On July 9, 2026, the 20th World Islands Conference was held on Tsushima Island, South Korea. At the conference, the International Small Islands Studies Association (ISISA) officially announced the election results for its 2026–2030 Executive Committee. Professor Adam Edward Grydehoj from the Indian Ocean Island Countries Research Center of South China University of Technology was elected Chairman of the new Executive Committee, and Professor Su Ping was elected Executive Committee Member. This election result marks a leap forward in the agenda-setting capacity of Chinese academia within the global academic community, reflects the high recognition of China's island research by the international academic community, and provides important platform support for Chinese academia to deeply participate in global island governance research and promote the international dissemination of academic discourse.

The International Small Islands Studies Association is the world's oldest and most academically influential international academic organization, and currently the only one dedicated to comprehensive island studies. After more than thirty years of development, ISISA has focused on core topics such as islandness theory, island resource management, island ecological and environmental protection, and island sustainable development, building a cross-regional, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural high-level academic platform for island research, and becoming the academic community with the strongest continuity and the most prominent disciplinary cohesion in the global field of island studies. As the core leadership body of the association, the ISISA Executive Committee undertakes important responsibilities such as strategic planning for the association, organizing the World Islands Conference, and guiding the direction of disciplinary development in island studies. The Indian Ocean Island Countries Research Center will play an even more important leading role in global island academic research, the building of international cooperation networks, and future agenda-setting.

The Indian Ocean Island Countries Research Center is a registered country and regional studies center approved by the Department of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Ministry of Education, and is operated by the School of Foreign Languages. After years of development, the center has been successfully selected as a high-level construction unit for university country and regional studies of the Ministry of Education, a source think tank of the China Think Tank Index (CTTI), an AMI think tank in the Comprehensive Evaluation of Chinese Think Tanks, and a new-type key think tank for social sciences in Guangdong Province. The research team has been approved for more than 60 projects at various levels, including major projects of the National Social Science Fund, key projects and general projects of the National Social Science Fund, and country and regional studies projects of the Ministry of Education. It has won 1 Youth Award for Outstanding Scientific Research Achievements of the Ministry of Education, 2 first prizes and 5 second prizes for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences of Guangdong Province; submitted more than 300 decision-making consultation reports to central ministries and commissions and relevant provincial and municipal departments; and published more than 30 academic works with publishers such as Routledge, Springer Nature, and Social Sciences Academic Press. The center's construction has achieved remarkable results, providing important support for discipline development, talent cultivation, and social services.

In the future, the school will take this election as an opportunity to give full play to the hub role of the international academic organization platform, actively promote equal academic dialogue and mutual learning between China and other countries, systematically disseminate China's practical experience and governance wisdom in areas such as island development, marine governance, and poverty reduction cooperation, and accelerate the construction of a discourse system with Chinese characteristics for international communication. Relying on the university's disciplinary advantages in the integration of humanities and engineering and the integration of humanities and sciences, it will continue to deepen research on maritime security strategy, the Maritime Silk Road, and marine science and technology governance, and help build an independent knowledge system for China's area studies.