NIAS Press specialises in publishing innovative research on modern East and Southeast Asian society. Based at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS), part of the University of Copenhagen, we are a globally focused publisher with the rigorous academic standards expected of a university press, but with the speed and decisiveness often found among commercial publishers.

While we publish in all areas of Asian studies, our focus is primarily on:

  • innovative research within the social sciences and history
  • works with a geographical focus on East or Southeast Asia
  • monographs in preference to edited volumes

In addition, nearly all of our books focus on ‘Asia in transformation.’ More specifically, the key issues dealt with in our books are:

  • political change (issues of democracy, governance, leadership, political transition, political culture, Asian values, etc.)
  • peace and conflict (issues of violence, terrorism, conflict prevention, regional security and cooperation, etc.)
  • gender and power (issues including familial/household power relations, inheritance and property relations, evolving female leadership patterns, political dynasties, etc.)
  • development, political and socio-economic change (usually via local studies exploring different development strategies, effects of globalization, etc.)
  • identity formation (the role of religion vs. ethnicity, imagined communities, nationalism and nation-building, geographic commonalities vs. historic divisions)
  • Asian histories (connecting features of today’s Asia to historic roots, sometimes overturning existing conceptions)
  • environmental change (human interaction with and impact on nature, institutional responses to environmental change)

Many established scholars have published with us, and we pride ourselves on the large number of young post-docs that we have helped to get their first major work into print.