Workshop proposed for the Asian Studies Association of Australia 2018 conference.

Area studies are innately interpretive. In their concern for language and its uses, for the historical construction of categories, the production of insider meanings, and the constitution of ideas through human relations, they have much in common with the interpretive social sciences. In recent years a resurgent agenda for interpretive research has carried its methods from the domains of anthropology and sociology to political science, international affairs, public policy and beyond. In this workshop, we consider how Asian studies in particular can contribute to this agenda, and be strengthened through more deliberate consideration of why as scholars of Asia we work interpretively.

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