{"id":13408,"date":"2020-10-29T10:06:01","date_gmt":"2020-10-29T10:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/?p=13408"},"modified":"2026-01-11T10:40:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T10:40:25","slug":"anniversary-general-meeting-in-the-virtual-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/royalasiaticsociety.org\/anniversary-general-meeting-in-the-virtual-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary General Meeting in the virtual world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Thursday evening (22nd<\/sup> October), the society held its Anniversary General meeting, celebrating 197 years of its existence. For the first time in the society\u2019s history, this meeting was held virtually due to the Covid restrictions that are currently in place. However, thanks to the hard work of Alison Ohta, Matty Bradley and Camilla Larsen, the event ran smoothly and was well attended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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The address being delivered virtually by the President with a small audience of staff sitting in the room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

President Anthony Stockwell opened proceedings before handing over (virtually) to the Treasurer, Lionel Knight, to give his report. The Treasurer went through the accounts of the society, mentioning some of the financial activities in more detail. This was followed by the President\u2019s report where he highlighted the many achievements and activities of the society in the past year and how it has adapted to new ways of working under Covid.<\/p>\n

The address that President Anthony Stockwell gave in the meeting can be read below:<\/p>\n

From May 2019 to mid-March 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Cast your mind back some 18 months to the last AGM held on the 9th May 2019. It did not mark, as it may have done in years gone by, the start of a long vacation, a \u2018summer recess\u2019. There were more lectures on the card to be enjoyed, followed by the first and very successful summer school on the Silk Road conducted by Dr Susan Whitfield and, of course, essential house-keeping before the programme for 2019-20 would get underway in September.<\/p>\n

As has become the norm, 2019-20 was brimful with events –\u00a0 26 on the card to which others, such as book launches (for which 14 Stephenson Way is now a popular venue) would be added as the year unfolded. I have time only to linger on one or two of these events, notably, the award last October of the Bayly Prize for the second year running.\u00a0 The Bayly Prize, you will recall, was established both to commemorate the life and scholarship of the late Sir Christopher Bayly and to provide the means for a competition whereby an outstanding PhD thesis submitted to a UK university on an Asian topic would be converted into a book. As in 2018, so in 2019, the prize was keenly contested.\u00a0 As in 2018, the panel of judges consisting of internationally renowned scholars were greatly impressed by the quality of the submissions. On the 29th October, Lyndal Roper (Regius Professor of Modern History at Oxford) announced the result at a reception held at the Society.\u00a0 The winner was Lexi (Alexandra) Stadlen of the LSE for her thesis, \u2018Weaving lives from Violence: Possibility and Change for Muslim Women in West Bengal\u2019.\u00a0 I should add, that although the pandemic has disrupted arrangements for the 2020 award, we intend to announce the winner at a celebration (either at the Society or virtually) in early January 2021.<\/p>\n

In addition to sponsoring the Bayly prize, the Society has its own monographs\u00a0 programme.\u00a0 Three important works were published in the year under review: Islamic Movements in India: Moderation and its Discontents<\/em><\/a>, by Arndt-Walter Emmerich, The Making of the Islamic State<\/em> by Brian Ulrich, and The Early Ottoman Peloponnese<\/em>, by Georgios C. Liakopoulos (in the Ibrahim Pasha series with Gingko Library).<\/p>\n

Returning to the 2019-20 calendar and scrolling down the list of events I must pause at 12 March.\u00a0 That evening Christopher de Ballaigue lectured on \u2018The Islamic Enlightenment\u2019.\u00a0 For me it will remain memorable for two reasons. First, as a tour de force delivered without notes, without repetition and without hesitation.\u00a0 And second, it was the last lecture in the 2019-20 programme to be delivered at Stephenson Way.<\/p>\n

From mid-March 2020 to 22 October 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following week the Society, together with the rest of the country, went into lockdown.\u00a0 The first casualty was the Collections Open Evening billed for 17th<\/sup> March \u2013 always a popular \u2018show and tell\u2019 occasion when conservators, volunteers and placement students have the opportunity to speak about the origins and significance of objects in the Society\u2019s collections. One by one, other events were postponed indefinitely, notably: the presentation of the Society\u2019s Medal jointly to Professors Carole and Robert Hillenbrand billed for 16 April and the Anniversary General Meeting scheduled for 14 May and subsequently deferred to this evening. Our lecture list in ashes, Dr Ohta seized the moment.\u00a0 Zoom lectures notably from RAS Beijing and elsewhere have more than filled the gaps and increased public interest in the Society.<\/p>\n

With 14 Stephenson Way closed, the Society\u2019s staff either worked from home or were furloughed. In regards to committee and Council meetings, initially but laboriously we conducted them by email until moving to the sunny, if occasionally misty, uplands of Zoom. Staff returned to Stephenson Way in mid-June.\u00a0 On the 23rd<\/sup> June the Library opened to readers initially for one day a week and by appointment only. Notwithstanding eagerness on the part of our invaluable volunteers to resume their projects, we have had to defer their re-admission for the time being.<\/p>\n

Working from home in the first phase of the pandemic, the Librarian, Ed Weech, and Archivist, Nancy Charley, fielded enquiries from both the Fellowship and the public.\u00a0 Their regular blogs about, say, a significant anniversary or a recent acquisition attracted considerable interest. So, too, did the Society\u2019s digitised manuscripts. During the period from April to August there were 4,650 visits from 3,460 users who between them viewed almost 17,000 pages. To put these figures in perspective, they amounted to almost double the number for the same period in the previous year. 30% of the visitors to the digital library came from the USA and UK, another 30% from India, Malaysia and Indonesia, whilst the remainder were more thinly spread. As Nancy catalogued the Society\u2019s archives, she placed them on the Archives Hub. The Archives Hub identifies, locates and describes thousands of collections currently held by several hundreds of institutions in the UK.\u00a0 So far 60 catalogues of our archives have been listed on the Hub.<\/p>\n

Before moving on from Library and Archives, we should congratulate Ed on the successful defence of his PhD thesis, \u2018Lineage and Legacy: Thomas Manning and the British Study of China 1800-1830\u2019, and thank Nancy who, after 6 years as the Society\u2019s first professional Archivist, resigned in September in order to focus on writing. Nancy\u2019s second collection of poems, How Death Came into the World<\/em> was published earlier this year. The title of her final blog for the Society was, \u2018Much achieved, much still to be done\u2019. We were very grateful to Nancy for remaining in post a little longer to induct her successor, Emma Jones, whom we warmly welcome to the Society.<\/p>\n

The Society\u2019s historic prizes \u2013 notably the Society\u2019s Award (formerly Gold Medal) and the Burton Medal \u2013 are generally presented in recognition of life-time achievements.\u00a0 In recent years we have turned the spotlight upon emerging scholars, hence the Bayly Prize.\u00a0 Thanks to a generous donation from Professor Peter Frankopan, the Society has established a new prize to be named the David Morgan Prize<\/em>, in commemoration of and in gratitude for David\u2019s immense contribution to scholarship. Professor Morgan, who died in October 2019, had been editor of the Society\u2019s Journal<\/em> from the mid-1980s to the start of this century and was renowned in particular for his research on the Mongols. The David Morgan Prize will be awarded to an early-career scholar for an outstanding article published in the JRAS. <\/em>These are difficult times for academic journals no matter the discipline. The editorial team has been reinforced with the appointment of Dr Weipin as Associate Editor and the David Morgan Prize will add much to its allure.<\/p>\n

Early forward-planning has meant that we remain on course with preparations for the Society\u2019s two hundredth anniversary in 2023.\u00a0 Peter Collin has completed his fascinating prosopography of the founders and early members of the Society. Dr Norbert Peabody and Yale UP are working closely together on the production of the three-volume edition of James Tod\u2019s Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan. <\/em>\u00a0I should add that in March this year Dr Peabody was presented with the Colonel James Tod Award by the Udaipur-based Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation.<\/p>\n

None of this would have been possible or will be possible without our innovative and indefatigable staff: Director Dr Ohta and \u2018team Alison\u2019. We also thank those members of Council who are standing down at the end of their term and those Fellows who, notwithstanding many other calls on their time, have accepted nomination in their place.<\/p>\n

Finally I would like to congratulate Mr.Syed Afsar Uddin a Fellow, who recently received an MBE in the Queen\u2019s Birthday Honours\u00a0 for his services to education and the community in Tower Hamlets.<\/p>\n

Tony Stockwell<\/p>\n

New date for the collections evening <\/strong><\/p>\n

With President Anthony Stockwell mentioning the cancellation of the collection\u2019s evening in March, we thought it would be the best time to share with you all that the event has now been rescheduled for the 25th<\/sup> November over Zoom. More details of the event will be shared in due course but it will be an opportunity to hear about some of the exciting work that has been carried out across the society\u2019s collections by some of our former placement students. Please keep checking our website and social media channels where further information will be released shortly.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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An image of some of the conservation wok that has been carried out by one of our placement students.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Aap Beeti book launch<\/strong><\/p>\n

A reminder that the book launch of Aap Beeti<\/em>, the autobiography of Mohinder Singh Randhawa is taking place this Saturday (31st<\/sup> October) at 11:30 am (UK time) on Zoom. Please email Matty Bradley (mb@t-creative.com<\/a>) by the end of today (29th<\/sup> October) if you would like to attend. We look forward to seeing many of you there!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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