Research theme: Asian Cultures Group
Using art to connect with Asian cultures and communities across Manchester and the rest of the world.
About our research
About our research
The Asian Cultures Group is a major international academic programme in Asian art and culture. We build new higher education networks to reach new students and collaborate with key partner museums, galleries and festivals.
We develop practice-led research that connects cultures and Asian communities in Manchester and beyond. Our cultural, social and sustainable impact links with a critical understanding of specialist research on an international level.
We are active artists who make art and collaborate in many ways, such as:
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painting, drawing and printing
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photography
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performance
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critical writing
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sound archives
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sculpture, both analogue and digital
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time-based arts
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curating
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screen art, including screen dance and performance
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performer training and dramaturgy
Manchester is a polyglot city, where many languages are spoken and many cultures connect. We aim to discover and share knowledge with its diverse communities, including those with an Asian heritage who have lived here for several generations.
We champion new and innovative ideas that contribute to Greater Manchester’s international reputation for music, literature, theatre, art, politics and history. For example, we host the Asia Triennial Manchester symposium, which celebrates Asian cultures through art.
Our network includes Manchester International Festival, Manchester Literature Festival, Liverpool Biennial, Kochi Biennial India, Lahore Biennial Pakistan and Gwangju Biennial, South Korea. We work with public policy makers and funders, including Manchester City Council, British Council, Arts Council England and Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Postgraduate students benefit from specialist knowledge in practice-led research through exhibition making, arts policy, curating, and helping people to access specialist archives. We contribute to the postgraduate research student environment through seminars, lectures, roundtables, research training and research supervision.
We are interested in hearing from potential PhD candidates with proposals in the areas we cover.
Our research areas
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20th-century visual culture, feminist art history, contemporary women’s painting
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Issues in 20th-century modernism including nation, memory and identity and gender performativity and embodiment
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Art and geopolitical borders, contested sovereignty and art practice
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Neurodiversity in creative research, a network of innovators, academics and researchers
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Building relationships between performance, ritual and religion in the modern West and East, and the overlaps between politics, policy and theatre in contemporary Europe
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Contemporary performance, experiments in audience, and new writing
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Research into Chinese contemporary and diasporic art, post-digital East Asian art and border art, including from the Korean Demilitarised Zone
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Socially engaged art practices, both historical and contemporary
Selected projects
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Key publications
- Kennedy-Schtyk, B (2022) Imaging Migration in Post-war Britain: Artists of Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese Heritage, London: Routledge
- Kennedy-Schtyk, B, Gladston, P and Turner, M (2021) Visual culture wars at the borders of contemporary China: Art, design, film, new media and the prospects of post-west contemporaneity London: Palgrave Macmillan
- Mitha, A and Roberts, E (2018) Asia Triennial Manchester. Who do you think you are? An exploration into the boundaries of Asian identities in contemporary culture Cornerhouse publication
- Mitha, A and Makhoul, B (2016) Conflict and compassion: A paradox of difference in contemporary Asian art Home publication
- Mitha, A, Kennedy, B and Wainwright, L (2014) Triennial city: Localising Asian art Cornerhouse publication
- Syng, Tan (2022) An exploration of running as metaphor, methodology, material in Interrelationships between sport and the arts, Routledge Taylor and Francis
- Syng, Tan (2022) Two entries: Hyperactivity and Running artfully in The Encyclopaedia of Mobilities Adey, P, Barry, K and Lin, WQ (eds) Edward Elgar Publishing
- Syng, Tan (2021) Ill-disciplined: Creative, neurodivergent intervention and leadership in higher education – a manifesto, in Taylor, J (ed) Beyond Borders? Articulations, provocations and performativities in Arts and Humanities research
Organisations we work with
Manchester International Festival
Asia Triennial Manchester
Manchester Art Gallery
Serpentine Gallery, London
Contact information
Contact us
For general enquiries about our Asian Cultures Group, you can contact its lead Alnoor Mitha.