Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Papers of Alfred P. Fernbach, Accession #12781, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was a gift to the library on 1986 July 10.

Biographical/Historical Information

Alfred Phillip Fernbach (1915- ) was born in New Rochelle, New York. He married Jenny Christoffersen in 1941, and they had one son, Robert, born in 1947. Fernbach earned both the Ph.B. (1936) and the Ph.D. (1941) at the University of Wisconsin, where he also served as a guest lecturer on political science in 1944-45 and in the summer of 1947.

In 1941, Fernbach came to the University of Virginia as an Instructor of Political Science, and by 1962 he had become Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs. He remained in that position until his retirement in May 1986 when he was elected professor Emeritus. He also served as Associate Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences from 1971 to 1976.

Fernbach was a member of several national foreign studies organizations, including the Association for Asian Studies, the American Political Science Association, and the International Studies Association; he served the latter association as President of its Southern Division. He travelled extensively during the course of his academic pursuits, including stays as Fulbright Research Fellow with the Nobel Institute in Oslo (1950) and as Fulbright Lecturer at Karnatak University, Mysore, India (1961/62).

Among his publications are "Southeast Asia Treaty Organization" in Encyclopedia Americana (1962) and Soviet Coexistence Strategy, A Case Study of Experience in the International Labor Organization (1960).

Scope and Content Information

The Alfred Phillip Fernbach Papers (1959-1984) comprise approximately 400 items (.7 shelf feet) and include professional correspondence, departmental memoranda, curriculum proposals, department expenditure estimates, and plans for conferences and colloquia.

Much of this material concerns the establishment, development and administration of the Asian Studies program at the University of Virginia. Included among the Asian Studies Committee items (1964-1981) are proposals for and correspondence about such an interdisciplinary coordinating body, and papers documenting Fernbach's tenure as the committee chairman (1968-1973). Also included with these committee files are specific proposals for an Asian Studies curriculum and faculty, as well as documentation of the committee's "Visitor-in-Depth" program (1969-1971), through which recognized authorities on Asia visited the University of Virginia for a several days at a time to meet with students and faculty.

Another bundle of papers concerns the Virginia Asian Studies Consortium [VASC] of area institutions (Emory and Henry College, Hampton Institute, Mary Baldwin College, Mary Washington College, Old Dominion U., Randolph-Macon Women's College, the U. of Virginia, and Virginia State College) and Fernbach's involvement with the group. Documents range from the initial proposal for such a consortium in 1965 to a report of the VASC steering committee in 1984. Most items date from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and include colloquium programs, executive committee memoranda, a 1969 report on the resources of VASC, correspondence aimed at expanding VASC membership, and the by-laws drafted in 1973.

A smaller group of Association for Asian Studies [AAS] files, chiefly correspondence, pertains principally to the southeastern regional activities of the society. Other papers and concern graduate school fellowship awards, including Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired [DACOR] fellowship criteria and selections for the 1978/79 session.

None of these papers reflects any of Fernbach's specific classroom of research activities, nor are there any personal or family papers in the collection.