Current News

Dr. Rudrani Gangopadhyay successfully defended her PhD dissertation, titled, "The Spectral Urban: Visualizing the Indian Metropolis," and won the SGS Outstanding Doctoral Student Merit and Achievement Award, in April 2024. Dr. Gangopadhyay is now joining the Office of Career Exploration and Success at Rutgers as the inaugural Sr. Assistant Director of Graduate Student Career Pathways. In her new role, Dr. Gangopadhyay will partner with others to develop programs that help graduate students...

Dr. Viola Lasmana is an Emerging Voices Fellow at the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) and a South and Southeast Asian American Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of American Studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, where she is also affiliated with Global Asias and Asian Languages and Cultures. On November 30, 2023, Dr. Lasmana gave a Gatty Lecture at Cornell University on “The Shadow Image: Transnational Southeast Asian Feminist Practices and Pedagogies.” The talk...

Global Asias: The Afterlives of War and Resistance (2024/2025) Spring 2024 Events February 8: Asia-Pacific Lecture SeriesProf. Yeong-ae Yamashita, “The Japanese Military ‘Comfort Women:’ My Experiences and Struggles in the Reparation Movement as a Zainichi Korean-Japanese” with Prof. Suzy Kim (ALC)2:00pm-3:30pm | AB 6051 15: Book TalkProf. Young-mee Cho (ALC), “Korean Letters from the Griffis Collection” with Prof. James Jinhong Kim (NB Theological Seminary) and Sungmin Park (RU Libraries)12...

Abstract Ecological States critically examines ecological policies in the People’s Republic of China to show how campaigns of scientifically based environmental protection transform nature and society. While many point to China’s ecological civilization programs as a new paradigm for global environmental governance, Jesse Rodenbiker argues that ecological redlining extends the reach of the authoritarian state. Although Chinese urban sustainability initiatives have driven millions of citizens...

Dr. Eri Kitada (PhD, History) has just successfully defended her Dissertation, “Intimately Intertwined: Filipino Women in the U.S.-Japanese Imperial Formations, 1903-1956” at the SAS Department of History. [Committee Members: Chie Ikeya and Jennifer Mittelstadt (co-chairs), Kornel Chang, and Eiichiro Azuma (University of Pennsylvania)] The Global Asias community celebrates Dr. Eri Kitada for this joyous achievement. We thank Dr. Kitada not only for her groundbreaking scholarship and...

“Global Asias, ways to build sustainable intellectual community and locally grounded social spaces” Read Interview Here

Last year’s highly successful zoom film discussion and screening of the documentary “Abandoned: Japanese War Orphans in the Philippines and China was heralded in the newsletter of the Philippine Nikkeijin Legal Support Center, a Tokyo- and Manila-based non-profit organization. The event was organized by Eri Kitada (PhD Candidate in History) and the Cold War Asias Graduate Working Group and co-sponsored by Rutgers Global Asias, Rutgers Association of Philippine Students, and the Rutgers Center...

Historic addition to curriculum reflects ongoing racial reckoning Written by John Chadwick | SAS Senior Writer Jillian Cuzzolino knew the time was right to push for change at Rutgers University. It was spring semester 2021, one year into the Covid-19 pandemic and a time when attacks against Asian Americans were surging nationwide. Cuzzolino, a School of Arts and Sciences student and a leader in the Rutgers Asian Student Council, began laying the groundwork for a program she had long envisioned...

The Global Asias Grants Committee is pleased to announce the inaugural recipients of the Global Asias Interdisciplinary Pedagogy Grant for Spring 2022. The recipients and their advisors come from all three Rutgers campuses, across fields from Childhood Studies and Geography to History and Education with projects ranging from a podcast on Dotbusters to Global Indigeneity and Youth Movements in South Asia. Congratulations to Kiran, Smruthi, Eri and Rashmi! Kiran Baldeo, History at RU-NB Project: Dotbusters:...

Briefings: Emerging Research from the Global Asias Working Groups Monday | Dec 13, 2021 | 11:00a-12:15p Join us for research briefings on works-in-progress from the Global Asias Working Groups across disciplines and Asia regions. Yanqiu Jiang (Comparative Literature), “Tongue-Tied: Shen Manyuan’s ‘Singing of the Five-Colored Bamboo Frame of a Brazier’” (Group: Failure to Voice: Literature) Pritha Mukherjee (Art History), “The New Muse on The Block: Bihar Museum and the Reorganization of...

New center will work to advance research on cardiometabolic disease and mental health of Asian adults Asians are the fastest growing yet most understudied US minority group at 23 million people, having grown 26 percent from 2010-2019. Yet less than one percent of research funding from the National Institutes for Health in the last 10 years was focused on U.S. Asian populations. Currently, there are significant disparities in the Asian community’s relationship to heart health and mental health. The...

Seeking to bolster press freedoms as journalists find themselves under increasing pressure from authoritarian governments and other hostile forces, the Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the Peace Prize to two journalists thousands of miles apart for their tireless efforts to hold the powerful to account. The journalists, Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitri A. Muratov of Russia, were recognized for “their courageous fight for freedom of expression, which is a precondition for...

Further thoughts on Asian Studies “inside-out” (IJAS  Spring 2021) By Allan Punzalan Isaac, Johan Mathew, Anjali Nerlekar, Paul Schalow and Tamara Sears In response to Sato and Sonoda’s “Asian Studies ‘inside out’: research agenda for the development of Global Asian Studies,” members of the Global Asias Collaborative at Rutgers University – comprised of a diverse group of scholars of Asia and the Asian diaspora located in history, literature, art history, geography, among other disciplines – offer...

Boys’ Love (BL) movies, TV and Web series focusing on teen and young adult male same-sex crushes and relationships have been wildly popular among youth, primarily young female, audiences across East and Southeast Asia, from Japan and Korea to Thailand and the Philippines. Cinema and queer studies scholars address how each national industry has borrowed and adapted visual and formal narrative aesthetics from other Asian media and fandom in developing the genre for their local audiences. BL...

As the Biden Administration takes office, the crimes committed against the Rohingya may once more become a focus for American policymaking. On Friday, January 29 from 12-1 pm EST, PILPG and Orrick hosted an expert roundtable on the topic of the Rohingya Crisis and the legal basis to conclude that the Rohingya were the victims of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. Our esteemed panelists included Rohingya social justice activist Yasmin Ullah and PILPG Senior Peace Fellows with...

In 1867 Taro Kusakabe (1845-70), a young samurai from Fukui, Japan, began studying at Rutgers College. Several years later, his former tutor and Rutgers alumnus William Elliot Griffis (1843-1928) left for Japan to teach, first in Fukui and later in Tokyo. The year 2020 marks the 150th anniversary of two landmark events in the history of the Rutgers-Japan relationship: the untimely death of Kusakabe only months before his graduation and his friend Griffis’s departure to Japan.

Held as a webinar on October 1, 2020 at 8pm EDT, this panel discussion built on an earlier screening screening of Ramona Diaz’s film A Thousand Cuts (2020). Speakers: Maria Angelita Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and author, best known for co-founding Rappler as its chief executive officer. Jinee Lokaneeta, Professor in Political Science and International Relations at Drew University. Gina Dent, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness, and Legal Studies at...

By Sangeeta Bhagawati & Sneha Khaund. The coronavirus pandemic is a tremendous challenge for the people of Assam, and its publishing industry is no exception. READ MORE

By Asher Ghertner and Stuti Govil. Amidst rising Hindu majoritarianism in India, Muslim women-led urban occupations hold different communities together in the face of accusations that their very togetherness is disorder.  READ MORE