Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Annu Jalais, South Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This presentation is an attempt to forge connections between two of anthropology’s most vibrant areas of new research: visual anthropology and the anthropology of morality and ethics. Its focus is on achieving moral citizenship as represented in Vietnam’s visually spectacular capital city, Hanoi. It builds on a notion of personal and official images as active and morally compelling, not mere illustrations or reflections of the challenges Hanoians face in today’s conditions of late-socialist marketisation. It offers the case of Vietnam as a compelling comparison with other contexts where visuality has been fruitfully explored, including India and post-socialist Eurasia.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Susan Bayly (MA, PhD University of Cambridge) is Professor of Historical Anthropology and Director of Graduate Education in the Cambridge University Division of Social Anthropology. She was the editor of The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute from 2001-2004 and is Associate Editor of Cambridge Anthropology. She has held visiting appointments in the USA, India and the National University of Singapore (Distinguished Leader in Asian Studies Programme 2012). She is an adviser to a number of museums and other institutions in Vietnam, including the Vietnam Centre for Research & Promotion of Cultural Heritage. Her publications include Asian Voices in a Postcolonial Age, Vietnam, India and Beyond (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age (Cambridge University Press, 1999).

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. Please email to sassec@nus.edu.sg to register.