About this journal

Asian Anthropology seeks to bring interesting and exciting new anthropological research on Asia to a global audience. We understand Asia not as a geographically fixed location with clearly demarcated borders, but as a social construct that is dynamic, relational, and evolving through interactions, transnational flows, and critical dialogues with multiple social actors at both institutional and individual levels. We try to move beyond the area studies paradigm which risks essentializing Asian cultures as bounded entities and perpetuating hierarchical relations between the so-called centers and peripheries. Instead, we embrace the concept of ‘global Asia,’ or, ‘Asia in the world,’ to attend to new and historical contexts such as migration, transnationalism, diaspora, cultural mixing and hybridizing, borderland politics, global pandemics such as Covid-19, geopolitical tensions between Asian countries and those in the Western world.

We welcome contributions from anthropologists and colleagues in the social sciences and humanities who use ethnography as their main research method. We particularly welcome research which adopts a transnational and comparative perspective and adds new insight to critical knowledge about global Asia or Asia in the world. Another goal of the journal is to support emerging scholars who are in the early stages of their career development. We hope the journal can provide a platform for publishing some of the most exciting and innovative works by our colleagues in anthropology. All pieces submitted to Asian Anthropology should have a solid basis in ethnography, which we see as being at the heart of anthropology. Due in part to the constraints posed by Covid-19 to ethnographic projects, we also welcome submissions based on digital ethnography and long-distance fieldwork. We seek your general support through submissions, subscriptions, and comments. 

Asian Anthropology currently accepts five types of submission:

1. Research article (7000-9000 words)
Research articles should have a theoretical argument that is of interest to anthropologists globally. Every year the editors will select one paper for the Best Paper Prize, which is a cash prize of 250 GBP. Free access to the papers of previous winners is available on our website.

2. Special issue (consisting of 4-7 papers, 6000-7000 words per paper)
Papers in a special issue should have a coherent theme and promise to add theoretical and empirical innovation to the field of Asian anthropology. Contact the journal editors if you are planning to submit a special issue with a brief proposal.

3. Research report (5000-7000 words)
Research reports can be less theoretical and more focused on ethnographic data presentation. Current PhD students are more than welcome to submit to this category.

4. PhD dissertation highlight (maximum 1000 words)
This is a new category. The aim is to inform readers of the most recent doctoral research projects and share some of the major findings. We hope it can increase the visibility of academic works by our younger scholars. We only accept highlights from successfully defended PhD dissertations.

5. Book review (maximum 800-1200 words)
Book reviews are usually by invitation only. Please contact our book review editor Shiaki Kondo for details.

Peer Review Integrity

All submitted manuscripts are subject to initial appraisal by the Editor, and, if found suitable for further consideration, to peer review by independent, anonymous expert referees. All peer review is double anonymized and submission is online via Routledge’s Submission Portal. PhD dissertation highlights and book reviews are not subject to peer-review.

STAR

Taylor & Francis/Routledge are committed to the widest possible dissemination of its journals to non-profit institutions in developing countries.  Our STAR initiative offers individual researchers in Africa, South Asia and many parts of South East Asia the opportunity to gain one month’s free online access to 1,300 Taylor & Francis journals. For more information, please visit the STAR website.

Editors

Susanne KLIEN – Hokkaido University, Japan

Shanshan LAN – University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Associate Editor

Willy SIER – Utrecht University, the Netherlands


Assistant Editor

James LETSON – Hokkaido University, Japan

Book Reviews Editor

Shiaki KONDO – Kobe University, Japan

Editorial Board

Christoph BRUMANN – Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany

Peter CAVE – University of Manchester, UK

Ke FAN – Nanjing University, China

James FARRER – Sophia University, Japan

Paul S. HANSEN – Akita University, Japan

Swee Lin HO – National University of Singapore, Singapore

Hasan KARRAR – Lahore University of Management Sciences, Pakistan

Iza KAVEDŽIJA – University of Cambridge, UK

Wei-ping LIN – National Taiwan University, Taiwan

Jieyu LIU – SOAS, UK

Shao-hua LIU – Academia Sinica, Taiwan

Julie MCBRIEN – University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Lynne NAKANO – Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Gerben NOOTEBOOM – University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Shunsuke NOZAWA – Hokkaido University, Japan

Pal NYIRI – Free University Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Hisako OMORI – Akita International University, Japan

David PALMER – The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Soumendra PATNAIK – University of Delhi, India

Dina SIDIQQI – New York University, USA

Jesook SONG – University of Toronto, Canada

Tanka SUBBA – Sikkim University, India

Michael L. TAN – University of the Philippines, Philippines

John W. TRAPHAGAN – University of Texas at Austin, USA

Yunita T. WINARTO – University of Indonesia, Indonesia

Board of International Advisors

Joseph BOSCO – Washington University in St. Louis, USA

Joy HENDRY – Oxford Brookes University, UK

Hirochika NAKAMAKI – National Museum of Ethnology and Suita City Museum, Japan

Gordon MATHEWS – The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

News, offers and calls for papers

News and offers

• Best Paper Prize