Nicholas Kuipers discusses his new book, States Against Nations (Cambridge University Press, 2025), specifically how Indonesia's civil service examination is a method of bureaucratic selection. Despite its meritocratic measures, Kuipers asserts that these exams can reinforce existing inequalities within society. 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 the tension between state- and nation-building goals.

Nationalism is an inherently unifying and totalizing force. But what happens when other identities begin to encroach on certain visions of what it means to be Indonesian? Deconstructing Indonesia, a student-run seminar, pays special attention to Chinese Indonesians, one of the minority groups in Indonesia.

In this episode of Gatty Lecture Rewind, the host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Dr. Aditya Bhattacharjee, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Asian Studies at Cornell University. Together, they discuss how growing up in Bangkok led him to study the localization and globalization of Hinduism. Focusing on the transnational appearances of Ganesha in Thailand and Thai restaurants in the United States, Dr. Bhattacharjee explains how and why this deity becomes a visible conduit for understanding the globalization of religious practices and religious belonging beyond the exclusively Thai-Buddhist framework.

In this episode of Talking Indonesia, Clara Siagian and Tito Ambyo speak with Dian Tri Irawaty, Program Director at the University of Melbourne’s Rujak Center for Urban Studies, about the ongoing struggle for housing rights in Jakarta’s kampung communities.

In an article for the New York Times, Emily Anthes interviews Joshua Plotnik, who has been studying Asian elephant cognition for 20 years. In his research at Salakpra Wildlife Sanctuary Thailand, his team had created personality profiles to direct mitigation tactics toward each  particular elephant's personality.

In an article for Mekong Independent, Gerald Flynn discusses Thailand's decision to delay the decommissioning of several coal-fired units at the 2,400-megawatt Mao Moh power plant, which has sparked health related worries amongst the community, as the plant is Thailand's largest carbon dioxide pollution project.

In an article for BusinessMirror, Troi Santos highlights Noel Pangilinan, an educator, journalist, and member of the Fil-Am Press Club of New York, who recently received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his long service to education, journalism, and the promotion of Filipino heritage in the United States.

Haakon Huynh (Columbia University) is seeking collaborators for ongoing research on artificial intelligence (AI) governance in Southeast Asia. His recent working paper, “Digital Sovereignty or Dependency? The Political Economy of AI Infrastructure in Vietnam,” examines how Vietnam governs AI infrastructure amid growing foreign investment from firms like NVIDIA.

Haakon welcomes contact from scholars, practitioners, and students interested in AI policy, digital infrastructure, or the political economy of technology in the region.

Jeffrey Wasserstrom and Benjamin Tausig discuss how music features in their new books and how they engage with songs in their various writings. Dr. Wasserstrom discusses the Milk Tea Alliance, a coalition that brought together activists from Thailand, Myanmar, and Hong Kong. Dr. Tausig introduces 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 jazz pianist Maurice Rocco. Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal offers his remarks on both presentations as well as his own experiences with music and community organizing. The videos and musicians mentioned during the discussion can be found in this YouTube playlist.

In this episode of Gatty Lecture Rewind, the hosts join Dr. Rachel Leow, Associate Professor of Modern East Asian History at the University of Cambridge, for a lively conversation that dives into the tangled, shimmering histories of migration, language, and ideas across Asia’s maritime world.

In this episode of the New Books in Critical Theory, Vincent Pak discusses his new book, Queer Correctives: Discursive Neo-homophobia, Sexuality and Christianity in Singapore (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025), which explores Christian discourses of sex and sexuality in Singapore to argue that metanoia, the theological concept of spiritual transformation, can be read as a form of neo-homophobia that coaxes change in the queer individual.

In an article for East Asia Forum, Gerhard Hoffstaedter discusses China's rising influence over area studies, particularly in Southeast Asia. What was once an area dominated by Western scholars has shifted, in light of funding cuts and shifting government priorities by the US, UK, EU, and Australia. The shift towards Chinese advancements in this area constitutes a fundamental rebalancing of global knowledge production with profound geopolitical implications.

Jonathan Lam's essay published in the Southeast Asia Digital Library examines the lasting legacy of the Vietnam War and the US Secret War in Southeast Asia, particularly the extensive bombing campaigns in Laos and Cambodia. The essay explores the devastation caused by US military intervention, the refugee and deportation crisis since the fall of Saigon, and how connections to these historical patterns of US imperialism continue to shape the lives of Southeast Asian diaspora communities today.