New Books Network
Southeast Asian Studies
SSEAC Stories January 21, 2022

Speaking Bones

Unearthing Ancient Stories of Illness and Disease

Melandri Vlok

Hosted by Natali Pearson
From mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue to chronic bacterial infections such as yaws, Southeast Asia is home to a wide range of tropical diseases. For a long time …

Southeast Asian Studies

Subscribe:

Interviews with scholars of Southeast Asia about their new books hosted by Michele Ford, Patrick Jory, Duncan McCargo, and Faizah Zakaria.

Channel Sponsors:

Ethnographic Marginalia January 14, 2022

Ethnography in Rural Indonesia

In Conversation with Tania Li

Tania Murray Li

Hosted by Alexander Diamond
What can years of ethnographic engagement with rural Indonesia teach us about capitalism, development, and resistance? On this episode of Ethnographic Marginalia, our guest is Dr. Tania Li, Professor of …
Nordic Asia Podcast January 10, 2022

Conflicted Citizenship in Vietnam

Between Grassroots Mobilization and State Repression

Mirjam Le and Franziska Nicolaisen

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
Does ‘citizenship’ exist in a socialist or communist context? If it does, what would this mean in the case of Vietnam? To what extent do the Vietnamese state and Vietnamese …
Anthropology January 4, 2022

Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam

Quyền Văn Minh and Jazz in Hà Nội

Stan BH Tan-Tangbau and Quyền Văn Minh

Hosted by Adam Bobeck
Quyền Văn Minh (b. 1954) is not only a jazz saxophonist and lecturer at the prestigious Vietnam National Academy of Music, but he is also one of the most preeminent …
Southeast Asian Studies January 3, 2022

Power and Knowledge in Southeast Asia

State and Scholars in Indonesia and the Philippines

Rommel Argamosa Curaming

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Why did leading historians in both Indonesia and the Philippines become involved in projects to write national histories during the 1970s? How far were these projects essentially political undertakings to …
Asian Review of Books December 23, 2021

Concepcion

An Immigrant Family's Fortunes

Albert Samaha

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
One of the first members of Albert Samaha’s family introduced in his memoir Concepcion: An Immigrant Family’s Fortunes (Riverhead Books, 2021) is his uncle Spanky: a baggage handler in San Francisco’s …
SSEAC Stories December 23, 2021

The Storytelling State

Performing Life Histories in Singapore

Cheng Nien Yuan

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Today, oral histories of everyday Singaporeans are more widely circulated in the nation’s mediascape than ever before. At first glance, storytelling in Singapore appears to have lost its monolithic quality …
Indian Religions December 21, 2021

A Conversation with Vasudha Narayanan about Hindu Studies

Vasudha Narayanan

Hosted by Raj Balkaran
Raj Balkaran has a candid conversation with seasoned scholar Dr. Vasudha Narayanan about her academic journey, the current state of Hindu Studies and her ground-breaking work on Hindu temples and …
Nordic Asia Podcast December 17, 2021

Overseas Remittances in Vietnam’s Reform Era

Hoàng Minh Vũ

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
Why was there a large flow of overseas remittances into Vietnam after 1975, and how were they channelled? Why was there so little public discussion of the financial role played …
Nordic Asia Podcast December 6, 2021

COP26 from a Southeast Asian Perspective

Sharon Seah

Hosted by Quynh Le Vo
COP26 was billed as the make or break event in the fight against climate change. In conversation with Quynh Le Vo, Sharon Seah, coordinator of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute’s Climate …
Southeast Asian Studies January 14, 2022

The Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia

N. J. Enfield

Hosted by Michele Ford
Mainland Southeast Asia is one of the most fascinating and complex cultural and linguistic areas in the world. This book provides a rich and comprehensive survey of the history and …
SSEAC Stories January 7, 2022

Export China

Reimagining Chineseness through the Ceramics Trade in Southeast Asia

Alex Burchmore

Hosted by Natali Pearson
In 2021, a team of divers sponsored by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute surveyed two historic shipwrecks discovered in the Singapore Strait, working for several months to bring their submerged cargos …
French Studies December 31, 2021

Pasteur's Empire

Bacteriology and Politics in France, Its Colonies, and the World

Aro Velmet

Hosted by Roxanne Panchasi
Aro Velmet's Pasteur's Empire: Bacteriology in France, Its Colonies, and the World (Oxford UP, 2020) is a complex history of the Pasteur Institutes, a network of scientific laboratories established in France and throughout the French empire …
Interpretive Political and Social Science December 30, 2021

Empires of Vice

The Rise of Opium Prohibition Across Southeast Asia

Diana S. Kim

Hosted by Nick Cheesman
In Empires of Vice: The Rise of Opium Prohibition across Southeast Asia (Princeton University Press, 2020) Diana Kim situates the regulation of vice at the heart of colonial state building …
Music December 20, 2021

Instruments of Empire

Filipino Musicians, Black Soldiers, and Military Band Music During US Colonization of the Philippines

Mary Talusan

Hosted by Kristen Turner
Instruments of Empire: Filipino Musicians, Black Soldiers, and Military Band Music during US Colonization of the Philippines published in 2021 by the University Press of Mississippi by Mary Talusan focuses on …
Asian Review of Books December 16, 2021

War and Resistance in the Philippines 1942-1944

James Kelly Morningstar

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
December 2021 marks the 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the American entry into the Second World War. In fact, this interview was recorded on December 12th: the 80th anniversary …
Law December 15, 2021

Aid Imperium

United States Foreign Policy and Human Rights in Post-Cold War Southeast Asia

Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr.

Hosted by Jane Richards
The United States is the world's largest donor of foreign aid, and in this profound analysis, Salvador Santino F. Regilme Jr. demonstrates the links between human rights protections and the provision …
SSEAC Stories December 9, 2021

Hidden in Plain Sight

How Nalehmu is Disrupting Conventional Power Structures in Myanmar

Dr Jayde Lin Roberts

Hosted by Natali Pearson
In April 2021, three months into Myanmar’s most recent and increasingly more violent coup d’état, local residents managed to obstruct the junta by refusing to cooperate with military appointed officials …
Anthropology December 8, 2021

Graphic Politics in Eastern India

Script and the Quest for Autonomy

Nishaant Choksi

Hosted by Amir Lehman
Investigating the communicative practices of indigenous Santali speakers in eastern India, this book examines the overlooked role of script in regional movements for autonomy to provide one of the first …
Genocide Studies December 3, 2021

Propaganda and the Genocide in Indonesia

Imagined Evil

Saskia E. Wieringa and Nursyahbani Katjasungkana

Hosted by Kelly McFall
Several months ago, Saskia Wieringa joined her co-authors Jess Melvin and Annie Pohlman on the show to talk about their edited volume The International People's Tribunal for 1965 and the …