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.
May 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. Media Exposure
7. Past Events
Thank you and regards,
The Public Relations Committee, Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS)
1. Announcements and Highlights
【May Get Together】
・The monthly welcome and farewell party, Get Together, will be held on Thursday, May 22, 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】
・Fang Su (Economics): CSEAS welcomes Fan Su as Guest Scholar from May 10 to August 10.
・Olga Valerevna Khan (Gender Studies): CSEAS welcomes Olga Valerevna Khan as Guest Research Associate from May 13, 2025 to May 12, 2027.
・Lukito Ratno (Comparative Law): CSEAS welcomes Lukito Ratno as Guest Scholar from June 1 to September 30.
2. Upcoming Events
・Special Lecture by Tun Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad
Date & Time: Monday, 26 May 2025, 11:15–12:15 am (Japan Time)
Venue: Large Meeting Room (I333), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: Asia and the World on the Brink: Rethinking Order in an Age of Turmoil
Participation: Pre-registration via Google form is required (Due date: Friday, 23 May)
・CSEAS Colloquium
Date & Time: Thursday, 29 May 2025, 1:30–3:00 (Japan Time)
Venue: Medium Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Speaker: Sonam Kinga (Royal Institute of Governance and Strategic Studies, Bhutan / Visiting Research Scholar, CSEAS)
Title: Non-Diplomatic Relations between Bhutan and China: A Historical and Contemporary Perspective
・Special Seminar
Date & Time: Monday, 16 June 2025, 15:00–16:30 (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Title: Viral Sovereignty: Security and Mistrust in the Indonesian H5N1 Influenza Outbreak
Speaker: Celia Lowe (University of Washington)
・A Thematic Exhibition for the 50th Anniversary of the Museum’s Founding, Lines and Dots: The Aesthetic Journey of Arabic Calligraphy
Date: 13 March–17 June 2025
Venue: Thematic Exhibition Hall, National Museum of Ethnology
Exhibision cooperation: Michael Feener (CSEAS), Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS)
・CSEAS Reading Group Session
Date & Time: Wednesday, 18 June 2025, 4:00 pm – (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Book title: Kristian Karlo Saguin, Urban Ecologies on the Edge: Making Manila’s Resource Frontier, University of California Press, 2022.
Instructor: Julie de los Reyes (CSEAS)
3. Publications: Hot off the CSEAS Press
【Latest Issue】
・Vol. 14 No. 1 of Southeast Asian Studies on 24 April 2025. This issue features a special focus on “Fieldwork in a Time of Change: Papers in Honor of Mizuno Kosuke,” edited by guest editors Agung Wicaksono and Jafar Suryomenggolo from Gadjah Mada University, along with eight book reviews. All articles are available on the journal’s website and J-Stage
【Latest Issue】
・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 (40) titled “Eroding Electoral Integrity: Reasons for Democratic Backsliding in Southeast Asia” of Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia is out on March 1, 2025. In this issue, Asia Centre 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 “Could the KANP become the Philippines’ Move Forward Party?,” by Gil D. Turingan , in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia on May 1, 2025.
【Latest Issue】CSEAS monthly newsletter released on May 14.
[Notes from the Field] War Heritage in the Chuuk Lagoon of Micronesia: Finding Remnants of Japanese Rule on Tonoas (formerly Natsushima) Island (Hiroshi Ishi)
[New Staff] Ye Htet
[Letter from the Kamogawa River] Barcode: Unintended Pervasive Consequences (Tomohiro Machikita)
【New Article】Sakamoto R. Aging in Southeast Asia and Japan: Challenges and opportunities. Geriatr. Gerontol. Int. 2025;1–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/ggi.70062
【Contributions to Monographs】Kisho Tsuchiya, “Theorizing Southeast Asia’s Cold War: Timor in 1974–75,” in Masuda Hajimu (ed.), Cold War Asia: Unlearning Narratives, Making New Histories, The University of North Carolina Press, 2025.
【New Article】Chachavalpongpun, P. (2024). Roots of Resilience: Interests and Values in Thai Foreign Policy. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 43(3), 409-429. https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034241248475 (Original work published 2024)
【New Article】Chachavalpongpun, P. (2024). Long Live Patriarchy! The Thai Monarchy’s Position on Gender Equality and Justice. Asian Studies Review, 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357823.2024.2432641
【New Article】Chachavalpongpun, P. (2025). Dissent from a Distance: Rising Political Activism of Young Thai Diasporas. Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/18681034251336767
【Column】Takahashi, Tomoko. 2025. “China’s Strategic Choice: Beijing’s Foreign Policy through BRICS Expansion”. Institute of Developing Economies, Japan External Trade Organization (IDE-JETRO), IDE Square May 2025 [in Japanese].
【Report】Rina Suryani Oktari, Nishi Yoshimi, Agussabti, et al., “Promoting Gender-Equitable Leadership in Disaster Management: Empowering Women for Resilient Communities” UNDRR Policy Brief, March 2025.
【Forthcoming】Majid Daneshgar, Persianate Prose and the Making of Malay Muslim Literature: Text, Translation and Commentary of the Durr al-Majalis, Edinburgh University 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.
4. Presentations
【Lecture】Takahashi, Tomoko. “Multilateralism in China-Southeast Asia Relations”, Department of History, the Faculty of Humanities, University of Indonesia, May 7, 2025, Depok, Indonesia [in English].
【Comment】Majid Daneshgar, Commentator, Lecture by Sacha Alsancakli, “The epic of Muḥammad Ḥanafiyya: A preliminary study of the transregional circulation, language localization, and narrative variation in a Persianate historical romance,” The Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 16 May 2025, Tokyo.
【Response】Majid Daneshgar, Respondent, Book launch: Reconfiguring literary traditions: On Reconfiguring and appropriating Arabic, Persian, and Indic literary traditions in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain: Orientalism and the recreation of the Islamicate Canon by Claire Gallien, 29 May 2025, Online.
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.
This month’s feature episode:
・Book Talk on Asia No. 71 (11 October 2023) Keiko Yoshioka, Tetsudo to aikoku: Chugoku, Ajia 3 man kiro wo ressha de tabishite kangaeta (Rails and Nationalism: 30000km Journey By Train Though China and Asia), Iwanami Shoten, 2023 (in Japanese). YouTube / Book information
6. Media Exposure
・A quote from Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun was featured in an editorial titled “Thailand knew what it was doing when it deported Uyghurs to China” published by Channel NewsAsia on March 26, 2025.
・A quote from Professor Pavin Chachavalpongpun was featured in an editorial titled “American academic in limbo in Thailand over royal insult case, family says” published by Reuters on May 16, 2025.
7. Past Events
・The 9th KINDOWS Open Seminar, Film Screening of “Bose ~The Forgotten Hero~”
Date & Time: May, 17, 2025 (Sat) 13:00–17:00 (open at 12:30) (Japan Time)
Venue: Maskawa Hall, Maskawa Building, North Campus, Kyoto University
・Kyoto AEDS
Date & Time: Thursday, 1 May 2025, 4:45–6:15 (Japan Time)
Venue: Room 101 on 1F, Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics, East Bldg, Yoshida Campus, Kyoto University
Speaker: Tanika Chakraborty (IIM Calcutta)
Title: Public Private Partnership Models in Social Health Insurance schemes: Evidence from a Pioneering Program in India
・Special Seminar: Land Grabbing in Indonesia, Political Economy Approach and Agrarian Study Approach
Date & Time: Monday, 28 April 2025, 2:00–4:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Seminar Room (I213), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
・Learning Southeast Asian Culture and Society: Screening
Date & Time: Friday, 25 April 2025, 18:00– (Japan Time)
Venue: Multimedia Room 2, 1st Floor, East Building, CSEAS Kyoto University
Title: Once Upon a Star (132 min.)
・CSEAS–IIAS Joint Seminar
Date&Time: Friday, 25 April 2025, 2–5 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Speakers: Guan Hao (IIAS), Tomohiro Machikita (CSEAS), Yuqing Li (IIAS), Satoru Kobayashi (CSEAS)
・MOU signing with IIAS Tsinghua University
Date & Time: Friday, 25 May 2025
・Special Seminar: “Designing Industrial Policy: The Case of Singapore’s Semiconductor Ecosystem”
Date & Time: Friday, 25 April 2025, 0:30–2:00 pm (Japan Time)
Venue: Tonantei (I201), 2nd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University
Speaker: Yongwook Ryu (Lee Kwan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS)
・CSEAS Colloquium
Date & Time: Thursday, 23 April 2025, 1:30–3:00 (Japan Time)
Venue: Middle Meeting Room (I332), 3rd Floor, Inamori Center, Kyoto University / Online
Title: Local Anti-Crime Campaigns in Southeast Asia
Speaker: Sol Iglesias (University of the Philippines Diliman / Visiting Research Scholar, CSEAS)
■Endnote
Sometimes, when I gaze at a night sky full of stars, I feel a quiet sense of nostalgia. They remind me of moments that have passed—people I’ve known, places I’ve left, things I ‘ve been attached to, feelings that come and go. It’s strange how something so far away can make us feel so close to our memories. Maybe that’s why we keep looking up. Are we searching for answers in the stars, or just trying to hold on to something we’ve already lost? I believe there may be some kind of interconnection between the stars and us. (Y.H)
––– CSEAS Digital News Issue 41 –––––––––
Public Relations Committee
Center for Southeast Asian Studies
Kyoto University
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