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Welcome from the Director, Viktor Shmagin, Ph.D.

Welcome to another Asian Century. Today’s Asia, an immense stretch of land and coastline, is one of the most densely populated and economically vibrant regions of the world. It is also incredibly diverse culturally, ethnically, and politically, with four thousand years of recorded history. This largest of all continents contains vast resources, natural and human, and is home to some of the world's most powerful states. It produced some of the oldest historical records in the world, with scribes, builders and everyday people leaving us evidence that dramatically enriches our understanding of their lives and their region.

Asia may sometimes seem like a faraway place separated from the Western Hemisphere by the largest ocean in the world. And yet Alaska, North America and even the wider Circumpolar North are actually joined to Asia by the Pacific, not separated by it. We are all part of the same Pacific world and Asia plays an important role in our lives. In fact, it has for a long time. Did you know that Unangan men were forcibly transported to the Russian border with Japan in the nineteenth century by the Russian American Company to hunt sea otters? Would you like to know what Xi Jingping's constant warnings to America to mind the "Thucydides Trap" mean for us today? Are you interested in Japanese Anime or its history?

The Asian Studies Program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks explores East Asia and its place in the modern world, focusing on connections across time and space. Students are also encouraged and given the opportunity to study Chinese and/or Japanese as part of the Asian Studies minor. The program often holds and sponsors Asia-related events on campus and online. If you are interested in any of this, or learning more about Asia in general, we would love to have you aboard. For questions and outside inquiries please contact vshmagin@alaska.edu.