Asia matters. Simply asking the question of what encompasses “Asia” opens up ways of seeing that require historical knowledge, cultural literacy, political acuity, and a willingness to cross borders. Asia’s immense diversity and rapid pace of transformation have made it an engine of global change that is exciting, and indeed indispensable, to explore from multiple perspectives. Students with expertise in Asia go on to work in public policy, education, business, journalism; they work and travel abroad and with migrants at home, and they are curious about worlds beyond their own shores.