Tag Archives: Report

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

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

Previous Meetings: 39th Meeting Szeged, 1996

Dear Reader,

for the 39th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Conference (PIAC) held in June 1996 in Szeged, Hungary, the list of participants and the programme are now available. That meeting had a fairly large number of participants (in the proximity of 100), a considerable number of them first-time participants; it is always important that the PIAC welcomes the next generation of scholars.

Oliver Corff, March 21, 2023.

Previous Meetings: 42nd Meeting, Prague 1999

Dear Reader,

The the discovery of archival materials always offers a fortunate opportunity to fill in blank spots in the history of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC). This is even more important in cases where no proceedings volume was ever produced.

For the 42nd Meeting of the PIAC held in Prague in 1999 hosted under the auspices of RFE/RL, the following materials are now available in addition to the existing article by Bruce Pannier:

As always, curating the PIAC archive relies on contributions from the PIAC community. Thus, in case you participated in that meeting but do not find your name in the aforementioned materials, please let me know and everything will be duly updated.

Oliver Corff
Secretary General

Berlin, March 09, 2023

Previous Meetings: 47th Meeting Cambridge, 2004: Report

Dear Reader,

Our Turkish colleague Süer Eker wrote an introduction to the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC) and a report on the 47th Annual Meeting of the PIAC. He kindly gave permission to translate the report in English, and finally it could be published here.

Oliver Corff, January 23, 2023.

Report of the 64th Annual Meeting Budapest 2022 Available

Dear Reader,

It was a challenging experience for the organizers to organize the 64th Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference at short notice in Budapest from August 21 to August 26, 2022. Yet all’s well that ends well, and this can be said with all justification about this Meeting.

The Report of the 64th Annual Meeting is now available.

Oliver Corff, September 1st, 2022.

 

Previous Meetings: Report of 28th Meeting Venice 1985 now available

Dear Reader,

Not all information relevant to the PIAC appears in the same place. Historically, there was never something like a central repository of all things PIAC. In the case of the 28th Meeting which had been held in Venice in 1985, the editor’s attention had only recently been guided to the Report of the 28th Meeting, written by Ádám Molnár and published by the Acta Orientalia of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1988.

The PIAC Newsletter No. 16, August 1986, in contrast, has a short summary.

Oliver Corff, July 19th, 2018.