We promote the knowledge of Asia in Australia and provide a venue for scholars to present their work to their peers and others interested in Asia. We regularly run lectures, discussions and exhibitions to encourage the study of Asian history and culture.
We regularly run lectures, discussions and exhibitions to encourage the study of Asian history and culture.
The Journal of the Society of Asian Humanities (JOSAH) is our flagship publication, the longest-running journal on Asia in Australia, since 1960.
Formerly know as the Journal of the Oriental Society of Australia (JOSA), peer reviewed articles focus on China, Japan, South East Asia, and South Asia, but articles have also covered Korea, Mongolia, Tibet, Burma, Cambodia, the Middle East and Sri Lanka.
Digital copies of JOSAH can be purchased through INFORMIT. Printed copies are available through the Sydney University Press.
We are thrilled to invite interested scholars and postgraduate students across the globe to an exciting two-day conference. In a time when the humanities face existential challenges, we invite scholars to reflect on the meaning of Asian humanities today, foregrounding Asia not merely as a subject of study or an expression of region, but as a vital source of knowledge, practice and insight for rethinking the humanities.
Over a decade since the Gillard government issued the ‘Australia in the Asian Century’ White Paper, Asia’s centrality to every aspect of global humanities is undeniable. Yet, this same decade has also witnessed a worrying decline in Asian humanities research and education in Australia and New Zealand.
The conference is presented by the Australian Society for Asian Humanities, supported by the China Studies Centre and the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney.
We hold a lunchtimes seminar series. You can find details about our seminars on the events calendar.
Please join our mailing list to be notified of upcoming seminars.
Speaker: Professor Emerita Vera Mackie (University of Wollongong)
There has been a shift from seeing 'Asia' as a separate geographical entity to a recognition of the mutually imbricated histories of Australia and Asia and a consciousness of the continued presence of Asian and Asian-Australian communities within the boundaries of the nation-state. How would this history look if we took the streets as our starting point? What are the traces of this history on the streets of the city?
When: Thursday 4 November, 6pm
Where: Online (Zoom)
Speaker: Professor Devleena Ghosh (University of Technology Sydney)
In recent years, Adivasis in Chhattisgarh have been resisting the encroachment of their lands and forests by various mining corporations. Such developments have subsumed forest dwellers’ rights to the necessities of resource extraction and caused the displacement and loss of land and livelihoods. This presentation examines the historical status of forest dwelling Adivasis and the appropriation of their lands, first by colonial rulers in the 19th century and then by postcolonial governments.
When: Thursday 29 October 2020, 6pm
Where: Online (Zoom)
Speaker: Professor Adrian Vickers (Professor of Southeast Asia, University of Sydney)
This lecture examined the wider issues governing Asian Studies in Australia, moving from colonial Orientalism to Inter-Asia Referencing and the Cold War underpinnings of the field. Drawing on ‘Asia as Method’ and the writings of Chua Beng Huat, Professor Vickers asks what might constitute an Asian-oriented understanding of Asia.
