York Centre for Asian Research
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The York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) is a community of York University researchers who are committed to analyzing the changing historical and contemporary dynamics of societies in Asia, understanding Asia’s place in the world, and studying the experiences of Asian communities in Canada and around the globe. Our inter-disciplinary membership includes faculty, students and other research associates from across the social sciences, humanities, health, education, creative/performing arts, law and business.
Some common themes characterize much of the research that YCAR fosters and supports. First, we adopt an explicitly transnational approach to research, meaning that we seek to understand connections within Asia, between Asia and the rest of the world, and between Asia and its diasporas. Second, we value research that is based on extended field and archival research, language study and the long-term development of expertise. Third, we emphasize a critical and engaged model of scholarship, attentive to social justice agendas that seek to address exclusions or inequalities based class, gender, sexuality, ‘race’, caste, religion, region or environmental dispossession. Often, this involves collaboration with the communities being studied in the research process, and the mobilization of research findings to effect public education and social change.
The role of the Centre in the work of individual researchers is to create a space for interdisciplinary intellectual exchange, to provide administrative support for research projects, and to enrich student training through fieldwork and language awards and a graduate diploma programme. We also provide an access point for anyone interested in York expertise on Asia and Asian communities, and we actively seek to deliver research to the widest possible audience.
Founded in 2002, YCAR continues a strong tradition of internationally recognized research in Asian Studies at York, pioneered since 1974 by the Joint Centre on Modern East Asia, and the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (both in collaboration with the University of Toronto).
Collections in this community
Recent Submissions
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Should the Chinese Language be Taught in Putonghua? Contested Identities in Post-1997 Hong Kong
(2017-12-30)This talk by Po King Choi was the inaugural Bernard H. K. Luk Memorial Lecture organized by the York Centre for Asian Research on 27 April 2017. Bernard H. K. Luk (1946-2016) was a Professor of History at York University, ... -
A Spell to Empower Women: Religion, Culture and Domestic Violence in Pakistan
(2017-11-15)In this essay, Behzad analyzes themes of gender, violence and nationalism in Rukhsana Ahmad’s short story, “The Spell and the Ever-Changing Moon.” The story is about a Pakistani woman, Nisa, who turns to black magic in an ... -
From Roots to Rhizomes: Hybrid, Diasporic Identities in Hema and Kaushik
(2017-07-20)Rahman analyzes diasporic Indian characters from Jhumpa Lahiri’s book of short stories, Unaccustomed Earth. Focusing on two characters, Hema and Kaushik, Rahman draws out themes of displacement, genealogy and gender to ... -
The Making of Bangladesh
(2017-07-20)In this paper, Alavi brings together an interview and academic scholarship on the 1971 partition of East and West Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh. Throughout the paper, the author works through theories of ... -
Vietnam, the Philippines, Guam and California: Connecting the Dots of U.S. Military Empire
(01-01-2016)In the 2015 Asia Lecture at the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR), Dr. Yen Le Espiritu views the Vietnamese refugee flight— from Vietnam to the Philippines to Guam and then to California, all of which routed the refugees ... -
Producing the Islamist Subject: Liberalism and the Postcolonial State
(01-01-2015)This paper examines how Islamist publications represent the history of Pakistan as a story of betrayal by the country’s leaders. These publications emphasize that the very ideology which forms the basis of Pakistan has ... -
Failing State or Fragmented Hegemony: The Political Economy of Change in Pakistan
(01-01-2016)The relationship between the Pakistani state and society is a complex and evolving one. It continues to be shaped by class, national oppression, patriarchy, caste-ism and the myriad legacies of colonialism. In his talk, ... -
Bollywood’s Queer Dostana: Articulating a Transnational Queer Indian Identity and Family in 2008’s Dostana
(01-01-2015)Mainstream ‘masala’ Bollywood films have played a key role in producing and reiterating a nationalist Indian identity centered on the monolithic notion of the Hindu, wealthy and patriarchal India. The result of such ... -
The Naxalite Movement and the Indian State, 1967-1969
(01-01-2015)Despite the recent characterizations of the Naxalite movement as India’s “bloody class war” in the New York Times or as the country’s “greatest internal security threat,” the history of the struggle defies simple categorization. ... -
Methodological Approaches to Unpacking Testimonies made to Sri Lanka’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission
(01-01-2015)In this paper, I analyze Tamil women’s testimonies that were made to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) in 2010-2011, an inquiry commission set up by the Sri Lankan government to investigate the final ... -
Denouncing Party Politics: Indignation and Domestic Confinement in Karachi
(01-01-2013)Delivering her lecture as part of the 2012 York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) Urban Asia Series, Dr. Tania Ahmad examines the events surrounding the 12 May 2007 Karachi riots, the discourse of self-described “ordinary ... -
Asian Futures, Old and New
(01-01-2014)In this keynote address to the York Centre for Asian Research’s (YCAR) 2013 international graduate student conference, Tania Murray Li tackled a number of entrenched ideas about “Asia” as the shining future, which underpin ... -
Waste Matters: Informal Economies and Commodity Detritus in Delhi, India
(01-01-2014)In the 2013 Asia Lecture, Vinay Gidwani examined through stories, images and both conceptual and empirical analysis the spatial histories and evolving political economy of waste in Delhi, India. Dr. Gidwani focused ... -
The Intermediary Trap: International Labour Recruitment, Transnational Governance and State-Citizen Relations in China
(01-01-2013)Delivering the 2012 York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) Asia Lecture on the occasion of YCAR’s 10th anniversary, Dr. XIANG Biao explores the high cost of legal transnational labour migration for unskilled Chinese labourers. ...
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