The Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) is pleased to announce that Dr Maggie Paul, a Lecturer in Politics at La Trobe University, Melbourne, has won the 2025 John Legge Prize. Dr Paul completed her PhD in the Department of Politics and International Relations, the School of Social Sciences, at the University of Adelaide.
Since 1997, the ASAA has been awarding the John Legge Prize ‘to a thesis conferred by an Australian university’, in the humanities or social sciences, broadly defined, which ‘deal[s] wholly with a country or countries of Asia or with Australia’s relationship with Asia.’ The prize is one means by which the Association recognises excellence in Asian Studies in Australia, and it is named in honour of John Legge, the inaugural President of the ASAA.
Dr Paul’s thesis, Citizens or ‘infiltrators’? Decolonising the securitisation of migration and citizenship in India, was praised by the judges of this year’s prize: Associate Professor Maria Tanyag (Australian National University), Professor Paul Hutchcroft (Australian National University), and Associate Professor Emma Palmer (Griffith University). The ASAA is grateful to these colleagues for the time, expertise, and care which they put into the judging of this year’s entries.
Special mention must go to Dr Samuel Bashfield (La Trobe University) for his thesis, ‘We Will Stay in the Indian Ocean’: The British Indian Ocean Territory, 1965–91, which was recognised with the award of an Honourable Mention. In an incredibly strong field this was no small feat, and the ASAA congratulates Dr Bashfield on his achievement.
Dr Paul’s thesis was praised for its empirical research, design, and rigor. One of the judges lauded Dr Paul’s ‘sophisticated and very engaging analysis of the longstanding ‘othering’ of Bangladeshi migrants in India’ while another said the thesis ‘stands out for its novel methodology which included courtroom observations pieced together with archival study’. Furthermore, the judges added, Dr Paul ‘makes an important and unsettling contribution to scholarship, offering crucial insights for regional relationships’.
The judging panel commented on the high quality throughout the entries for this year’s prize. We join the judges in congratulating Dr Paul, Dr Bashfield, and other entrants for undertaking such compelling research and wish them well in their careers.
David Hundt
President, Asian Studies Association of Australia, 2025/26
Associate Professor of International Relations, Deakin University