Author Archives: corff

Publications by PIAC Members

Dear Reader,

The end of the Cold War is not even an event of the recent past anymore as it is already one generation away. With increasing distance, the memory of this time either fades away or, for the younger members of the PIAC family, is not even accessible by personal experience anymore. Until recently, the general perception was that travel, exchange, exploration and scholarly field work had reached a new and hitherto unseen level of openness and ease. Yet, the PIAC was born during the Cold War and had to negotiate her path during the first 30-odd years of her history.

In sight of new geopolitical rivalries and tensions it must be thoroughly understood that the comparative ease and freedom of exchange and movement wo could enjoy during the last three decades is fragile rather than robust and should not be taken for granted and carved in stone. Quite to the contrary, it is necessary to understand the historical background of the PIAC in order to be able to appreciate the scholarly exchanges the PIAC managed to conduct in the first half of her history.

in May 2024, our colleague Kinga Szálkai published an interesting article on these issues of the history of the PIAC, focussing of the environment of and opportunities for scholarly exchange and work during the Cold War. The article is part of the The Palgrave Handbook of Non-State Actors in East-West Relations, the full citation is:

Szálkai, K. (2024). The Permanent International Altaistic Conference. In: Marton, P., Thomasen, G., Békés, C., Rácz, A. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Non-State Actors in East-West Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05750-2_81-1.

The abstract of the paper is available under the DOI stated in the citation.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
July 19, 2024

Previous Meetings: Information on 37th Meeting, Chantilly 1994, now available

Dear Reader,

The editor continues to negotiate his path through a huge treasure trove of PIAC documents: books of abstracts, lists of participants, and programmes of previous PIAC Meetings. If these materials contain many hand-written notes or are typeset by typewriter which was typically the case until the 1990s, they have to be copied manually. Thus, it is understandable that this is a time-consuming process. On the other hand, the editor does not process the materials in a linear, time-sequential fashion but his choices are rather prompted by a multitude of factors, curiosity not being the least among them.

That is why the List of Participants and Titles of Communications of the 37th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, held in Chantilly, France, in 1994, is available only now.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
July 2024

 

66th Meeting Göttingen, 2024: Report

Dear Reader,

the 66th Annual Meeting of the PIAC was held in Göttingen from June 30 to July 5, 2024. Held for the eleventh time in Germany, It was a very successful meeting as it saw the number of participants (from 15 countries) return to pre-Covid levels (57 participants joined the Meeting), among them many young participants.

The report of the Meeting is now online.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
July 08, 2024

65th Meeting Astana, 2023: Report

Dear Reader,

the 65th Annual Meeting of the PIAC was held in Astana from July 30 to August 4, 2023. Held for the second time in Kazakhstan (the first time being the 36th Annual Meeting held in Almaty in 1993), It was a very successful meeting with many young participants.

The report of the Meeting is now online.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
August 15, 2023

In Memoriam János Hóvári (1955 — 2023)

Ambassador János Hóvári in spring 2022

With shock and utter disbelief we had to learn of Ambassador János Hóvári’s untimely and totally unforeseeable death within a few days after the end of the 65th Annual Meeting of the PIAC in Astana, 2023.

János was a remarkable and outstanding person who excelled both as a scholar and a diplomat. Having graduated from Eötvös Loránd University with a diploma in Turkish history in 1979, he worked as a research associate at the Institute of History of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and at the same time he was a university lecturer at the Institute of History at the Teacher Training Faculty of Janus Pannonius University until 1992 when he entered the diplomatic service of Hungary. His first assignment was in the Department of Central Asia and Transcaucasia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  In 1997, he obtained a PhD in history from the University of Pécs. Since 2008, he held several posts as ambassador in Israel, Kuwait, Bahrain and Turkey. In his last position, he was the Executive Director of Hungary’s Representation Office of the Organization of Turkic States.

While János never formally was a participant of a PIAC meeting, he nonetheless closely followed PIAC affairs; his support was essential for organizing two PIAC meetings. Since it was impossible to hold the 64th PIAC Meeting 2022 in Moscow,  as originally announced, he opened doors in Hungary at the Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Humanities of Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary and at the Organization of Turkic States. He also recommended his long-time friend Uli Schamiloglu (they had known each other for half of their lives) and Nazarbayev University, Astana (Kazakhstan) as a possible host for the 65th Annual Meeting of the PIAC, a recommendation to prove auspicious as we just held a wonderful meeting in Astana a week ago at the time of this writing. All words of gratitude for his contributions to the PIAC are too late, and thus their only place is here.

János is remembered as a sharp-minded, yet soft-spoken, gentle, and generous human being; his friends find no words for his sudden departure.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
August 9, 2023

 

Previous Meetings: 43rd Meeting Lanaken, 2000 — Programme and List of Participants

Dear Reader,

Materials of the 43rd Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), held in Lanaken in 2000, are available now: list of participants and programme.

The programme reflects, to a certain degree, the actual sequence of communications which occasionally deviates from the printed material.

Oliver Corff, August 6, 2023.

Previous Meetings: 45th Meeting Budapest, 2002

Dear Reader,

the 45th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) was held in Budapest, Hungary, in June 2002 and was hosted by the Research Group for Altaic Studies,
Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

The programme of this meeting is now available. In the preface of the proceedings volume, Alice Sárközi mentions a total 88 of participants, so this was definitely one of the larger PIAC meetings, yet not everybody who registered for the meeting and submitted an abstract seems to have participated. The programme reproduced here attempts to reflect this situation.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
April 22nd, 2023.

Previous Meetings: 05th Meeting Bloomington, 1962: Report

Dear Reader,

more than 60 years ago, the 05th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) was held at Indiana University, Bloomington, in 1962. In the young history of the PIAC, this meeting was a breakthrough in many aspects. The first meeting to be held in the U.S.A., the first meeting of several to follow to be hosted by Indiana University, the meeting with the most international background of participants so far, the meeting to inaugurate the Indiana University Prize for Altaic Studies (colloquially known as PIAC Medal) and, according to historical records, the first meeting where speaking time had to be managed tightly in order to not run out of time.

The meeting received a high degree of international attention; reviews of the Proceedings published by Denis Sinor were written by no less than seven scholars.

It was also the first meeting that brought Western and Japanese Altaic studies together. So far, only  one Japanese scholar, Jirō Ikegami, had participated in the 4th Meeting 1961 in Cambridge, UK, despite the Secretary General’s repeated attempts to invite more Japanese scholars.

Denis Sinor had expressed the need for more insight into the state-of-affairs of Altaic Studies in Japan in an invitation letter to Shirō Hattori who, together with Shichirō Murayama, finally accepted Denis Sinor’s generous invitation (air fare included!) to participate in the 05th Meeting in Bloomington in June 1962.

In the foreword of the said Proceedings volume Denis Sinor writes: “Particularly regrettable is the absence of Professor Hattori’s very detailed report on the Japanese contribution to Altaic Studies”, the inclusion of which in the proceedings had been the original plan in 1962.

Fortunately, Shirō Hattori contributed an exensive report on his participation at the 5th Meeting of the PIAC to the Japanese journal Minzokugaku kenkyū in the same year. That report is not only a chronological account of presentations given at the meeting; much more it is a deep reflection on the very nature of PIAC meetings, and, at least in a summarized form, an overview of important Japanese contributions to Altaic studies, which, according to Hattori, should and could not ignore Korean studies.

Besides the detailed and preciousy vivid renderings of linguistic debates which took place during that meeting, Hattori’s report also reflects many of the key points of Denis Sinor’s report on the 05th meeting with regard to the international sharing of research results, the need of abstract and translation services, etc.

As a scholar, Shirō Hattori found himself haunted by the consequences of World War II and the post-war situation, and his reflections to this effect unfortunately hold as much truth now as they did then.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
April 19, 2023

 

 

Reports of Annual Meetings

Dear Reader,

the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) looks back over more than 60 years of near-continuous meetings since 1958 (due to Covid-19, the year 2020 was the only year without a PIAC Meeting). During this time, numerous scholars, many of them faithful PIAC members over many years, have contributed reports which were then published in scholarly journals.

The importance of these reports cannot be underestimated; not only do they reflect the importance the authors attached to the field of Altaic studies and the PIAC Meetings, but also these reports often  contain detailed lists of participants, presentations and keywords of discussions. The information contained in these reports thus complements the information contained in Meeting materials like programmes, lists of participants, etc., and serves as a means to confirm these materials.

The Reports of Annual Meetings can be found here.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General
April 09, 2023