Ruth, who took up a chair in modern history at Columbia University in New York in 2024, traces her journey in Asian Studies back to a short but fascinating visit to South Korea as a first-year university student. Ruth saw first-hand the earliest phases of South Korea’s democratic transition, and met numerous political activists and ordinary workers. The experience changed her academic focus, and she followed up this visit with a second, longer one two years later. She became an expert of modern Korean history, with a specific focus on colonial and post-colonial-era literature, and she has carried this forward throughout her career. Ruth studied at the University of Queensland and the ANU at a time when Asian Studies was in comparatively good health, and has seen its steady decline thereafter. She sees the reduction in commitment in language studies as being the single-most significant change over time, and believes that university leaders need to be prominent in making the case for preserving this vital feature of Asian Studies in Australia. Despite the adverse changes of recent decades, Ruth says that the ASAA attracts many good people, does important work, and helps to foster many good ideas. There is excellent work being done by Asianists in Australia, and Ruth talks about some of these towards the end of the conversation. 

Watch Ruth’s interview below or on the ASAA’s youtube channel here. See the other interviews in the series here.