Welcome to the Center for Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. Founded to promote and disseminate the study of and knowledge about South, Southeast, and East Asia across a wide range of disciplines, CAS supports individual research for faculty members and graduate students, sponsors or co-sponsors lectures, cultural programming, and community outreach events on campus, and hosts conferences, both at UCI and in conjunction with our peer institutions. The Center’s mission is to enhance the scholarly and cultural presence of Asian studies on campus and to raise the profile of UCI in Asian studies nationally and internationally.


To tap into the creative energies of our faculty and help create a vibrant sense of community, the center organizes a faculty talk series; each session aims to bring together Asianists working on related problems across different disciplines and regions. The Center also sponsors the informal “Access Asia” gatherings for graduate students to promote community, provide opportunities to present dissertation research, and sponsor mock job talks. Through all of these activities, we aim to foster conversation between graduate students and faculty within and across the Asian Studies fields.


The aim of this website is to introduce visitors to activities and events sponsored by CAS. We welcome your comments and suggestions, and we seek your support in furthering the center’s goals.