The Institute of Asian Studies

The Institute of Asian Studies (IAS) at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (UBD) is a research institute dedicated to producing and disseminating cutting-edge knowledge about the societies, economies, politics, cultures and histories of the Asian region. With a core staff and affiliated researchers producing multidisciplinary scholarship, and located at the heart of Asia on the beautiful and ecologically diverse island of Borneo, the IAS serves Brunei as well as the global community in elevating our understanding of this dynamic region of the world.

News & Events

New Open-Access Publications on Asian Law and Arbitration by IAS Staff

Assistant Professor of the Institute of Asian Studies Dr Nobumichi Teramura recently published an open access book chapter on JICA’s Legal Technical Assistance Projects in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos Since the 1990s in Liam C Kelly and Gerard Sasges (eds), Vietnam Over the Long Twentieth Century (Springer 2024). Dr Teramura also co-authored an open-access journal […]

Read More

New Journal Article on Informal Housing Practices by IAS Staff

Senior Assistant Professor and Deputy Director of the Institute of Asian Studies Koh Sin Yee recently published an open access journal article on The Trends and Patterns of Informal Housing Practices in Australia in Urban Policy and Research. The article is co-authored with researchers from Monash University, Australia: Fuad Yasin Huda, Liton Kamruzzaman, Sanaz Nikfalazar, Dharmalingam Arunachalam, and Dickson Lukose.   The article reports […]

Read More

Working Paper on Zheng He

The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam is pleased to announce the publication of IAS Working Paper No 81: Wisdom of the East:Zheng He and his Maritime Expeditions by Senior Professor Lee Cheuk Yin (IAS). Please see below for details. Download the Working Paper Abstract: About 600 years ago, a huge fleet with […]

Read More

Seminar on Chinese Student Mobilities to Malaysia

The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD) recently held a seminar on “Facilitating Mainland Chinese Student Mobilities to Malaysia: Student Agents, Social Media, and Brokerage Tactics” by Senior Assistant Professor Dr Sin Yee Koh (IAS). For more information, please see the flyer below.

Read More

Seminar on Money and Happiness

The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD) recently held a seminar on “Can Money But Happyness? Income and Multidimensional Life Satisfaction in Brunei Darussalam” by Senior Assistant Professor Dr. Ly Slesman @ Sulaiman bin Mohd Aliis (CARe). For more information, please see the flyer below.

Read More

IAS April 2024 Newsletter

The Institute of Asian Studies at Universiti Brunei Darussalam (IAS @ UBD) is pleased to share its latest newsletter. Please click here to read about the activities of the Institute and the staff at IAS.

Read More

Staff

The staff of IAS consists of researchers in the Institute and research fellows from across the University. While the main focus of the IAS staff is on conducting research and publishing, IAS researchers also regularly teach modules for such majors as Anthropology & Sociology and History & International Relations in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), as well as supervise graduate students in IAS, and both graduate and undergraduate students studying in programs in other faculties.

Scholarship

The core mission of the IAS staff is to engage in research and to publish.

These are some recent representative publications.

B. Jetin (2018). “Production Networks of the Asian Automobile Industry: Regional or Global?”. International Journal of Automobile Technology and Management, 18 (4), pp. 302-328. DOI: 10.1504/IJATM.2018.097346

Franco, F.M. and Minggu, M.J. (2019). “When the Seeds Sprout, the Hornbills Hatch: Understanding the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the Ibans of Brunei Darussalam on Hornbills”. Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine, 15 (46). DOI: 10.1186/s13002-019-0325-0

Victor T. King (2019). “Truth’s Fool: Derek Freeman and the War over Cultural Anthropology”, International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 15 (1), pp. 183-197. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.13063

Paul J. Carnegie (2019). “National Imaginary, Ethnic Plurality, and State Formation in Indonesia,” in Ratuva S. (eds), The Palgrave Handbook of Ethnicity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0242-8_165-2

Chang-Yau Hoon and Esther Kuntjara (2019). “The Politics of Mandarin Fever in Contemporary Indonesia: Resinicization, Economic Impetus, and China’s Soft Power”, Asian Survey, 59(3): 573-594. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/as.2019.59.3.573

Liam C. Kelley (2020). “The Centrality of ‘Fringe History’: Diaspora, The Internet and a New Version of Vietnamese Prehistory,” International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies, 16 (1): 71–104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2020.16.1.3

Seminar Series

To exchange ideas with other members of the University community and the public, the IAS holds a regular seminar series.

Working Paper Series

The Institute also maintains a working paper series to highlight and disseminate the cutting-edge work of IAS researchers, UBD faculty, and other scholars working in and on the region.

Book Series

The Institute maintains a book series with academic publisher Springer on “Asia in Transition.”

Video Interviews

The Institute creates video interviews with IAS staff members, IAS research associates, UBD lecturers who research about Asia, and visitors to IAS who share their knowledge on topics ranging from the Belt and Road Initiative to Hornbills in Brunei.

Graduate Studies

IAS offers research-based MA and PhD programmes in Asian Studies.

Conferences

The Institute maintains productive relations with numerous international scholars and scholarly organizations.

Internationalisation

The Institute maintains productive relations with numerous international scholars and scholarly organizations.