Asian studies comprises the interdisciplinary study of the region referred to as 'Asia'. Asia is usually regarded as starting to the west of Pakistan and extending to the western rim of the Pacific, including those countries in south, south-east and east Asia. The region contains two-thirds of the world's population and many hundreds of distinct cultures and languages. It is home to the world's two largest countries in terms of population and to the world's biggest democracy. It embraces some of the world's most sophisticated and developed economies, and some of the world's most impoverished and least developed countries.
East Asia in particular has been the engine for global economic growth over the last two decades of the 20th century. Many of the region's political, strategic and diplomatic issues have dominated world attention at the beginning of the 21st century. Research on Asia is undertaken across a wide range of disciplines at Monash. Much of it is interdisciplinary and relates to aspects of society, language and culture, politics, government, economics, industrial relations, business, health and nutrition, education and law. Accordingly, supervision of research student candidature is available in a wide range of fields.
