Dear friends and colleagues,
The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) Kyoto University is pleased to announce the launch of a monthly internal newsletter. This will be sent out on a monthly basis and include updates on activities, research meetings, events, new publications and podcasts.
February 2025 issue includes:
1. Announcements and Highlights
2. Upcoming Events
3. Publications: Hot off the CSEAS Press
4. Presentations
5. Podcasts in Japanese: “Book Talk on Asia”
6. Past Events
Thank you and regards,
The Public Relations Committee, Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
1. Announcements and Highlights
【February Get Together】
・The monthly welcome and farewell party, Get Together, will be held on Thursday, February 27, from 12:30 pm at the Small Meeting Room II (#332 on the 3rd floor of Inamori Center). Please join us and have an opportunity to enjoy small talk.
We have updated the visiting scholars’ web page. Please check here
【New Research Associate】
・Patricio Nunez Abinales (Philippine politics / Southeast Asian politics): CSEAS welcomes Patricio Nunez Abinales as Visiting Research Scholar from March 1 to August 31.
・Patricia May Bantug Jurilla (Philippine Studies, History): CSEAS welcomes Patricia May Bantug Jurilla as Guest Scholar from February 25 to March 10.
【Visitor’s Voice】
Interview with Sonam Kinga “Monastic Reforms, Buddhist Kingship, and Buddhist Constitutionalism in Bhutan”
2. Upcoming Events
・CSEAS Colloquium
Date & Time: Thursday, 27 February 2025, 1:30–3:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: Networks of Power and Business: Indonesia’s Political Economy
Speaker: Wahyu Prasetyawan (Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta / Visiting Research Scholar, CSEAS)
・Tonan Talk
Date & Time: Friday, 28 February 2025, 3:00–5:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: “Karampátan ñg Tao”: Tracing the Rise of Tagalog Human Rights Discourse Using a Textual Corpus
Speaker: Ramon Guillermo (Professor, Director of the Center for International Studies, University of the Philippines-Diliman)
・Special Lecture by Sudirman Said
Date & Time: Friday, 28 February 2025, 3:00–5:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: 100 Days of Prabowo Administration: The Leadership and Governance Challenges
Speaker: Sudirman Said (Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in Indonesia, 2014–2016)
Moderator: Wahyu Prasetyawan (Visiting Research Scholar, CSEAS)
Discussant: Okamoto Masaaki (CSEAS)
・Learning Southeast Asian Culture and Society: Screening
Date & Time: Friday, 28 February 2025, 18:00– (Japan Time)
Venue: Multimedia Room 2, 1st Floor, East Building, CSEAS Kyoto University
Title: Happy Old Year (115 min. Thai, with Japanese Subtitles)
・Pramoedya’s World: Commemorating the Centenary of the Birth of Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Date & Time: Tuesday, 4 March 2025, 13:00–16:15 (Japan Time)
Venue: Seminar Room (I213), 2nd floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University / Online
Registration: Participants are kindly requested to register in advance.
・Unit End-Year Workshop 2025: Data-Oriented Approaches to the Social Sciences and Humanities
Date & Time: Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 9:00 am –5:30 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Large Meeting Room (I333), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
・Book Launch & Special Seminar: “China, SEA, and Border: From Methodological Engagement to Kaleidoscopic Lifeworlds?”
Date & Time: Tuesday, 11 March 2025, 10:00 am – 5:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
・International Seminar: Japan and ASEAN in the Indo-Pacific: Knowledge Flows From the 1980s to the Present
Date & Time: Thursday, 13 March 2025, 2:00–4:20 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Seminar Room (I213), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University / Online (Zoom)
Organizers: German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ), CSEAS Kyoto University
・Commemorative Lectures for Professor Toshihiko Kishi at Kyoto University
Date & Time: Friday, 21 March 2025, 3:00 pm – (Japan Time)
Venue: Large Meeting Room, 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Language: Japanese
・CSEAS Journal Reading Session
Date & Time: Monday, 21 April 2025, 4–6 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Papers: Wang, Weiwei, et al. 2023. “Earliest Curry in Southeast Asia and the Global Spice Trade 2000 Years Ago.” Science Advances, 9(29): eadh5517. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adh5517
Denpetkul, Thammanitchpol, and Arthit Phosri. 2021. “Daily Ambient Temperature and Mortality in Thailand: Estimated Effects, Attributable Risks, and Effect Modifications by Greenness.” Science of The Total Environment, 791: 148373. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148373
Presenter: Chika Yamada (CSEAS)
3. Publications: Hot off the CSEAS Press
【Latest Issue】
・Vol. 13 No. 3 of Southeast Asian Studies on 26 December 2024. All articles are available on the journal’s website and J-Stage.
【Forthcoming】
・Vol. 62, No. 2 of Japanese Journal of Southeast Asian Studies on 31 January 2025. All articles are available on the journal’s website and J-Stage.
【Latest Issue】
・Special issue (39) titled “Vietnam and Foreigners: Aspects and Experiences” of Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia is out on September 1, 2024. In this issue, David Koh (Vin University) serves as the guest editor and includes five articles. Each article is available in English, Japanese, Thai, Bahasa Indonesia, Filipino, Vietnamese, and Myanmar on our website. Five book reviews are also available.
【New Article】
・TRENDSETTERS column “Limited language assistance for migrant workers in the Thai monolingual society,” by Narongdej Phanthaphoommee, in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia on February 1, 2025.
【Latest Issue】CSEAS monthly newsletter released on February 12.
[Notes from the Field] Chika Obiya, “Promoting the Equality of Men and Women in Islam
through Translation: The Life and Dreams of Russia’s First Female Orientalist”
[Report] Minami Tosa and Marie Kobayashi, “Joint Exhibition and Lecture on Journals from the Turbulent Times of Southeast Asia”
[Letter from the Kamogawa River] Wataru Yamazaki, “The Intersection of Pathogens and Humanity: Two Explorations of the Origins of Pandemics”
【New Book】Caroline S. Hau, Character: Essays, Ateneo de Manila Press, 2024.
【New Article】Majid Daneshgar, “A Persian Shiʿi anthology circulating in Patna, Dhaka and Siam in the seventeenth century: A lesser-known ship of Persians to Southeast Asia,” A. C. S. Peacock, ed., Iran and Persianate Culture in the Indian Ocean World, I.B.Tauris, 2025, pp. 247–258.
【Forthcoming】Majid Daneshgar, Persianate Prose and the Making of Malay Muslim Literature: Text, Translation and Commentary of the Durr al-Majalis, Edinburgh University Press, April 2025.
【Forthcoming】Yos Santasombat, Kian Cheng Lee, and Decha Tangseefa (eds.), China’s BRI in Southeast Asia: Concepts and Methodologies, Kyoto University Press and Trans Pacific Press, 2025.
【Forthcoming】Kisho Tsuchiya, contributor, in Hajimu Masuda, Ed., Cold War Asia: Unlearning Narratives, Making New Histories, The University of North Carolina Press, May 2025.
【Forthcoming】Nawawi, Athiqah Nur Alami, Julius Bautista, Maitrii Aung-Thwin, Deasy Simandjuntak, Yanu Endar Prasetyo, eds., Managing Disruption and Developing Resilience for a Better Southeast Asia: The 4th SEASIA Biennial Conference 2022, Springer Proceedings in Humanities and Social Sciences, May 2025.
【Forthcoming】Takahashi, Tomoko. 2025 forthcoming (accepted). “Two Questions of Sovereignty: China and the Global South in the United Nations General Assembly (1971–1990)”, Global Studies Quarterly.
4. Presentations
・Tomoko Takahashi, Participant, U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Cohort 7, the 3rd meeting, hosted by the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation and the Japan Foundation, 26-31 January 2025, Washington DC.
・Tomoko Takahashi, Discussant, (Panel MB39) Technology and Global Security Governance in a Changing World: The Evolution of Norms and Laws Regulating the Use of AI in the Weapons Systems and Cybersecurity. March 3, 2025, International Studies Association (Chicago).
・Tomoko Takahashi, Co-Presenter with Raphaëlle Khan, Juan Acevedo, and Yuan Zhou, “China and India’s Perspectives on the Global South in a Changing Global Order,” (Panel SB06) the Global South’s Role in a Changing International Landscape. March 2, 2025, International Studies Association (Chicago).
・Tomoko Takahashi, Participant, (Panel WA02) Author Meets Critics: Patrick Quinton-Brown’s ‘Intervention before Interventionism: A Global Genealogy.’ March 5, 2025, International Studies Association (Chicago).
5. Podcasts in Japanese: “Book Talk on Asia”
In this program, the Editorial Office, CSEAS, introduces the latest books on Asia. The authors are invited to talk about the contents and background of their books.
Soundcloud / YouTube
6. Past Events
・Seminar by Nancy Lee Peluso: “The Remittance House on Forest Land: Migrant Labor’s Fixities in Mountain Java”
Date & Time: Tuesday, 25 February 2025, 3:00 pm– (Japan Time)
Venue: Seminar Room (I213), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University/ Online (Zoom)
Speaker: Nancy Lee Peluso (UC Berkeley)
・CSEAS Gender Seminars 2024: Special Seminar: Frontiers of Gender Studies in Asia
Date & Time: Tuesday, 25 February 2025, 9:30–11:00 am (Japan Time)
Venue: Research Commons (E101), 1st Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: The Irony of Islamization: Sexuality, Piety and Power on Malaysian Screens
Speaker: Humairah Binte Zainal (Research Fellow, Singapore General Hospital; Associate Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University)
Moderator: Kisho Tsuchiya (CSEAS)
・CSEAS Gender Seminars 2024: Seminar on Gender Issues in Academia
Date & Time: Friday, 21 February 2025, 16:00–17:30 am (Japan Time)
Venue: Research Commons (E101), 1st Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: Negotiating Gender Equality: The Singapore Malay-Muslim Women’s Struggle for Empowerment and Social Justice
Speaker: Humairah Binte Zainal (Research Fellow, Singapore General Hospital; Associate Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University)
Moderator: Chika Obiya (CSEAS)
・Seminar by Pascal Bourdeaux: “States, Religions and Modernities for One Nation: Historicizing a Converging Secularization in 20th Century Vietnam”
Date & Time: Friday, 21 February 2025, 3:00–4:30 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Seminar Room (I213), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: States, Religions and Modernities for One Nation: Historicizing a Converging Secularization in 20th Century Vietnam
Speaker: Pascal Bourdeaux (EPHE-GSRL-PSL)
・Joint Workshop with the Konstanz University of Applied Sciences (HTWG Konstantz)
Date & Time: Wednesday, 5 February 2025, 3:00–5:30 (Japan Time)
Venue: Research Commons (E101), 1st Floor, East Bldg., CSEAS Kyoto University
Title: Graduate Student Workshop on Southeast Asia
・“Learning about Southeast Asian Culture and Society through Film” Screening
Date & Time: Friday, 31 January 2025, 6 pm –
Venue: Multimedia Room 2, 1st Floor, East Building, CSEAS Kyoto University
Title: Perfect Days パーフェクト・デイズ (Director: Wim Wenders, 124 min.)
・Seminar on “Surviving the State: Land and Democracy in Myanmar”
Date & Time: Friday, 31 January 2025, 2:00–3:30 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: Surviving the State: Land and Democracy in Myanmar
Speaker: Hilary Oliva Faxon (University of Montana)
・CSEAS Colloquium
Date & Time: Thursday, 23 January 2025, 1:30–3:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Research Common (E101), East Building, CSEAS Kyoto University
Title: Humanitarian Confessions
Speaker: Philip Fountain (Victoria University of Wellington / Visiting Research Scholar, CSEAS)
Endnotes
The annual event of the “Global Collaborative Research (GCR)” was held once again this year, offering another great opportunity to witness passionate discussions on the essence of area studies. Whenever I find myself in such settings, the phrase “intellectual salon” comes to mind.
In today’s academic world, discussions are often dominated by pragmatic concerns—publication records, indices, research funding, and the like. I, too, am merely one of the many researchers struggling within this system. However, research should inherently transcend such pragmatic objectives. There is profound value in discussing topics that may not immediately yield tangible benefits, and it is from such spaces of intellectual freedom that unexpected, unique ideas emerge. I believe that GCR serves as one platform that carries such worldview, and I often feel that the entire city of Kyoto embodies this spirit as well. Just the other day, when I visited a restaurant with colleagues from Kyoto University, the owner casually asked, “Are you from Kyoto University?”, which led to a conversation regarding a fellow diner, who happened to have moved from academia to the culinary business. These kinds of encounters are possible precisely because institutions are not rigidly structured; rather, they provide spaces where people can drop by freely, exchange ideas, and connect in unexpected ways. There is something inherently romantic about a place so full of serendipitous encounters and discoveries. (T.T.)
––– CSEAS Digital News Issue 38 –––––––––
Public Relations Committee
Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Kyoto University
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