The Sigur Center for Asian Studies strives to increase the quality and broaden the scope of scholarly research and publication on Asia, promote US-Asian scholarly interaction, and educate a new generation of students, scholars, and policymakers.
Thanks to an active program of publishing, teaching, public events, and policy engagement, the Sigur Center offers the largest Asian Studies program in metro DC, with more than 60 affiliated faculty. Together with GWIKS, Sigur supports the East Asia National Resource Center, a Title VI Center of academic excellence. Sigur also administers the prestigious Foreign Language and Area Studies awards, which funds GW students to intensively study Japanese, Korean, or Chinese.
Spotlight
Eric Schluessel
Associate Professor of History and International Affairs
Eric Schluessel is a social historian of China and Central Asia, and his work focuses on Xinjiang (East Turkestan) in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Land of Strangers, his first monograph, uses local archival and manuscript sources in Chinese and Chaghatay Turkic to explore the ramifications of a project undertaken in the last decades of the Qing empire to transform Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking Muslims into Chinese-speaking Confucians.
Schluessel is currently pursuing two research projects: Saints and Sojourners explores the economic history of the Uyghur region from the 1750s through the 1950s as seen from below, through the records of merchants, farmers, and managers of pious endowments. It ties changes at the village level to shifts in the global economy in places as far away as Manchester and Tianjin. Exiled Gods delves into Han Chinese settler culture and religion to illuminate the history of a diasporic community of demobilized soldiers and their descendants that spanned the Qing empire.
Thanks to grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies, Schluessel is also completing a translation and critical edition of the Tārīkh-i Ḥamīdī of Mullah Mūsa Sayrāmī, which is an important Chaghatay-language chronicle of nineteenth-century Xinjiang.
Schluessel previously taught at the University of Montana in Missoula and spent the 2018–2019 academic year as a Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.
News & Announcements
Announcements
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On November 19, Dr. Robert Sutter, GW Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, published an insightful opinion article in The Diplomat titled “How Biden’s Legacy in Asia and Regional Apprehension Test the Incoming Trump Administration.” The piece was prominently featured as the leading item in The Diplomat’s weekly newsletter on November 20. This recognition underscores the relevance and timeliness of Robert’s analysis—well done!
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We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Deepa Ollapally, Research Professor of International Relations and Director of the Rising Powers Initiative, has published an insightful op-ed on NewsLaundry titled “Harris or Trump: What difference does it make to India?” This timely piece examines the convergence in US foreign policy across party lines, driven by the “Trumpification” of American politics, and what it could mean for US-India relations. Read her full analysis on key issues, from trade tensions to strategic partnerships in defense and technology, here.
3/25/2023 | Prof. Jonathan Chaves delivered a talk at the China Institute in America Art Gallery
Prof. Jonathan Chaves delivered a talk, “Chinese Poets Sing of Birds and Flowers” at the China Institute in America Art Gallery, New York City, March 25, in a symposium linked to the opening of their exhibition of paintings on this...
3/20/2023 | Professor David Shambaugh featured in the Republic of Korea Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS) series “Great Minds.”
Professor David Shambaugh, Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs, and Director of the Elliott School’s China Policy Program, has been prominently featured in the Republic of Korea Educational...
11/30/2022 | Professor David Shambaugh Authored Article for Foreign Affairs
On November 30th, 2022, Gaston Sigur Professor David Shambaugh, authored an article for Foreign Affairs titled “China’s Underestimated Leader: The Legacy of Jiang Zemin“. China’s Underestimated Leader: The Legacy of Jiang...
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Sigur Center for Asian Studies
1957 E St. NW, Suite 503
Washington, DC 20052
+1 (202) 994-5886 | gsigur@gwu.edu