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 ASEAN Studies Center and Philippine Studies Program at the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar examining the priorities, constraints, and opportunities of the Philippines’ 2026 Chairmanship of ASEAN. Speakers include: M.C. Abad Jr., a Trustee of ASEAN Society Philippines and the first Director of the ASEAN Regional Forum from 1997 – 2007; Marilyn J. Alarilla, former Philippine Ambassador to Turkey (2011-2013) and Laos (2009 to 2011); and Professor Mely Caballero-Anthony, President’s Chair in International Relations and Security Studies at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University.

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Christina H. Lee, Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Acting Chair of the Humanities Council at Princeton University. Professor Lee will discuss how elite indigenous women in the Philippines signed documents in pre-Hispanic indigenous scripts known as baybayin, demonstrating their persistence in preserving this cultural heritage despite over a century of gradual decline in literacy following the Hispanization of the indigenous script.

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 Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, Espacio de Culturas at NYU, and NYSEAN for an evening of short films by Lav Diaz. The program includes: “Butterflies Have No Memories,” “Himala: A Dialectic of Our Times,” “Prologue to The Great Desaparecido,” “The Boy Who Chose the Earth,” “The Day Before the End,” and “The Firefly.”

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 ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for a seminar on the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey, a region-wide annual survey to understand the climate awareness and perceptions of Southeast Asian citizens towards climate action. Presenters include Melinda Martinus, Lead Researcher at ISEAS, and Dr. Samuel Chng, Research Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, Singapore University of Technology and Design.

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 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 NYSEAN and Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU for a talk by Dr. Oona Paredes, Associate Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA’s Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, who will discuss how a team of Higaunon people transformed their oral tradition into written form.

Join the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University for a talk by Analyn Salvador-Amores, Professor of Anthropology and former Director of the Museo Kordilyera at the University of the Philippines-Baguio. Dr. Salvador-Amores will discuss the commodification and revival of Indigenous tattoos from the Northern Philippines.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at NIU and the Philippine Consulate General of Chicago for a presentation by Ambeth Ocampo, Professor of History at Ateneo de Manila University, who will discuss how people have utilized the history of the Philippines for better or worse.

Join NYSEAN and Sulo: The Philippines Studies Initiative at NYU for a showcase of Filipino student filmmakers at NYU: Cal Galicia, Haley Jade Odum, Jack Lacy, and Lauren Luke. This program highlights and celebrates the work of these emerging storytellers before their films premiere on the festival circuit and beyond.

Join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute at CUNY for a talk by Vina Orden, who will present on her essay in CUNY FORUM Volume 11:1, examining how narratives in popular media can perpetuate or challenge existing power structures and colonial mentalities.

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.

Join the Thirdworld Newsreel and the Documentary Forum at City College of New York for a screening and discussion of the documentary film Because of You: A History of Kilawin Kolektibo by Desireena Almoradie and Barbara Malaran. The screening will be followed by a talkback with the co-directors and fellow past participants of Kilawin Kolektibo.

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.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UH-Mānoa for the virtual book launch of  Halo-Halo Ecologies, an anthology that gathers a transnational community of food enthusiasts, engaged scholars, and social and environmental activists to reimagine Philippine Studies and Food Studies. Speakers include Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Dr. Marvin Montefrio, Felice Prudente Sta. Maria, Chef Giney Villar, and Paolo Ven B. Paculan.

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 Sustainability in the Urban Environment graduate program at the City College of New York for the book launch of Reimagining Sustainability, a collection of writings on environment, climate justice, and sustainable development by the late Isagani Serrano, a thought leader on these issues as they related to social movements.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan for a panel that explores Asia’s role in building today’s high technology and the impact of Asian tech on contemporary Asian American communities. Panelists include Christopher Fan, Associate Professor of English at UC Irvine; Janice Lobo Sapigao, Filipina American poet, writer, and independent scholar; and Tony Shyu, an award-winning filmmaker, founder of Neu Wave AI Films, and CEO of Himalaya Entertainment.

Join the Foreign Policy Association and the Committee of 100 for a debate on the inevitability of deglobalization. Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, Professor at Columbia University, will open with discussion of the central issues, followed by a debate between two leading experts: Walden Bello, Professor of Sociology at SUNY Binghamton, and Edward Ashbee, Professor at Copenhagen Business School. The discussion will be moderated by Peter Young, Board Member of the Committee of 100 and CEO of Young & Partners.

Join the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at University of Michigan for a talk by Dr. Kathleen Cruz Gutierrez, Assistant Professor of History at University of California, Santa Cruz. Dr. Gutierrez will discuss the first decades of U.S. colonization in the Philippines and institutions of botanical research aimed to scale up plantation-style production.

Join the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University for a talk by Dr. Alyssa Paredes, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan. This talk uses the pejorative Filipino expression naka-aircon or “air-conditioned person” meaning detached from reality, to capture class-based inequalities in access to cooled spaces to argue that the indifference of the elite bears repercussions for the delivery of the law.