaulani Kauanui, NEASA's incoming president, to introduce herself and to give you an update on current plans in the works for the next meeting. Many thanks to the Council for granting me the pleasure of serving as president in 2007.

Best wishes,

Eve A. Raimon