The Asia Center has a rich tradition of showcasing the arts in Asia--from feature length and documentary films to performers and poets and to painters and photographers. The Center’s virtual art gallery highlights some of the exhibitions the Center has organized and/or co-sponsored over the years, including the current exhibit on display in the CGIS South Building, “Elegy to a Uyghur Dreamscape.” Archived exhibits in the gallery feature major exhibitions, undergraduate and graduate student shows and exhibits that focus on Asia-related resources at Harvard.
Online Exhibition: Harvard Asia Center Poster Art 2010-2020 (Ongoing)
Elegy to a Uyghur Dreamscape (Ongoing)
Archived
Life in Singapore: Views from Migrant Workers (January-February, 2020)
Magnificent Trees of Asia (January-March, 2018)
Asia Insecta (Summer, 2017)
Mapping Asia (February-April, 2017)
Shadows of Shangri La: Nepal in Photographs, 1975-2011 (May-September, 2014)
Asia Center’s Author Conversations Series, hosted by the Asia Center's Director, Professor James Robson, is aimed at highlighting insightful engagements with authors of books published recently by the Asia Center Publications Program and other publishers on topics of interest to the Asia Center's mission of fostering research on Asia in transnational and transregional perspectives.
The series is a pre-recorded video podcast conversation with authors.
Spring 2021
A Military History of India Since 1972: Full Spectrum Operations and the Changing Contours of Modern Conflict by Arjun Subramaniam, Retired Air Vice Marshal, IAF; President's Chair of Excellence in National Security, India’s National Defence College
Fall 2020
Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements by Grzegorz Ekiert, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government; Director, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University, Elizabeth J. Perry, Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government, Harvard University; Director of the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and Xiaojun Yan, Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong.
Building for Oil: Daqing and the Formation of the Chinese Socialist State by Hou Li, Professor in Urban Planning, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University
Oceanic Islam: Muslim Universalism and European Imperialism by Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University and Ayesha Jalal, Mary Richardson Professor of History, Tufts University
Summer 2020
Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism by Richard Jaffe, Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, Duke University; Director of the Asia Pacific Studies Institute at Duke University
Research talks are aimed at showcasing some of the fascinating work being done on various facets of Asia by Harvard students, Graduate Students, Faculty, Asia Center Affiliates and other specialists.
The series is a pre-recorded video podcast talks.
Fall 2020
Friction as China-India Literary Relation by Adhira Mangalagiri, Department of Comparative Literature, Queen Mary University of London; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center
When the Rockets Came: Japanese Launch Facilities and the 'Fishing Problem' in Southern Japan, 1960s-1990s by Subodhana Wijeyeratne, Writer and Researcher living and working in Tokyo, Japan
Asia’s Platform Archipelago: Offshore Oil and Gas Rigs and the Invasive Threat of Slowly Travelling Ecosystems by Stefan Huebner, Senior Research Fellow, ARI, National University of Singapore; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center
“I Had No Will to Live”: Rohingya Women Negotiating Gender, Home, and Belonging in Bangladesh’s Refugee Camps by Farhana Rahman, Fellow, Harvard University Asia Center; Ph.D. Candidate, University of Cambridge Center for Gender Studies
In the Hands of the Revolutionaries and Communities: A Social History of Acupuncture (A Two-Part Video Series) by Eana Meng, MPhil Student, University of Cambridge, UK
Summer 2020
Making Space: 5 Contemporary Artists by Kaitlin Hao '21, History of Art and Architecture, Harvard College
The Impact of Natural Resources Extraction on the Ethnic Armed Conflicts, the Environment, and Livelihood in Conflict-Affected Areas in Myanmar by Thiri Shwesin Aung, Fellow, Harvard University Asia Center; Principal Researcher, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM)
The Literature of Things: The Mansion of Secluded Books, Shu Yin Lou by Jannis Jizhou Chen, Ph.D. Candidate in Chinese Literature, Harvard University
Transforming Borneo: From Land Exploitation to Sustainable Development by Chun Sheng Goh, Research Fellow at Jeffrey Sachs Center on Sustainable Development, Sunway University; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center
Pre-recorded video podcast talks
Spring 2021
Mainline Islam: Islamic Associational Life in Indonesia by Kevin Fogg, Associate Director, Carolina Asia Center, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
People in Motion: Notes on the Malay Annals of Sěmarang and Cěrbon by Boyi Chen, Associate Professor of History, Xiamen University
Fall 2020
Ambivalent Fatherland: The Chinese National Salvation Movement in Malaya and Java, 1937-1941 by Kankan Xie, Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Peking University
"Oh, You With the Body of Clouds!": Gender & Difference in 14th Century East Java by Kaja M. McGowan, Associate Professor of History of Art, Cornell University
Book Talk: Monks in Motion: Buddhism and Modernity Across the South China Sea (Oxford, 2020) by Jack Meng-Tat Chia, Assistant Professor of History and Religious Studies at the National University of Singapore
Pre-recorded video podcast talks
Fall 2021
Panel Discussion-Implications: Regional Perspectives on the US Withdrawal from Afghanistan
Panelists: Shirin Jaafari, Reporter, The World, USA; Shubhanga Pandey, Chief Editor, Himal Southasian, Sri Lanka; Nasim Zehra, Author/Columnist; National Security Expert; Senior Anchor/Analyst, Channel 24, Pakistan; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center; Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik, and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor; Victor and William Fung Director, Asia Center, Harvard University
Spring 2021
Panel Discussion-The Myanmar Puzzle: Thinking through Sanctions and Support
Panelists: Moe Thuzar, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences; Fellow, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute; Kelley Currie, Adjunct Senior Fellow, Indo-Pacific Security Program, Center for a New American Security; former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues and the U.S. Representative at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women; John Sifton, Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch; Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Victor and William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center
Panel Discussion-Border Conflicts in the Himalayas: Bhutan, Nepal, India, and China
Panelists: Sudha Ramachandran, Independent Analyst; Adjunct Faculty, Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, India; Xiaoyu Pu, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nevada, Reno; Public Intellectuals Program Fellow, National Committee on United States-China Relations; Non-Resident Senior Fellow, Inter-American Dialogue, Washington, D.C.; Frank O’Donnell, Postdoctoral Scholar in the Rising Power Alliances Project, Fletcher School, Tufts University; Nonresident Fellow in the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center; Shubhanga Pandey, Editor, Himal Southasian; Moderator: Arunabh Ghosh, Associate Professor of History, Harvard University
Panel Discussion-Reactions: The Myanmar Coup
Panelists: Hon. Thomas Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar; Senior Robina Human Rights Fellow, Schell International Human Rights Center, Yale University Law School; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center; Tyler Giannini, Clinical Professor of Law; Co-Director, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School; Wai Wai Nu, Executive Director and Founder, Women’s Peace Network; Founder, Yangon Youth Leadership Center; Mathew Smith, Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights; Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center
Fall 2020
Panel Discussion-2020 Myanmar Elections
Panelists: Hon. Thomas Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Myanmar; Senior Robina Human Rights Fellow, Schell International Human Rights Center, Yale University Law School; Associate, Harvard University Asia Center; Andrea Gittleman, Program Manager, Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, US Holocaust Memorial Museum; Wai Wai Nu, Executive Director and Founder, Women’s Peace Network; Founder, Yangon Youth Leadership Center; Mathew Smith, Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School; Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Fortify Rights; Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard University Asia Center; Chair, Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University
Panel Discussion-Consequences: South and Southeast Asia and the 2020 U.S. Election
Panelists: Mattias Fibiger, Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School; Erik Kuhonta, Associate Professor of Political Science, McGill University; Doreen Lee, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Northeastern University; Visiting Scholar, Harvard University Asia Center; Ashutosh Varshney, Sol Goldman Professor of International Studies and the Social Sciences; Professor of Political Science; Director; the Center for Contemporary South Asia, Brown University; Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Victor and William Fung Director, Harvard University Asia Center; Chair, Regional Studies East Asia, Harvard University
Fall 2021
Panel Discussion-Learning in Distress: Plight of Education in Afghanistan
Panelists: Kamal Ahmad, Founder, Asian University for Women; President & CEO, Asian University for Women Support Foundation; Shirin Jaafari, Reporter,The World; Sakena Yacoobi, President & Executive Director, Creating Hope International and Afghan Institute of Learning; Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor, and William Fung Director of the Harvard University Asia Center
Back to the Water's Edge? Historicizing Current American Security Policies in the Asia-Pacific
Speaker: Mesrob Vartavarian, Fellow, Harvard University Asia Center; Discussants:Vincenzo Bollettino, Director, Program on Resilient Communities, Harvard Humanitarian Initiative; Carter Eckert, Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History, Harvard University; Aki Nakai, Policy Innovations Fellow, Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University; Chair/Moderator: James Robson, James C. Kralik, and Yunli Lou Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations; Harvard College Professor; Victor and William Fung Director, Asia Center, Harvard University
Pre-recorded video podcast talks
Spring 2021
A Conversation with Professor Jeannie Suk Gersen About Her New Yorker Article: “Seeking the True Story of the Comfort Women” by Jeannie Suk Gersen, John H. Watson, Jr. Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Dentistry in Vietnam by Russell Taylor, Lecturer on Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Fall 2020
Conflicts, Activism and Women Leadership in Manipur, and Northeast India by Binalakshmi Nepram, Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
Spring 2021
The East Side: Creating Harvard's First Asian-American Musical
Created by Jared Leong; Graphics and illustrations by Ramona Park; Additional footage by Keehup Yong; Music by Artlist.io
Advancing Justice: Responses to Anti-Asian Racism in the U.S.
Panelists: Han Lu, Senior Policy Analyst, National Employment Law Project; christina ong, PhD Student, Department of Sociology, University of Pittsburgh; Elena Shih, Manning Assistant Professor of American Studies and Ethnic Studies, Brown University; Moderator: Vivian Shaw, College Fellow, Department of Sociology, Harvard University; Co-Principal Investigator, AAPI COVID-19 Project