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Southeast Asian Studies
SSEAC Stories May 12, 2022

Geopolitics in the Mekong Region

The Role of Chinese Energy Politics in Laos and Cambodia

Andrea Haefner

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Energy, and who controls it, has emerged as a major issue in Southeast Asia in recent years. Nowhere is this issue more evident than in the Mekong region, where China’s …

Southeast Asian Studies

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

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Asian Review of Books May 12, 2022

Troubling the Water

A Dying Lake and a Vanishing World in Cambodia

Abby Seiff

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
Tonlé Sap is one of Southeast Asia’s, if not one of the world’s, natural wonders. Between the dry and wet seasons, the lake expands almost six times in size to …
Performing Arts May 6, 2022

Choreographing in Color

Filipinos, Hip-Hop, and the Cultural Politics of Euphemism

J. Lorenzo Perillo

Hosted by Isabel Machado
Investigating the development of Filipino popular dance and performance since the late 20th century, Choreographing in Color: Filipinos, Hip-Hop, and the Cultural Politics of Euphemism (Oxford UP, 2020) reveals how …
Nordic Asia Podcast May 6, 2022

Deities and Divas

Queer Ritual Specialists in Myanmar, Thailand and Beyond

Peter A. Jackson and Benjamin Baumann

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
How does queer life fit into Buddhism and ritual? What role do gay men and trans women play in the practice of spirit mediumship and how do queer spirit mediums …
Southeast Asian Studies May 2, 2022

Infiltrating Society

The Thai Military’s Internal Security Affairs

Puangthong Pawakapan

Hosted by Duncan McCargo
Why is the Thai military so deeply embedded in socio-economic development projects, longer after the end of the Cold War? How come serving generals continue to exercise considerable authority over a …
Anthropology April 29, 2022

Building on Borrowed Time

Rising Seas and Failing Infrastructure in Semarang

Lukas Ley

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
Ice caps are melting, seas are rising, and densely populated cities worldwide are threatened by floodwaters, especially in Southeast Asia. Building on Borrowed Time is a relevant and powerful ethnography …
SSEAC Stories April 28, 2022

The Politics of Ethnic Integration in Thailand

Jacob Ricks

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Following the 2014 coup in Thailand, in which the Thai military overthrew the caretaker government after 6 months of political crisis, major media outlets suggested that the coup could lead …
Anthropology April 25, 2022

The Spirit Ambulance

Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand

Scott Stonington

Hosted by Armanc Yildiz
The Spirit Ambulance: Choreographing the End of Life in Thailand (University of California Press, 2020) is a journey into decision-making at the end of life in Thailand, where families attempt to …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 22, 2022

What Remains: Textiles from Tuol Sleng

Magali-An Berthon in Conversation with Terese Gagnon

Magali-An Berthon

Hosted by Terese Gagnon
What can textiles tell us about histories of genocide and the lived experiences of prisoners? In this episode, Dr. Magali-An Berthon discusses the treatment of prisoners at S-21 and how …
Asian Review of Books April 21, 2022

Beyond Liberal Order

States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean

Harry Verhoeven and Anatol Lieven

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We often neglect the Indian Ocean when we talk about our macro-level models of geopolitics, global economics or grand strategy—often in favor of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Yet the …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 18, 2022

Merging the Local with the Global

A Conversation with a Malaysian Youth Climate Advocate

Farhana Shukor

Hosted by Quynh Le Vo
In the past few years, youth-led groups such as the Fridays for Future school strike movement have changed the face of climate activism globally. In this interview, Malaysian youth climate …
Southeast Asian Studies April 15, 2022

Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and Other Authoritarian Regimes

Challenging Information Scarcity

Kris Ruijgrok

Hosted by Nicole Curato
Internet-enabled mobilization begins long before there is a call for protest. In the book Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and other Authoritarian Regimes (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021), Kris Ruijgrok examines …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 15, 2022

Timor-Leste Elections

José Ramos-Horta in Conversation with Amber Woortman

José Ramos-Horta

Hosted by Nordic Asia Podcast
Jose Ramos-Horta topped the first round of polling in the 2022 Timor-Leste presidential elections, securing 46.56 per cent of the popular vote on 19 March. Here he speaks to Amber …
General History April 15, 2022

World War II in Southeast Asia

Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation

Gregg Huff

Hosted by Michael Vann
To say that World War II and Southeast Asia: Economy and Society under Japanese Occupation (Cambridge University Press, 2020) is an impressive achievement is a huge understatement. Based on years of …
SSEAC Stories April 14, 2022

Greater Angkor and Global Urbanism

Roland Fletcher

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Cambodia is home to Angkor, one of the most important archaeological sites of Southeast Asia. Greater Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, was a low-density city covered about a …
Political Science April 4, 2022

Crippling Leviathan

How Foreign Subversion Weakens the State

Melissa M. Lee

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
Policymakers worry that "ungoverned spaces" pose dangers to security and development. Why do such spaces exist beyond the authority of the state? Earlier scholarship—which addressed this question with a list …
Nordic Asia Podcast April 4, 2022

Urban Climate Change and Adaptation

Messages from the IPCC Report for Southeast Asia

Winston Chow

Hosted by Quynh Le Vo
“An atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership,” is how UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the IPCC report published in February 2022. But what did …
Southeast Asian Studies April 1, 2022

Disunion

Anticommunist Nationalism and the Making of the Republic of Vietnam

Nu-Anh Tran

Hosted by Patrick Jory
In popular understandings of the modern history of Vietnam we are familiar with Ho Chi Minh’s anti-imperialism, but we know much less about the anticommunist nationalism of South Vietnam – …
SSEAC Stories March 31, 2022

China, Buddhism and the Belt and Road Initiative in Mainland Southeast Asia

A Discussion with Gregory Raymond

Gregory Raymond

Hosted by Natali Pearson
Launched in 2013 by Chinese President XI Jinping, China’s Belt and Road initiative has manifested throughout Southeast Asia in the form of multibillion dollar investments in transport infrastructure, industrial estates …
Intellectual History March 24, 2022

Ripe for Revolution

Building Socialism in the Third World

Jeremy Friedman

Hosted by Thomas Kingston
In the first decades after World War II, many newly independent Asian and African countries and established Latin American states pursued a socialist development model. In Ripe for Revolution: Building Socialism …