Events

PROGRAM

 
ABSTRACT

The finale roundtable of the ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series is designed to showcase current research at ARI and to consider future trajectories as the Institute enters its third decade. Cluster leaders will introduce their Research Clusters, summarise their activities, and relate their cluster’s research agendas to key issues that are relevant to Asia now and in the years ahead. Professor Tan Tai Yong will moderate the discussion based on the questions and talking points below. This event will also include the launch of a specially commissioned ARI20 video to mark the Institute’s 20th anniversary.

Building on cluster-level Roundtable discussions held during ARI’s 20th anniversary year, this finale roundtable addresses strategic questions regarding the Institute’s relations to and place in Asian futures. How does our research identify, explain, and sometimes anticipate the crucial issues, challenges, and dynamics that will characterise the region in the decades to come? How do our research methods—with our deep knowledge of societies, languages, political systems and cultures—provide distinctive insight into explaining how Asia works and is likely to work (or not work) in the future? How do we think global phenomena—pandemics, climate change, urban development, evolving beliefs and identities, ageing, migration, technological advances, and evolving regional connectedness—will shape and take shape in a future Asia? In what ways can existing and prospective research activities at ARI make globally distinctive contributions to Humanities and Social Science research from Asia?

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Tan Tai Yong is the second President and Professor of Humanities (History) at Yale-NUS College. Prior to this, he was the college’s Executive Vice-President (Academic Affairs). Professor Tan was previously Vice-Provost (Student Life) at the National University of Singapore. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and was concurrently Director of the Institute of South Asian Studies. An active member of the community, Professor Tan serves on numerous boards of various organisations. These include the National Heritage Board, the Indian Heritage Centre’s Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees of ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute and the Management Board of the Institute of South Asian Studies. He is also Chairman of the Asia Research Institute’s International Advisory Board. 

Tim Bunnell is Professor in the Department of Geography in the National University of Singapore and Director of the Asia Research Institute, where he is also Research Leader of the Asian Urbanisms cluster. His primary research interest concerns urbanisation in Southeast Asia, examining both the transformation of cities in that region and urban connections with other parts of the world. His books include From World City to the World in One City: Liverpool through Malay Lives (Wiley, 2016) and Urban Asias: Essays on Futurity Past and Present (Jovis, 2018; co-edited with Daniel P.S. Goh).

Kenneth Dean is Head of the Chinese Studies Department, National University of Singapore and Research Leader for the Religion and Globalisation Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. His recent publications include Epigraphical Materials on the History of Religion in Fujjian: Zhangzhou Prefecture, 4 vols. (Fujian People’s Publishing House, 2019; co-authored with Zheng Zhenman; in Chinese); Chinese Epigraphy of Singapore, 2 vols. (NUS Press, 2017; co-authored with Hue Guan Thye); and Ritual Alliances of the Putian Plains, 2 vols. (Brill, 2010; co-authored with Zheng Zhenman). He directed Bored in Heaven: A Film about Ritual Sensation (Dean, 2010), an 80-minute documentary film on ritual celebrations around Chinese New Year in Putian, Fujian, China. 

Wei-Jun Jean Yeung is Provost’s Chair Professor of Sociology and Founding Director of the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore and Research Leader of the Changing Family in Asia Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. She is a leading scholar in demography and family studies, with work published in leading international journals. Prof Yeung has received many prestigious research awards. Her recent publications include books on Singapore family and population and Southeast Asian families; volumes on marriage in Asia; migration and marriage; living alone and one-person households in Asia; long-term care in Asia; and productive ageing. 

Gregory Clancey is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the National University of Singapore and Research Leader of the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. He received his PhD from the STS Program at MIT, and has been a Fulbright graduate scholar at the University of Tokyo, and a Lars Hierta scholar at the Royal Institute of Technology (KtH) in Stockholm. His research centers on the cultural history of science and technology, particularly in Japan.

Naoko Shimazu is Professor of Humanities (History) in Yale-NUS College and Research Leader of the Inter-Asia Engagements Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. Her major publications include Imagining Japan in Post-war East Asia (co-editor, Routledge, 2013); Japanese Society at War: Death, Memory and the Russo-Japanese War (Cambridge University Press, 2009); Nationalisms in Japan (editor, Routledge, 2006); Japan, Race and Equality: Racial Equality Proposal of 1919 (Routledge, 1998). She is currently working on the cultural history of diplomacy, focusing on the Bandung Conference of 1955, as well as exploring methodological issues.

Jamie S. Davidson is Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore and Research Leader of the Identities Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted principally in Indonesia, he has written on ethnic violence, indigenous people movements, law and society, infrastructure, food politics, and democracy. He is the author of more than a dozen articles and his books have been translated into Indonesian and Chinese. His latest manuscript (in progress) compares rice politics in Malaysia, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Brenda S.A. Yeoh FBA is Raffles Professor of Social Sciences, Department of Geography, as well as Director, Humanities and Social Science Research Office of Deputy President (Research & Technology), National University of Singapore. She is also Research Leader of the Asian Migration Cluster in the Asia Research Institute. She was recently awarded the prestigious Vautrin Lud Prize (2021) for her outstanding achievements in the field of Geography. She was also the only Singaporean thus far to be elected to the Fellowship of the British Academy as a Corresponding Fellow. Her research interests include the politics of space in colonial and postcolonial cities, and she also has considerable experience working on a wide range of migration research in Asia, including key themes such as cosmopolitanism and highly skilled talent migration; gender, social reproduction and care migration; migration, national identity and citizenship issues; globalising universities and international student mobilities; and cultural politics, family dynamics and international marriage migrants. She has published widely in these fields and her recent books include Asian Migrants and Religious Experience: From Missionary Journeys to Labor Mobility (Amsterdam University Press, 2018 with B. Brown), Handbook of Asian Migrations (Routledge, 2018 with G. Liu-Farrer) and Student Mobilities and International Education in Asia: Emotional Geographies of Knowledge Spaces (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020 with R. Sidhu and K.C. Ho).

Maitrii V. Aung-Thwin is Associate Professor of Myanmar/Southeast Asian history and Convener of the Comparative Asian Studies PhD Program at the National University of Singapore. His research is concerned with nation-building, heritage, knowledge production, law and resistance in South and Southeast Asia. His publications include: A History of Myanmar since Ancient Times: Traditions and Transformations (with Michael Aung-Thwin, 2013); The Return of the Galon King: History, Law, and Rebellion in Colonial Burma (2011); and A New History of Southeast Asia (with Merle Ricklefs et al., 2010). He is a trustee of the Burma Studies Foundation (USA), a board member of the SEASREP Foundation (Philippines), Deputy Director of the Asia Research Institute, and editor of Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.

ARI20 ANNIVERSARY ROUNDTABLE SERIES

The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series marks the founding of the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore in 2001. The series celebrates our current scholarship while exploring how these themes and topics continue to inspire new trajectories of research. The ARI20 Anniversary Roundtable Series concludes with the convening of a final roundtable featuring the Institute’s current research cluster leaders, who will discuss ARI’s role in charting future humanities and social science research on Asia. While the virtual roundtable format arises from pandemic-related necessity, it will enable ARI alumni and partners around the world to join the discussion on the Institute’s research directions and prospects.

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.