Andrew Mertha, Director of the China Global Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, discusses his new book. Bad Lieutenants explores the surprising endurance of the Khmer Rouge as a political force in Cambodia for decades after Vietnam’s 1979 invasion. How did the Khmer Rouge retain power, and why were they ultimately unsuccessful in forming a legitimate governing structure? What role did their leadership and political strategies play in their success and failures?

In this episode of Gatty Lecture Rewind, the host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews Analyn Salvador-Amores (Ikin), Professor of Anthropology and former Director of the Museo Kordilyera at the University of the Philippines Baguio. Together, they discuss how the recent tourism trend has revitalized Kalinga tattoos, a tradition of the ethnolinguistic group in Buscalan village, northern Luzon, Philippines. Having conducted anthropological research on traditional tattoos for over 30 years, Professor Ikin provides nuanced insights into how tourism has changed the village’s landscape, tattoo practices, and gender dynamics among tattoo practitioners.

In the ten months since the Free Nutritious Meals (Makan Bergizi Gratis, MBG) program was launched, more than 11,000 students and school staff have suffered food poisoning, including many severe cases. In this episode of Talking Indonesia, the host speaks with Dr. Irma Hidayana, a public health consultant and co-initiator of MBG Watch, an advocacy network promoting accountability in the Free Nutritious Meals program.

In this episode of Gatty Lecture Rewind, the host Namfon Narumol Choochan interviews “Mai” Anocha Suwichakornpong, independent filmmaker, producer, founder of Electric Eel Film, and Associate Professor of Film at Columbia University. They discuss how her previous and upcoming features have engaged with the politics of remembering and forgetting of state violence in Thai history.

In the ten months since the Free Nutritious Meals (Makan Bergizi Gratis, MBG) program was launched, more than 11,000 students and school staff have suffered food poisoning, including many severe cases. In this episode of Talking Indonesia, the host speaks with Dr. Irma Hidayana, a public health consultant and co-initiator of MBG Watch, an advocacy network promoting accountability in the Free Nutritious Meals program.

In an article for Al Jazeera, Erin Hale gives an overview of the upgraded ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, which will broaden collaboration on infrastructure, digital and green transitions, trade facilitation, and people to people exchanges, as trade between both parties grow under Trump's trade wars.

In an article for New Mandala, Amelie Katczynski reflects on Laos' internal public health developments, which pursues a vision of socialist health care that emerged during the Lao revolution. Yet, as challenges persist, Lao nursing students train to be vanguards of health development, training beyond nursing skills, playing the role of developing citizens and citizen-developers.

Chiara Formichi discusses her new book, Domestic Nationalism (Stanford University Press, 2025), asserting that Muslim women in Java and Sumatra in the early to mid-20th century were central to Indonesia’s progress as guardians and promoters of health and piety through gendered activities of care work. While sidelined in the Dutch colonial project of hygienic modernity, women’s labor of social reproduction became increasingly visible during the Japanese Occupation and early years of independence. Women from all walks of life were called upon to fulfill domestic and motherly roles for the production and socialization of laborers, soldiers, and citizens.

This discussion was moderated by Sidney Jones and was hosted by NYSEAN.

Vina Orden presents her essay published in CUNY FORUM Volume 11:1, examining how narratives in popular media can perpetuate or challenge existing power structures and colonial mentalities. Orden explores this through the complex dynamics behind the pop culture success of comics like “The United States of Captain America.” Her analysis delves into the diverse creative team behind these comics, including queer, Filipino, First Nation, and South African writers. And she critically questions whether Captain America, despite such diverse creative input, must still operate within a context of “imperial power dynamics” and the realities of the U.S. nation state.