HWS News
16 June 2025 • Faculty • Research HWS Faculty Deepen Focus on Asia at National Conference
Four professors from Hobart and William Smith shared research and curricular innovations at the ASIANetwork Annual Conference, advancing conversations on Southeast Asia, India and China’s global presence.
At the 2024 ASIANetwork Annual Conference in San Antonio, four Hobart and William Smith professors contributed to national conversations on how to broaden and enrich Asian Studies in higher education. Assistant Professor of Media and Society Jiangtao Harry Gu ’13 and Professor of History and Asian Studies Lisa Yoshikawa presented strategies for meaningfully integrating Southeast Asia into the liberal arts curriculum. Professor of International Relations Vikash Yadav organized and led a panel on Indian politics and economic transformation, while Associate Professor of Anthropology Christopher Annear shared research on Chinese investment in Africa. Together, their participation reflected the depth and interdisciplinary reach of HWS’ commitment to Asian and global studies.
Gu and Yoshikawa’s goal is to introduce more North American students to Southeast Asia — a region rich in biodiversity and cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. A major challenge, they note, is the limited number of college courses focused specifically on the region, often due not to lack of faculty expertise but because the region is seldom centered in existing curricula.
At HWS, the Asian Studies Department includes nearly 20 professors across disciplines and is among the oldest of such programs in the country. Gu and Yoshikawa began exploring new ways to incorporate Southeast Asia into coursework after attending the Henry Luce Foundation–funded institute “Modern Southeast Asia: Colonial Legacies, Lasting Diversities” in Hawai‘i last summer.
At ASIANetwork, they presented alongside two Texas A&M colleagues they met at the institute. Yoshikawa, whose research now includes the history of science and technology in Asia, is developing a new course that incorporates Southeast Asia. “I really wanted to learn that part of the world more broadly so I can teach it too,” she says. Her goal: to encourage more institutions to give Southeast Asia the academic attention it deserves.
At the conference, Professor of International Relations Vikash Yadav organized and officiated a panel focused on India titled “Decentering Modi: A new era of Spatial and Personal Contestation in India’s Politics.”
Yadav, who will be teaching a course focused on South Asia in the fall, turned his attention to India’s efforts to become a leading electronics manufacturer, looking at the Indian economy’s unconventional development.
Essentially, Yadav says he wants students to reframe how they think about India. “It’s good for students to see that India is not the old image of India as poor, developing and struggling. Those images aren’t totally wrong, but they’re increasingly just a partial view of what’s happening there,” he says. “They need to think about India as an emerging market, which is one of the fastest growing economies in the world.”
Yadav’s panel, which included two professors from DePauw University, explored the personal, spatial and federal challenges confronting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his third term.
Yadav participates regularly at ASIANetwork. Last year, he presented a book on Prime Minister Modi that he co-authored with Jason Kirk, a professor of political science and policy studies at Elon University: The Politics of India under Modi: An Introduction to India’s Democracy, Economy, and Foreign Policy (2023, Lever Press). This year, Kirk served with Yadav on his panel to discuss the post-globalization era.
At the conference, Associate Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department Christopher Annear shared research on China’s involvement in Africa, specifically Zambia. Student researchers sought to answer the question: “What does Chinese investment look like in Zambia?”
ASIANetwork, which attracts professors and students across North America, has showcased hundreds of peer-reviewed papers and arranged sessions, invited panels, workshops, keynote speakers, films and more, since 1993. The overarching goals at ASIANetwork are to broaden perspectives and enhance the study of Asia. Hobart and William Smith have been long-standing members of ASIANetwork, whose conference HWS hosted in 2022.
Top: Associate Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department Christopher Annear, Assistant Professor of Media and Society Jiangtao Harry Gu ’13, Professor of International Relations Vikash Yadav and Professor of History and Asian Studies Lisa Yoshikawa.
