Though Boston University has no formal Asian studies department, a group of professors are working to unify their work through monthly collaborative meetings and a new website to be launched in the next two weeks.

According to history professor and project coordinator Eugenio Menegon, the new homepage for Asian studies — bu.edu/asian — will be broader than the current website for the East Asian studies interdisciplinary major, which only showcases courses offered on Asia. The new site will include information on Asian-alumni programs, academic resources and BU-affiliated institutes, including the International Center for East Asian Archaeology and Cultural History.

“We’re not a formal program,” Menegon said. “We’re more of a faculty-initiated umbrella organization that wants to bring together all the faculty and resources of Asian studies at BU.”

Asian studies have existed at BU for years, Menegon said. Not only does the College of Arts and Sciences offer courses in Asian culture, politics, economy and languages, but the School of Management and the School of Theology have Asian-focused programs of study as well.

However, according to anthropology professor Robert Weller, who teaches Asian studies, the Asian studies community at BU has only recently begun to expand.

“I would say there’s been an increase [in interest] from every point of view,” he said. “My courses on China get higher enrollments than they did a decade ago, more students are doing language and more faculty members are studying Asia.”

According to Menegon, there are about 40 undergraduates pursuing a major or minor in East Asian studies and about 200 students following the East Asian track in international relations. Nearly 2,700 BU students study under faculty who teach Asian studies each year.

Asian studies have historically been underrepresented as an academic discipline at most area universities, including BU, Weller said. He said most BU Asian studies faculty, including himself and Menegon, work simultaneously with Harvard University’s similar program.

“Harvard has an extremely old, large and active Asian studies community,” Weller said. “What’s new is BU attempting to establish an independent identity and independent activities here on our campus.”

The first act in building this identity was developing academic cohesion, Menegon said. The Asian studies faculty, which is composed of more than 40 full-time professors and instructors at BU and abroad, now meets once a month to share research.

Despite the progress the program has made internally, Menegon said the Asian studies program has a long way to go in achieving a strong presence among the student body.

“Students should become more a part of this community,” Menegon said.

CAS senior Jackie Griffith said she supports the Asian studies faculty’s new outreach initiatives. According to Griffith, who transferred to BU in 2004 to pursue a major in Japanese language and literature, students are not the only group unaware of the Asian studies program.

“When I applied to BU three years ago, nobody knew that my major existed,” she said. “I thought the Admissions Office would at least know [about] the major.”

Menegon said he hopes the website will aid in the program’s goal of sharing “the richness of BU Asian studies” and encouraging students to expand their knowledge of Asian cultures.

“We have a large student population coming from Asia and many Asian Americans,” Menegon said. “It’s important that we be a sort of gateway to Asia.”