Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Tim Bunnell, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

Visual images are everywhere in international politics. But how are we to understand them? In Sensible Politics, William A. Callahan uses his expertise in theory and filmmaking to explore not only what visuals mean, but also how visuals can viscerally move and connect us in “affective communities of sense.” The book’s rich analysis of visual images (photographs, film, art) and visual artifacts (maps, veils, walls, gardens, cyberspace) shows how critical scholarship needs to push beyond issues of identity and security to appreciate the creative politics of social-ordering and world-ordering. Here “sensible politics” isn’t just sensory, but looks beyond icons and ideology to the affective politics of everyday life. It challenges our Eurocentric understanding of international politics by exploring the meaning and impact of visuals from Asia and the Middle East. Sensible Politics offers a unique approach to politics that allows us to not only think visually, but also feel visually-and creatively act visually for a multisensory appreciation of politics.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

William A. Callahan is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Sensible Politics has been shortlisted for the “Susan Strange Best Book 2021” award by the British International Studies Association, and his essay “The Politics of Walls: Barriers, Flows and the Sublime” won the Review of International Studies best article (2018). Prof Callahan also makes documentary films: “Great Walls: Journeys from Ideology to Experience” (2020) was published in Journal of Narrative Politics (Spring, 2020, and “You can see CHINA from here” in The Diplomat in April 2020. He was nominated for an “Innovation in Teaching” award for his “Visual International Politics” course, which integrates visual analysis and creative filmmaking.

Ja Ian Chong is Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. His research covers the intersection of international and domestic politics, with a focus on the externalities of major power competition, nationalism, regional order and security, contentious politics, and state formation. He works on US-China relations, security and order in Northeast and Southeast Asia, cross-strait relations, and Taiwan politics. Chong is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, 2012), a recipient of the 2013 International Security Studies Section Book Award from the International Studies Association. His publications appear in the China Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, Security Studies, and other journals. Ian is examining how non-leading state behavior collectively intensifies major power rivalries, paying particular attention to the US-China relationship. He has concurrent projects investigating how states react to sanctions on third parties by trade partners and the characteristics of foreign influence operations.

Marina J. Kaneti is Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. She specializes in questions of global development, including the Chinese Belt and Road initiative, migration, environmental governance, human rights, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Dr Kaneti has published extensively on questions of migration, activism, and rights and is currently completing a book manuscript on migrants’ political agency. With research funding from the Ford Foundation and the National University of Singapore, she is also exploring the geopolitical, environmental, and cultural significance of the Belt and Road initiative. Dr Kaneti completed her BA and MSW at Columbia University, and her PhD at the New School for Social Research, New York, USA. Prior to her academic career, Dr Kaneti worked with the United Nations and as an equity trader on Wall Street.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.