Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) for a talk by Richard Pegg, Director and Curator of Asian Art at the MacLean Collection. In this talk, Dr. Pegg will examine maps created during the 17th to 19th centuries in order to better understand complex trade systems in today’s East and South China Seas, such as: the red-seal, Manila, Siam, Fujian, Zheng family, silver-silk, rice-silk, tribute, Muslim, Portuguese, British and Dutch systems.

Join NYSEAN and SUNY/CUNY SEAC for a talk by Dr. Chee Soon Juan, Secretary-General of the Singapore Democratic Party, who will discuss Singapore’s politico-economic vulnerabilities with insights from his new book, Unbroken: The Power of Resilience.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a webinar examining recent economic and trade developments in the Asia-Pacific region and APEC’s progress in advancing connectivity over the past decade through the APEC Community Blueprint (2015 – 2025). Speakers include the following experts from the APEC Secretariat’s Policy Support Unit: Carlos Kuriyama, Director, and Akhmad Bayhaqi, Senior Analyst.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dang Nguyen, a Bellwether Postdoctoral Scholar at the School of Information, University of California, Berkeley. By situating Vietnam’s AI strategy within broader debates about technological sovereignty and dependency, this webinar reconsiders how smaller states exercise agency in a landscape increasingly defined by competing technological superpowers.

Join NYSEAN and the Master’s Program in International Relations at NYU for a talk by Kota Watanabe, Visiting Scholar at the NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Dr. Watanabe will discuss the shaping of local orders behind the civil war and the expansion of online scamming in the borderlands of Myanmar.

Join the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) for a virtual panel discussion marking the launch of ASPI’s new tracker, the Asian Digital Trade Agreement Tracker. Speakers include Elina Noor, nonresident scholar in the Asia Program at Carnegie; Nigel Cory, director with Crowell Global Advisors and non-resident fellow at the National Bureau of Asian Research, and Faye Simanjuntak, a Schwarzman Fellow at  ASPI in New York. Panelists will discuss the tracker's key insights, the strategic logic driving the region's digital alignment, and what this patchwork of trade agreements means for AI governance in the Indo-Pacific.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Visiting Scholar Aung Thura Ko Ko, former research fellow at the Pacific Forum, a U.S. policy think tank based in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. This talk explores how China’s strategic intervention in post-coup Myanmar presents a complex mix of geopolitical ambition, economic necessity, and security entanglement.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a panel that examines how disruptions to trade channels from the Straits of Hormuz are affecting farms, supply chains, and consumers in Southeast Asia. Speakers include Professor Paul Teng, Visiting Senior Fellow in the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Program at ISEAS, and Dr. Siang Hee Tan, Executive Director of CropLife Asia. Professor Sean De Cleene (Singapore Institute of Technology) and Dr. Alisher Mirzabaev (International Rice Research Institute) will serve as discussants, and Elyssa Ludher (ISEAS Visiting Fellow) will moderate the panel.

Join NYSEAN for a talk by Dr. Kevin M. Woods, senior policy analyst at Forest Trends, who will present the findings of a new report on how the Mekong Region—particularly the tri-border “Golden Triangle” of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand—has become a hub where environmental exploitation and criminal activity converge, collectively generating billions of dollars annually for transnational enterprises. Sidney Jones, adjunct professor of International Relations at NYU and executive committee member of NYSEAN, will moderate the discussion.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar on how Malaysia’s multi-leveled governance structure enables and constrains economic governance and policy innovation. Speakers include YB Tuan Dr. Mohammad Fahmi Bin Ngah, State Assemblyman for Seri Setia, and YB Encik Zairil Khir Johari, State Assemblyman for Tanjong Bunga (Penang).

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a webinar on crypto scams in Southeast Asia, specifically how crypto’s much-touted transparency can be put to practical use and what it might take to make exchanges part of the solution rather than part of the problem. Speakers include Kevin Mei, financial economics researcher at the University of Texas–Austin; Cezary Podkul, investigative reporter, and Tom Luo, crypto solutions leader and Managing Director at Merkle Science.

Join the ASEAN Studies Center at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for the e-launch of The State of Southeast Asia: 2026 Survey Report on the prevailing attitudes of Southeast Asian opinion leaders on regional strategic developments and issues affecting ASEAN and its member states. Joanne Lin, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the ASEAN Studies Center, will present the key findings of the survey. The following speakers will discuss the survey’s major findings: Scot Marciel, Senior Advisor of BowerGroupAsia; Dr. Saya Kiba, Associate Professor at Kobe City University of Foreign Studies; Dr. Huiyao Wang, Founder and President of the Center for China and Globalization, and Herman Kraft, Professor of Political Science at the University of the Philippines at Diliman.

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 York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a talk by Jonathan Corpus Ong, Professor and Founding Director of Global Technology for Social Justice Lab in the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dr. Ong’s lecture critiques the “mainstream” of disinformation studies and presents alternative visions of more globally minded and community-driven approaches to building healthier public spheres.

Join the Bronx Documentary Center for the opening reception of Overfishing in Southeast Asia, an Ecological and Human Crisis. Based on a nine-month investigation by Nicole Tung, laureate of the fifteenth Carmignac Photojournalism Award, this exhibition examines the environmental and human toll of industrial fishing in Southeast Asia. Through field reporting in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, Tung traces the journey from local ports to global markets, exposing the fragility and human cost behind the seafood supply chains that reach consumers worldwide.

Join the Indonesia Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a webinar examining how the relocation of Indonesia’s administrative capital to Nusantara is reshaping Jakarta’s governance, planning priorities, and everyday urban experience. Speakers include Dr. Irna Nurlina Masron, Fellow of the Regional Social and Cultural Studies and the Indonesia Studies Programs at ISEAS, and Dr. Siwage Dharma Negara, senior fellow, Co-Coordinator for the Indonesia Studies Program, and Coordinator for the Singapore APEC Study Center at ISEAS. Rita Padawangi, Associate Professor at the College of Interdisciplinary and Experiential Learning, Singapore University of Social Sciences, will moderate the discussion.

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 Vietnam Studies Program at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Le Duy Binh, Chief Economist and Managing Director of Economica Vietnam, and Long Tran, Head of Research at BIDV Securities (BSC), one of Vietnam’s oldest and most prominent securities firms. These experts will provide an analysis of Vietnam’s economic performance in 2025, assess its outlook for 2026, and evaluate whether Vietnam is ready for a new “Era of National Rise.”

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 Department of Anthropology and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan (U-M) for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at U-M. In this lecture, Dr. Paredes explores how “Big Agriculture” plantations systematically shirk responsibility for food waste, using legal contracts, scientific conventions, and standards of trade to frame them as “external” to their supply chains.

Join the Indonesia Project at ANU Crawford School of Public Policy for a talk by Dr. Andini Pramono, who will discuss the economic and environmental impacts of Commercial Milk Formula (CMF) in Indonesia, revealing substantial economic loss when CMF displaces breastmilk in Indonesia.

Join the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan (U-M) for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at U-M. In this lecture, Dr. Paredes illustrates “Big Agriculture” plantations produce significant industrial waste in the form of water pollution in Mindanao, Philippines.

Join the Regional Economic Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dr. Deasy Pane, a Wang Gungwu Visiting Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, an Economist at Indonesia’s National Development Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS). Dr. Pane examines how Indonesia’s economy has been shaped by its deepening trade relationship with China, particularly following the implementation of the ASEAN–China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA).

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 the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk on how Trump’s tariffs have impacted Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam with Dr. Milan Thomas, Country Economist at the Cambodia Resident Mission of the Asian Development Bank (ADB); Soulinthone Leuangkhamsing, Principal Economics Officer at the Lao PDR Resident Mission of ADB, and Dr. Dao Ngoc Tien, Vice President of Vietnam’s Foreign Trade University. They will discuss how the tariffs might impact these countries  in the short and long run, and how these negative impacts could be mitigated.

Join the Department of Anthropology and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Michigan (U-M) for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at U-M. In this lecture, Dr. Paredes illustrates how food cosmetic standards in destination markets lead “Big Agriculture” plantations to produce significant food waste.