In this post, I take the opportunity to reflect upon the work and achievements of the ASAA Council over the past two years (2023-24). It has been an exciting term on Council with lots of activity and new developments. In 2023, we welcomed not one but two postgraduate representatives to the Council to affirm our commitment to supporting postgraduate researchers, and we also welcomed our first Women’s Forum representative. It has been a momentous term for several other reasons – 2024 marked the 25th biennial ASAA conference, which was a big milestone! We acknowledge the many members who have hosted and served on conference committees over the years to keep this important event running.
The Council has actively considered ways to support early career scholars and casual academics. For example, in 2023, ASAA introduced a new casual academic membership category that allows casual academics to take out ASAA membership at the same rate as postgraduates. This goes a small way to facilitating the inclusion of casual academics in recognition of their precarious financial situation. In addition to the new membership category, the Council awarded two (rather than one) Postdoctoral Writing Grants to support early career scholars given the high number and quality of applications we received.
The Council initiated two Asian Currents blog series with a range of contributions from our members. In early 2023, we ran an Asian Currents series on “Career Pathways in the Study of Asia” as a way of sharing tips, advice and pathways into academia. The series includes contributions by Associate Professor Dirk Tomsa, Associate Professor Yu Tao, Professor David Goodman, Dr Jess Kruk and Dr Felix Pal (parts 1, 2 and 3), Dr Elisabeth Kramer, Professor Michele Ford, Dr Elly Kent and Dr Shin Takahashi. In 2024, we ran a series on “Celebrating Women’s Contributions to ASAA” to highlight the history and role of contributions by women to the Council and its activities. This series included a tribute to the late Elaine McKay by Emeritus Professor John Ingleson; Enid Bishop by George Miller; and articles by Emeritus Professor Virginia Matheson Hooker AM; Emeritus Professor Beverley Hooper; Emeritus Professor Kathryn Robinson; Emeritus Professor Louise Edwards; Professor Mina Roces; Dr Amrita Malhi; Anne Platt; Professor Melissa Crouch and Natasha Naidu. A range of other posts featured in Asian Currents, including interviews with prize winners and keynote speeches from the ASAA 2024 Conference. We thank Natasha Naidu for her excellent work editing Asian Currents.
One major area of work for the Council over the past two years was to promote the findings from its report on Australia’s Asia Education Imperative regarding support for the study of Asia in Australia. The report received coverage in media such as Campus Morning Mail, The Asia Society Bulletin, Ear to Asia podcast, and Melbourne Asia Review, among others. The ASAA made several government submissions based on the report. This included submissions to the University Accord consultation (December 2022), the Southeast Asia Strategy 2040 (January 2023), the Australian Research Council consultation on Policy Reform to the National Competitive Grant Scheme (April 2024), and the New Colombo Plan External Advisory Group (October 2024). I, along with the vice president and past president, attended several meetings, including with the federal Department of Education, and with the executive director of the Asia Education Foundation. The ASAA was also invited to partner with the Australian Academy of Humanities in their submission to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet on recommendations for a new Asia literacy policy.
The Council continued its efforts in acknowledging the achievements and research excellence of members through a range of prize and grant schemes. We rely on many of our members who volunteer their time and expertise to sit on committees, for which we are extremely grateful. We announced our winners via our newsletter and on our website, and also celebrated these achievements at our AGM. This includes the Early Career Book Prize, the Mid-Career Book Prize, the John Legge Prize, the Wang Gungwu Prize, thePostgraduate Conference Award, the Postdoctoral Writing Grant, and the Event Grant. The Reid Prize is currently open and we invite submissions until 28 March 2025.
I want to acknowledge all those who served as volunteers on these committees, both ASAA council members but also many other ASAA members, including: Professor Julian Millie (Monash), Professor Mina Roces (UNSW); Professor Vera Mackie (Uni Wollongong), Associate Professor Patrick Jory (UQ), Professor Taylor Sherman (UNSW), Associate Professor Nick Cheesman (ANU), Dr Lukas Fort, Dr Kaira Zoe Alburo-Cañete, Dr Matthew Galway (ANU), Associate Professor Ruth Barraclough (ANU), Dr Andrew Levidis (ANU), Emeritus Professor Robin Jeffrey (La Trobe), Dr Charan Bal and Dr Justine Chambers. We are indebted to their service to the field in this way.
Aside from prizes and grants, from time to time the Council makes appointments of honorary life membership to members who have made an outstanding contribution and service to the ASAA and to Asian Studies more broadly. We were pleased to appoint Emeritus Professor Robin Jeffrey (former president); Enid Bishop (Gibson) (former librarian); and Anne Platt (Assistant Editor of Asian Studies Review).
Another major area of work for the Council has been enhancing joint memberships, ensuring fairness in salaries of our contractors and maintaining a strong financial record.The ASAA is pleased to have expanded our joint membership options with the Chinese Studies Association of Australia (CSAA) and Indonesia Council, in addition to our existing joint membership options with the Korean Studies Association of Australasia (KSAA), the Malaysia & Singapore Society of Australia (MASSA) and the Japanese Studies Association of Australia (JSAA). We thank Dr Jarrah Sastrawan as treasurer and the respective councils for their work behind the scenes to make this possible. The ASAA is in a very healthy position financially and our membership is strong with 400+ members. We have had an increase in our income from the new Asian Studies Review contract and have been able to pass on more benefits to members by increasing our expenditure. The Treasurer’s report from the July 2024 AGM contains further details. In 2023, the Council also approved a staged pay rise between 2023-25 for the salaries of our contractors – the Digital Editor and ASR Assistant Editors – which brings the salaries of our contractors in line with standards across the university sector in Australia.
Finally, as a new initiative, the Council has been working on developing a process for receiving donations and bequests, and we have now created a website page regarding donations and bequest. We also acknowledge and thank the Estate of the late Elaine McKay for a generous bequest of $10,000 to the ASAA.
As the term of the Council for 2023-24 has come to an end, I am pleased to announce the new councilors of the ASAA Council for 2025-26 under the leadership of Professor David Hundt as president. David is well-known to many of you as the former editor of Asian Studies Review (2019-23) and as vice president (2024), and brings this wealth of experience to his term as president. More broadly, this Council represents a wealth of expertise across Asia as well as across disciplines and across a range of universities throughout Australia.
I thank all councilors for their service, particularly those who ended their terms in 2024. I would particularly like to thank Dr Minerva Inwald who came on board as Secretary at short notice and has been a vital part of ensuring the day-to-day work of ASAA over several years. Her high-level organisation skills and her contribution to the Executive and to various prize committees has been greatly appreciated. I thank the following people who served as sub-regional councilors: Dr Josh Stenberg (2024); Dr Nisha Thapliyal, Professor Kaori Okano and Professor Li Narangoa. I also thank Dr Rebecca Cairns as our Teachers Representative, Dr Sarah Gosper as Women’s Forum representative, Professor Kate McGregor as past president, and Associate Professor Jo Elfving-Hwang for her leadership with the 2024 ASAA Conference at Curtin University. We thank Dr Soyeon Kim (Monash) and Jorien van Beukering (UQ) as postgraduate representatives for their work in organizing the postgraduate day at the ASAA Conference in Perth.
It has been such a privilege to serve as president. As I step down, I want to thank those who have offered me support and advice during my term, including Emeritus Professor Robin Jeffrey, Emeritus Professor Tony Reid, Emeritus Professor Louise Edwards, Professor Michele Ford, Professor Kate McGregor, Professor Edward Aspinall and Professor Kent Anderson. I came away from the ASAA Biennial Conference this year inspired and encouraged by the dedication, intellectual commitment, enthusiasm and perseverance of our members and the wider community of scholars who research and teach on Asia. Although it is a difficult time for the sector more broadly given the uncertainty of government interventions and economic cuts, Asian studies remains a vibrant and dynamic field at Australian universities due to the individual and collective hard work of many scholars and students.
Please keep in mind that there are plenty of ways – big or small – for you to be involved in the future. The ASAA is currently seeking expressions of interest to host the 26th ASAA Biennial Conference in 2026. Members of Council would also be interested to hear from scholars who are keen to serve on prize or grant sub-committees. Finally, please stay in touch with ASAA and share your research news and activities via our new LinkedIn page. We hope you have a restful summer break.
Image: Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
