Join the Asia Society New York for a film screening of Lost Land on the eve of World Refugee Day, an international day designated by the United Nations to honor the strength, resilience, and courage of people forced to flee their countries due to conflict or persecution. The screening will be followed by a discussion with Writer and Director Akio Fujimoto and Consulting Producer Eric Nyari to deepen understanding, foster empathy, and engage in meaningful dialogue about the global refugee experience.

Join the Australia National University (ANU) Southeast Asia Institute for a talk by Tommy Chai, a PhD Candidate at ANU’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. This webinar examines continental Southeast Asia as a strategic space structured by two distinct but interacting sets of constraints: the current borders of Southeast Asia and a historically constituted strategic space centered on the mainland river basins of the Irrawaddy, Chao Phraya, Mekong, and Red River systems, but extending into adjoining upland and frontier zones such as Yunnan.

Join NYSEAN and the CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences for a symposium bringing together scholars and conservationists from across disciplines—including history, anthropology, conservation biology, and psychology—to explore new interdisciplinary approaches to promoting coexistence between humans and the endangered Asian elephant. This symposium is organized by Dr. Joshua Plotnik, Associate Professor of Psychology at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center, and Dr. Bradley Camp Davis, Professor of History at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s Malaysia Studies Program for a talk by Amalina Anuar, Senior Director at FMT Business and Visiting Fellow at ISEAS, and Dr. Jason Chuah, Professor of Commercial and Maritime Law, City University London. They will analyze the contentious resource-sharing between East Malaysia and the federal government along with the potential implications of the Petronas-Petros case heading to the Federal Court.

Join PEN America’s World Voices Festival for a panel of prominent international writers discussing how literature champions a diversity of cultures and reflects the multiple heritages, customs, and traditions. Speakers include Tash Aw, author of The South; Susan Choi, author of Flashlight, and Madeleine Thien, author of The Book of Records. PEN America President Dinaw Mengestu will moderate the discussion.

Join the Southeast Asia Program and the Department of Anthropology at Cornell University for a talk by Sampreety Gurung, Anthropology PhD candidate at Cornell. Sampreety’s talk examines the dual sense of exclusion and inclusion through which Nepali migrants experience work and life in Malaysia and asks what life-making and freedom might mean in a context of enforced temporariness.

Join the Institute of Fine Arts at NYU for a talk by Dr. Anissa Rahadiningtyas, curator of Islamic Aesthetics in Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asia at the National Gallery Singapore. This presentation aims to rethink the established categorical boundaries of Islamic art through the works of Arahmaiani (b. 1961, Indonesia), Shooshie Sulaiman (b. 1973, Malaysia), and Zarina Muhammad (b. 1982, Singapore).

Join the Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asia (GETSEA) consortium for a community book read with Dr. Faizah Zakaria, Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the National University of Singapore, author of The Camphor Tree and the Elephant: Religion and Ecological Change in Maritime Southeast Asia, and winner of the 2025 Benda Prize. Dr. Juno Salazar Parreñas, Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Feminist, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Cornell University, 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 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 NYSEAN and GETSEA for a screening of Sotong and Against This Messy World,  two short films highlighting the challenges to art and expression in Malaysia’s complex political, legal, and societal landscape. The documentary screenings are followed by an online discussion with the filmmakers.

Join the Stimson Center in celebrating World Water Day for a discussion exploring the impact of mining on global water resources and highlighting promising approaches to protect water security. Speakers include Obert Bore, Programmes Manager, Zimbabwe Environmental Law Organization; Regan Kwan, Research Analyst, Stimson Center Southeast Asia Program; Susanne Schmeier, Professor of Water Cooperation, Law, and Diplomacy, IHE Delft Institute for Water Education, and Scott Sellwood, Civil Society Sector Lead, Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance.

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 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 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 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.

Join the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) for its orientation and general assembly. This is a key opportunity for members to shape priorities, engage in meaningful discussions, and contribute to the next phase of SEACAF’s work in 2026.

Join the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies for a talk by Danny Wong Tze Ken, Professor of History and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Universiti Malaya, who will discuss the experiences of Chinese diasporas in Southeast Asia as well as their relations with China.

Join the Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA) consortium for an information session for undergraduate students. In this session, graduate students studying Southeast Asia in universities across the United States will discuss resources, programs, funding, advisors, and other topics related to pursuing a graduate degree in Southeast Asian studies.

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 Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a panel exploring Chinese migration to 20th-century Malaya and contemporary Singapore. Panelists include Zach Howlett, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at National University of Singapore; Wen Li Thian, PhD student at Cornell’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations; and Darren Wan, History PhD student at Cornell. Shaoling Ma, Associate Professor of Asian Studies, will moderate the panel.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for a webinar on how grounded, context-sensitive research contributes to a deeper understanding of environmental challenges and supports more equitable and sustainable approaches to environmental knowledge production. Speakers include: Dr. Micah Fisher (UH Mānoa), Xiaoyun Neo (UH Mānoa), Areerat Worawongwasu (UH Mānoa), Abdurrahman Abdullah (Universitas Hasanuddin), Irfan Saputra (Universitas Hasanuddin), and Aswin Baharuddin (Universiti Malaya). Dr. Mary Mostafanezhad will moderate the webinar.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar on the importance of peatlands in Southeast Asia as carbon sinks and contributors to megadiverse ecosystems. Discussions will highlight the potential and challenges of peatlands as Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in Southeast Asia, particularly from data and community perspectives. Speakers include: Dr. Matthew Ashfold (University of Nottingham, Malaysia), Dr. Azliyana Azhari (Monash University Malaysia), Dr. Alex Lechner (Monash University Indonesia), Dr. Helena Varkkey (Universiti Malaya), and Dr. Gusti Z. Anshari (Tanjungpura University, Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Indonesia).

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Northern Illinois University (NIU) for a talk by Jui-Ching Wang, Professor of Music Education and World Music at NIU’s School of Music. Professor Wang will discuss a project called “Performing Southeast Asian Art Goes to School,” which helps develop curricula that use performing arts to teach K-12 students important historical context from Asian American Communities. This project connects NIU students and local in-service teachers with Asian American community members to raise awareness of Asian American cultures and history.

Join the Institute for Comparative Modernities at Cornell University for a talk by Shaoling Ma, Professor of Asian Studies and Fellow at the Society of the Humanities, who will discuss her current research on rural circuits and Southeast Asia’s computational environments across local, national, regional, and transnational levels.

Join the Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell University for a talk by Caitlyn Sears, SEAP Postdoctoral Associate and NYSEAN member, who will discuss how recent production and regulation dynamics in Malaysia exemplify transformations in global chemical geographies.

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.