“Toward Global Asias,” a new project at the Association for Asian Studies aims to support and strengthen collaboration and conversation between Asian Studies and Asian American Studies. The project—which will create new programs and content and will pursue research on and discussion of race, inequality, and the need for increased diversity in Asian Studies—will also engage scholars of race and diaspora studies.

The Association for Asian Studies is pleased to announce that we have received a $60,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to support valuable programming and create content relevant to a new initiative in Asian Studies. The funded project, “TOWARD GLOBAL ASIAS: Bridging Asian and Asian American Studies and Exploring Afro-Asian Affinities,” represents tangible efforts to build solid connections between Asian Studies and Asian American Studies. In addition, the proposed projects demonstrate an effort to building a more responsibly diverse constituency in the study of Asia-linked identities. The proposed collaborations and exchanges will provide a medium through which AAS can work more closely with scholars engaged in studies of race and diasporic affiliations.

Among the initiatives funded by this Luce grant is a series of panels, roundtables, and meetings devoted to building a bridge between Asian and Asian American Studies. While the two fields of study have been marginally connected in the past, this project will bring them into direct conversation through a focus on Global Asias. In particular, the project will weave the work of AAS and the field of Asian American Studies with the path-breaking publication, Verge: Studies in Global Asias. Verge is an award-winning journal focused on connecting the many threads of Asian Studies, Asian American Studies, and Asian Diaspora Studies. Collaborations between Verge and AAS will also include cyber chats, publications, and partnerships with other institutions dedicated to the study of Global Asias.

Read the full article