Our Mission and Values

The Mission for the Center for Asian Studies is to provide a physical space where Asia-related interests intersect and find a whole greater than the sum of their parts, and where student and community-driven initiatives to embrace different world views have a home.  The Center seeks to build a space where core projects of the university’s ‘academic futures’ are experimented with, explored, and realized, including student-centered learning, interdisciplinary teaching and research, and building an international culture on our campus and beyond.  Recognizing that there has never been a more pressing time to understand this complex and diverse region, whether one lives within or far beyond its borders, CAS strives to facilitate active engagements with and within Asia, while making Asia as accessible as possible to the whole of the CU Boulder community. 

The Center for Asian Studies strives to be a space of community, curiosity and respectful engagement with Asia. We view the area studies endeavor as a necessary yet distinct complement to disciplinary knowledge, and recognize the historic and geographic centrality that Asia has and continues to play in the human venture. Rather than treating Asia as an object of knowledge, however, we aspire to learn from Asia through self-critical intellectual inquiry, realizing a broader, more grounded, and more nuanced understanding of the human experience.

Center for Asian Studies Statements