At the Association for Asian Studies Conference, join NYSEAN and SEACAF for a roundtable that will explore the relationship between authoritarianism and threats to academic and intellectual freedom in a way that puts attacks on higher education in the United States in conversation with Southeast Asia. The Roundtable includes the following scholars: Bencharat Sae Chua of the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand; Herlambang Wiratraman of the Research Center of Law and Social Justice at Universitas Gadjah Mada in Indonesia; Sol Iglesias of the University of the Philippines-Diliman’s Political Science Department in the Philippines, and Rianne Subijanto of Baruch College, City University of New York. Margaret Scott, a founder of NYSEAN and a journalist with the New York Review of Books, will chair.

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 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.

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 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 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.

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 NYSEAN for a live watch party of Thailand’s pivotal election, featuring a special discussion with Ms. Kunthida Rungruengkiat, former Deputy Leader of the Future Forward Party and current MPP candidate at Princeton University. Watch the vote count live, enjoy breakfast, and unpack what this election means for Thailand’s political future.

Join the Stimson Center for a two-part webinar analyzing the junta-led elections in Myanmar and their implications for Myanmar’s political landscape and stakeholders as the military regime shapes itself. Speakers include: Min Zin, Executive Director of ISP-Myanmar; Morgan Michaels, Research Fellow for Southeast Asian Security and Defence at the International Institute for Strategic Studies; H.E. Moe Zaw Oo, Foreign Affairs Advisor, National Unity Government; Moe Thuzar, Senior Fellow and Myanmar Studies Program Coordinator at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute; Amara Thiha, Stimson Nonresident Fellow; Steve Ross, Stimson Senior Fellow; and Yun Sun, Senior Fellow of the Myanmar Project and Co-Director of the East Asia Program at Stimson.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a webinar exploring the key issues shaping Thailand’s 2026 general election. Speakers include Mathis Lohatepanont, Political Science Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Michigan, and Thanisara Ruangdej (GG), the CEO and Co-founder of WeVis, a civic technology group advancing Thailand’s participatory democracy through open data.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Mark Sanchez, Assistant Professor of Asian and Asian American Studies at Vanderbilt University, who will discuss how legal advocates fought to defend civil liberties during the martial law era in the Philippines (1972-1981).

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 Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan for a talk by geographer and visiting professor Saw Yu May, who will discuss water challenges in Myanmar, from pollution and overuse to climate and governance pressures. It links research-based on water issues and community livelihoods with national policy efforts, highlighting the gap between environmental needs and implementation of the 2015 National Water Policy.

Join the ISEAS Myanmar Studies Program for insights from researchers and observers examining the complex conflict dynamics affecting stakeholders and electors, the known knowns and the uncertainties in the economic landscape, and the mechanics and implications of the State Peace and Security Commission’s election exercise.

Join the Stimson Center for a talk by Aye Lei Tun, PhD Candidate in Political Science at McMaster University. As an expert on Myanmar’s pro-democracy civil society organizations (CSOs), Aye Lei Tun will delve into the complexities of how CSOs are strategizing for survival amid pressures by the ruling junta, with new research tracking the latest developments in Myanmar’s civil society.

Join the Indonesia Institute at Australian National University (ANU) for their annual Human Rights Day panel, which brings together experts with deep knowledge of the historical evolutions of human rights activism and protections, from independence to the present day. Speakers include: Sidney Jones (NYSEAN and NYU), Dede Oetemo (GAYa NUSANTARA Foundation), Usman Hamid (Amnesty International Indonesia), and Robert Cribb (ANU). Dyah Ayu Kartika, PhD candidate in the Department of Political and Social Change at ANU, will moderate the discussion.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Kevin D. Pham, Assistant Professor of Political Theory at the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Pham will discuss how revolutionaries in Vietnam debated the value of free speech. Drawing on the writings of the Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm (NVGP), a movement of intellectuals who proclaimed support for free speech and communist revolution in North Vietnam in the late 1950s, Pham shows how the NVGP defend free speech as a collective right, rather than an individual one, and as something that can invigorate the Party so that it can more effectively guide the people towards socialism.

Join the Philippines Institute at Australian National University for a talk by Dr. Queenie Tomaro, visiting fellow of the ANU Philippines Institute and a faculty at the Department of Political Science, Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology. This seminar examines how women engaged in preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) perceive and navigate the convergence of Women, Peace and Security and P/CVE agendas.

Join the Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Languages, the York Centre for Asian Research, the Philippines Study Group, and York International at York University for the virtual book launch of Indigeneity in the Philippines: Studies on Knowledge, Identity, and Rights. The following book contributors will be in attendance: Oona Paredes, Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA; Ruth Tindaan, Associate Professor of English at the University of the Philippines - Baguio; and Maria Cecilia Medina, Associate Professor at the Asian Center of the University of the Philippines - Baguio.

Join NYSEAN and GETSEA for a screening of Vietnamerica , a documentary that follows Master Nguyen Hoa as he returns to former refugee camps in Southeast Asia after three decades abroad to search for the graves of his wife and two children. The screening is followed by a discussion with Executive Producer Nancy Bui of the Vietnamese Heritage Foundation.

Join York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative Research Colloquium 2025–26 for their inaugural event featuring Irene Poetranto, Course Instructor of Contemporary Asian Studies and PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto, who will discuss the impact of Indonesia’s changing internet landscape on dissent, civic discourse, and the pursuit of democratic reform.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a talk by Dr. Kyaw Yin Hlaing, Visiting Senior Fellow at the Myanmar Studies Program at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute and a Visiting Scholar at Cornell University, who will discuss the core participants in Myanmar’s 2025 election as well as the role of supporting actors.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar exploring the evolution of Thailand’s middle-power aspiration, its recurring retreat into small-power conduct, and how this oscillation is shaped by domestic political instability, bureaucratic inertia, and strategic uncertainty. This panel features speakers from Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science, including: Dr. Jittipat Poonkham, Associate Dean for Academic and International Affairs, Director of International Studies Program, and Associate Professor of International Relations; Dr. Fuadi Pitsuwan, lecturer in International Relations; and Dr. Pongkwan Sawasdipakdi, lecturer in International Relations and Assistant Dean for Graduate Studies.

Join NYSEAN for a screening of Breaking the Cycle , a documentary about a group of young politicians campaigning against an authoritarian constitution in Thailand. The screening is followed by a discussion with Kunthida Rungruengkiat, a former Member of Parliament and Deputy Leader of the Future Forward Party in Thailand, and a current MPP candidate at the Princeton School of Public Policy and International Affairs.

Join the ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institution for a seminar by Dr. Duncan McCargo, NYSEAN Co-Founder, Associate Senior Fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, and President’s Chair in Global Affairs at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Dr. McCargo will discuss the Thai Senate’s selection process, a theoretically non-political process that has become overshadowed by the presence of political parties.

Join NYSEAN and Princeton Thaigers for a talk by Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, a Thai politician and businessman who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the People's Party since 2024.

Join NYSEAN and the Southeast Asia Coalition for Academic Freedom (SEACAF) for a conference examining attacks on intellectual and academic freedom in Southeast Asia and the United States. Scholars, journalists, and activists will gather to look at how universities and intellectuals often become the first target of rising authoritarianism, the costs and benefits of collective action, and the strategies for resistance. The conversation will address the impact of funding cuts, strengthened immigration enforcement, and assaults on higher education in the United States as well as the lessons learned from crackdowns in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Turkey.