AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
Western Branch
Established 1951
ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE 2011 ANNUAL MEETING
The 2011 meeting of the American Oriental Society, Western Branch, will take place in Santa Barbara, California, on October 14-15, 2011, co-sponsored by the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Department of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies. All AOS members are cordially invited and enthusiastically encouraged to attend, to organize panels, and to present papers.* We recommend registering as early as you can. Please send the enclosed registration form, payment, and your abstract if giving a paper, by Thursday, September 1st, to:
Ronald Egan
Dept. of East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies
UCSB
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
email: ronegan@eastasian.ucsb.edu
*YOU MUST BE A MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY TO PRESENT A PAPER AT THE CONFERENCE. Membership information is available in all issues of the Journal of the American Oriental Society as well as at the American Oriental Society website: http://www.umich.edu/~aos .
Accepted papers will be allotted up to 20 minutes for presentation, followed by approximately 10 minutes for discussion. There will be no designated “discussant” for any panel. You should receive the final program by the end of September.
MEETING ARRANGEMENTS
The meeting site is the Upham Hotel and Garden Cottages, 1404 De La Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101. All sessions will be held in the Garden Room at the Upham. Registration will take place on Friday and Saturday mornings.
CONFERENCE BANQUET
The annual meeting banquet will take place Saturday evening, at the Endless Summer Café, 113 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara, CA 93105, overlooking the picturesque Santa Barbara harbor and marina. A buffet will be served, and guests will make their choices at the restaurant.
Near the conclusion of the banquet Professor Richard Von Glahn, outgoing president of the Western Branch, will deliver the traditional presidential address.
ACCOMMODATIONS
Blocks of rooms have been reserved for conference participants for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at a discounted rate at The Upham Hotel and Garden Cottages and at a lower-priced alternative, Days Inn & Suites, nearby.
The Upham Hotel and Garden Cottages, 1404 De La Vina Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, ph. 805.962.0058 (www.uphamhotel.com) has rooms priced at $125 for Thursday night and $215 for Friday and Saturday nights (for an average price of $185). There is a choice of single and double occupancy rooms at this price. The historic Upham Hotel, which claims to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in Southern California (since 1871), is a local landmark with a main building and several cottages spread through an attractive garden setting. The hotel is within convenient walking distance to downtown restaurants, shops, and sites. Rooms at the Upham Hotel come with several amenities, including access to the garden, complimentary continental breakfast, late afternoon wine and cheese, cookies and milk at night, internet access, free parking etc.
Participants who book rooms at the Upham Hotel will help the Western Branch keep its costs down, since fees for the use of the conference room at the hotel will be reduced according to the number of hotel rooms booked.
Days Inn & Suites, 1601 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101, ph. 805.966.0807 has single occupancy rooms at $89 on Thursday and $109 on Friday and Saturday; and double occupancy rooms at $109 on Thursday and $129 on Friday and Saturday (queen beds) or $124 on Thursday and $144 on Friday and Saturday (king beds). This hotel is a ten minute walk from the meeting site at the Upham Hotel. The hotel also provides complimentary parking.
Please book your accommodations early. When you phone the hotel, you must mention that you are in the American Oriental Society Western Branch group to get the discounted rate. The reserved blocks of rooms will be held only until September 8 for the Upham Hotel and September 12 for the Days Inn. Thereafter the rooms will be released to the public. As you can see from the prices, Santa Barbara is tourist destination on weekends. If you wait until right before the meeting to book a hotel, rooms will be hard to find and the prices even higher.
TRAVEL FROM AIRPORTS
From Santa Barbara Airport (SBA): It will make sense for most participants to fly into Santa Barbara airport, which has direct flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix, Dallas, etc. Taxi fares from the airport to the Upham Hotel are roughly $30 one-way. You might try to coordinate with others to share a taxi. You might also consider looking into renting a car at the airport. Santa Barbara car rentals are inexpensive on the weekends, and since the hotels have free parking, you might rent a car for little more than the roundtrip taxi fare.
From Los Angeles (LAX): For those who might be able to book a substantially lower airfare flying into LAX, you could either rent a car and make the two hour drive up the 101 Freeway to Santa Barbara, or take the Santa Barbara Airbus (www.sbairbus.com). The Airbus picks up passengers at LAX approximately every two hours, and three hours later drops them downtown in Santa Barbara. You would then need a short taxi ride to the hotels. The Airbus fare is $46 each way.
WEATHER
October is usually a delightful time in Santa Barbara, with clear skies and daytime highs in the 70s or low 80s, nighttime lows in the 50s or 60s. This can vary of course, so please check weather forecasts before departure.
WESTERN BRANCH, AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY
Annual Meeting, October 14-15, 2011, Santa Barbara, California
Pre-Registration Form
Name:________________________________________________________
Institution:_____________________________________________________
E-mail_________________________________________________
Pre-Registration Fees:
· Regular (includes banquet) $90.00 ...........
· Students and Emeriti (includes banquet) $65.00.........
· Banquet (guests only) $50.00.........
· Total.........
Form of Payment:
Check or money order payable to the American Oriental Society, Western Branch. If you live outside the US, please remit in US Dollars only, payable through a US bank or by International Money Order.
Technology Needs:
A digital projector will be available. Please indicate whether you have other technology needs (e.g., slide projector, internet access) ____________________________________
Pre-Registration (non-presenters) only:
Please return this form with appropriate payment to the address below by Thursday, September 15, 2011.
Paper presenters:
Please return this form and an abstract (150-200 words) of the paper by Thursday, September 1st, 2011, via regular mail or electronic format (Word or PDF), to the address below. Payment (i.e., checks or money orders) must be sent via regular mail and should be sent at the same time as paper title and abstract.
Ronald Egan
East Asian Languages and Cultural Studies
UCSB
Santa Barbara, CA 93106
email: ronegan@eastasian.ucsb.edu