History
November 23, 2020
In the Dragon's Shadow
Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century
Sebastian Strangio
Hosted by Michael Vann
For centuries Southeast Asia has enjoyed a relatively pleasant relationship with China, its massive neighbor to the north. While Chinese merchants and laborers were common throughout the region, with exception …
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Southeast Asian Studies
November 20, 2020
Singapore
A Modern History
Michael D. Barr
Hosted by Faizah Zakaria
Singapore’s history has generally been represented through a linear, upward trajectory “from Third World to the First,” in the words of the postcolonial state’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew. In …
SSEAC Stories
November 19, 2020
Social Media, Grassroots Activism and Disinformation in Southeast Asia
A Discussion with Dr Aim Sinpeng and Dr Ross Tapsell
Aim Sinpeng and Ross Tapsell
Hosted by Thushara Dibley
Social media has become a crucial avenue for political discourse in Southeast Asia, given its potential as a “liberation technology” in both democratising and authoritarian states. Yet the growing decline …
Indian Ocean World
November 16, 2020
Fluid Jurisdictions
Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia
Nurfadzilah Yahaya
Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Fluid Jurisdictions: Colonial Law and Arabs in Southeast Asia (Cornell University Press, 2020) by Prof. Nurfadzilah Yahaya is a wide-ranging, geographically ambitious book that tells the story of the Arab …
SSEAC Stories
November 12, 2020
Southeast Asian Performance, Ethnic Identity and China’s Soft Power
A Discussion with Dr Josh Stenberg
Josh Stenberg
Hosted by Natali Pearson
From glove puppets of Chinese origin and Hakka religious processions, to wartime political theatre and contemporary choirs and dance groups, the diverse performance practices of ethnic Chinese communities throughout Southeast …
SSEAC Stories
November 5, 2020
Improving Food Security in Laos and Cambodia
A Farmer’s Perspective with Associate Professor Russell Bush
Russell Bush
Hosted by Natali Pearson
Southeast Asia's demand for protein in the form of animal meat is increasing by more than 4% every year. This has important consequences for regional food security and household incomes …
Asian American Studies
October 30, 2020
In Camps
Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum Seekers, and Repatriates
Jana K. Lipman
Hosted by Jane Richards
In Camps: Vietnamese Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Repatriates (University of California Press, 2020) is an in-depth study of the fate of the nearly 800,000 Vietnamese refugees who left their country …
SSEAC Stories
October 29, 2020
Myanmar’s Disciplined Democracy and the 2020 Elections
A Discussion with Dr Roger Lee Huang
Roger Lee Huang
Hosted by Natali Pearson
Myanmar is scheduled to hold general elections in November 2020. While the country has experienced political liberalisation since 2011, the latest Freedom House Report ranked Myanmar as “not free.” Dr …
Animal Studies
October 23, 2020
A Dog Pissing at the Edge of a Path
Animal Metaphors in an Eastern Indonesian Society
Gregory Forth
Hosted by Akash Ondaatje
Gregory Forth, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Alberta and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, has studied the Nage people of the eastern Indonesian island of …
Southeast Asian Studies
October 22, 2020
Lost Temples of the Jungle
A History of Mrauk-U with Dr. Bob Hudson
Thushara Dibley
Hosted by Thushara Dibley
Deep in the jungles of Myanmar lie the remains of an ancient kingdom, the 15th-century royal city of Mrauk-U. Located in the Bay of Bengal and separated from the rest …
Southeast Asian Studies
October 20, 2020
The Constitution of Myanmar
A Contextual Analysis
Melissa Crouch
Hosted by Nick Cheesman
The tail end of the twentieth century was a good time for constitutional lawyers. Leapfrogging around the globe, they offered advice on how to amend, write or rewrite one state …
Indian Ocean World
October 19, 2020
The Making of an Indian Ocean World-Economy, 1250–1650
Princes, Paddy fields, and Bazaars
Ravi Palat
Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Ravi Palat’s The Making of an Indian Ocean World-Economy, 1250–1650: Princes, Paddy fields, and Bazaars (Palgrave, 2015) counters eurocentric notions of long-term historical change by drawing upon the histories of …
SSEAC Stories
October 15, 2020
The Street and the Ballot Box
How Indonesia’s Labour Movement Rose from the Ashes-Professor Michele Ford
Michele Ford
Hosted by Kristy Ward
Indonesia’s labour movement emerged weak and disorganised after more than 30 years under authoritarian rule. Yet in the two decades since the country’s transition to democracy, it has emerged as …
Southeast Asian Studies
October 8, 2020
Fighting for Social Justice
The Politics of Aid and Gender-Based Violence in the Workplace – Dr. Kristy Ward
Kristy Ward
Hosted by Michele Ford
Around the world, social justice movements have exposed the pervasive extent of gender-based violence in the workplace. While women’s empowerment has long been a tenet of development aid, in practice …
American Studies
October 6, 2020
Bound By War
How the United States and the Philippines Built America’s First Pacific Century
Christopher Capozzola
Hosted by Holger Droessler
Ever since American troops occupied the Philippines in 1898, generations of Filipinos have served in and alongside the U.S. armed forces. In Bound By War: How the United States and …
Indian Ocean World
September 28, 2020
Banishment and Belonging
Exile and Diaspora in Sarandib, Lanka and Ceylon
Ronit Ricci
Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Lanka, Ceylon, Sarandib: merely three disparate names for a single island? Perhaps. Yet the three diverge in the historical echoes, literary cultures, maps and memories they evoke. Names that have …
Southeast Asian Studies
September 22, 2020
Going Nowhere Fast
Mobile Inequality in the Age of Translocality
Sabina Lawreniuk and Laurie Parsons
Hosted by D. Kadich
Going Nowhere Fast: Mobile Inequality in the Age of Translocality (Oxford UP, 2020) brings together more than a decade’s worth of research during one of the most consequential moments in …
East Asian Studies
September 21, 2020
Last Days of the Mighty Mekong
Brian Eyler
Hosted by Patrick Jory
The Mekong River is one of the world’s great rivers. From its source in the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau it snakes down through southern China and then borders or runs through all …
European Studies
September 14, 2020
Subversive Seas
Anticolonial Networks across the Twentieth-Century Dutch Empire
Kris Alexanderson
Hosted by Michael Vann
In Subversive Seas: Anticolonial Networks across the Twentieth-Century Dutch Empire (Cambridge UP, 2019), Kris Alexanderson offers a revealing portrait of the Dutch Empire repositions our understanding of modern empires from …
British Studies
August 31, 2020
The Irish Buddhist
The Forgotten Monk Who Faced Down the British Empire
Alicia Turner, Laurence Cox, and Brian Bocking
Hosted by Patrick Jory
Buddhism has always been a world religion, but its popularity in the West really dates only from the late nineteenth century, when much of the Buddhist world was subject to …