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 Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa for a panel on Southeast Asia’s responses to the economic, political, and social impacts of U.S. tariff policies. Speakers include Dr. Jayant Menon, Senior Fellow at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute; Herawati, Researcher in the ASEAN Studies Program at The Habibie Center, and Dr. Tong Bui, Distinguished Chair in the Department of Information Technology Management at UH-Mānoa. Dr. Micah Fisher will moderate the discussion.

Join the Asian American Education Project for a workshop that explores Asian  Immigration to the United States, and the past and present challenges faced by immigrants. The workshop will be facilitated by Laura Ouk, board president of the National Cambodian Heritage Museum and board member for the Cambodian Association of Illinois.

Join the Stimson Center for the launch of a report on the 11th Policy Dialogue of the Mekong-US Partnership covering areas  such as trade, information and communication, and AI. Speakers include Rachel Coleman, Government Affairs & Public Policy Lead for Platforms & Devices, Google; Mario Masaya, Vice President of Research, Technology and Financial Services at U.S. ASEAN Business Council; and Phonesavanh Sitthideth, Deputy Director General, Lao Academy of Social and Economic Sciences. Courtney Weatherby, Southeast Asia Deputy Director at the Stimson Center, will moderate the discussion.

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 ASEAN Studies Center and the Regional Economic Studies Program at ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute for a panel on the current state of play in the US trade policy and its impact on multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Southeast Asia as the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs lapses in early July 2025. Featured speakers include Marc Mealy, Isamu Wakamatsu, and Dr. Dan Wang.

Join the Regional Strategic and Political Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Senior Fellow Dr. Ian Storey, who will discuss his new book on Russia’s role in Southeast Asia. Dr. Jittipat Poonkham, Vice Dean for Academic and International Affairs and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science at Thammasat University, will moderate the discussion.

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.).

Join the Library of Congress and the Veterans History Project for a panel commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Secret War in Laos. The event will feature personal narratives of Lao and American veteran panelists: Lieutenant Touy Thiravong (Lao SGU/RLA), Major Chanto Vorasarn (Lao SGU/RLA), Thomas Leo Briggs (CIA case officer), James K. Bruton (U.S. Army Special Forces), Colonel Khao Insixiengmay (Lao SGU/RLA), Osa Phiangdae Gilstrap (daughter of Lao SGU veteran), and Susan Boot Caolo (Applied Anthropologist).

Join ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dr. John Lee, senior fellow at Hudson Institute, for a talk on Trump’s policies and their far-reaching global consequences. He will explore their impact on the US Indo-Pacific strategy and security alliances in Asia, the potential for strategic realignments among Asian nations, and how countries can navigate the uncertainties and challenges in the turbulent years ahead.

Join the Asian American Education Project, the Wisconsin Council for Social Studies, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction for a workshop facilitated by Dr. Kaila Vue, scholar of Teaching and Learning. This workshop delves into the complex history, life stories, and resilience of Hmong Americans in Wisconsin, and offers teaching resources on this community.

Join the Asian American Writers’ Workshop for a talk by Mai Der Vang, recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and professor of Creative Writing at Fresno State University, who will discuss her new poetry book on the collective trauma and resilience experienced by Hmong people and communities. Topics covered by Mai Der Vang include the ongoing cultural and environmental repercussions of the war in Vietnam, the lives of refugees afterward, and the postmemory carried by their descendants. Cambodian American poet and instructor at Barnard College Monica Sok will moderate the discussion.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University for a talk by Micah Morton, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, who will discuss his book on the Indigenous Akha community’s work to decolonize and reclaim their collective ancestral identity.

Join Sciences Po International Research Center for “Whispers to the Ancestors,” an immersive performance by artist XM Tran. This collective commemoration of 50 years of exile brings together voices, memories, and wishes from Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, North America, and Europe.

Join the Columbia University School of Journalism, the Alliance Program, Sciences Po American Foundation, and Sciences Po Centre de Recherches Internationales for a transatlantic dialogue bringing together the voices of Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian exiles in France and the United States, as well as experts, activists, and artists from both sides of the Atlantic. Featured speakers include Ombeline Bois, Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, Hélène Le Bail, Khatharya Um, Fabien Truong, Kalyanee Mam, and Krysada Phounsiri.

Join NYSEAN for a book talk by Merlyna Lim, Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Global Network Society, Professor of Communication and Media Studies, and Director of the ALiGN Media Lab at Carleton University. Social Media and Politics in Southeast Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2025) highlights the dual role of social media in both fostering grassroots activism and enabling autocratic practices of algorithmic politics, notably in electoral politics.

Join the Southeast Asia Program and the Mario Einaudi Center For International Studies at Cornell University for a talk by Conan Cheong, a PhD Candidate in Art History and Archaeology at SOAS University of London, who will discuss the desire of eminent Lao Buddhist monks to photograph and be photographed by examining the monk portraits kept in the Buddhist Archive of Luang Prabang, Laos.

On this special edition of Bodega Pop with Gary Sullivan on WFMU, Rattana Bounsouaysana will share her family’s journey from Laos to the United States through their memories of Southeast Asian and English language popular music.

Laotian film maker Mattie Do, journalist Manyphone Vongphachanh, and Noel Clehane, Global Head of Regulatory & Public Policy at BDO, will discuss current economic struggles and opportunities in Laos. This event is sponsored by Asia Society Switzerland, BDO, a global for-profit advisory firm, and the University of Zurich.

Hosted by the University of Michigan Center for Southeast Asia Studies, Davorn Sisavath, California State University Fullerton, will discuss how cluster bomb metals are circulated and consumed, and how such actions shape life-making practices in the war’s aftermath.

Previously rescheduled, the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies and NYSEAN will host Dr. Thanachate Wisaijorn who will share personal insights from his ethnographic fieldwork in Ubon Ratchathani into the powerful role of language and how language choice impacts interpersonal relationships.

Dr. Miles Kenney-Lazar, Assistant Professor of Geography at the National University of Singapore, will examine the property systems that underlie plantation expansion in Laos, which is linked to global processes of land grabbing.. This talk is organized by the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Department of Geography and Environment, and Political Ecology Working Group.

At this seminar, Dr. Ming Li Yong, a fellow at the East-West Center, will discuss the effects of uneven public participation within multi-level stakeholder consultations, specifically related to the Government of Laos’ proposed hydropower dams within the Lower Mekong Basin. Perspectives from local communities, civil society, and government representatives will be highlighted to better understand the issues surrounding transboundary water governance.

Join the Center for Strategic & International Studies for a conversation with Ambassador Peter Haymond, U.S. Ambassador to Laos, on U.S.-Lao relations, followed by an expert panel to discuss the future of development cooperation in Laos and the Southeast Asia region.

Join Stimson for a discussion with George Black, Susan Hammond, Sera Koulabdara, and Shelley Inglis about the opportunity to address unacknowledged legacies of war in Laos.

Using survey experiments in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and Malaysia, which vary along regime types, and the salience of ethnic division, Mai Truong, PhD. Candidate in Political Science at University of Arizona, show that regime types, ethnic division, and the nature of policy-based movements interact to influence public support toward cross-movement coalitions under authoritarian rule.

During its secret war in Laos (1961–1975), the United States recruited proxy soldiers among the Hmong people. Following the war, many of these Hmong soldiers and displaced Hmong migrated to the United States with refugee status. This talk by Ma Vang, Assistant Professor and founding chair of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced, examines the experiences of Hmong refugees in the United States to theorize refugee histories and secrecy. The talk shows how Hmong refugees tell their stories in ways that exist separately from other narratives of U.S. empire that cannot be traditionally archived. Highlighting examples of the refugee soldier, Hmong women’s narratives, and Hmong-American literature, the talk outlines a methodology for writing histories that foreground refugee epistemologies despite systematic attempts to silence those histories.

In this talk, Kathryn Sweet (Social Development Advisor and Independent Scholar, Vientiane, Lao PDR) will explore the reasons for and the results of contestation within the Lao health sector during the initial decades of the Cold War from the early 1950s to 1975. The presentation will provide much-needed context for the diverse health infrastructure, staffing, and professional and technical standardization inherited by the Lao PDR regime. It will also look at the Ministry of Health’s challenges when confronted with the task of uniting these divergent health services into a uniform national healthcare system.

The Chinese-financed effort to build a national railway through Laos is well underway. The line from Kunming, China to Vientiane, Laos is a core part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the aim to connect Chinese markets to Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, and Myanmar. While the benefits to China are obvious, it seems uncertain to what extent Laos can benefit from this mega-project, from the infrastructure itself, but also other projects, e.g. Special Economic Zones.

What are the implications on the ground of these megaprojects? How has Laos as a host country negotiated and implemented the BRI with Chinese counterparts? Why are they agreeing to potentially bad deals? And what does this tell us about local institutions and Lao-Chinese relations? Are there any major risks, or social and environmental concerns? Are other host countries in similar situations?

Join Asia Society Switzerland for this webcast with Jessica DiCarlo, whose study of the Lao-China railway showcases how infrastructures relate to on-the-ground political and social relations in host countries.

(Image: © Carl Zoch via Asia Society)