Join York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a book talk by Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Associate Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences. In this pioneering book, Yasmin Y. Ortiga studies the narratives that emerged around two groups of Filipino workers: nurses banned from leaving the country and cruise workers who returned home after COVID-19 shut down the travel industry. Soma Chatterjee, Associate Professor of Social Work at York University, will moderate the conversation.

Join Engage Thailand for a talk with Dr. Suthikarn Meechan, Associate Professor at the College of Politics and Governance, Mahasarakham University, Thailand. Dr. Meechan will discuss the conservative victory in Thailand’s 2026 election, analyzing the impact of patronage politics and nationalist sentiments in the Northeast region of Thailand.

Join the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell University for their annual graduate conference, which offers a space for scholars of Southeast Asia to share new work, receive feedback, and engage with peers and faculty across disciplines. This year’s special-format conference will feature a mix of panel presentations and individual talks from current SEAP graduate students, creating room for discussion and reflection on emerging scholarship in Southeast Asian studies.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a webinar providing an overview of biomethane’s role in supporting climate and energy goals in Malaysia and Indonesia. Featured speakers include Kevin Low, Principal at Blunomy, a strategy advisory boutique focused on the climate transition; Thomas Wagner, Chief Representative of German EnviTec Biogas Group in Southeast Asia, and Dieter Billen, Partner at Roland Berger, a global management consulting firm, who heads the firm’s energy practice in Southeast Asia.

Join the Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA) consortium for an informal panel discussion on navigating the Association for Asian Studies Conference for students and scholars of Asian studies. Speakers include Dr. Kanjana Hubik Thepboriruk, Associate Professor, Thai Language and Thai Linguistics, Northern Illinois University; Adrian Beyer, Ph.D. student, Asian Languages and Cultures, University of Wisconsin – Madison; Naw Moo Moo Paw,  Ph.D. student, Global Studies, University of Massachusetts – Lowell, and Nida Sanglimsuwan, Ph.D. student, Sociology, UCLA.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for a webinar exploring how artists across Southeast Asia resist censorship through music, performance, and visual arts. Featured speakers include Azmyl Yunor, singer-songwriter and Senior Lecturer at Sunway University, Malaysia; Patricia Nguyen, artist, performer, and Assistant Professor at University of Virginia, and Annie Pacaña, visual artist and Faculty at the University of the Philippines – Diliman. Paul Gabriel Cosme, composer and ethnomusicologist in the Department of Music at UH Mānoa, will moderate the conversation.

Join the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a talk by Visiting Scholar, Dr. David Thang Moe. Drawing on firsthand experience, current research, and his forthcoming monograph Beyond Buddhist Nationalism (Oxford University Press), he will discuss ungovernability, centralized nationalism, decentralized resistance, ethnic reconciliation, and visions of democratic nationhood in Myanmar.

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Andrew Mertha,  the George and Sadie Hyman Professor of China Studies, Director of the China Studies Program, and Director of the SAIS China Research Center at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Dr. Mertha will discuss his new book on the Khmer Rouge, revolution, and leadership struggles.

Join Education About Asia Editor Dr. Elise Huerta and Spring 2026 issue contributors Dr. Ann Marie Davis and Dr. Bill Tsutsui to celebrate the journal’s relaunch. Panelists will discuss the future of the journal, introduce the contents of the new issue, and share tips on producing practical and accessible pedagogical resources for non-specialists. They will also answer questions from readers and prospective authors.

Join Sonic Bloom and Berlin NYC for a concert featuring distinct R&B voices from the Asian Diaspora: Jereena Montemayor, Filipino American R&B/Pop artist from Southern California; Mark Natama, Indonesian artist blending traditional R&B with contemporary elements, and Dhyan Rajamani, recording artist hailing from Maryland.

Join NYSEAN for a screening of The Last Breath of Sam Yan (2023), a documentary that captures the spirit and resilience of student activists and community members who stand firm in protecting their cultural heritage. The screening is followed by a discussion with co-producers Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal and Settanant Thanakitkoses, and student-activist Phumiyot Lapnarongchai.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) for a talk by Wan Juliana Emeih Binti Wahed, NIU Fulbright Visiting Scholar and Senior Lecturer at the College of Creative Arts, MARA University of Technology Sarawak Branch, Malaysia. In this lecture, Dr. Wahed will discuss the aesthetic design of Pua Kumbu, a traditional patterned multi-coloured ceremonial cotton clothing created and occasionally worn by the Iban people of Sarawak, West Kalimantan in Indonesia, and Brunei.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan for a talk by Dr. Yogambigai Rajamoorthy, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Accountancy and Management at Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia. This presentation offers a comparative examination of the acceptance and perception of different types of vaccination in Malaysia and Indonesia, comparing and contrasting factors shaping public attitudes toward immunization across these countries.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA for a lecture by Dr. Supeena Insee Adler, the curator and conservator of the World Musical Instrument Collection at UCLA and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Ethnomusicology, where she directs the Music of Thailand ensemble. In this lecture, Dr. Adler will discuss the efforts of the Thai performing arts community in preserving cultural heritage and strengthening social bonds in Southern California’s Thai diaspora.

Join NYSEAN and Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU for a talk by Gina Apostol, acclaimed author who teaches writing at the Fieldston School, Barnard College, and The New School; and Neferti Tadiar, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College.

Thailand’s post-election government faces rising economic pressure, domestic instability, and shifting geopolitics. Join experts in politics and security for a virtual roundtable on what this moment means for Thailand and Southeast Asia. Featured speakers include Kunthida Rungruengkiat, MPP Candidate at Princeton University and former Deputy Leader of Thailand’s Future Forward Party, offering perspectives on domestic political reform and democratic movements; Dr. Fuadi Pitsuwan, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University; and Matt Wheeler, Senior Analyst at International Crisis Group.

Join the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium (SEAC) for a webinar debriefing the recent elections in Myanmar and Thailand. Speakers include Dr. Joel Sawat Selway, Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University and co-founder and managing editor of ThaiDataPoints, and Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Chairman of the Myanmar Scholars Network and Visiting Senior Fellow in the Myanmar Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. Meredith Weiss, Professor of Political Science at University at Albany–SUNY and Director of SUNY/CUNY SEAC, will moderate the discussion.

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 Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University for a talk by Prakirati Satasut, Professor of Anthropology at Thammasat University and Visiting Scholar of Anthropology and Buddhism at Harvard-Yenching Institute. Through the context of Thailand’s 2014 coup, Dr. Satasut proposes the politics of Buddhist protection as a contested domain where religious discourse becomes a vehicle for political participation.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan (U-M) for a talk by Scott Stonington, Associate Professor of Anthropology and internal medicine physician at U-M. In this talk, Dr. Stonington explores how religious practice might emerge in the face of domineering experiences, through interviews and participant observation with people coping with severe pain in Northern Thailand.

Join the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU for a talk by Dr. Jessica Rahardjo, Research Associate at the Khalili Research Centre, University of Oxford. Dr. Rahardjo’s lecture will explore the adoption of Islam in Indonesia through the adoption of specific tombstone forms and their subsequent transformations in Aceh and the Minangkabau highlands in western Sumatra.

Join the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a talk by John Donaldson, Associate Professor of Political Science at the School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University. Dr. Donaldson will discuss how poverty reduction can accompany slower, more sustainable growth, challenging dominant assumptions about scale, technology, and well-being. Nick Smith, Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at Barnard College, will moderate the discussion.

Join the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell University for a talk by Dr. Liang Wu, a SEAP Postdoctoral Associate at Cornell University with affiliations in the Department of Science & Technology Studies and the interdepartmental consortium Cornell Oceans. Dr. Wu presents a case study of Filipino among other Southeast Asian seafarers working in the international shipping industry across the global oceans, thus expanding the conventional definition of “Maritime Southeast Asia” – the archipelagic region of Southeast Asian countries situated between Indian and Pacific Oceans.

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Phil Acimovic, Lecturer in the Department of Music at Yale University, and a gamelan musician and composer. Acimovic will discuss how the gamelan courses at Yale address the challenges of spontaneity and flexibility of Javanese gamelan in two musical contexts, klenèngan (concert music) and wayang (shadow plays).

Join the Harvard University Asia Center and the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University for a talk by Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Professor, Founder/Director of ALiGN Media Lab, and Professor of Communication and Media Studies at Carleton University. This talk explores how algorithms prioritize emotional content, fostering "algorithmic enclaves" where users unite around shared identities and emotions among Southeast Asian netizens.

Join the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asian Center for a talk by Rianne Subijanto, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Baruch College, City University of New York. Her book, Communication against Capital: Red Enlightenment at the Dawn of Indonesia, tells a story of the processes through which ordinary people mobilized an anticolonial communist resistance against Dutch rule through the production of revolutionary communication in the 1920s.

To celebrate the Year of the Horse, join the World’s Borough Bookshop for author/illustrator Aram Kim reading Tomorrow Is New Year’s Day and author Monique Truong reading Mai's Áo Dài. The book readings are followed by activities learning all about customs and traditions important to the Lunar New Year, including an art workshop for kids by Bonnie Wong and a lion dance performance.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar assessing what to expect from the State Security and Peace Commission’s recent polls, which are viewed widely as being orchestrated to continue the military’s political dominance in Myanmar. Speakers include: Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Visiting Senior Fellow in the Myanmar Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and a visiting scholar at Cornell University, and Dr. Mary P. Callahan is an associate professor in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Lydia O’Meara, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Dr. O’Meara will explore how seasonal and environmental fluctuations in Timor-Leste shape access to nutrient-rich aquatic foods, while also providing insights into changes in marine biodiversity.

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.