Join NYSEAN, Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, Espacio de Culturas at NYU, and the NYU Department of History for a book talk by Dr. Adrian De Leon, Assistant Professor of History at NYU. Dr. De Leon will be in conversation with Dr. Karen Miller, Professor of History and American Studies at LaGuardia Community College and the CUNY Graduate Center, and Dr. Chris Cañete Rodriguez Kelly, Mellon Teaching Fellow and Lecturer of English at Columbia University.

Join Joseph O. Legaspi in celebrating Amphibian, his third poetry collection which explores queerness, belonging, and the meaning of home through the lens of a Filipino American. Legaspi will be in conversation with acclaimed writers Jessica Hagedorn and Sarah Gambito. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Join the Southeast Asia Digital Library for an online discussion on colonial collections in and on the Philippines, featuring speakers from Yale University: Dr. Cheryl Beredo, Director of Collections and Chief Curator, and Dr. Aurélie Vialette, Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese.

Join the NYU Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute for a conversation with Maria Ressa on journalism in the age of disinformation, AI, and social media, and the growing use of the legal system against journalists and the press. Maria Ressa is the Co-Founder and CEO of Rappler, Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia School of International and Public Affairs, and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate with decades of working experience as a lead investigative reporter.

Join NYSEAN, Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, and the NYU Espacio de Culturas for an evening of standout Philippine short films that premiered at the Cinemalaya and Sundance Film Festivals over the past decade. Featured films include Cross My Heart and Hope to Die, The Headhunter’s Daughter, Abogbaybay/ Shoredust, An Sadit na Planeta/ The Little Planet, The Next 24 Hours, Black Rainbow, and Vox Humana.

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 Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asia (GETSEA) consortium for a webinar on conducting research in the Philippines. Speakers include scholars with unique and extensive backgrounds on Philippine research: Dr. Louward Zubiri, Lector in Philippine Language Studies at Yale University, and Yi-Yu Lai, a PhD candidate in anthropology at University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. Dr. Verne de la Peña, Visiting Distinguished Professor of Music at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Professor of Musicology at the University of the Philippines College of Music, will moderate the discussion.

Join the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University for a book talk by Andrew L. Oros, Professor of Political Science and International Studies, Washington College, Maryland. Whereas the populations of China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, and Russia are aging and shrinking, the populations of India, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Australia continue to grow. Oros will discuss how striking demographic changes affect regional security dynamics and the United States–led alliance structure in the Indo-Pacific.

Join the Philippines Institute at Australian National University for a talk by Amanda Gorely, former Australian Ambassador to the United Nations, the Philippines, and to Arms Control and Counter Proliferation. This lecture will reflect on the key shifts and moments that defined the last 10 years of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and Australia, while also weaving in the importance of embedding gender considerations within foreign policy.

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 NYSEAN, Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU, and the NYU Espacio de Culturas for an evening of film shorts by women and gender-queer filmmakers that have won recognition as winners and/or finalists in festivals in New York, Manila, and elsewhere. Featured filmmakers include Marion Aguas, Ara Chawdhury, Ida Del Mundo, Angeline Marie Michael Meitzler, Margarita Mina, and Maria Estela Paiso.

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 York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a book talk by Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Associate Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University’s School of Social Sciences. In this pioneering book, Yasmin Y. Ortiga studies the narratives that emerged around two groups of Filipino workers: nurses banned from leaving the country and cruise workers who returned home after COVID-19 shut down the travel industry. Soma Chatterjee, Associate Professor of Social Work at York University, will moderate the conversation.

Join Sonic Bloom and Berlin NYC for a concert featuring distinct R&B voices from the Asian Diaspora: Jereena Montemayor, Filipino American R&B/Pop artist from Southern California; Mark Natama, Indonesian artist blending traditional R&B with contemporary elements, and Dhyan Rajamani, recording artist hailing from Maryland.

Join NYSEAN and Sulo: The Philippine Studies Initiative at NYU for a talk by Gina Apostol, acclaimed author who teaches writing at the Fieldston School, Barnard College, and The New School; and Neferti Tadiar, Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Barnard College.

Join the Asian American / Asian Research Institute at CUNY for a book talk on Contemporary Art and Ecological Transformation in East and Southeast Asia, an edited volume that examines how contemporary art in East and Southeast Asia confronts environmental destruction, ecological degradation, and social injustice against the backdrop of global ecological crises. Featured speakers include Meqin Wang, Professor of Art at California State University, Northridge; Midori Yamamura, Associate Professor of Art History at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY and an Alcaly/Bodian Distinguished Scholar at the CUNY Graduate Center; Stephanie Benzaquen-Gautier, research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies in Leiden and the Center for Khmer Studies; and Vicki Kwon, Associate Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum.

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 Program at Cornell University for a panel by Southeast Asian language faculty at Cornell on their experiences with, and contributions to, the Southeast Asian Language Council from 2019 to 2024. Speakers include: Yu Yu Khaing, Burmese Language Lecturer; Jolanda Mendaun Pandin, Senior Lecturer of Indonesian; Hannah Phan, Khmer Language Instructor; Thess Savella, Filipino Language Instructor and President of the Consortium for the Advancement of the Philippine Languages and Cultures; and Thúy Tranviet, Vietnamese Language Instructor.

Join York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a talk by Maria Victoria Espaldon, Professor and Scientist at the University of the Philippines - Los Baños. Dr. Espaldon will discuss Project SARAI (Smarter Approaches to Reinvigorate Agriculture as an Industry in the Philippines), a national initiative to support the resilience and sustainability of small scale farming.

Join the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute for an ASEAN lecture by Ma. Theresa P. Lazaro, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of the Philippines and former Undersecretary for Bilateral Relations and ASEAN Affairs, who will discuss the priorities of the Philippines during its Chairmanship of ASEAN in 2026.

Join York University’s Canadian Southeast Asian Studies Initiative for a talk by Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University, who will discuss her new book, Caring for Caregivers. The book centers the perspectives of Filipino caregivers in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2013 to 2021, illuminating their transnational experiences and the strategies and practices they employ to help one another navigate the crumbling US healthcare system.

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 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.