Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH Mānoa) for a webinar on Southeast Asia’s fast-evolving smart city initiatives, from data governance to climate adaptation. Speakers include Rita Padawangi, Associate Professor, College of Interdisciplinary and Experiential Learning, Singapore University of Social Sciences; Bharat Dahiya, Director of the Research Center for Sustainable Development and Innovation, Thammasat University, and Gavin Shatkin, Professor, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Northeastern University. Ashok Das, Professor, Department of Urban and Regional Planning at UH Mānoa, will moderate the discussion.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University for a book talk by Dr. Miles Kenney-Lazar, Senior Lecturer of Human Geography at the University of Melbourne. Dr. Kenney-Lazar’s book investigates the development of Chinese and Vietnamese pulpwood and rubber plantations on the lands of the ethnic minority Brou people in eastern Savannakhet of southern Laos.

Join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute at CUNY for a book talk on Contemporary Art and Ecological Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, an edited volume that examines how contemporary art in East and Southeast Asia confronts environmental destruction, ecological degradation, and social injustice against the backdrop of global ecological crises. Featured speakers include Meqin Wang, Professor of Art at California State University, Northridge; Midori Yamamura, Associate Professor of Art History at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY and an Alcaly/Bodian Distinguished Scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center; Stephanie Benzaquen-Gautier, research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden and the Center for Khmer Studies; and Vicki Kwon, Associate Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a roundtable discussing insights and innovative approaches to inform more responsive policymaking in order to address the needs and aspirations of Southeast Asia’s next generation. Speakers include: Professor Nina T. Castillo-Carandang, pioneering health sociologist at  the University of the Philippines’ College of Medicine; Shahhanim Yahya, Senior Research Executive for the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia; Voradon Lerdrat, Director of Research and Policy Partnerships at 101 Public Policy Think Tank (Thailand); Dr. Sari Damar Ratri, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Research (IFAR), Monash University Indonesia; Dr. Rayner Kay Jin Tan, Assistant Professor at the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, National University of Singapore and National University Health System; and Dr. Tu-Anh Hoang, founder and Director of the Center for Creative Initiatives in Health and Population (CCIHP) and chair of the Vietnam Gender-based Violence Prevention and Response Network.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Department of Environmental Studies, and Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment at Northern Illinois University for a talk by Matthew E. Andersen, Senior Scientist for Biology for the U.S. Geological Survey Office of International Programs. Having led the development of decision-support tools for the Lower Mekong River Basin in Southeast Asia, this talk will explore the history, geography, and socioeconomic science of the Mekong River Delta.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for an ASEAN lecture by Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and former Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs, who will discuss the priorities of the Philippines during its Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2026.

Join the ASEAN Studies Center at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a panel exploring how Cambodia, Laos, and Singapore have “led from the middle” to steer ASEAN through periods of uncertainty. The panel will examine what these lessons and experiences hold for future chairs, including Timor-Leste, in keeping ASEAN cohesive, credible, and responsive to emerging challenges. 

Speakers include: Ambassador Pou Sothirak, Distinguished Senior Advisor to the Cambodian Center for Regional Studies (CCRS); H.E. Sisangkhom Sisaketh, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Lao PDR to ASEAN; Dr. Joel Ng, Senior Fellow and Head of the Centre for Multilateralism Studies at Nanyang Technological University; and Dr. Anoulak Kittikhoun, Visiting Senior Fellow at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

Join the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies for a talk by Danny Wong Tze Ken, Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Universiti Malaya, who will discuss the experiences of Chinese diasporas in Southeast Asia as well as their relations with China.

Join the ASEAN Studies Center and Philippine Studies Program at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar examining the priorities, constraints, and opportunities of the Philippines’ 2026 Chairmanship of ASEAN. Speakers include: M.C. Abad Jr., a Trustee of ASEAN Society Philippines and the first Director of the ASEAN Regional Forum from 1997 – 2007; Marilyn J. Alarilla, former Philippine Ambassador to Turkey (2011-2013) and Laos (2009 to 2011); and Professor Mely Caballero-Anthony, President’s Chair in International Relations and Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dr. Kaewkamol (Karen) Pitakdumrongkit, the Interim Secretary General and incoming Executive Director of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council’s (PECC) International Secretariat. Dr. Pitakdumrongkit will examine the key findings of the PECC State of the Region Report 2025-2026, which gathered data from over 500 leaders across 24 economies on their outlook for the region from 2026 to 2027.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for a webinar on how grounded, context-sensitive research contributes to a deeper understanding of environmental challenges and supports more equitable and sustainable approaches to environmental knowledge production. Speakers include: Dr. Micah Fisher (UH Mānoa), Xiaoyun Neo (UH Mānoa), Areerat Worawongwasu (UH Mānoa), Abdurrahman Abdullah (Universitas Hasanuddin), Irfan Saputra (Universitas Hasanuddin), and Aswin Baharuddin (Universiti Malaya). Dr. Mary Mostafanezhad will moderate the webinar.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar on the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey, a region-wide annual survey to understand the climate awareness and perceptions of Southeast Asian citizens towards climate action. Presenters include Melinda Martinus, Lead Researcher at ISEAS, and Dr. Samuel Chng, Research Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) for a talk by Jui-Ching Wang, Professor of Music Education and World Music at NIU’s School of Music. Professor Wang will discuss a project called “Performing Southeast Asian Art Goes to School,” which helps develop curricula that use performing arts to teach K-12 students important historical context from Asian American Communities. This project connects NIU students and local in-service teachers with Asian American community members to raise awareness of Asian American cultures and history.

Join the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University for a talk by Shaoling Ma, Professor of Asian Studies and Fellow at the Society of the Humanities, who will discuss her current research on rural circuits and Southeast Asia’s computational environments across local, national, regional, and transnational levels.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell for a talk by Marlie Lukach, PhD student in Plant Breeding and Genetics, who will discuss the historical significance of bottle gourd lagenaria siceraria in Southeast Asia.

Join Cornell University for a talk by Ashley Thompson, Hiram W. Woodward Chair of Southeast Asian Art at SOAS University of London. The talk uses Buddha’s life story–his return from heaven and the socio-political order organized around the dissemination of his image afterwards–to contemplate how ideas of absence, return, and transformation shape identity and cultural restitution in Southeast Asia today.

Join the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for a panel on the future of China-ASEAN relations. Speakers include Gita Wirjawan, former Minister of Trade, Indonesia (2011-2014); Bert Hofman, Professor, National University of Singapore and Honorary Senior Fellow on Chinese Economy, ASPI’s Center for China Analysis (CCA); and Brian Wong, Assistant Professor in Philosophy, University of Hong Kong and Honorary Fellow, CCA. The discussion will be moderated by Kevin Zongzhe Li, Affiliated Researcher, CCA.

Join NYSEAN and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) for a conference examining attacks on intellectual and academic freedom in Southeast Asia and the United States. 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 United States as well as the lessons learned from crackdowns in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Turkey.

Join NYSEAN and Nicholas Kuipers, Assistant Professor of Politics at Princeton University, as he discusses his recently published book. Drawing on large-scale surveys, experiments, and archival documents, States Against Nations provides a thought-provoking perspective on the challenges of bureaucratic recruitment and unearths an overlooked tension between state- and nation-building.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Join the Philippines Institute at Australian National University for a talk by Dr. Justine Diokno-Sicat, member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Development Bank representing the Philippines, Kazakhstan, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Mongolia, Pakistan and Timor-Leste. Dr. Diokno-Sikat will share her decades of research on Philippine decentralization, as well as current issues and the important role of multilateral development banks.

Join the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre’s annual Southeast Asia Forum in 2025, which brings together leading specialists worldwide to discuss the implications of global trends and ongoing geoeconomic contestation for Southeast Asian economies, polities, and societies. Featured speakers include Evelyn Goh (Australian National University), Henry Wai-chung Yeung (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), Selina Ho (National University of Singapore), and Alvin Camba (Association of Universities, Inc.).