Asian Studies

Asian Studies encompasses Chinese, Japanese, Korean, East Asian Buddhism, and South Asian culture, including literature, visual and popular culture, linguistics, pre-modern history, religion, and philosophy.

Name Research Interests
Abedinifard, Mostafa Literature and literary studies; modern Iran; Iranian/Persianate studies through fiction, drama, poetry, cinema, andnonfiction
Ahmed, Rumee Islamic studies; Human rights, justice, and ethical issues; Islam; Muslims; Religion; Law; Theology; ethics; Philosophy
An, Ji-yoon Korean cinema, K-drama, Rise of Hallyu, Diasporic cinema, Diasporic identity, Identity and cultural flows, Monsters of different cultures
Chen, Jinhua East Asian state-church relationships, monastic (hagio/)biographical literature, Buddhist sacred sites, relic veneration, Buddhism and technological innovation in medieval China, and Buddhist translations
Duffy, Kay Asian history; Literary or Artistic Works Analysis; Literary or Artistic Work Dissemination or Reception Contexts; Social Determinants of Arts and Letters; Arts and Cultural Traditions; Early Medieval China; Premodern Chinese Literature; Sinographic Sphere
Fulton, Bruce Literary translation, Modern Korean fiction, women
Hoffmann, Alexandra Literature and literary studies; Classical Persian Literature
Hur, Nam-Lin Japanese, cultural foundations, religion, international relations
Kadir, Aynur Documentation, conservation and revitalization of Indigenous cultures and languages, Uyghur literature, musical traditions and cultural practices, global indigeneity from the Uyghur in China to Coast Salish and Six Nations in Canada, transnational Indigenous diplomacy, safeguarding and revitalization of languages and cultural heritage
King, Ross Historical linguistics, diachronics, and dialectology; Korean philology; history of Korean literary culture; Korean historical linguistics; Korean dialectology; history of the Sinographic Cosmopolis
Laffin, Christina Humanities and the arts; premodern Japanese literature; medieval Japanese history; women's writing; Japanese women's history; travel writing; autobiography; Japanese poetry; Literacy; socialization; wet nursing; narratology
Laird, Colleen Asian history; Cinema studies; Film, television and digital media; Japanese cinema; Gendered image production, gendered reception, and women in film industries; Videographic criticism
Lynn, Hyung Gu Asian history; popular culture, migration, colonialism, globalization, development
Main, Jessica Buddhism, Ethics, and Human Rights; Modern Buddhist Institutions, Law, and Governance; Buddhists and Buddhist Institutions Active in Modern Society: Social Welfare; Healthcare and Healing; Protest Movements; Rehabilitation, Incarceration and Corrections; Youth Culture, Physical Culture, and Scouting; Modern Japanese Religions and Society; Japanese True Pure Land Buddhism
Nakamura, Fuyubi Social and cultural anthropology; Museum studies (Museology); Visual theory, visual culture and visual literacy; Globalization and culture; Environment, space and place; Anthropology of art; museum studies (working as curator at the Museum of Anthropology at UBC); material and visual culture; Contemporary Japanese calligraphy; Indigenous cultures, especially Ainu; disaster and memory, especially in the context of the Great East Japan Earthquake (3.11).; contemporary Asian art and culture
Naqvi, Naveena Persianate world; Non-courtly Persographic writers in regional contexts during early colonial rule; History of early modern and modern South Asia; History of political Islam; gender and sexuality; Hindustani music
Orbaugh, Sharalyn modern Japanese culture (literature, film, manga, animation, kamishibai); East Asian women’s issues; anti-racist pegagogy, Japanese narrative and visual culture
Prange, Sebastian History of Major Eras, Great Civilisations or Geographical Corpuses, Religious Systems, Life and Economic Production, Social Organization and Political Systems, History of Capitalism, Economic History, Trade and Trade Diasporas, Islam, South Asia, Indian Ocean
Rea, Christopher Chinese literatures; Asian history; Chinese literature; Cinema; Print culture; translation; Humor
Rusk, Bruce Asian history; Literary or Artistic Work Analysis; Social Determinants of Arts and Letters; Arts and Cultural Traditions; Exegesis and Sacred Text Critics; Lexicography and Dictionaries; Authentication Studies; Confucianism; Early Modern China; material culture
Sathaye, Adheesh early medieval Sanskrit drama, aesthetics, and narrative literature; Sanskrit epics, Marathi devotional performance traditions, and theories of textual production, performance, and folkloristics; South Asian folklore, narrative theory, and cultural studies
Shakya, Tsering confluence of politics, ethno-national identity and religious practice in cultural production and social transformation across both historical and contemporary Tibet and the Himalayas; contemporary minority policy and social media in the PRC.
Sherpa, Pasang Climate change and Indigeneity among Himalayan communities, Nepal and the Himalayas, Environment
Shin, Leo Later imperial China
Siddiqui, Hasan Zahid Early Modern South Asia