Asia Center Seminar Series

Asia Center Seminar Series

The Asia Center Seminar Series, previously the Modern Asia Seminar Series, is the longest-running of the Asia Center’s series. It was created to bring senior scholars, government officials, journalists, and other specialists to speak on key issues from a regional perspective. Talks in the seminar series have focused on topics such as community organizing in Japan and China, the Chinese diaspora, spatial planning in refugee camps in Southeast Asia, the connections between Chinese films and early Japanese animation, and reporting on Asia.

Past Events 

State Legitimation and Popular Political Participation in the Early Modern Era: England (1560-1640), Japan (1660-1868), and China (1720-1840)

Open Door: Humanitarian Aid and the Spatial Planning of Cambodian Thai Refugee Camps

An Animated Wartime Encounter:Princess Iron Fan and the Chinese Connection in Early Japanese

AnimationWorlds of Love: Sung Poetry in Wakhi Central AsiaTechnological Change on the Proto-silk Roads

Reporting on Asia: A Discussion with Four Nieman Fellows

Hongtu Chen, Asia Center Seminar Series

Portable Visions: Indic Manuscripts and Esoteric Buddhism on the Move, Alchi to Borobudur

Jing-Bao Nie-In Search of a Benevolent Polity: Elderly Suicide in China and a Confucian Socio-ethical Vision of Eldercare

Philip Thai-Trans-Asian Encounters and China's War on Smuggling

Sudhir Anand-Global Income Inequality

Elsa Clavé-Shaking Up the Established Order: Reflections on Recent Changes in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines

Qiong (Miya) Xie-From Colonial Manchuria to Postwar Japan: Border, Space and Community in Abe Kobo’s Beasts Head for Home and other Writing

Meg Rithmire-Unfaithful Friends: State and Business in Developing AsiaRahul Mehrotra-​BECOMING URBAN : Emerging patterns of urbanization in India

The Transregional Politics of Literary Language: Prospects for Comparative Work Across African and Asian Contexts

Melissa Dell, Asia Center Seminar Series

Maria Adele Carrai-Asia Center Fellows Seminar Series

​Establishing the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: The Lawyer's View

Filled with Meaning: Manuscripts, Materia Medica, and the Contents of Religious Statuary in East Asia

Japanese Law and the Global Diffusion of Trust Law

Picturing the World: Asian Maps After Mercator

Regional Production Networks in East Asia: Origin, Evolution and Implications

Half the Earth: Empowering Women in Southeast Asia

The Cambridge History of the Indian Ocean

Challenges for the Environment, Agriculture, and Rural Livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin

Comparing Agricultural Sector Performance Measures: Indonesia Vs Vietnam (and Neighbours) Since 1990

The EU/Brexit Crisis: View From Asia

From Colonial Development to Economic Cooperation: Japanese Engineers and the Post-colonial, Cold War System of Development in Asia

Book Round Table: Park Chung Hee and Modern Korea: The Roots of Militarism, 1866–1945

Explaining Asia: Three Professional Journalists And 2017 Nieman Fellows at Harvard on Reporting and Telling Stories About Their Richly Divergent Cultures -- Japan, Nepal And South Korea

Learning Community Organizing in Japan and China

India and Japan, India and China