William Nessly

Candidate statement

My name is William Nessly, and I’m running for AAAS Mid-Atlantic Representative. I’m an associate professor of English at West Chester University, located in the suburbs of Philadelphia, PA. I am the department’s lone Asian American studies scholar, and I currently teach the only regularly offered Asian American course at the university. I’m completing my first book manuscript, The Polycentric Transpacific: Intra-Asian Conflict and Japanese Imperialism in Asian American Literature, which ties into my own background as the mixed child of a Japanese mother and a white US American father. I have been a lifetime member of AAAS since 2011, have attended conferences since 2010, and I’ve always felt warmly welcomed by the officers of AAAS, especially during the 2015 East of California AAAS Junior Faculty Workshop, where I met and learned from many of the leaders of our small community. I’m currently serving on a small standing committee of the American Studies Association, but I’m eager to contribute to AAAS, the association I feel most closely connected to. If elected as Mid-Atlantic Representative, I will contribute enthusiastically and hopefully add to the diverse group of dedicated members serving official roles at our association.