Introduction

The Institute for the Study of the Asia Pacific (ISAP) aims to provide high standards of interdisciplinary research, teaching, and innovation to create a distinctive and interactive learning environment for students at UCLan and contribute to wider discussions on relevant themes and issues within the Asia Pacific Region.

ISAP is an umbrella institute that incorporates a number of other institutes and centres centred on Asia Pacific studies. These include: The International Institute of Korean Studies (IKSU), the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies (NorITS), the Institute for Japanese Studies (IJS), the Northern England Policy Centre for the Asia Pacific (NEPCAP), and the Centre of Austronesian Studies (COAST).

About ISAP

ISAP considers the geographical reach of Asia Pacific Studies as being rooted first in the Austronesian language migration that expands from Taiwan, through Southeast Asia, across the Pacific and as far as Easter Island and Madagascar. Secondly, it incorporates the Russian Far East and all islands in the northern Pacific, and south to incorporate Japan, both Koreas, China and Mongolia.

ISAP constitutes the first official academic institution to follow this interpretation and aims to consolidate research on any level to assist in disseminating knowledge to all levels of society, business and government in the UK and beyond. Read More

Our logo

In keeping with our roots in Austronesian culture, the ISAP logo includes a ndrua, or ‘sacred canoe’ that originated in the southwestern Pacific islands. Used to navigate people freely across the expanse of the Pacific Ocean, the sacred canoe has become symbolic to the ambitions of the Institute. In our quest to exchange and explore new ideas and interdisciplinary research, that is both temporal as well as spatial, and one that is inclusive of the different cultures and interpretations of the peoples that inhabit the Asia Pacific, it is only fitting that the saying: He waka eke noa (We are all in this canoe together!) has become the motto of ISAP.

ISAP Amabie

Thank you to Ms Amie Kirk, Affiliate Research Fellow at the Institute of Japanese Studies (IJS) within the Institute for the Study of the Asia Pacific (ISAP) for designing and producing our ISAP Amabie.

Amabie is a Japanese Yokai which can stave off the disease through illustration of its image. Amabie was featured in a kawara-ban newspaper of the Edo era, and prophesized ‘Good harvest will continue for six years from the current year; if an epidemic ever spreads, draw a picture of me and show it to everyone’.

ISAP hopes everyone stays safe and well in the current pandemic.

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