Postdoctoral, The Southeast Asia Program (SEAP)-Cornell University
The Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell University invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow. We are seeking an independent and highly motivated social scientist with fieldwork and area expertise on one or more Southeast Asian countries. Scholars from a range of social science fields including economics, sociology, demography, geography, data science, labor relations, planning, and political science are encouraged to apply. We especially welcome someone able to work across disciplinary boundaries and is interested in the intersections between research, public engagement, and policymaking in the Southeast Asian context.
The Fellow will teach one class per year on a topic focused on Southeast Asia in a department closely related to their field of study. They will primarily contribute to SEAP’s Southeast Asia Social Sciences Initiative by conducting independent research and disseminating their findings through presentations, publications, podcasts and public outlets such as the SEAP Bulletin and other forms of outreach. The Fellow is expected to be in residence at Cornell’s Ithaca campus where they can take advantage of the Echols Collection on Southeast Asia in the library and participate in SEAP’s weekly Gatty Lecture series as well as seminars and other programming in the Brooks School of Public Policy and/or the Department of Global Development.
Application deadline: March 13, 2023
Click the link in the title for more information
Postdoctoral, The Caroline Asia Center (University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill)
The Carolina Asia Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill seeks a candidate for a one-year (renewable for a second year) postdoctoral scholar whose work addresses Southeast Asia and its transnational connections, preferably but not necessarily the Southeast Asian diaspora in the US Southeast. The successful candidate’s research should adapt traditional area studies to contemporary realities by situating the world region amidst overseas linkages broadly defined, from human migration and community networks to energy, trade, language, ecology, art, and/or other connective processes. Organized by UNC’s Bringing Southeast Asia Home initiative and funded by the Henry Luce Foundation’s program on Southeast Asia, this position will be located in the department that most closely aligns with the successful candidate’s academic discipline, pending approval from that department. We invite applications from scholars based in arts and humanities, as well as social and natural sciences, so long as their scholarship addresses the theme. In addition to advancing their own research project, the successful candidate will be expected to participate in the intellectual community of Southeast Asian Studies at UNC, including presenting their work at an annual UNC Southeast Asia workshop, and, dependent on approval from the scholar’s department and dean, teach one course per academic year related to the theme of the position.
Application deadline: February 10, 2023.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Program Director at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, UC Berkeley
The Institute of East Asian Studies (IEAS) at the University of California, Berkeley, seeks a full-time Program Director at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, with an expected start date of April 1, 2023, or sooner.
Overview
Involves designing, conducting, promoting, and supporting various research and public educational programs at the Center for Southeast Asia Studies, including conferences, workshops, faculty support programs, student fellowships, contracts and grants administration (including the Center’s Federally-funded National Resource Center and FLAS grants), and other academic and public programs. Researches and assesses research, outreach, and educational needs and interests for targeted audiences, and develops programs, materials, technology and/or learning approaches accordingly. Involves the processing and servicing of a variety of operational and financial transactions and services. Includes accounts receivable, accounts payable, data collection and entry, customer servicing, and reporting. Identifies new donor prospects through researching background information on potential donors and developing materials, and organizing related programs/events; cultivates, stewards, and may solicit donor prospects.
Click the link in the title for more information.
CLS Program, Summer Resident Directors
American Councils for International Education is currently hiring 2023 summer Resident Directors for language immersion programs of the Critical Language Scholarship (CLS) Program.
Resident Directors are the first-level of support for CLS students for the duration of the program. The Resident Director supports student success by ensuring the health and safety of the participants, helping them to maintain a language policy, and helping to acclimate them to life abroad.
The Resident Director position is a non-teaching position but requires a high level of proficiency in the target language (Indonesian is one of 14 languages that the CLS Program offers). The approximate dates of the program are June to August; Resident Directors also attend a three-day training in May.
We seek individuals who have demonstrated student support experience for undergraduate and/or graduate students, or experience leading or supporting a study abroad or language immersion program. Applications review will begin in January 2023 and will be reviewed on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Assistant Professor, Asian Studies (University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa)
The Department of Asian Studies in the College of Arts, Languages, and Letters at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa invites applicants for a 9-month, tenure-track, full-time assistant professorship (position number 82501), to begin Fall 2023, pending availability of funds. We are looking for a collegial and talented colleague with demonstrated expertise in one or more areas of the contemporary Indo-Pacific region (Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and/or South Asia) in the fields of traditional and/or non-traditional security (e.g., issues of environment, health, food, cybersecurity, transnational crime, economic security, etc.).
This colleague will contribute to the department’s new concentration on Asian international affairs, which combines interdisciplinary, Asia-centric perspectives provided by area studies with policy-relevant research. The University of Hawaii is a leading institution for the study of Asia and the Pacific, and the Department of Asian Studies is committed to providing students with an interdisciplinary, holistic understanding of the region.
For more information and to apply please visit the Career Opportunities at the University of Hawai‘i website. Review of applications will begin November 15, 2022.
Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Social Justice
The University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks a tenure-track assistant professor for an appointment in Southeast Asian Studies and Social Justice in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures to begin in August 2023. Candidates for this position must have a specialization in humanities or qualitative social sciences with a regional focus on one or more countries in Southeast Asia, a topical focus on social justice, and fluency in at least one Southeast Asian language (apart from English). Candidates for the position must show potential for developing outstanding and highly visible scholarly research focused on social justice in Southeast Asia; have a demonstrated commitment to teach Southeast Asia and Transasia-focused courses that are empirically and methodologically concerned with social justice; and have a demonstrated interest to communicate scholarship effectively to broad audiences inside and outside the academy. Candidates whose work crosses the humanities and qualitative social sciences are preferred. Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Studies or a relevant social sciences or humanities field required prior to start of appointment.
Click link in title for more information.
The Asian American Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks to hire a tenure-track Assistant or Associate Professor whose scholarship and teaching focus on Hmong/HMoob Americans. The position will be 50% in the Asian American Studies Program and 50% in a tenure home department appropriate to area of specialization. Appointment begins August 2023.
The candidate’s research may be based in any field in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, including, but not limited to, anthropology, communication, English, geography, gender and women’s studies, history, and social work. The candidate’s scholarship may engage any methodology and should engage the field of Asian American studies, broadly defined.
Resident Directors – American Councils for International Education
American Councils for International Education is hiring short-term Resident Directors for summer language immersion programs abroad for American high school and college students studying one of 15 critical languages including: Arabic, Azerbaijani, Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.
Resident Directors must be proficient in the target language and typically have experience studying, working, or traveling in the host country. They are responsible for promoting student success by ensuring the health and safety of program participants, helping them to maintain a language policy, and assisting them in acclimating to life in the host country. In-country partner institutes are responsible for administering the academic curriculum. Therefore, the Resident Director position is a non-teaching position.
A full list of available Resident Director positions is available at https://www.americancouncils.org/careers
Center for Strategic and International Studies Internships
The Southeast Asia Program is seeking interns who are highly motivated, professional, and have a strong foundation in Southeast Asia studies and international relations/political economy. We operate a fast-paced, dynamic program, and require interns who are detail-oriented and can work independently and as part of a team.
- Associate: based in Singapore. The US-ASEAN Business Council is seeking an Associate who will support the Council’s programs and initiatives aimed at strengthening the U.S.-ASEAN economic relationship.
- Policy and research internships: Semester internships based in Washington, D.C. Recent graduates encouraged to apply.
For details, email internships@usasean.org
Translators: The Language Doctors
Linguistics company that provides language translation services to the federal government, continuously seeking to hire bilingual people on a full-time or part-time basis to help with a growing volume of translation work. Depending on availability, able to provide either W2 or 1099 arrangements. For current job postings, click here.
AIFIS-CAORC Research Fellowship
The American Institute for Indonesian Studies (AIFIS) invites applications from graduate and post-graduate researchers who are US citizens and wish to pursue their research activities in Indonesia. We are offering a grant of US$6,000 for each scholar to conduct research projects in any field of contemporary and traditional Indonesian Studies. AIFIS encourages applications for projects that foreground collaboration with Indonesian counterparts as well as that produce open source content for public dissemination and/or curriculum development. These grants can be applied toward travel, accommodation and support of research activities in Indonesia.
The submission deadline for applications is Friday, February 10, 2023 at 11:59pm ET.
Funding for this program is provided by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State through a grant from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).
Click the link in title for more information.
Application deadline on February 28, 2023 (11:59 PM EST)
Fellowships awards from $3,200 to $4,400 for a maximum of 4 months
The Inya Institute announces the 2023 CAORC-INYA Short Term Fellowships competition for research that will contribute to studies on Myanmar in any aspect of its wide linguistic, cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity and to a better understanding of the country’s past or present political and socio-economic situation. Applicants must be U.S. citizens currently enrolled in a graduate program (Master’s or Doctoral level) at an institution of higher education in the U.S. or elsewhere.
The 2023 CAORC-INYA Fellows will have until September 30, 2024, to complete their field work in a Third Country (outside of the U.S. and Myanmar).
This program is funded by CAORC through a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Applications must be sent by February 17, 2023 (11:59 PM EST).
Fellowship awards from $4,000 to $4,500 for a maximum of 3 months
The Inya Institute announces the 2023 CAORC-INYA Scholars Fellowship competition for research that will contribute to studies on Myanmar in any aspect of its wide linguistic, cultural, religious, and ethnic diversity and to a better understanding of the country’s past or present political and socio-economic situation. Applicants must be U.S. citizens who have obtained their PhD degree in the last 10 years (at the time of submitting application).
The 2023 CAORC-INYA Scholars will have until September 30, 2023, to complete their research work in a Third Country of their choice.
The program is funded by CAORC through a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Gosling-Lim Postdoctoral Fellowship in SEA
The Gosling-Lim Postdoctoral Fellowship in Southeast Asian Studies has been made possible by a generous gift from L.A. Peter Gosling and Linda Yuen-Ching Lim. This fellowship is focused on capability-building in Southeast Asian Studies among scholars who are Southeast Asian nationals based in Southeast Asia and at Southeast Asian institutions. Its goal is to enable such scholars to concentrate on publishing their dissertation research, and/or embark on new post-dissertation research, without the distraction of having to teach, consult, or shoulder administrative burdens, and with the opportunity to expand their scholarly networks and expertise. The intent is that fellowship recipients will develop their careers in Southeast Asia, helping to advance the field of Southeast Asian Studies within the region.
The fellowship provides US $52,000 of funding for postdoctoral research and writing, to be expended over 8-12 months while the recipient is in residence or otherwise based at an academic institution, in Southeast Asia or abroad, other than their home institution and the institution at which their doctorate was obtained. The fellowship may be used in any discipline and for any country of Southeast Asia (i.e., Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Vietnam). It is intended to be awarded every other year, with the possibility of becoming an annual fellowship depending on the success of its first years of implementation.
The application deadline will be February 15, 2023, including the letters of Reference.
Click the link in the title for more information.
UW Libraries Southeast Asian Studies Archives Fellowship
The University of Washington Libraries invites applicants for our Southeast Asian Studies Archives Fellowship Program funded by the Henry Luce Foundation. We invite recent Ph.D. graduates or finishing doctoral candidates across all disciplines in the arts, humanities and social sciences to apply for a one-quarter long full-time paid fellowship in the 2023-2024 academic year. Fellows will spend a quarter in one of the leading Southeast Asian Studies library collections in the country and have the opportunity to learn about library and archival practice while working with Southeast Asia Librarian, Dr. Judith Henchy.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Fellow, Regional Social and Cultural Studies
The ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute is a leading research centre dedicated to the study of socio-political, security and economic trends and developments in Southeast Asia and its wider geostrategic and economic development. Applications are invited for Fellow, Regional Social and Cultural Studies (2 -Year Contract).
Requirements:
- PhD in Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science; Southeast Asian Studies, Chinese studies, Malay Studies, Development Studies or a related discipline
- Clear policy-oriented perspectives on research issues
- 3-5 years of experience in a research centre, think tank, or academic institution
- Experience in journal editing will be preferred
- Strong interdisciplinary work with good track record in research and publications
- Strong communication and writing skills in English; candidates with knowledge of Southeast Asian languages will be given preference.
- Good interpersonal and networking skills
- Preference will be given to Singaporeans and permanent residents
Applications should include a cover letter, a full CV, two reference letters, and a research proposal of not more than five pages (double spaced). The proposal should discuss the topic to be examined, plans for any fieldwork and duration, projected timeline of research, and output. The preferred period for the fellowship should also be indicated.
Click the link in the title for more information.
Visiting Bye-Fellowship for Scholars from the Global South
Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, invites applications for its Visiting Fellowship designed to support research in any field of study from scholars with current academic appointments or their equivalent in the Global South (defined for present purposes as countries on the current OECD ‘DAC’ list).
The Visiting Bye-Fellowship is a limited-term appointment for the purpose of carrying out some specific research project, free of other commitments. The purposes are to permit the scholar to execute this project, to enable the scholar to engage in intellectual exchange with Cambridge scholars and to form connections that might be of longer-term benefit to their own careers and to their own institutions, and to enrich the life of the College and university by widening our own networks and perspectives.
The Visiting Bye-Fellowship carries a stipend of £30,000, paid in monthly instalments, and a small research allowance, currently £950 per annum.
Click the link in the title for more information.
2023 Blakemore Freeman Fellowship
The Blakemore Foundation is now accepting applications at https://blakemorefoundation.communityforce.com for its 2023 Blakemore Freeman Fellowships for an academic year of advanced language study in East and Southeast Asia. The application deadline is December 30, 2022.
The fellowships are awarded to graduating seniors, college graduates, graduate students and young/mid-career professionals who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents of the United States, who are already at or near an advanced level in the language and ready to advance to professional fluency.
The grants provide a stipend for living, travel and study expenses and full tuition for programs in East Asia such as:
● Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Yokohama, Japan
● International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan
● Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China
● Seoul National University, Sogang University and other language programs in South Korea
In addition to Chinese, Japanese and Korean, Blakemore Freeman Fellowships are also available for advanced language study in:
● Thailand ● Vietnam ● Indonesia ● Cambodia
Open Calls for Funding – Living Through Upheaval Grants Program
UCHRI’s 2022-23 calls for funding are now open. This year’s calls include funding to support innovative, systemwide faculty and graduate student working groups, residential research groups, conferences, engaging humanities, and more. We especially invite proposals that engage with our theme of “Living Through Upheaval.” While the thematic can inform applications to all open calls, four calls directly address this thematic: Historical and Contemporary Leadership in Social Movements; Racial Infrastructures; Conjuring Future(s); and Unexpected Collaborations Beyond the Humanities. Most deadlines are February 22, 2022. Stay tuned for three new calls for funding to open in February. More information here.
SEALC-GETSEA Language Tuition Support
With support from the Henry Luce Foundation, The Southeast East Asian Language Council (SEALC) and The Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies (GETSEA) consortia award financial assistance to students who incur tuition fees when studying a Southeast Asian language during the academic year at an institution other than their home institution via synchronous distance learning. This award is intended to facilitate cross-institutional collaboration and increase access to Southeast Asian language instruction. Eligibility requires that the course is credit-bearing at a North American institution and that the applicant is a full-time student at a North American institution. Priority will be given to graduate students, but all are encouraged to apply. SEALC and GETSEA encourage applicants to consider attending SEASSI which serves as an excellent resource for summer language instruction. This award is intended to improve access during the academic year so that students can obtain multi-year instruction in a timely manner.
What does the assistance cover?
The award provides partial tuition reimbursement for synchronous distance learning of a SE Asian language at a North American institution.
Application process:
The application cycle for the 2021-2022 academic year awards is now closed. Please email sealc@intl.wisc.edu with any questions you may have.
Fulbright-Hays Funding
The Group Projects Abroad Program accepts applications for FY short-term (short-term seminars, curriculum development teams, and group research or study projects) and long-term projects (advanced overseas intensive language projects).
Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowships
The Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship Program provides opportunities for doctoral candidates to engage in full-time dissertation research abroad in modern foreign languages and area studies. The program is designed to deepen research knowledge and increase the study of modern foreign languages, cultural engagement, and area studies not generally included in U.S. curricula.
The Luce Program provides a year-long internship in an Asian country related to the scholar’s interests. The program is designed to provide an extended period of exposure to an Asian country for highly qualified young Americans who lack extensive knowledge of Asian affairs and who would not gain this knowledge through their normal career trajectories. Any professional field will be considered, except Asian Affairs/Asian Studies. Graduating seniors, recent alumni, graduate students, and junior faculty are encouraged to apply. UW Campus deadline October 7, 2021.
2022-2023 Rotary Peace Fellowship
Through academic training, practice, and global networking opportunities, the Rotary Peace Centers program develops the capacity of peace and development professionals or practitioners to become experienced and effective catalysts for peace. The fellowships cover tuition and fees, room and board, round-trip transportation, and all internship and field-study expenses.
Asia Internship Program
The AIP positive impact scholarship is aimed at students of institutions throughout the world to kickstart the restart of global mobility amid the nearing end of the global pandemic. AIP decided to offer a number of institutions the possibility to refer their students, either directly by partnering with us or indirectly by simply advertising our scholarship, for a chance to win a remote internship scholarship with AIP. To learn more about AIP, click here. Email info@internsinasia.com with questions.
Glenn Anthony May Memorial Scholarship
The Glenn Anthony May Memorial Scholarship is intended to honor Professor Glenn Anthony May, a history professor who spent 32 years teaching at the University of Oregon. Prof May had a deep love for the Philippines and authored 5 books on the region. In tribute to his work, this scholarship is intended to provide scholarships to students who are Filipino or of Filipino heritage and/or are pursuing a field of study related to Southeast Asian Studies with a preference for those focused on the Philippines. This scholarship is available to all students, including those living and studying outside of Oregon, who are currently enrolled or have plans to enroll at least half time at any 2- or 4-year public institution or nonprofit private college in the United States. Email Harper Pulsipher, Administrative Assistant for Scholarships (hpulsipher@oregoncf.org), for more information.
The Center for Khmer Studies is a non-governmental institution supported by international foundations, educational institutions, scholars, the US Department of Education, and interested individuals and philanthropists from the US, France, and Cambodia. The Center facilitates a range of fellowships, including Senior, Scholar-in-Residence, Dissertation, and Junior Resident Fellowships.
Center for Indonesian Policy Studies
CIPS invites qualified researchers to join our Visiting Research Fellowship Program. The program offers opportunities for both Indonesians and non-Indonesian nationals who are completing their Indonesia-related PhD and post-graduate theses abroad, to conduct field research in Indonesia over a 3-6 month period. CIPS also opens the opportunity for post-doctoral or non-degree fellowships.
If you are interested in the Fellowship Program, please send an e-mail to contact@cips-indonesia.org
Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC)
CAORC offers two fellowship programs, the NEH Senior Research Fellowship and Multi-Country Research Fellowship, which enable fellows to visit and carry out research within CAORC’s network of Overseas Research Centers (ORCs).
In addition, each ORC offers fellowships and grant opportunities specific to its region. Visit the ORC Fellowships & Grants page for more information on opportunities within the ORC network.
USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship Program
The USAID Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship Program seeks to attract outstanding individuals who are interested in pursuing careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). If you want to work on the front lines of some of the most pressing global challenges of our times — poverty, hunger, injustice, disease, environmental degradation, climate change, conflict and violent extremism – the Foreign Service of the U.S. Agency for International Development provides an opportunity to advance U.S. foreign policy interests and reflect the American people’s compassion and support of human dignity. The Payne Fellowship, which provides up to $96,000 in benefits over two years for graduate school, internships, and professional development activities, is a unique pathway to the USAID Foreign Service.
Learn more: https://www.paynefellows.org/graduate-fellowship-program/payne-program-overview/
Freeman Awards for Study in Asia (Freeman-Asia)
Scholarships for undergraduate U.S. undergraduate students with demonstrated financial need to study abroad in East or Southeast Asia. For more information on undergraduate scholarships, click here.
Visiting Research Fellowship: Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS)
The Center for Indonesian Policy Studies (CIPS) is offering Visiting Research Fellowships. The program offers opportunities for both Indonesians and non-Indonesian nationals who are completing their Indonesia-related PhD and post-graduate theses abroad. The program supports their field research in Indonesia over a 3 (three) to 6 (six)-month period. CIPS also opens this opportunity to post-doctoral or non-degree research. The preferred research areas are in economics, public policy/public management, education, politics, and development studies.
CIPS is a public policy think tank dedicated to providing policy analysis and practical policy recommendations to decision-makers within Indonesia’s legislative and executive branches of government. CIPS focuses its research and policy advocacy on issues concerning education policy reform, food security and agriculture, as well as general issues affecting the livelihood of low-income communities. We have previously cooperated with local governments, the National Development and Planning Agency (BAPPENAS), the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Australia, UNESCO, and many other reputable organizations.
The Visiting Research Fellowship program offers the researchers the necessary office space while conducting their research in Jakarta. We are also able to offer administrative assistance for the stay of the researcher and other arrangement of the field research. For more information, please visit the website or email contact@cips-indonesia.org.
The United States-Indonesia Society (USINDO) Programs
For complete information on the educational exchange programs offered by USINDO (including a summer studies program, a masters fellowship, professional fellows, etc), visit the website.
Boren Awards for Language Study and Research in Southeast Asia
Boren Awards fund U.S. undergraduate and graduate language study and research abroad in world regions critical to U.S. national interests (including Africa, Asia, Central & Eastern Europe, Eurasia, Latin America, and the Middle East). Boren Awards promote longer‐term linguistic and cultural immersion overseas, and are available to applicants in most fields of study.
Boren Awards will give preference to applicants planning to study in a number of East & Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Preference is also given to students who are willing to study abroad for longer periods of time, and those who are highly motivated to work in the federal government following graduation.
The Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 for undergraduate students for language‐focused study abroad.
The Boren Fellowships provide up to $30,000 for graduate students to fund language study, graduate‐level research, and academic internships abroad.
Webinars on aspects of the Boren Awards, including special regional initiatives and components of the application are scheduled throughout the application process. Sign up today here. Additional information on preferred countries, languages, fields of study, and annual deadlines can be found at www.borenawards.org.
Applicants are encouraged to contact their Boren Awards campus representatives, listed in a directory on the website, for institution‐specific guidance. They may also contact Boren Awards staff directly at 1‐800‐618‐NSEP or boren@iie.org.
Fellowships: National Asia Research Program
NARP Fellows conduct policy-relevant research on national security issues. For information on the program and the annual, competitive selection process, please visit the website.
Deltas in Motion:
Unpacking the Translational Politics at the Heart of Climate Change Adaptation in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
The Council on Southeast Asia Studies at Yale University
February 1, 2023| 11:00 AM CT|Virtual
Few regions of the world are as threatened by climate change as the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Rising sea levels are already transforming much of the area into a predominantly brackish environment, which is increasingly beset by alternating flood and drought conditions, while local and regional development pressures combine to create a complicated nexus of sustainability challenges. In response, a transnational, multilevel governance apparatus has emerged to integrate climate change adaptation into development planning and practice in the delta. As delta regions in general have been identified as highly vulnerable to climate change, Dutch actors and expertise have come to play a central role in this. Strategies and techniques for which the Netherlands is renowned are translated through long-term “delta plans” to guide transformations to sustainability in various countries, and Vietnam is ground zero for this approach. As in any development intervention, however, translating knowledge from one context to another is far from politically neutral. At the same time, actors at multiple levels within Vietnam are engaged in furthering a climate adaptation agenda. A politics of translation is at the heart of these operations, as differently situated actors produce, reinterpret, and mobilize knowledge for adaptation in pursuit of varied objectives and interests, with sometimes conflicting and contradictory results. Drawing on multi-scalar ethnographic research in Vietnam and the Netherlands, this talk traces the strategic translations through which different actors contribute to shaping the trajectory of climate adaptation and social-ecological change in the delta, and highlights several ongoing and salient tensions at play.
Click the link in the title to register.
When the World Went South: The Global South in the Making of Our Times
Mark Bradley, University of Chicago
February 1, 2023 | 5:00-6:30 | Pyle Center
Sponsored by the Department of History and the Harvey Goldberg Center at UW-Madison
The rise of powerful voices from the global South in the late twentieth century brought new ideas about democracy, the aims of economic growth, the nature of inequality, the making of restorative justice and the critical place of sustainability in the preserving the biosphere along with novel ways of seeing the world through literature and the visual arts. In the book project from which this talk emerges I center the ways in which Southern voices began to remake political, economic, social and cultural practices in both the South and the North. For this talk I take up one strand of these transformative developments, focusing on the growing centrality of the South in contemporary visual culture through a consideration of the transnational circuits shaping contemporary art practice in Southeast Asia in the 1990s.
Refugee Youth Agency in Flux: Active and Passive Waiting in Transit Country Indonesia
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan
Feb 3, 2023|11:00 AM Central Time|Virtual
For more than two decades, Indonesia has been a transit spot for asylum seekers from Central Asia, South Asia, East Africa, and Southeast Asia while irregularly en route to Australia. Following Australia’s controversial ‘stop the boats’ policy, thousands of refugees, including the young population, must wait longer in Indonesia to get their refugee status processed by UNHCR and to have a chance to resettle in a third country. As a non-signatory state to the 1951 Refugee Convention, Indonesia has a limited legal framework to protect the rights of refugees and asylum seekers, which causes grave precarious conditions for them. Nevertheless, arbitrariness in Indonesia’s legal framework and its flexibility in handling refugees surprisingly has provided a certain level of “informal protection” and opportunities for young refugees to make maneuvers in the fluid arenas. As they wait, the young people also plan, anticipate, negotiate, hustle, play, and rest. This talk will focus on the dynamics of refugee youths’ agency-in-waiting. Professor Masardi explores how young refugees exercise passive and active waiting and what contributing factors catalyze or impede the distribution of their agency.
Click the link in the title to register.
Between Public and Power: A Colonial History of the National Library of Cambodia
The Center for Khmer Studies
Feb 9, 2023|07:30 PM Central Time|Virtual
What is the history of the National Library of Cambodia? What cultural and political roles did this institution have during the French colonial period and in postcolonial Cambodia? This talk shares archival research findings on the National Library of Cambodia during the French colonial period. Dr. Nguyen unearths the social life of the library and the significance of the colonial library institution as a symbol and technology of textual authority. Dr. Nguyen analyzes how the colonial library architecture, organization, and operations contributed to defining an abstract Western notion of ‘public’ and ‘textual authority’ that perpetuated colonial hierarchies of privileged knowledge access. This project contributes new findings to understanding Cambodian histories of print culture, colonial society, and urbanism. As a scholar of libraries and Southeast Asia, Dr. Nguyen provides a theoretical and methodological framework called ‘bibliotactics’ to critically examine institutions of knowledge in colonial contexts.
Click the link in the title to register.
Massacre in Myanmar: How Two Reporters Uncovered a Rohingya Mass Grave—And the Price They Paid for It
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan
Feb 10, 2023 |11:00 AM Central Time|Virtual
In August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a massive offensive against Rohingya Muslims living in the country’s northwest, killing thousands of people, burning hundreds of villages, and pushing more than 700,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. The Aung San Suu Kyi government declined to condemn the offensive. Many ministers claimed the Rohingya burned their own homes and returned to their “homeland” of Bangladesh. The officials declared the area off limits to the press, but two Myanmar journalists with the Reuters news agency, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, kept reporting. They uncovered a mass grave with ten Rohingya men and boys, complete with before and after pictures of the execution and first-person, on-the-record testimonies by the perpetrators.
Click the link in the title to register.
Buddhist Women and Biographical Time in Burma
SEAP-Cornell University
Feb 16, 2023|11:30 AM Central Time|Virtual
This talk explores the rhetorical force of relationships in biographies of Buddhist nuns in Burma. Understandings of Buddhist lay women and monastics in Burma and other Theravada Buddhist cultures are so far mostly informed by ethnographic projects. There is far less insight into the historical contexts and textual forms in and through which Buddhist monastic women, known in Burmese as thilashin, have worked to harness social and material capital to support their livelihoods, their pursuit of educational opportunities, and the establishment, expansion, and maintenance of their residential and educational institutions.
Click the link in the title to register.
Malaysian Crossings: The Worlding of Modern Chinese Literature
February 23, 2023, 7:00 PM CT
No scholar of modern Chinese literary studies in its globalizing mode will miss the recent spotlight on Malaysian Chinese (Mahua) literature. Previously untapped, works from or about the Southeast Asian country are now read for bracing ideas on language, ethnicity and diaspora. In Malaysian Crossings, Chan shows how the minor literary formation’s grasp of its own marginality in the world-Chinese literary space constitutes the threshold—instead of a hurdle—to creating signature aesthetic imprints that foster global outlooks.
In the book, Chan describes the strategic “worlding” of modern Chinese literature that involves authorial navigation of inter-connected literary spaces. Foregrounding the inter-Asian linkages between Malaysia and other Sinitic-speaking locales (such as China, Taiwan and Singapore) in the writing practices of Lin Cantian, Han Suyin, Wang Anyi, and Li Yongping, Chan analyzes their representations of multilingual social realities, and reflections about colonial Malaya or independent Malaysia as valid literary terrain. Both sets of creative discourse underlie the literary worlds built out of the physical journeys, the interactions among social groups, and the mindset shifts entailed in creating distinctive literary languages for the place. Historicizing such “crossings” from the 1930s to the 2000s, Chan contends that new perspectives from the periphery are essential to understanding the globalization of modern Chinese literature. By emphasizing the inner diversities and connected histories in the margins, Malaysian Crossings offers a powerful argument for remapping global Chinese literature and world literature.
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Myanmar: Dismantling Dissent – Crackdowns on Internet Freedoms
Asia Centre
Click link in title to read the report; for further information or interview requests, please send requests to Asia Centre at contact@asiacentre.org.
NIU Women in Southeast Asia Virtual Exhibit
In recognition of Women’s History Month, and drawing from the Hart Southeast Asia Collection’s vast troves of materials, Southeast Asia Library Assistant (NIU) Joanna Kulma has put together a digital exhibit about women in Southeast Asia.
Cia Siab (Hope) in Wisconsin Virtual Exhibit
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Volunteer Announcement: Tutors and Learners
Greater University Tutoring Service (GUTS), Foreign Language Learners (FLL) program is designed to help students learn a new language by partnering them up with a native speaker of that language.
We are currently recruiting tutors and learners for our program. Please encourage students to apply to our program as it is a great opportunity for them to improve their speaking and listening skills. Also if you know of any students that are exceptionally skilled in a language, please let them know about our program.
For more information, please email fll.guts@gmail.com.
Globaljobs.org
Job/internship opportunities: Turn area studies into an internship or a career. See job listings at NGOs, think tanks, government, and private-sector employers.
Chinese Mutual Aid Association
Job/volunteer opportunities. For more information contact info@chinesemutualaid.org or 773-784-2900.
U.S. Department of State
Student internship program: Internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students at Washington headquarters and US embassies, consulates and missions worldwide.
Room to Read
Volunteer opportunities: San Francisco-based organization that helps develop literacy skills among primary and secondary school students.
Asia Society
Career opportunities: Internships and jobs posted regularly on website.
Association of Southeast Asian Nations
Jobs listed under Opportunities tab of ASEAN website.
Devex: Do Good. Do it Well
International aid and development jobs in 1,000 agencies, companies and NGOs in 100 countries.
DevNetJOBS.org
International development jobs and consulting opportunities.
Idealist.org
Privately funded website offers searchable database of nonprofit international jobs and volunteer opportunities.
ReliefWeb
Specialized digital service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs that posts jobs regularly.
World Health Organization
Global health agency in the United Nations system encourages online applications for potential employment.