Niki JP Alsford

Prof. Niki JP Alsford is Professor in Asia Pacific Studies and Head of Asia Pacific Institutes at the University of Central Lancashire; being founder and Head of the Institute for the Study of the Asia Pacific; Co-Director of the International Institute of Korean Studies and the Northern Institute of Taiwan Studies; and Chair and founder of the Centre for Austronesian Studies. He is also Research Associate at the Centre of Taiwan Studies at SOAS, the University in London and Research Fellow at the Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul, South Korea. He received his PhD from SOAS and his research is grounded in comparative ethno-histories. Chief among these is an engagement with Austronesian migration and the historical anthropology of maritime Asia Pacific with particular reference to sea-bound myths and legends of Oceania and other Pacific bordering nations. He is a nominated fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Anthropological Institute.