Our team

The La Trobe Asia Team

Our office is:
Room 302, Level 3
Humanities 2

T: +61 3 9479 5414
E: asia@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @latrobeasia

Bec Strating

Director

Bec Strating is the Director of La Trobe Asia and Professor of International Relations at La Trobe University. Her research focuses primarily on maritime disputes in Asia and Australian foreign and defence policy.

Bec leads the DFAT-funded “Blue Security” network focused on maritime security issues in the Indo-Pacific. She is a non-visiting fellow at the Royal Australian Navy’s Seapower Centre, a member of the East West Centre Council on Indo-Pacific Relations, an expert affiliate at the Australian National University’s National Security College, and President of the Women in International Security-Australia’s steering committee. In 2024, she was awarded the Bernard Brodie Prize for best article published in Contemporary Security Policy in 2023. She was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 2024.

Bec is the author of ‘Girt by Sea: reimagining Australia’s Security’ with Professor Joanne Wallis (La Trobe University Press/Black Inc, 2024) and co-editor of 'Blue Security: Maritime Strategies in the Indo-Pacific' (Routledge, 2024, forthcoming).

Bec is available for research supervision in Australian politics, Australian Foreign Policy and International Relations of Asia.

T: +61 3 9479 6671
E: B.Strating@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @becstrating

Ruth Gamble

Deputy Director (Research)

Ruth Gamble is an environmental, climate and cultural historian of Tibet, the Himalaya, and Asia.

She completed her Ph.D. in Asian Studies at the Australian National University, where she taught Tibetan language studies and Asian Religions. Before coming to La Trobe, she was a post-doctorate fellow at Ludwig Maximilian University (Munich) and a Himalayan Fellow at Yale University’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. She came to La Trobe as a David Myers Research Fellow and is currently an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow, researching the Himalayan Cryosphere.

Ruth is the lead author of Rivers of the Asian Highlands: from Deep Time to the Climate Crisis (Routledge 2024), Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism (OUP 2018) and Master of Mahamudra (Shambhala 2020), with a forthcoming book on the history of the Yarlung Tsangpo (Brahmaputra) River. She has also published numerous articles and book chapters on the region’s ecological histories, politics, and beliefs.

E: r.gamble@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @waterthe_planet

Ambika Vishwanath

DFAT Maitri Research Fellow

Ambika Vishwanath is the Co-Founder and Director of the India based Kubernein Initiative and recipient of a 2024 Maitri Fellowship funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ambika is a geopolitical analyst and water security specialist with an interest in enhanced global climate and security cooperation. At La Trobe Asia she will explore opportunities for enhanced climate and security cooperation between India and Australia, with a focus on the Pacific Islands.

She has led track two diplomacy efforts and consulted with several governments and international organizations in the MENA region, Africa, Europe and South Asia, and helped shape their policies in the field of conflict resolution, water diplomacy and security. She is a member of the Munich Security Conference Global Food Security Task Force and works with security and multilateral organisations to increase understanding on water and climate aspects of security.

Ambika has a Masters of Comparative Politics from The American University in Cairo and a Bachelor of Arts (Political Science) from Washington College.

E: a.vishwanath@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @theidlethinker

Matt Smith

Senior Communications Coordinator

Matt Smith is a communicator at La Trobe Asia and has worked in a variety of roles at the institution previously. He primarily writes and designs publications, manages social media and produces multimedia. He hosts and produces La Trobe Asia’s podcast Asia Rising, as well as La Trobe University’s popular podcast Emperors of Rome. He holds a Bachelor of Science (BSc) from the University of Newcastle and a Masters of Global Communications from La Trobe University.

Outside of La Trobe University he's freelanced for The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, Encore Magazine, The National Times, Crikey, The Punch and more. He's a regular contributor to ABC Radio National, and his favourite dinosaur is the Stegosaurus.

E: matthew.smith@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @nightlightguy

Kate Clayton

Senior Coordinator (Programs & Research)

Kate Clayton is a Senior Coordinator at La Trobe Asia, supporting the university’s engagement with Asia, the Blue Security program and researching Australia and Asia.  Kate’s work at La Trobe Asia has seen her manage emerging leaders programs to strengthen youth leadership and diversity in the Indo-Pacific.

Her research areas include Australia, China, the Pacific Islands, the United States, and the Quad. Her focus is on security and climate change in the Indo-Pacific. Kate's work has been published in The Conversation, Crikey, Lowy Institute Interpreter, China Story Blog, Junkee, Council of Geostrategy, UWA Defence & Security Institute, 9Dash Line, Perth USAsia Centre and The Canberra Times. She has also been interviewed by Australian and global media outlets on Indo-Pacific security issues. She was formerly a sessional academic in International Relations at the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University.

Kate has a Master of International Relations (International Security) from the University of Melbourne and a Bachelor of International Relations (Asian Studies) from La Trobe University. When not at La Trobe, Kate is thinking hard about the latest Pop Culture issues.

E: K.Clayton@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @kateclaytn

Rei Fortes

Rei Fortes is a Program Coordinator for the Philippines-Australia Forum (PAF) at La Trobe University. His primarily role involves building PAF at La Trobe’s network by planning and organising events with internal and external partners from the Filipino-Australian Diaspora. Rei also manages PAF at La Trobe’s communications with the network through a mailing list and various social media platforms.

He has worked with the Philippine Consulate General in Melbourne to organise an event celebrating the 125th Anniversary of Philippine Independence in June 2023. Rei also re-established La Trobe University’s relationship with the Filipino-Australia Students Council of Victoria (FASTCO) and helped organise the 2023 International Research Forum on the Philippines (IRFP) in July.

Through his work, he has helped PAF at La Trobe grow its presence in academia, members of the public and Filipino community. Rei is also a Bachelor of Media and Communications (Journalism) graduate from La Trobe University. Outside of work, he enjoys exploring new foods, travelling and listening to music.

E: R.Fortes@latrobe.edu.au
TW: @ReiFortes_86

Chandni Singh

Chandni Singh is a Lead Researcher, School of Environment and Sustainability at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, and recipient of a 2024 Maitri Fellowship funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

She is an environmental social scientist and her research explores the linkages between climate change and development, with a focus on differential vulnerability and climate change adaptation. She has worked across South Asia and Africa, and currently leads projects on livelihoods transitions and rural-urban migration in the context of a changing climate.

Chandni was a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the Sixth Assessment Report and on the UNEP Adaptation Gap Report 2024. She serves on the Editorial Boards of Regional Environmental Change, WIREs Climate Change, and Urbanisation.

Chandni’s fellowship will focus on developing networks and co-operation in climate change adaptation research between Australia and India.

Sonika Gupta

La Trobe Asia Visiting Fellow (2024)

Dr Sonika Gupta is an Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. Sonika has an M.A, M.Phil, and Ph.D. from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) New Delhi in Global Politics and Chinese Studies. In 2011, she founded IITM China Studies Centre and acted as its Co-ordinator from April 2011-July 2015.

Her research interests include India's Himalayan borderlands, Tibetan exile community in India, Chinese foreign policy and International Relations theory. Her current projects include examining protracted conflict in borderland communities, Tibetan rehabilitation in Indian Himalayas and Democratization of Tibetan exile politics.

Uttam Lal

La Trobe Asia Visiting Fellow (2024)

Dr Uttam Lal is an Assistant Professor of the Department of Geography at Sikkhim University and his academic interests academic cover Himalayan Ecology, highland social-economic dynamics and rangeland, borderlands studies.

Uttam has a doctorate in Himalayan ecology from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and later becoming a founding member of the Department of Geography at Sikkim University and going on to lead the Department. He led the Sikkim University team in the Inter-University Consortium on Cryosphere and Climate Change (IUCCCC) and was recipient of ‘Emerging Scholar-2014’ at India-China Institute, New School, New York.

In 2018 he was Erasmus+ Mobility programme Guest Fellow at Aarhus University, Denmark, and in 2016 he received the Geography Teaching Award from the Deccan Geographical Society of India.

Hunter Marston

Adjunct Research Fellow