The Asian Studies Centre was founded in 1982, as the successor to the Far East Centre (established in 1954) at St Antony's College. Its activities are supported by an endowment at the College and from external grants. Like its predecessor, the Asian Studies Centre is primarily a co-ordinating organisation which exists to bring together specialists from a wide variety of different disciplines. Geographically, the Centre predominantly covers South, Southeast and East Asia. The Asian Studies Centre works closely with scholars in the Oriental Institute, the Oxford China Centre, the Contemporary Indian Studies Programme and the Nissan Institute of Japanese Studies (in premises at St Antony's). It is a forum for supporting activities through which scholars from across the University and beyond discuss thematic topics of comparative and of regional interest. The Asian Studies Centre is host to the Taiwan Studies Programme, Modern Burmese Studies Programme, the South Asian History Seminar Series and the Southeast Asian Studies Seminar Series. It also supports a variety of other country-specific and/or thematic seminar series, workshops, conferences, lectures and activities, which vary from year to year. The Asian Studies Centre is keen to support comparative research on Asia, and research on regional themes, to encourage debate and dialogue within the diverse student body of St Antony's College and across the University more generally. To facilitate communications among students, a register of research students working on Asia at both St Antony's, and from across the University, is maintained. The Asian Studies Centre administers the Wai Seng Senior Research Scholarship which provides two years of support for a DPhil student working in the field of Asia-Pacific studies. The centre hopes in the future to develop more sources for student support. The Centre welcomes opportunities to develop collaborations with academics and institutions working on Asia elsewhere in the UK and in other parts of the world.
