How do we understand the diverse roots of modern identities and subjectivities - of citizen, labour migrant, artist, intellectual, member of a global faith community? How do migrant lives express the complex interplay of local and global processes in the post-Cold War era? What kinds of cosmopolitan imaginaries and practices are embraced and generated in the Asia Pacific, characterized by long histories of regional, indeed global networks of power and meaning, including Islam and Christianity? Writing from a range of disciplines, the authors explore from first-hand experience the discursive strategies through which individuals embrace new subjectivities, and groups construct cultural identities. These issues are addressed in regionally specific terms, with an eye to the long term in history, and not merely as emergent global novelties. Several of the contributors explore the role of our dialogic scholarly practices in engaging, stimulating and promoting emergent subjectivities and identities.