Electron-Positron Collisions in the Charmonium Region: Results from BESIII and CLEO-c

Electron-positron production of charmonium continues to be a viable technique for studying Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). One can study the charmonium spectrum itself, where the heavy charm quarks are thought to permit a perturbative treatment of QCD dynamics. In addition, $c\bar{c}$-annihilation decays of charmonium are ideal for producing and studying the spectrum of light mesons. A review of recent results in the areas of light hadron and charmonium spectroscopy from the CLEO-c experiment, which completed data taking at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring in 2008, and BESIII, now taking data at the Beijing Institute for High Energy Physics, will be presented. The status and future data-taking plan of the BESIII experiment will also be briefly reviewed.