Monash Asia Institute

  •  Welcome to Monash Asia Institute (MAI)!  

    MAI is a multi-disciplinary research centre representing the Asian research expertise in all ten faculties on all Monash campuses located in Australia and abroad. Founded in 1988 as the Institute for Contemporary Asian Studies, it was reconstituted as the MAI in 1992 to bring together a wide range of Asia-related activities in the University and develop collaborative links with like-minded institutions in Australia, Asia, the USA and Europe. Now located in the Arts Faculty, MAI  endeavors to facilitate innovative research on Asian regions and promote cross-disciplinary and trans-Asian intellectual dialogue within and outside Monash.

    See the forthcoming events & news in the MAI October 2017 BULLETIN

  • FOCUS THEMES & REGIONAL COORDINATORS (**Inaugural Seminar on 31 March**)

    MAI establishes four focus themes to promote inter-disciplinary and trans-Asian research collaboration and dialogue. Coordinators of focus themes will organize trans-Asia seminar series. MAI will also invite international scholars who are working on the below themes to give a talk at trans-Asia seminar series.

    1. Migration, Diaspora and Belonging (Coordinated by GIl Soo Han and Mridula Chakraborty)
    2. Diversity, Mobility and Inclusion (coordinated by Julian Millie & Koichi Iwabuchi)
    3. Media, Culture and Performance (coordinated by Ariel Heryanto & Olivia Khoo)
    4. Cultural Citizenship and Public Pedagogy (coordinated by Koichi Iwabuchi & Philip Chan)

     

    MAI also appoint regional coordinators who are responsible for facilitating cross-regional exchange and responding to inquiries about the research of the region:

    East Asia: Gil Soo Han and Gloria Davies/Jonathan Benney

    Southeast Asia: Ariel Heryanto and Julian Millie

    South Asia: Mridula Chakraborty and Chandani Lokuge

Upcoming Events

Embodiments and Inhabitations (AAI 6)
Immigration Museum
Event Date: 25/10/2017 - 26/10/2017

https://aai6conference.wordpress.com/

AAI6_FinalSchedule_CONFERENCE PROGRAM2017

 

The 6th Asian Australian Studies Research Network (AASRN) conference, “Embodiments and inhabitations”, will be held on 25-26 October 2017 at the Immigration Museum, Melbourne. The event is affectionately known by network members as ‘AAI 6’, in keeping with AASRN tradition.

We hope you can join us for what is already shaping up to be a very exciting and unique event.

This conference is generously supported by:

For more information about the AASRN, visit the network’s website. The conference hashtag is #aai6 on all social media. Feel free to use it!

 

Other Asians, Asia's Otherings
Monash University, Caulfield Campus
Event Date: 30/10/2017 - 31/10/2017

Inclusionary Utopias, Exclusionary Politics

30 & 31 October 2017
Monash University Caulfield Campus, Melbourne

Register Now...

Download the Conference Program... (PDF)

Monash Asia Institute (MAI) is pleased to invite you to its Conference on “OTHER ASIANS, ASIA’S OTHERING; Inclusionary Utopias, Exclusionary Politics” on 30-31 October 2017. The conference will open with a public keynote address by Professor Krishna Sen (The University of Western Australia) in the evening of 30 October 2017. On the next day, there will be three panel sessions, each focussing on one of the MAI central research themes for 2017 (see below). Overall, the conference deals with two distinct but related issues; empirical observation and questions of method: recent changes in Asia and the challenge of analysing these changes.

CHANGES IN ASIA: Asia has changed dramatically in multiple dimensions in the past three decades, of which the speed and scope of demographic mobility and cultural fluidity are some of the most striking. We witness the escalation and intensification of mobility, diversity and connectivity in relation to newly configured politics of inclusion/exclusion. Why and how politics of race has gained momentum for a while in some circles, while politics of religion, gender, or class gained more currency in other times or social settings? Where and when do they intersect, blend, or contradict across Asia and over trans-Asia?

STUDYING ASIA: Ironically, when such rapid changes taking place across Asia and require fresh analyses and comprehension, formal training “Asian studies” in schools and universities outside Asia has been in serious decline or under institutional threat. Where such studies survive, there has been a significant rise of Asians studying Asia outside Asia, including Australia in its multiple framework and focus: studying Asia ‘in’ Australia, studying ‘Asians in Australia’ and studying ‘Australia as part of Asia’. What does it mean to study Asia in the new millennium? How and why the Cold War-styled “Asian studies” has been outdated; how today’s Asia poses institutional and methodological challenges to studying Asia, in and/or outside Asia? How can trans-Asia approaches contribute to the debate?

The papers will examine MAI's three key themes: 1) Migrants, Diaspora & Identity politics; 2) Mobility, Diversity & Inclusion; 3) Media and cultural practices, although proposals that are in other intriguing ways relevant to the conference topic will also be considered. Papers will focus on a single nation or metropolitan area in Asia, but priority has been given to papers with focus on trans-Asian issues, international dimension of a local issue, a comparative perspective of more than one nation, or innovative insights into the future of studying Asia in Australia. Innovative approaches and new interrogations of methods of studying Asia are most welcome. Early Career Researches are strongly encouraged.

Download the Conference Program... (PDF)

Register for the Conference...

Enquiries

Any enquiries should be directed to MAI-Enquiries@monash.edu.

Koichi Iwabuchi, Ariel Heryanto, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Julian Millie (Co-conveners)
Monash Asia Institute, Monash University

Monash Asia Institute (MAI) and Japanese Studies Centre (JSC) Special Public Seminar
Japanese Studies Centre
Event Date: 01/11/2017

Kyoka Tominaga_flyerC

 

From Counterculture to Subculture The Study of Social Movement in Japan after the 3.11 Disaster

This presentation discusses from a cultural perspective how young activists deconstruct conventional forms of organization and collective identity to construct alternative type of activism in contemporary Japan. Previous studies have regarded social movement as an organizational behavior based on collective political identity. However, the situation has drastically shifted after the 3.11 nuclear disaster. Some research shows that Japanese youth protesters no longer have definitive political membership and organizational principle in their activism. They tend to participate in demonstrations as individual and do not commit themselves to long-term participation in a particular activism. This presentation argues that the shift of youth movement has much to do with the decline of youth counterculture in the era of individualization. Youth's participation in social movement does not show a shared ideology, principle, political style against the mainstream, which counterculture used to have and differentiate into numerous kinds of subcultures with individualized fashion, preference and purpose of political participation.

Presenter:  Associate Professor Kyoko Tominaga, Ritsumeikan University, Japan

Discussant: Professor Carolyn Stevens, Japanese Studies Centre, Monash University

followed by lunch reception.

Please RSVP by 27 October to mai-enquiries@monash.edu

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