PHD OPPORTUNITIES IN ASIA

Opportunities exist within the Australian National University's (ANU)Division of Pacific and Asian History (PAH) for suitably qualified scholars interested in undertaking PhD research on same-sex and transgender histories and cultures in Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Pacific Islands, and Australasia. No scholarships earmarked specifically for queer Asia-Pacific research are currently on offer. However, a range of competitive scholarships are open to both Australian and non-Australian residents to undertake PhD research at the ANU. The Division of Pacific and Asian History would welcome and support suitably qualified scholars who wish to apply for these competitive scholarships to conduct research on queer histories and cultures in the Asia-Pacific region.

For scholarship opportunities at the Australian National University see details on the Research School of Pacific and Asian History website: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/

The Division of Pacific & Asian History also welcomes applications from self-funded (fee paying) scholars and those in receipt of other postgraduate research grants.

The Australian National University is located in central Canberra (pop. 350,000), Australia's national capital, three hours drive south of Sydney.

Canberra is home to a diverse range of national cultural institutions including the National Library of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian War Memorial Museum, Screensound Australia (the National Film and Sound Archive), The National Archives of Australia, and the National Portrait Gallery. All these institutions are located within a couple of kilometres of the ANU campus.

The Division of Pacific & Asian History is located within the ANU's Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, one of the world's major centres of research on the histories, cultures, economies and societies of the Asia-Pacific. The ANU Library and the National Library of Australia (2 kilometres from the ANU campus) together house one of the largest international collections of books and documents (in both European and regional languages) on the Asia-Pacific region.

The Division of Pacific and Asian History takes a very broad view of the discipline of history and of historiographical methods. Members of the Division conduct research over a broad temporal range, from distant pasts to contemporary histories, while emphasising the resonances of past and present. We combine particular empirical interests with theoretical reflection on the nature of historical inquiry, representation, and writing in history and related disciplines.

The Division's research fields include: colonialism, capitalism, modernity, postcolonialism, and globalisation; the construction and subversion of global, national, local, diasporic, and other identities (including sexuality, gender, class, 'race', religion); visual representation and newly emerging electronic media; the articulation of history and memory in national and popular cultures; relations between majority and minority cultures and societies; the history of ideas and technologies; shifting discourses on relationships between human society and the natural environment.

found at: http://rspas.anu.edu.au/pah/index.html The Division would welcome applications from students interested in employing ethnographic, cultural studies as well as historiographical methods in their research on Asia-Pacific sexualities and genders.

Outside the Division of Pacific & Asian History, the ANU is also home to a range of academic units and scholars interested in comparative research on sexual cultures, e.g. the National Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Culture, the Gender Relations Centre (RSPAS), the Department of Women's Studies (Faculty of Arts), and the Centre for Cross Cultural Research.

The ANU's other major Asian Studies unit, the Faculty of Asian Studies, provides instruction in a range of Asian languages and includes scholars working on a range of Asian studies topics. Institutional arrangements are in place at the ANU for cross-supervision of PhD scholars between academic units to provide researchers with supervisory panels that provide both area expertise and theoretical and methodological guidance.

Peter Jackson is Fellow in Thai History within the Division of Pacific & Asian History. His research focuses on modern Thai cultural history, with particular interests in the histories of discourses of gender, sexuality, and religion. Dr Jackson has written extensively on Thailand's same-sex cultures and he has co-edited volumes on queer cultures in Asia and Australia. He is currently writing a major history of Thailand's same-sex and transgender cultures. (Dr Jackson's research interests and publications are listed at:

Peter Jackson is also cofounder of the Australia-based AsiaPacifiQueer academic network, which has organised several conferences on queer studies in the Asia-Pacific region (for information on AsiaPacifiQueer see: