Southeast Asia Seminars

Southeast Asia Seminar Series

As part of its Southeast Asia program, the Asia Center sponsors or cosponsors a variety of talks and related events that focus on Southeast Asia or have meaningful Southeast Asia content.  Highlights from fall 2018 include:

December 2018 through January 2019
Unexpected Thailand
Student Photography Exhibit

Asian Centers’ Lounge, 1st Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Sponsored by the Thai Studies Program at the Harvard University Asia Center

Thursday, September 27, 2018, 4:15 p.m.
STRONGMAN POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Professor Roderick MacFarquhar, Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and Political Science, Emeritus, Harvard University
Professor Ayse Kadioglu, Visiting Scholar, Center for European Studies, Harvard University; Professor of Political Science, Sabanci University, Istanbul
Professor Elsa Clavé, Asia Center Postdoctoral Fellow, Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Goethe University, Frankfurt;  Associate Researcher, Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS-CNRS), Paris
Professor Valerie Sperling, Department of Political Science, Clark University
Moderator: Thomas Vallely, Senior Advisor, Mainland Southeast Asia, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School
S010, Tsai Auditorium, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Co-sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard Kennedy School;  the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, the Harvard University Asia Center, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Wednesday, October 3, 2018, 4:30 p.m.
ROHINGYA PERSECUTION IN MYANMAR: EVIDENCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
Dr. Jennifer Leigh,  Licensed Clinical Psychologist, Certified EFT Therapist, and Supervisor Lecturer in Psychology, Harvard Medical School
Dr. Parveen Parmar,  Chief, Division of International Emergency Medicine and Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
S250, 2nd Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Sponsored by the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute with assistance from the Harvard University Asia Center

Thursday, October 4, 2018, 4:15 p.m.
DEMOCRACY WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT: STRONG STATE DEMOCRATIZATION IN AUTHORITARIAN ASIA
Professor Joseph Wong, Ralph and Roz Halbert Professor of Innovation, the Munk School of Global Affairs; Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Arts and Science, University of Toronto
Moderator:  Professor Scott Mainwaring, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor of Brazil Studies, Harvard Kennedy School
Ash Center Foyer, 124 Mount Auburn St., Suite 200N
Democracy in Hard Places Seminar Series; Sponsored by the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovations, Harvard Kennedy School; co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center and the Kim Koo Forum on Korea Current Affairs at the Harvard Korea Institute

Friday, October 12, 2018, 2:00-5:00 p.m.
SYMPOSIUM: ORIGINS OF PROSPERITY AND STABILITY: STATE BUILDING IN 20TH CENTURY ASIA
Welcome:
Susan J. Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, WCFIA Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Harvard University
Yasunori Nakayama, Director-General, Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA)
Keynote Speech:
"The History of Asia in the 20th Century: The Origins of Prosperity and Stability”
Akihiko Tanaka, President, National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies
Discussant: Thomas Berger, Professor of International Relations and Director, Center for the Study of Asia (2018-21), Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
Panel: “State Building in 20th Century Asia”
Shin Kawashima, Professor, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
  “A Silent Revolution: State Building and Democratization in Modern Taiwan”
Lung-chih Chang, Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica
 “Nation-building in Singapore: The Authoritarian Structure of a ‘Vulnerable City-State’”
Keiko Tsuji Tamura, Professor, Graduate School of Social System Studies, the University of Kitakyushu
  “Building and Integrating the Indonesian State”
Nobuhiro Aizawa, Associate Professor, Kyushu University
Discussant: Dwight Perkins, Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, Harvard University
Moderator: Susan Pharr, Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese Politics and Director, WCFIA
S020, Belfer Case Study Room, CGIS South Building, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge
Sponsored by the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs (WCFIA); co-sponsored by the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) and the Harvard University Asia Center  

Monday, October 15, 2018, 12 noon
Film Screening and Discussion
THE ROHINGYA CRISIS IN MYANMAR: SITTWE SCREENING & DISCUSSION
Sittwe is a short documentary about two teenagers separated by conflict and segregation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Sittwe explores each community’s perceptions of the “other,” the roots of the conflict, and prospects of reconciliation and peace.  The film was banned in Myanmar.
Discussion:  Myo Win, Burmese peace activist and Film Producer
Moderator: Yee Htun, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School
WCC Complex 1019, Massachusetts Avenue, Harvard Law School
Co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, the Human Rights Program, Harvard Law School, and the Religious Literacy Project, Harvard Divinity School.
Monday, October 15, 2018, 4:15 p.m.
REPORTING INDONESIA’S GREEN REVOLUTION
Professor Suzanne Moon, Department of History of Science, University of Oklahoma
B10, Science Center, 1 Oxford St, Cambridge
Asia Center Science and Technology Seminar Series

Tuesday, October 16, 2018, 4:15 p.m.
4th Tambiah Lecture
MATERIALIZING THAI HERITAGE: CHANCE AND THE LIFE CYCLE IN THE NEW ETHNOLOGY
Professor Penny Van Esterik, Department of Anthropology, York University, Toronto, Canada
S250, 2nd Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Sponsored by the Thai Studies Program at the Harvard University Asia Center

Friday, October 19, 2018, 12 noon
TAKING ROOT WHEREVER YOU LAND: THE LITURGICAL TRANSFORMATION OF POPULAR CULTS AMONG ETHNIC CHINESE IN VIETNAM
Professor Ngoc Tho Nguyen, Asia Center Visiting Scholar; Associate Professor in East Asian Cultural Studies, Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City
Chair: Professor Michael Szonyi, Frank Wen-Hsiung Wu Memorial Professor of Chinese History; Director, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University
S050, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Asia Center Fellows Seminar Series

Tuesday, October 23, 12 noon
FROM ECO-AESTHETICS TO ECO-JUSTICE: THE ECOLOGICAL DISCOURSES IN VIETNAMESE INDEPENDENT ART CINEMA
Hoang Cam Giang, Lecturer, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University - Hanoi; Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar 2018-19
Chair/Discussant: Karen Thornber , Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Comparative Literature, Harvard University
Common Room, 2 Divinity Ave., Cambridge
Harvard-Yenching Institute Lunchtime Seminar; co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center

Thursday, October 25, 2018, 12:15 p.m.
PRESS FREEDOMS IN ASIA: PERSPECTIVES FROM CHINA, MYANMAR, AND THAILAND
David Barboza, The New York Times; former New York Times Shanghai Bureau Chief, 2013 winner of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting
Esther Htusan, Nieman Foundation Fellow; correspondent for the Associated Press in Myanmar
Puangthong R. Pawakapan, Visiting Scholar, Harvard-Yenching Institute; Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
Moderator:  Mable Chan, Fairbank Center Associate in Research; former ABC News producer and Hong Kong TVB news correspondent
S020, Japan Friends of Harvard Concourse, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Asia Beyond the Headlines Seminar Series, Harvard University Asia Center; co-sponsored by the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

Friday, October 26, 2018, 12:15 p.m.
SHAKING UP THE ESTABLISHED ORDER: REFLECTIONS ON RECENT CHANGES IN INDONESIA, MALAYSIA, AND THE PHILIPPINES
Professor Elsa Clavé, Asia Center Postdoctoral Fellow; Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies, Goethe University, Frankfurt; Associate Researcher, Centre Asie du Sud-Est (EHESS-CNRS), Paris
Chair: TBD
S153, 1st Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Asia Center Seminar Series

Monday, October 29, 2018, 5:15 p.m.
Book Launch
Nurturing Indonesia: Medicine and Decolonisation in the Dutch East Indies

Professor Hans Pols, author; University of Sydney
Discussants: Professor Sunil Amrith, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies; Professor of History; Chair, Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
Professor Byron Good, Professor of Medical Anthropology, Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Affiliate of the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
469, Science Center, 1 Oxford St., Cambridge
Sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center, .Department of the History of Science, and Chair of Australian Studies  

Tuesday, November 6, 2018, 12:30 p.m.
EXPLAINING THE DIVERSE MIGRATION AND CARE POLICIES IN EAST AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
Ito Peng, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto
Moderator: Mary Brinton, Reischauer Institute Professor of Sociology, Harvard University
K262, Bowie-Vernon Room, CGIS Knafel Building, 1737 Cambridge Street
Sponsored by the Program on U.S.-Japan Relations, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center

Thursday, November 8, 2018, 12 noon
RISE OF RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND ITS GENDERED IMPACT ON MYANMAR
Ms. Esther Htusan, Neiman Foundation Fellow; correspondent for the Associated Press, Myanmar
Moderator: Yee Htun, Clinical Instructor and Lecturer on Law, International Human Rights Clinic, Harvard Law School
Wasserstein 3016, Harvard Law School
Gender, Law, and Society Workshop Series, Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School; co-sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center

Thursday, November 15, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
CROSSING THE BORDERS OF ASIAN HISTORY AND GLOBAL HISTORY: ON C. A. BAYLY’S REMAKING THE MODERN WORLD
Chair by:  Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of History, Harvard University
Sunil Amrith, Mehra Family Professor of South Asian Studies, Harvard University
Introduction via video by:  Susan Bayly, Professor of Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Commentator: Charles S. Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Harvard University
Robinson Hall Lower Library, 35 Quincy St.
Borders in Modern Asia Seminar Series; sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center

Friday, November 16, 2018, 12:15 p.m.
UNFAITHFUL FRIENDS: STATE AND BUSINESS IN DEVELOPING ASIA
Professor Meg Rithmire, F. Warren McFarlan Associate Professor of Business of Administration, Harvard Business School
S153, 1st Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Asia Center Seminar Series

Thursday, November 29, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
THE THAI MILITARY’S REMOBILIZATION OF THE ROYALIST MASS
Professor Puangthong R. Pawakapan, Visiting Scholar, Harvard-Yenching Institute; Associate Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
S250, 2nd Floor, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge
Thai Studies Seminar Series; sponsored by the Thai Studies Program at the Harvard University Asia Center

Friday, November 30 (dinner), and Saturday, December 1, 2018
Professor Mary Steedly Tribute
Department of Anthropology, with assistance from the Harvard University Asia Center

 

Harvard University's Asia-Related Resources