Organizer: NYSEAN; SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium (SEAC); Master’s Program in International Relations (MAIR) at NYU
Type/Location: Hybrid / New York, NY
Description:
Join NYSEAN, the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium (SEAC), and the NYU Master’s Program in International Relations (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. To begin the conversation, Benjamin will give a brief introduction to his latest book, Bangkok After Dark, which places nightlife in Thailand’s capital city during the Cold War into a transnational perspective via discussion of a jazz pianist. Jeffrey will then discuss his new book, The Milk Tea Alliance, particularly its chapter on protests in Bangkok and their soundtrack including the rousing imported anthem “Do You Hear the People Sing?”
Margaret Scott, NYSEAN co-founder, will moderate the discussion.
This event is followed by a reception. Please register by Thursday, October 2nd at 5:00 PM.
About the Speakers:
Jeffrey Wasserstrom is a Distinguished Professor of History at UC Irvine, who has focused on China for most of his career but has lately moved into the study of other parts of Asia and pan-Asian topics. His most recent book, which deals with Burma and Hong Kong as well as Thailand, is The Milk Tea Alliance: Inside Asia's Struggle Against Autocracy and Beijing (Columbia Global Reports, 2025). He is currently working on a book about Orwell and Asia.
Benjamin Tausig is Associate Professor of Critical Music Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook University. His first monograph, Bangkok Is Ringing: Sound, Protest, and Constraint (Oxford University Press, 2019), is an ethnography of the sound environment of the Thai protest movement of 2010-11. His new book, Bangkok After Dark: Maurice Rocco, Transnational Nightlife, and the Making of Cold War Intimacies (Duke, 2025), focuses on Thai-American nightlife relationships.
Registration:
To attend the event in person, please register here. A reception is to follow, so be sure to register by Thursday, October 2nd at 5:00 PM.
To attend the event online, please register here.