An article about cultural and personal flows across the Bay of Bengal in pre-independence India has been awarded the 2016 Wang Gungwu Prize.

Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) president Professor Kent Anderson announced that Devleena Ghosh, an associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney, had been awarded the prestigious annual award for the best article in Asian Studies Review in 2016.

The article explores cultural and personal flows across the Bay of Bengal and the modern states of Burma, West Bengal and Bangladesh.

‘In the process, she uncovers a ‘lost past’ and ‘world’ where cultural perceptions and class markers were far more important than state borders, and personal histories were deeply intertwined with the processes and practices of colonialism,’ Professor Anderson said.

‘The essay offers an innovative look at how topography and cartography intersect with personal histories and the history of British colonialism.’

The article appeared in Volume 40 Number 2 of Asian Studies Review and can now be viewed free-of-charge, along with articles by past prizewinners.

The ASAA established the Wang Gungwu Prize in 2013 to recognise and encourage scholarly excellence in Asian Studies.

The $1,500 award is named in honour of the distinguished historian, Professor Wang Gungwu, who has contributed enormously to scholarship in Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Professor Wang was a founder of the ASAA in 1976 and has served as its president.