Diversity in conference in Japan

[Mark Langager]

Thank you, Yuriko, for providing that information.

This is good news, and it is different from the information that I
had. It is encouraging to know that at least one non-Japanese
presenter was selected. I do feel this is important in light of
recently published criticisms of exclusionary practices that pervade
the academic community in Japan (e.g. Hall, 1998).

I truly appreciate your willingness to confront the problem by
seeking more non-Japanese reviewers. I will give it my consideration,
and I hope others on this list serve do the same. Good luck!

Mark Langager

Reference:
Hall, Ivan  P. (1998) Cartels of the mind: Japan's intellectual
closed shop. New York: W.W. Norton


On Wed, 16 Feb 2000 14:11:49 -0500 (EST) Yuriko Oshima-Takane
<yuriko at hebb.psych.mcgill.ca> wrote:

> Hi,
>
>
> A few words were missing in the previous message. I probably deleted
>
> them while removing strange symbols appeared between words .
>
> Below is the corrected version. Please discard the previous message.
>
> Sorry.
>
>
> --Yuriko Oshima-Takane
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Dear Mark,
>
>
> >My concern is that the list of presenters for last year included only
>
>
> >speakers with Japanese first names (except the keynote speaker you
>
> >invited).
>
>
> In response to your question concerning the names of presenters, at
> least
>
> one presenter did not have a Japanese name. However, it would seem
> hasty to
>
> conclude from this that other presenters were citizens of Japan, or for
> that matter
>
> that people with non-Japanese names are not. In any case, the relevance
> of
>
> such facts is not entirely clear, given that the name, and gender, etc.
> of
>
> applicants were not made available to reviewers. In fact, it occurs to
> me as
>
> strange that such questions are directed at our conference though never
> (to my
>
> knowledge) at those in the U.S., France, or elsewhere (not that they
>
> necessarily should be). Would you conclude that the selection procedure
> was
>
> necessarily biased if you found out that more Japanese applicants were
>
> accepted?
>
>
> As far as the details concerning selection procedure, as I said, just
> like
>
> other conferences held in North America, Europe, etc., the review
> process was
>
> strictly anonymous. The names, affiliations, and all other identifying
>
> information regarding the authors was withheld from the reviewers. At
> no time
>
> was any such information disclosed to the reviewers or to anyone
> involved in
>
> the selection process. Therefore, from the abstract alone, it would
> have been
>
> very difficult for any reviewer to identify an author, or even the
> nationality
>
> of an author. Also I should mention that last year's review panel
> consisted
>
> of Japanese and non-Japanese members, though we would have liked more
>
> non-Japanese participation. So if you or anyone on this list is willing
> to
>
> serve as a reviewer for the 2nd annual JSLS conference, please contact
> the
>
> Chair:  Hidetoshi Sirai (sirai at sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp).  Thanks.
>
>
>
> Yuriko Oshima-Takane
>
>  President
>
> Japanese Society for Language Sciences
>
> http://jchat.sccs.chukyo-u.ac.jp/JSLS/index.html
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> <underline><fontfamily><param>Monaco</param>
>
>
> </fontfamily></underline>
>
>
>
>
>

----------------------------------------
Mark Langager
Email: Mark_Langager at gse.harvard.edu
Harvard University Graduate School of Education