2011 ASAA President’s Prize for best doctoral thesis
The Asian Studies Association of Australia is delighted to announce its President’s Prize for the best thesis on Asia awarded in 2010. The winner is Dr Roberto Manuel Benedicto, who wrote the winning dissertation, entitled ‘Bright Lights, Gay Globality: Mobility, Class, and Gay Life in Twenty-first Century Manila’ in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. Dr Benedicto will receive a prize in the sum of $1,500. He will also receive the DK Book Award worth $500.00, presented by DK Agencies, the global book distributor based in New Delhi.
For the first time in its history, the Association is also delighted to announce the awarding of a second prize of $500 to Dr Agnieszka Sobocinska for her dissertation entitled ‘People’s diplomacy: Australian travel, tourism and relations with Asia, 1941-2009’. Agnieska submitted this work to the University of Sydney.
Committee members were enthusiastic in their approval of Benedicto’s thesis, which presents a critical analysis of Manila’s middle-class, gay club scene. Benedicto theorises this scene with reference to current theories of sexuality in cultural globalisation. One of the judges described it as ‘a gripping, wonderfully original read. It has a sophisticated theoretical approach and reads as a brave auto-ethnography; simply fabulous writing’. Another judge wrote: ‘It has changed the way I view the city [Manila] after decades working in the field of urban studies’.
Dr Sobocinska’s thesis drew similar praise: ‘a sweepingly broad, multi-disciplinary survey of the changing non-diplomatic relationships and attitudes of Australians towards Asia from war and Cold War through to tourism and terrorism’.
The Association congratulates Roberto and Agnieszka, and extends its gratitude to: the Australian universities that submitted a total of nine theses for the committee’s deliberation; the committee-members who generously gave of their time to evaluate the entries; and to the secretary, Dr Julian Millie.
Professor Purnendra Jain
President, Asian Studies Association of Australia (2011-2012)