YCAR is a community of York University researchers who are committed to analyzing the changing historical and contemporary dynamics of societies in Asia, understanding Asia’s place in the world, and studying the experiences of Asian communities in Canada and around the globe. Our inter-disciplinary membership includes faculty, students and other research associates from across the social sciences, humanities, health, education, creative/performing arts, law and business.

Some common themes characterize much of the research that YCAR fosters and supports. First, we adopt an explicitly transnational approach to research, meaning that we seek to understand connections within Asia, between Asia and the rest of the world, and between Asia and its diasporas. Second, we value research that is based on extended field and archival research, language study and the long-term development of expertise. Third, we emphasize a critical and engaged model of scholarship, attentive to social justice agendas that seek to address exclusions or inequalities based class, gender, sexuality, ‘race’, caste, religion, region or environmental dispossession. Often, this involves collaboration with the communities being studied in the research process, and the mobilization of research findings to effect public education and social change.

The role of the Centre in the work of individual researchers is to create a space for interdisciplinary intellectual exchange, to provide administrative support for research projects, and to enrich student training through fieldwork and language awards and a graduate diploma programme. We also provide an access point for anyone interested in York expertise on Asia and Asian communities, and we actively seek to deliver research to the widest possible audience.

Founded in 2002, YCAR continues a strong tradition of internationally recognized research in Asian Studies at York, pioneered since 1974 by the Joint Centre on Modern East Asia, and the Joint Centre for Asia Pacific Studies (both in collaboration with the University of Toronto).

Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) is a non-profit development organisation committed to enabling vulnerable groups to access their rights. YUVA encourages the formation of people’s collectives that engage in the discourse on development, thereby ensuring self-determined and sustained collective action in communities. This work is complemented with advocacy and policy recommendations. Founded in Mumbai in 1984, currently YUVA operates in the states of Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Assam and New Delhi.

Established in 1997, Zambia Land Alliance (ZLA) is a network of Non-Governmental Organizations promoting fair land policies, laws and land administration which takes into account the needs of the poor.

ZLA has been promoting equitable access and secured ownership of land by the rural and urban poor through lobbying, advocacy, networking, research and community partnership.

Vision: A Zambia in which poor and vulnerable citizens have equitable and secured access, ownership and control over land for sustainable development.

Mission: Zambia Land Alliance is a platform for collective action committed to promoting equitable access, control and secured ownership of land by the rural, peri-urban and urban poor and marginalised, through lobbying and advocacy, networking, research and community partnership

ZLA operates through a National Secretariat located in Lusaka with seven (7) national members and eight (08) District Branches across five (5) Provinces of Zambia. Additionally, ZLA has been operating five project offices located in three different provinces.

An online legal database with laws and legislation from Zambia, part of the AfricaLII intitiative. 

The Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA) is a public interest law group which seeks to promote democracy, environmental justice, the sustainable and equitable use of Zimbabwe’s’ natural resources, and good governance in the environmental sector. The group’s mission is to use the law to protect the rights of local communities and conserve the environment and Zimbabwe’s natural resources. ZELA works to accomplish their mission through legal and policy research, advocacy, impact litigation, conflict resolution, and civic education. They work to help poor and marginalized communities assert and claim their economic, social, and environmental rights while ensuring that needs of these communities are met through environmental and natural resources management policies and legal framework. ZELA firmly believes that both the government and the private sector have a duty to uphold democratic values, human rights, transparency, and accountability to all people involved and affected by their work.

An occasional blog largely written by Ian Scoones who is a research fellow at the Institute of Development Studies.

The Civil Peace Service (CPS) is a programme aimed at preventing violence and promoting peace in crisis zones and conflict regions. It aims to build a world in which conflicts are resolved without resorting to violence. Nine German peace and development organizations run the CPS together with local partners. The Civil Peace Service (CPS) is funded by the German Government.  CPS experts support people on the ground in their commitment for dialogue, human rights and peace on a long-term basis.  Currently, about 350 international CPS experts are active in 45 countries.

The Civil Peace Service supports projects aimed at non-violent conflict resolutions in various countries worldwide. It seconds experts to assist local partner organisations. Its objectives are the prevention of violent conflicts, the reduction of violence, and the long-term securing of peace.

ZOA is an international relief and recovery organization supporting vulnerable people affected by violent conflicts and natural disasters in fragile states, by helping them to realize dignified and resilient lives.

ZOA operates in more than 15 countries, in difficult locations where our field staff directly provides assistance to the most vulnerable victims of displacement. The countries in which ZOA is present are Afghanistan, Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Liberia, Myanmar, Philippines, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Uganda and Yemen.

ZOA is active in insecure and volatile regions: serving Syrian refugees in the Middle East, uprooted people in war-torn South Sudan, displaced Yezidis in Northern Iraq and South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia, to name a few.