In this talk hosted by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and the Southeast Asia Program, archaeologist and ethnohistorian Laura L. Junker combines the “written” and “material” histories of the vastly diverse Philippines, to understand the complex history of trade, diplomacy, and colonization of the country’s thousands of equatorial islands.

Dr. Mireya Solís, in an event hosted by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and the Japan Research Program, will discuss her new book on Japan’s transformation into a significant player in the geopolitics of the Indo-Pacific.

Hosted by Harvard University Asia Center, Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, will review the role the United Nations and its member states have played in this crisis and preview findings of an upcoming UN General Assembly report that he will present in October.

Hosted by Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program, Vicente L. Rafael, Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, will discuss the authoritarian imaginary in contemporary Philippines.

Hosted by ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute, this panel will discuss the latest Southeast Asia Climate Outlook Survey, a region-wide annual survey to understand the climate awareness and perceptions of Southeast Asian citizens.

Mireille Zieseniss, Public Diplomacy Advisor, U.S. Department of State, will give a talk about U.S. public diplomacy hosted by UHM Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

The Asian Division of the Library of Congress will host a virtual panel discussion on Mangyan scripts, literary heritage, and collections. The panel will feature speakers from the Mangyan Heritage Center, Inc., the Newberry Library, the Library of Congress, and a curatorial affiliate at the Yale Peabody Museum.

Hosted by NYSEAN and co-sponsored by the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Pavin Chachavalpongpun, Associate Professor at Kyoto University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies, will discuss how Thai politics continues to be dominated by the conservative establishment following the May 2023 elections. In addition, two of King Vajiralongkorn’s estranged sons have returned home, further complicating Thai politics. Ann Marie Murphy, NYSEAN co-founder, will moderate the discussion.

Drawing upon Stanley J. Tambiah’s idea of “world conquerors” and “world renouncers,” Seinenu M. Thein-Lemelson examines the Burmese political festival (nainganyei pwe) as a ritual, affective, and material space where former political prisoners reinterpret violence and engage in forms of collective and personal “world-making.” This event is hosted by the Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University.

Hosted by the Southeast Asian Freedom Network (SEAFN), Chhaya Chhoum, SEAFN Executive Director, will discuss opportunities to mobilize the Southeast Asian communities in the upcoming 2024 presidential election and the 50th Anniversary that commemorates the ending of the war in Southeast Asia in 2025.

Hosted by the Stimson Center, Yun Sun, Stimson Center’s East Asia Program Co-Director, will speak with pro-democracy activist and  National League for Democracy (NLD) member Myo Yan Naung Thein on the NLD, its future, and its relationship with other political players in the country.

In this book talk hosted by the Rajawali Foundation Institute for Asia and co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, contributors from the recently published volume Vietnam: Navigating a Rapidly Changing Economy, Society, and Political Order (Harvard University Press, 2023) will explore how Vietnam’s governance shapes its politics, economy, social development, and relations with the outside world.

Palm oil, worth over USD100 billion a year as a raw material, is shrouded in ESG, health, and geopolitical controversy. Yu-leng Khor, senior economist at Segi Enam Advisors, will discuss these debates and examine palm oil’s role in developmentalisms. Sreyneath Poole Carson, NYSEAN Program Coordinator, will moderate the discussion. This event is hosted by the NYSEAN and co-sponsored by NYU Wagner.

Prajak Kongkirati will discuss the shifting political alliance between former political rivals, demonstrating a new fundamental political cleavage in Thailand in his event hosted by the Sydney Southeast Asia Center, the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, and NYSEAN.

Hosted by the Global Mangrove Trust, this roundtable discussion will showcase Indonesia's recent progress in blue carbon conservation.

Hosted by the Council on Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University, Yu-Leng Khor, Senior Economist at Segi Enam Advisors, will discuss the factors affecting sustainable palm oil, natural rubber, and solar panel forecasting in Southeast Asia.

Drawing from empirical observations, Martine Guyot-Bender, Center for Khmer Studies Senior Fellow, will present her study that is centered on the present-day art house cinema landscape in Phnom Penh. George Chigas, Associate Teaching Professor Emeritus in Cambodian Studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, will moderate the discussion.

Hosted by the UHM Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Krisna Suryanata and Olivia Myer will discuss the UHM/East-West Center joint field school initiative with Khon Kaen University in Thailand and Hasanuddin University in Indonesia, funded by the LuceSEA Transitions: Environment, Society and Change. The seminar will describe the context of the joint field school and reflect on the LuceSEA team’s summer 2023 experience.

Malaysia’s 15th general election in November 2022 decisively ended the country’s dominant-party system. What might take its place, however, remains hazy—how competitive, how polarized, how politically liberal, and how stable an order might emerge will take some time to become clear. Hosted by Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Meredith Weiss, Professor at the University at Albany, SUNY, will discuss Malaysia's fragmentation and reconsolidation of Malaysian party politics.

Hosted by the Council on Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University, Tharaphi Than, Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University, will outline how the February 2021 coup has disrupted higher education and highlight how Burmese students' experiences and activism provide insights into education and teaching in the country.

Hosted by Northern Illinois University’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies, author Matthew Jagel details a political history of Cambodia from World War II until 1975 that examines the central role of Sõn Ngọc Thành. It is a story of nationalistic independence movements, political intrigue, coup attempts, war, and American intelligence.

Hosted by the Stimson Center, Mech Dara, independent journalist, Valentina Casulli, Project Officer at Humanity Research Consultancy, and Cynthia Gabriel, Center for International Private Enterprise, will discuss opportunities for collaboration under the Mekong -U.S. Partnership to counter trafficking and cyber-enabled crime. The panel will be moderated by Brian Eyler, Southeast Asia Program Director at the Stimson Center.

UHM Center for Southeast Asian Studies will host its first “Careers in Asia-Pacific Affairs” webinar featuring Special Agent Lawrence “Larry” Chun. During this talk, Mr. Chun will discuss how growing up in Hawaii and being an Asian American has served him in a unique career field that encompasses international diplomacy and federal law enforcement. He will tell the story of his journey to joining the Foreign Service, explain the training involved with the job, and the intangible skills that he thinks many people develop while living in Hawaii that are necessary to succeed when working abroad.

Hosted by the University of Hawai’i’ at Manoa (UHM) Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Meredith Weiss, Professor of Political Science at SUNY-Albany, will explore the role of civil society actors and organizations in preventing democratic decline in Southeast Asia.

Hosted by the East-West Center, Dr. Chinh Tran will assess how environmental pollution and the quality of the environment have become a significant public concern in Vietnam as the Viet Nam Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI )reports since 2015. The report looks into how citizens experience air and water quality in their residential areas and ask for their views on levels of compliance by investment projects with environmental protection requirements.

Thailand still hasn’t got a new government three months after the general election. The controversial provisions in the military-drafted constitution came into play, allowing the unelected senate to block the party with the largest share of seats, Move Forward, from forming a government, despite its coalition having a large majority in the lower house. Join the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand for a discussion with Pannika Wannich, Tom Kruesopon, Verapat Pariyawong, and Rudklao Suwankiri. Jonathan Head will moderate the panel.

Join the Stimson Center for a discussion on China’s approach to engaging Myanmar in the third year since the military coup. While the international community ponders how to approach the Myanmar crisis, China appears to be revamping its engagement with the Burmese military government in recent months. Nonresident Fellow Amara Thiha joins East Asia Program Co-Director Yun Sun to explore the motivations behind China’s engagement,  its challenges and goals, and the implications for the future of Myanmar.

Hosted by the Stimson Center, Kyaw Moe Tun will discuss how higher education in Burma is a critical element of resistance and a vital part of the path to long-lasting democracy.