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Asian studies

Asian studies

Asian Law in Australian Universities: Research centres as critical institutional commitments

In November 2019, Edward Aspinall and I convened a workshop on the state of Asian Studies in Australia. Bringing together leading academics in Asian Studies, we discussed the state of the field for the past two decades (2000-2020) across the disciplines (law, political science, international relations, anthropology, history), languages (Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Chinese) and area […]

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Anthropology of/with Asia in Australia

Following are some personal reflections and observations as to the state of anthropology of Asia in Australia, and its evolution over the past twenty years. I identify two trends that are in tension: a sector-wide neoliberal audit culture and a discipline-wide commitment to World Anthropologies. I suggest that Australian anthropology’s links to Asian Studies and

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Australian International Relations and Asia

The most significant dynamic that shapes the study of International Relations (IR) in Australia is the relationship between the global/theoretical horizons of the discipline and the focus on the Asia-Pacific. Chart 1 below demonstrates the scale of the Australian study of International Relations, noting particular clusters of scholars at the Australian National University (ANU), Griffith,

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Chinese Studies in Australian Universities: A Problem of Balance

The global field of Chinese Studies has expanded greatly in line with the rise of China to become the world’s second largest economy. However, this trend is less apparent in Australia, where the domestic enrolment in Chinese Studies and postgraduate level training has been relatively constrained.  Where Chinese programs are expanding in enrolment, this is

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20 Years of Korean Studies in Australia

The story of Korean Studies in Australia over the last twenty years is a pleasing one, albeit with some highs and lows. In the 1990s Korean language programs were running in eight universities across Australia, including Swinburne, Griffith and Curtin Universities. Today there are fewer combined Korean language and Studies programs, but those that exist

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Evolution of Mainland Southeast Asian Studies Over the Last 20 Years

Research and teaching on mainland Southeast Asian countries in Australia over the last 20 years have been shaped by the same forces affecting other areas of university life during this period: increased managerialism, difficult budgetary circumstances, the precariousness of academic employment, the casualisation of teaching, constraints on research funding, a persistent Eurocentrism in some disciplines,

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