What is “Asia”? What unites it, conceptually or otherwise? Or if nothing does, what does it mean to talk about “Asia”? This event will examine the idea of Asia from global, regional, and imaginary perspectives. The discussants discuss these perspectives from their own sub-regional fields of studies, China, Japan, South and Southeast Asia, and West Asia. They will explain the significance of understanding Asia from different vantage points and in the context of a globalized and connected world.

Sunil Amrith is Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies and Professor of History at Harvard University, and Director of the Harvard Center for History and Economics. He is the author of four books, including Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and the Fortunes of Migrants (2013), and Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia’s History (2018). He is a 2017 MacArthur Fellow, and was awarded the 2016 Infosys Prize in Humanities.

Zachary Lockman is Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and of History at New York University. The main focus of his research has been the socioeconomic, cultural and political history of the modern Middle East, particularly the Mashriq. He has served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America (2007), as a member of the Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East of the Social Science Research Council/American Council of Learned Societies; and as an editor (and currently a contributing editor) of Middle East Report. His recently published books include Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States (Stanford University Press, 2016).

Karen L. Thornber is Professor of Comparative Literature and of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University, Victor and William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center, and Chair of Harvard University Asia Center Council. She has served as Chair of Comparative Literature, Chair of Regional Studies East Asia, Director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature, and Director of Graduate Studies in Regional Studies East Asia at Harvard. She also directed the Harvard Global Institute Environmental Humanities and Social Sciences Initiative. She published three major scholarly monographs, six dozen articles, and multiple (co)edited volumes on a range of fields in literature and cultural history.

Introduction and moderation by Joanna Waley-Cohen, Provost and Professor of History, NYU Shanghai; Julius Silver Professor of History, New York University.

This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Global Asia and the Global China Studies Program, NYU Shanghai.