OUR EVENTS

The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas
May
31
to Nov 30

The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas

  • The Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art for an exhibition featuring stone sculptures, gilt bronzes, and painted manuscripts from India, Nepal, Tibet, Bangladesh, Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia, this exhibition illuminates the critical role of visual culture in conveying Buddhist and Hindu teachings from the ninth to the twentieth centuries.

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Bernardo Pacquing’s “Causal Loops” Exhibition at Silverlens Gallery
Sep
4
to Nov 1

Bernardo Pacquing’s “Causal Loops” Exhibition at Silverlens Gallery

Join Silverlens New York for an exhibition of works by Bernardo Pacquing, who continues to explore the transformative nature of everyday materials, particularly the complex quality of concrete when manipulated on canvas. It is a substance traditionally used in building structures, denoting a monolith resisting environmental stresses.

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Our Journeys: 50 Years After the Fall
Sep
7
to Sep 30

Our Journeys: 50 Years After the Fall

Vietnamese Boat People (VBP) is honored to present Our Journeys: 50 Years After the Fall, a traveling exhibition debuting in New York City in September 2025 at Think!Chinatown Studios. This exhibition launch commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon—a pivotal moment in Vietnamese history and the diaspora experience.

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Understanding the Thailand-Cambodia Conflict: How Border Disputes Drive Domestic Political Crises and Vice Versa
Sep
28

Understanding the Thailand-Cambodia Conflict: How Border Disputes Drive Domestic Political Crises and Vice Versa

Join the Thailand Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dr. Puangthong R. Pawakapan, Professor of International Relations at Chulalongkorn University, and Supalak Ganjanakhundee, advisor to the Military Affairs Committee of Thailand’s House of Representatives. They will discuss potential solutions for addressing the Thailand-Cambodia conflict.

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The Role of Media, Disinformation and Political Propaganda in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election and Singapore’s 2025 General Election
Sep
29

The Role of Media, Disinformation and Political Propaganda in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election and Singapore’s 2025 General Election

Join ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s Media, Technology, and Society Program (MTS) for a talk by Dr. Carol Soon, Associate Professor of Communications and New Media in the National University of Singapore, and Dr. Maria Monica Wihardja, Visiting Fellow and Co-Coordinator of the MTS Program.. They will discuss the role of different types of media, AI- and non-AI-generated disinformation and election propaganda on voter perceptions and behaviours in Indonesia’s 2024 Presidential Election and Singapore’s 2025 General Election.

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Southeast Asia Facing the U.S. Tariff Turbulence
Oct
1

Southeast Asia Facing the U.S. Tariff Turbulence

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for a panel on Southeast Asia’s responses to the economic, political, and social impacts of U.S. tariff policies. Speakers include Dr. Jayant Menon, Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute; Herawati, Researcher in the ASEAN Studies Program at The Habibie Center, and Dr. Tong Bui, Distinguished Chair in the Department of Information Technology Management at UH-Mānoa. Dr. Micah Fisher will moderate the discussion.

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Exploring Chemical Ubiquity: Agrochemical Production Networks and Regulatory Landscapes in Malaysia and Southeast Asia
Oct
2

Exploring Chemical Ubiquity: Agrochemical Production Networks and Regulatory Landscapes in Malaysia and Southeast Asia

Join the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell University for a talk by Caitlyn Sears, SEAP Postdoctoral Associate and NYSEAN member, who will discuss how recent production and regulation dynamics in Malaysia exemplify transformations in global chemical geographies.

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The Journey Connecting Heritage: Celebrating Vietnamese Culture through Arts and the Áo Dài
Oct
3

The Journey Connecting Heritage: Celebrating Vietnamese Culture through Arts and the Áo Dài

Join the Global Vietnam Studies at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a celebration of Vietnamese culture through its arts, crafts, and national dress, the áo dài. There will be a conversation with Vietnam’s leading fashion designer Minh Hanh and artisans, a live performance featuring Minh Hanh’s contemporary designs, and an arts and crafts exhibit.

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Songs Beyond Borders: Thailand and Transnational Musical Connections
Oct
3

Songs Beyond Borders: Thailand and Transnational Musical Connections

  • NYU Wagner, Floor 2, Lafayette Conference Room (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join NYSEAN and NYU MAIR for a talk by Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Benjamin Tausig about the way that music features in their new books and how they engage with songs in their various writings. Benjamin will give a brief introduction to his latest book, Bangkok After Dark. Jeffrey will then discuss a chapter in his new book, The Milk Tea Alliance.

Margaret Scott, NYSEAN co-founder, will moderate the discussion.

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Setan Jawa: Silent Film Screening with Live Music Soundtrack
Oct
3

Setan Jawa: Silent Film Screening with Live Music Soundtrack

Join the Asia Society Museum for a multi-sensorial celebration of the silent film Setan Jawa by filmmaker Garin Nugroho. The silent film will be accompanied by a live score composed and performed by Peni Candra Rini, with Andy McGraw, Shahzad Ismaily, Gusti Sudarta, and Scott Clark. A conversation and Q&A with the filmmaker follows the program.

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Halo-Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments Behind Filipino Food
Oct
3

Halo-Halo Ecologies: The Emergent Environments Behind Filipino Food

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UH-Mānoa for the virtual book launch of  Halo-Halo Ecologies, an anthology that gathers a transnational community of food enthusiasts, engaged scholars, and social and environmental activists to reimagine Philippine Studies and Food Studies. Speakers include Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Dr. Marvin Montefrio, Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Chef Giney Villar, and Paolo Ven B. Paculan.

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New Burma Strategic Dialogue: Diaspora and International Engagement in Myanmar’s Future
Oct
11

New Burma Strategic Dialogue: Diaspora and International Engagement in Myanmar’s Future

Join NYSEAN, the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University, and the U.S. Immigration & Resettlement Directive for a Forum on Burmese Democracy, where leading voices will share their perspectives on the crisis. Sean Turnell, Tom Andrews, Miemie Winn Byrd, and Kim Aris will examine Myanmar’s current trajectory, the challenges to democratic recovery, and the role of international engagement and diaspora communities.

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States against Nations: Meritocracy, Patronage, and the Challenges of Bureaucratic Selection
Oct
16

States against Nations: Meritocracy, Patronage, and the Challenges of Bureaucratic Selection

  • NYU Wagner - Lafayette Conference Room, Floor 2 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join NYSEAN for a talk by Nicholas Kuipers about his new book, States Against Nations: Meritocracy, Patronage, and the Challenges of Bureaucratic Selection. In his book, Kuipers questions the virtues of meritocratic recruitment as the ideal method of bureaucratic selection. He argues that while civil service reform is often seen as an admirable act of state-building, it can actually undermine nation-building.

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NYSEAN Conference on Intellectual Freedom in Southeast Asia and the United States
Oct
24

NYSEAN Conference on Intellectual Freedom in Southeast Asia and the United States

Join NYSEAN and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) for a day-long conference examining attacks on intellectual and academic freedom in the U.S. and Southeast Asia. Scholars, journalists and activists will gather to look at how universities and intellectuals often become the first target of rising authoritarianism, the costs and benefits of collective action, and the strategies for resistance. The conversation will address the impact of funding cuts, strengthened immigration enforcement and assaults on higher education in the U.S. as well as the lessons learned from crackdowns in Southeast Asia (Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia), South Asia, and Turkey.

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Reimagining Sustainability
Sep
26

Reimagining Sustainability

  • The City College of New York - Shepard Hall S-350 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join the Sustainability in the Urban Environment graduate program at the City College of New York for the book launch of Reimagining Sustainability, a collection of writings on environment, climate justice, and sustainable development by the late Isagani Serrano, a thought leader on these issues as they related to social movements.

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Privilege and Protection: Why Businesspeople Enter Politics in Indonesia
Sep
25

Privilege and Protection: Why Businesspeople Enter Politics in Indonesia

  • NYU Wagner, Floor 2, Lafayette Conference Room (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join NYSEAN and NYU MAIR for a talk by Dr. Eve Warburton, research fellow at the Department of Political and Social Change at Australian National University (ANU) and Director of the ANU Indonesia Project. Dr. Warburton will discuss her new paper co-written with Dr. Andi Ali Armunanto on the motivations of businesspeople to enter politics in Indonesia.

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[Canceled] Fear of Asian Tech: Chips, Platforms, and Social Networks
Sep
25

[Canceled] Fear of Asian Tech: Chips, Platforms, and Social Networks

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan for a panel that explores Asia’s role in building today’s high technology and the impact of Asian tech on contemporary Asian American communities. Panelists include Christopher Fan, Associate Professor of English at UC Irvine; Janice Lobo Sapigao, Filipina American poet, writer, and independent scholar; and Tony Shyu, an award-winning filmmaker, founder of Neu Wave AI Films, and CEO of Himalaya Entertainment.

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The Last Accord: War, Apocalypse and Peace in Aceh
Sep
25

The Last Accord: War, Apocalypse and Peace in Aceh

Join the Asia Society Museum for a screening of the Indonesian documentary film The Last Accord: War, Apocalypse and Peace in Aceh—the remarkable story of how one of Southeast Asia’s longest and deadliest conflicts came to an end. The film will be followed by an exclusive Q and A with the film’s executive producer Dr. Dino Patti Djalal, Founder & Chairman of Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia (FPCI), and former Ambassador of Indonesia to the United States.

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Deities of Diet and Design: Hindu Gods and the Aestheticization of Thai-American Restaurant Art
Sep
25

Deities of Diet and Design: Hindu Gods and the Aestheticization of Thai-American Restaurant Art

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Aditya Bhattacharjee, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow from Asian Studies at Cornell University, who will discuss how new trends in popular Thai religion have influenced the beliefs and business practices of residents in New York state’s primary Thai enclaves.

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Immigration Education Workshop
Sep
24

Immigration Education Workshop

Join the Asian American Education Project for a workshop that explores Asian  Immigration to the United States, and the past and present challenges faced by immigrants. The workshop will be facilitated by Laura Ouk, board president of the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and board member for the Cambodian Association of Illinois.

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Challenges in Writing the New Cambridge History of Southeast Asia
Sep
24

Challenges in Writing the New Cambridge History of Southeast Asia

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Barbara Watson Andaya, Emerita Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, and Leonard Y. Andaya, Emeritus Professor of History at UH-Mānoa. As co-editors of the third volume of The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, they will discuss the challenges of placing contemporary concerns of Southeast Asian studies in a historical framework.

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Is Deglobalization Inevitable?
Sep
23

Is Deglobalization Inevitable?

Join the Foreign Policy Association and the Committee of 100 for a debate on the inevitability of deglobalization. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, Professor at Columbia University, will open with discussion of the central issues, followed by a debate between two leading experts: Walden Bello, Professor of Sociology at SUNY Binghamton, and Edward Ashbee, Professor at Copenhagen Business School. The discussion will be moderated by Peter Young, Board Member of the Committee of 100 and CEO of Young & Partners.

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Growing the Digital Economy: Insights from the Mekong-U.S. Partnership Policy Dialogue
Sep
23

Growing the Digital Economy: Insights from the Mekong-U.S. Partnership Policy Dialogue

Join the Stimson Center for the launch of a report on the 11th Policy Dialogue of the Mekong-US Partnership covering areas  such as trade, information and communication, and AI. Speakers include Rachel Coleman, Government Affairs & Public Policy Lead for Platforms & Devices, Google; Mario Masaya, Vice President of Research, Technology and Financial Services at U.S. ASEAN Business Council; and Phonesavanh Sitthideth, Deputy Director General, Lao Academy of Social and Economic Sciences. Courtney Weatherby, Southeast Asia Deputy Director at the Stimson Center, will moderate the discussion.

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Multidimensional Deprivation and Emerging Policy Challenges in Indonesia’s Extreme Poverty Alleviation Efforts
Sep
21

Multidimensional Deprivation and Emerging Policy Challenges in Indonesia’s Extreme Poverty Alleviation Efforts

Join the ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute for a panel on poverty alleviation efforts in Indonesia. Priasto Aji, an economist at the Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Indonesia Resident Mission, Zahra Amalia Syarifah, Sociology PhD Candidate at University of California - San Diego, and Iqbal Dawam Wibisono, an economist specializing in development, labor, regional and microeconomics research, will discuss updates on poverty incidence, challenges, and distributional trends.

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Botany's (Un)making: Vernaculars of Plant Knowing in the Early 20th-Century Davao Gulf
Sep
19

Botany's (Un)making: Vernaculars of Plant Knowing in the Early 20th-Century Davao Gulf

  • University of Michigan, Weiser Hall, Room 555 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Michigan for a talk by Dr. Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez, Assistant Professor of History at University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Gutierrez will discuss the first decades of U.S. colonization in the Philippines and institutions of botanical research aimed to scale up plantation-style production.

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The National Revolution: A View from the Subaltern
Sep
18

The National Revolution: A View from the Subaltern

  • Russell Hall (Room 305), Columbia University Teachers' College (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Over the past several weeks we’ve worked towards the idea of Indonesia with a colorful cast of characters: our Kartinis, Ki Hajars, and Sukarnos, luminaries of that class that “dreamt and prayed in Dutch.” But what of the vast majority of Indonesians that didn’t? Who spoke in the language of jimats and Imam Mahdis rather than treatises and political theories? This week we begin to tell their side of the story, and of how they mobilized for that decisive act of political creation: the National Revolution itself.

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Champassak Royalty and Sovereignty: Within and Between Nation States in Mainland Southeast Asia
Sep
18

Champassak Royalty and Sovereignty: Within and Between Nation States in Mainland Southeast Asia

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Ian Baird, Professor of Geography and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Baird will discuss the enduring legacy of the House of Champassak, a royal lineage from southern Laos that has navigated centuries of political upheaval, from Thai vassalage and French colonialism to Lao independence and communist rule.

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“Air-conditioned People” and their Others: Class and Environmental Litigation in the Southern Philippines
Sep
17

“Air-conditioned People” and their Others: Class and Environmental Litigation in the Southern Philippines

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. This talk uses the pejorative Filipino expression naka-aircon or “air-conditioned person” meaning detached from reality, to capture class-based inequalities in access to cooled spaces to argue that the indifference of the elite bears repercussions for the delivery of the law.

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Leveraging Coordination Capacity: Medical Resource Mobilization in Asia’s Developmental States During COVID-19
Sep
15

Leveraging Coordination Capacity: Medical Resource Mobilization in Asia’s Developmental States During COVID-19

  • Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, Room 918 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a talk by Dr. Wei-Ting Yen, assistant research fellow at the Institute of Political Science at Academia Sinica, Taiwan. Dr. Yen examines how South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore adopted distinct medical resource strategies during the early phase of COVID-19.

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Foreign Policy Entrepreneurship in U.S. Policy toward Myanmar
Sep
15

Foreign Policy Entrepreneurship in U.S. Policy toward Myanmar

Join NYSEAN and the Program in International Relations (IR) at New York University for a talk by Dr. Jürgen Haacke, Associate Professor in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, who will discuss changes in foreign policy entrepreneurship in U.S. policy toward Myanmar in the 2000s. Dr. Frances O’Morchoe, Visiting Assistant Professor in International History with the IR Program at New York University, will moderate the discussion.

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Dennis Lim Selects: Independencia
Sep
14

Dennis Lim Selects: Independencia

Join the Asia Society Museum for a screening of Independencia (2009) by Raya Martin, preceded by a screening of the short film The Anthem (2006) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, and followed by an extended conversation with Dennis Lim, Artistic Director of the New York Film Festival,  about his critical perspectives and career in film.

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Papermoon Puppet Theatre: Puno, Sewing Memories (Matinee)
Sep
13

Papermoon Puppet Theatre: Puno, Sewing Memories (Matinee)

Join the Asia Society for the matinee performance of Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s Puno, Sewing Memories, which features the story of a young girl coping with her father’s passing and learning about life and death. Illustrator, writer, and theatre performer Maria (Ria) Tri Sulistyani and visual artist Iwan Effendi extend puppetry storytelling with their mixed-media productions that tell stories about the choices, values, circumstances, and conflicts of everyday life.

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Art in Places of Worship in the Middle East and Southeast Asia
Sep
13

Art in Places of Worship in the Middle East and Southeast Asia

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA for a professional development workshop by Heather A. Badamo, Associate Professor of art history at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Mya Chau, Lecturer in the Department of Asian Studies and Asian Pacific American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. They will discuss the cultures and histories of the Middle East and Southeast Asia through their religious spaces and places of worship.

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Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions: Tablatures, Illustrations, Tales, and Songs
Sep
13

Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions: Tablatures, Illustrations, Tales, and Songs

  • Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) One (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join Mekong NYC for the book launch of Introducing Đàn Tranh Techniques & Expressions, including a guided conversation with the authors Anh Thu Phan and Ngo Thanh Nhan, and editor, Kim To. There will be a performance of the songs featured in the book, hands-on dan tranh playing, and light refreshments.

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Papermoon Puppet Theatre: Puno, Sewing Memories (Premiere)
Sep
12

Papermoon Puppet Theatre: Puno, Sewing Memories (Premiere)

Join the Asia Society for the premiere of Papermoon Puppet Theatre’s Puno, Sewing Memories, which features the story of a young girl coping with her father’s passing and learning about life and death. Illustrator, writer, and theatre performer Maria (Ria) Tri Sulistyani and visual artist Iwan Effendi extend puppetry storytelling with their mixed-media productions that tell stories about the choices, values, circumstances, and conflicts of everyday life.

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Elses and Externalities: The Un/Making of Plantation Capitalism
Sep
12

Elses and Externalities: The Un/Making of Plantation Capitalism

Join the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Michigan for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes. In this lecture, Dr. Paredes traces the afterlives of the externalities that commodity production obscures, disguises, or otherwise erases from its scope of accountability such as pesticide drift, food waste, and water effluent.

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Indonesia Update 2025 - Navigating Climate Change in Indonesia: Mitigation and Adaptation Pathways
Sep
11
to Sep 12

Indonesia Update 2025 - Navigating Climate Change in Indonesia: Mitigation and Adaptation Pathways

Join the Crawford School of Public Policy for the Indonesia Update 2025, the largest annual conference on Indonesian society outside of Indonesia. With the theme of “Navigating Climate Change in Indonesia: Mitigation and Adaptation Pathways,” this conference will explore Indonesia’s approach to tackling climate change, including both existing and planned mitigation and adaptation strategies.

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The Moderate Middle: The Suharto Regime and Indonesia’s Engagement with the New International Economic Order (NIEO), 1968-1984
Sep
11

The Moderate Middle: The Suharto Regime and Indonesia’s Engagement with the New International Economic Order (NIEO), 1968-1984

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Bradley Simpson, Professor of History and Asian Studies at the University of Connecticut, who will discuss Indonesian politics and policies surrounding the New International Economic Order.

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Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia: The Kremlin’s Pivot to Asia and the Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War
Sep
11

Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia: The Kremlin’s Pivot to Asia and the Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War

Join the East-West Center for a discussion of Putin’s Russia and Southeast Asia, with Dr. Ian Storey, author and Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, and Dr. Vitaly Kozyrev, Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Endicott College. Dr. Satu Limaye, Vice President of the East-West Center, will moderate the discussion.

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British Hydrocolonialism in Southeast Asia
Sep
10

British Hydrocolonialism in Southeast Asia

  • Yale University - Henry R. Luce Hall, Room 203 (map)
  • Google Calendar ICS

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Nurfadzilah Yahaya, Assistant Professor of History of Southeast Asia at Yale, who will discuss the colonial engineering campaigns of the British Empire such as Singapore's harbors and North Borneo’s shores.

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Are Youth Moving to the Right? Insights from Surveys in Indonesia and Thailand
Sep
7

Are Youth Moving to the Right? Insights from Surveys in Indonesia and Thailand

Join ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a panel examining Thai and Indonesian youth’s perceptions on wellbeing and development, social attitudes and values, and other trends in civic engagement. Featured speakers include Voradon Lerdrat, Director of Research and Policy Partnerships at 101 Public Policy Think Tank (Thailand), and Dr. Iim Halimatusa’diyah, Visiting Senior Fellow at ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute and Professor of Sociology at Islamic State University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah.

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Indonesia in Crisis: Affan Kurniawan, Protest, and a Polity on the Brink
Sep
7

Indonesia in Crisis: Affan Kurniawan, Protest, and a Polity on the Brink

Join us for a timely webinar exploring how Indonesia’s political crisis reverberates beyond street protests to challenge the foundations of academic freedom and institutional autonomy. The conversation will situate Indonesia’s struggles within a broader regional context, examining what shrinking democratic space means under rising authoritarianism across Southeast Asia.

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Engage Thailand: “The Deep Dive” Episode 1 with Paul Chambers
Sep
6

Engage Thailand: “The Deep Dive” Episode 1 with Paul Chambers

Join Engage Thailand for their new online talk “The Deep Dive,” which brings a diverse range of people to provide perspectives on pressing issues in Thai politics and human rights. Their first guest is Dr. Paul Chambers, a renowned scholar on the Thai civil-military relationship who was recently arrested on lèse-majesté charges for allegedly insulting the monarchy.

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