Upcoming and Past events.
Vineeta Sinha
Vineeta Sinha is Professor and teaches at the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests include Hindu religiosity in the diaspora, intersections of religion, commodification and consumption processes, interface of religion and materiality, religion-state encounters in colonial and post-colonial contexts, Eurocentric and Androcentric critique of social science disciplinary canons, and producing decolonial pedagogies.
Prof. Sinha will be speaking to us about her latest book, Temple Tracks: Labour, Piety and Railway Construction in Asia (2023). The book presents a textured tale of the complex ties between labour, mobility and piety. It uses the history of colonial railway construction in British Malaya to narrate the interlocking accounts of Indian, Hindu labour migrations into British Malaya and the sacralization of these landscapes by labouring communities in building shrines and temples for Hindu deities in the vicinity of labour lines, railway stations, locomotive sheds, railway workshops and simply along the railway tracks. In Malaysia and Singapore, evidence of religion-making and railway-building from a colonial past is visible in multiple modes and media as memories, recollections and ‘traces.’
This event is co-sponsored by the Center for East Asian Studies and the South Asia Studies Department
Periyachi: A Tamil Mother/Midwife Goddess in the Singaporean Diaspora
A Talk by Asst. Professor. Indira Arumugam
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
National University of Singapore
Abstract: The goddess Periyachi has been good to think with. This paper is a reflection on my anthropological research on Periyachi worship in public temples dedicated to mother goddesses in Singapore as well as in intimate settings like private Singaporean homes and among villagers in rural Tamil Nadu. Two main questions have emerged from and propelled my research on the Periyachi cult. First is the intricate effects of overseas migration on the nature and force of specific deities as well as the constitution and ambience of specific ritual cults. What happens when a goddess from the rural hinterlands migrates with her devotees to a cosmopolitan city?
Second, what is the difference that gender makes to the imagination of, framing and approach to divinities and rituals? What happens when a mother and midwife goddess primarily of and for women becomes appropriated by male ritual specialists, instituted in public temples and worshipped with spectacular rituals? Fundamental to appreciating the multifaceted nature of not only the goddess but also of various ritual approaches to her is ethnographic comparison. Following the goddess as she travels from her rural origins to settle among the urban diaspora as well as her oscillations between households and temples and between women's and men's worship has facilitated the centering of ordinary people's everyday sacraments and their improvised and intimate theologies. In so doing, I grapple with imaginings of spirituality not, as is orthodox, from outside of but rather from within the framework of materiality.
Hew Wai Weng (Cornell University and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia) | "Against 'Colonizers’: Decolonial Idioms and Right-wing Propaganda in Malaysia"
It is often assumed that decolonial discourses will empower emancipatory and anti-racist movements. Yet, in reality, many right-wing activists appropriate decolonial idioms to promote their ultra-nationalist, majoritarian and nativist agenda. In Malaysia, several right-wing groups and individuals routinely use the “decolonial” rhetoric to criticize various ethnic, religious, gender and sexual minorities and to silence their efforts to demand equal rights. In other words, their call to go against ‘colonizers’ is to justify their intolerant stands by simply labelling any perceived threats to ‘heterosexual Malay Muslim identity’ as “foreign intervention”, “Western imperialism”, or “Chinese colonialism”. In this talk, he will first discuss two concurrent trends in Malaysia – the rise of right-wing majoritarianism and the popularity of decolonial discourses. He will then explore how “decolonial” rhetoric feeds into right-wing propaganda, as manifested in political campaigns, social activism, academic writings, and pop culture. Lastly, he goes beyond the Malaysian case study to examine similar trends of right-wing appropriation of “decolonial” discourses in the region (such as in Indonesia) and beyond. This talk aims to draw attention to the possible danger and limitations of decolonial scholarship without totally dismissing its emancipatory potential.
Thiti Jamkajornkeiat - Left Third-Worldist Indonesia during the Postcolonial Interregnum: Ibrahim Isa and the Theorization of Circulation Struggles
This paper examines political discourses of Ibrahim Isa, an Indonesian representative of the Afro-Asian Peoples’ Solidarity in Cairo, to constellate a peripheral Marxist theory of anticolonialism from Left Third-Worldist Indonesia. From a Left Third-Worldist perspective, Indonesia occupied one of the central nodes in the global resistance against the intertwined imperialist and capitalist system. This period of what I call the postcolonial interregnum, after the independence and before the communist massacre, witnessed Indonesia forging internationalist solidarity with other decolonizing nations in wars instigated by the transimperial alliance. In the specific case of Isa, he linked Indonesia’s national campaign to liberate West Papua from the Dutch with broader Arab-Asian anticolonial struggles for independence. Isa’s situational analysis of Indonesia as a chokepoint in an imperialist networked infrastructure and capitalist supply chain presupposed a Left Third-Worldist understanding of the capitalist-imperialist nexus. Isa’s call for multiracial workers from four continents to boycott Dutch ammunition vehicles at sea and airports likewise enacted an anti-imperialist modality of circulation struggles. I argue that Left Third-Worldism and circulation struggles, both premised on a Marxist lineage of using a ‘link’ figure in conjunctural analysis, dialectically constituted a primary contradiction during the postcolonial interregnum.
About the Speaker
Thiti Jamkajornkeiat is Assistant Professor of Global Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Victoria, where he teaches courses on activism, human rights, public humanities, and anticolonialism in 20th and 21st-century Asia. He serves as a board member of the Inter-Asian Cultural Studies Society and is an editorial member of positions: asia critique collective. His essays and interviews appeared in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, Spectre, Haymarket Books, positions: politics, and upcoming inVerge. He works at the intersection of Marxism, post-/anti-/decolonial theories, and Southeast Asia, specifically Indonesia and Thailand. His first book project is an intellectual history and peripheral Marxist theorization of Indonesian left internationalism in the Long Sixties, with an emphasis on the Left Third-Worldist and minor-communist modalities of internationalism.
Kaylani Manglona (UPenn) | “Hagan-Haga’: Language, Lifeblood, and Legacy in CHamoRu”
Early accounts of life in the Pacific Marianas describe the importance of matrilineality and female authority within the traditional CHamoRu worldview. However, since the late 16th century, the archipelago became politically divided and patrilineally dominated through the colonization from world powers including Spain, Germany, Japan, and the United States. Today, the southernmost island of Guahan and the remaining 14 islands of the archipelago, collectively known as the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), struggle to maintain their cultural heritage in an era of language endangerment, environmental degradation, and the pressures of Western modernity. This paper aims to strengthen CHamoRu scholarship through a linguistic-anthropological analysis of “hagan-haga’”, a term which translates across a spectra of meanings ranging from ‘blood turtle’ and ‘daughter of blood’ to ‘lineage continuation’ and ‘heritage discovery’. Additionally, this work broadens the scope of CHamoRu language praxis by engaging with the oral-tradition known as ‘Deep CHamoRu’, or ancient CHamoRu word usage, maintained through the lineages of traditional makana (CHamoRu medical practitioners) within my own family. Following in the footsteps of feminist CHamoRu scholar Laura Souder-Jaffery’s Daughters of the Island (1984), I argue for a more inclusive, female-centric CHamoRu ‘herstory’ centered around the stem ‘haga’ (daughter/blood) which more closely aligns with the traditional CHamoRu worldview.
Nicholas Gani: The significance of megalithic monuments in the highlands of Central Borneo
The significance of megalithic monuments in the highlands of Central Borneo
In this talk, Nicholas Gani considers the relationship between people and megalithic (stone) monuments in the highlands of central Borneo. In his discussion, Nicholas explores the development of the megalith building tradition in the Kelabit Highlands and the cultural links between the megaliths and the Kelabit people, who traditionally built monuments for funerary and commemorative purposes. Nicholas also explores the cessation of the megalithic practice around the middle of the 20th century and the more contemporary engagements with the megalithic monuments in their use as heritage, and contestations of their origins, within the context of wide societal and environmental changes in Borneo. By examining the long-term interactions between people and megaliths in the Kelabit Highlands, this talk sheds light on a newly known aspect of Borneo’s past, and why it matters today.
Nicholas Gani PhD.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak
Nicholas Gani is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Nicholas recently completed his Doctoral degree in Archaeology at the University of Oxford, and holds a Master’s degree in Archaeology from the Universiti Sains Malaysia, and a Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research interests include the archaeology of Borneo and Southeast Asia in general, the social significance of objects, public archaeology, and heritage.Building on his doctoral thesis, Nicholas is also currently working on a book project, which documents the social significance of megalithic monuments to the indigenous peoples in the central highlands of Sarawak in Borneo.
Of Might and Mites: Reflections on Studying Social Protests in Contemporary Vietnam
Join us for this IN PERSON Event in the Penn Museum academic wing, room 328
Tri Phuong is a sociocultural anthropologist specializing in digital media, youth culture, and social movement in contemporary Vietnam. He studies the local and global intersections of new media technologies and cultural expressions through the semiotics of play to illuminate the ways people experience, evaluate, and contest shifting terrains of authoritarianism and censorship to achieve aspirations in the digital era. His research connects anthropologies of the state, media, and youth in the context of late-socialism and globalization. His focus on cultural translations, vernacular tactics, and mockery of authority figures offers a precise case study for comparing popular cultures and their catalytic influences on youth fandom and social movements – specifically in Southeast Asia and through Inter-Asian and diasporic connections. Before joining the University of Victoria, he worked as a community organizer, development consultant, and journalist. He holds a PhD from Yale University, an MPP from Harvard University, and a BA from Harvard College.
Of Might and Mites: Reflections on Studying Social Protests in Contemporary Vietnam
In light of protests that have taken place across the Asia-Pacific region in recent times due to a variety of autochthonous pressures – from Myanmar to Thailand, Hong Kong, and China, inter alia – this talk explores the ethical and pragmatic considerations of studying social movements in real-time in the digital era. Namely, what is at stake in conducting ethnographic research under surveillance and censorship to elucidate local voices? Observing protests in an authoritarian environment where it is difficult to distinguish between friend and foe – e.g. a marcher or an undercover cop; an activist or a double-agent; or any of the above from an anthropologist – turns fieldwork into a game of chance, in which those who choose to play may or may not get played by the players who structure the game. In this gray zone of configurative rapport(s), friends become foes, foes turn to fiends, and fiends convert back to friends.
Jacob Rinck: Contested “understandings” of migration
Contested “understandings” of migration: Preliminary notes on a proposed ethnography of the 2018 Malaysia-Nepal MoU as transnational assemblage.
Abstract:
In late 2018, following media reporting on the high recruitment costs paid by Malaysia-bound Nepali migrant workers and then Nepal’s temporary suspension of migrant departures to Malaysia, the two countries signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the recruitment of temporary labor migrants. This talk offers preliminary notes on a project proposing to study this agreement ethnographically, taking the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) role in making and implementing it as a starting point for engaging the heterogeneous constellations of actors constituting it as a transnational assemblage. The project thereby asks what kinds of notions of migrant and workers’ rights, distributive fairness, responsibility for welfare, and Asian cosmopolitanism emerge in the transnational space structured by this MoU, in which visions of rising Asia encounter both the stark inequalities that condition Asian migrant journeys and the globally mediated interventions of international organizations.
Jacob Rinck is a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Anthropology at George Washington University, and studies global inequality through a focus on migration and discourses of economic development. Jacob has a PhD in sociocultural anthropology from Yale University (2020), and is currently preparing a book manuscript and articles based on long-term research on the relationship between international labor migration, agrarian change, and narratives of economic development in Nepal. Two new research projects explore histories of neoliberalism and agrarian development, and emerging, transnational forms of migration governance in Asia. Jacob also holds an MSc Violence, Conflict and Development from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and studied sociology at Universität Bielefeld, Germany. In a professional capacity, he is currently a consultant for the World Bank, and has previously also worked at the International Crisis Group and for DFID.
J. Joseph Errington | Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language
In 2008, Goenawan Moehamad celebrated the “very valuable paradox” (paradoks yang sangat berharga) of the language that has come over three generations to be known by almost all of Indonesia’s 250 million people. In this talk, and drawing on decades of sociolinguistic research, J. Joseph Errington will explore different versions of this paradox as it has developed in two towns, Kupang and Pontianak. To compare these two urban scenes, it helps first to consider more generally Indonesian’s uniqueness among the world’s national languages. This provides a way to understand how its diversity of forms and values can be traced to its enabling absence of native speakers. In discussing his research and writing about Indonesia’s archipelagic world, Errington will also share insights about the publishing process.
This event is capped at 25 participants, Contact us for the zoom link!
J Joseph Errington
Dr. J. Joseph Errington is Professor of Anthropology and International and Area Studies at Yale University. An advocate for Southeast Asian Studies and former President of the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, Professor Errington is interested in the linguistic dimensions of social life, ranging from the social implications of patterns of verbal communication, to forms and uses of sociolinguistic hierarchies, to the linguistic effects of large-scale dynamics. His research and writing have focused on linguistic dimensions of modernization and identity in Java and Indonesia, reflecting his broader interests in semiotics and the politics of language. Professor Errington’s books include Language and Social Change in Java: Linguistic Reflexes of Modernization in a Traditional Royal Polity (Ohio, 1985), Structure and Style in Javanese: A Semiotic View of Linguistic Etiquette (Pennsylvania, 1988), Shifting Languages: Interaction and Identity in Javanese Indonesia (Cambridge, 1999), and Linguistics in a Colonial World: A Story of Language, Meaning, and Power (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). His fifth and most recent book, Other Indonesians: Nationalism in an Unnative Language, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Dis-Engaged Buddhism in Leisure Spaces in Asia
This talk will focus on some updated reflections and new research that came after Architects of Buddhist Leisure (University of Hawaii Press, 2018). The book looks closely at the growth of Buddhist leisure culture through a study of modern Buddhist architects who helped design Buddhist tourist sites, memorial gardens and monuments, museums and cultural centers, and even amusement parks in Nepal, Singapore, Japan,Korea, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. It is designed to start a discussion about the very idea of Buddhist leisure space in modern Asia, question the role of the visionary architect, and look at the rise of Buddhist ecumenicalism.
Works in Progress Workshop: "Exceptional Rule: The Absolutist State in Southeast Asia" With Mu'izz Abdul Khalid
For over five decades, Samuel Huntington’s theory on monarchies, or what he refers to as ‘The King’s Dilemma,’ has been an influential work in political science literature. He argues that monarchies –especially absolutist ones– are political anachronisms doomed to extinction in the contemporary world due to the predicament of political liberalization without losing power. Monarchs could either attempt to maintain their authority by continuing to modernize while also increasing repression to remain in control or basically transform into a constitutional monarchy where he reigns but does not rule. Initially, the theory proved credible, as many monarchs lost their thrones to widespread opposition, such as those in Libya, Egypt, and Nepal. Nevertheless, a handful of monarchies have escaped the dilemma and managed to modernize their states without losing power–– one of them is Negara Brunei Darussalam. Brunei is the only absolutist state in Asia-Pacific and the only Southeast Asian nation-state that does not operate in a parliamentary form of government. As a result, many scholars tend to fixate on the Brunei ‘anachronistic’ political system with the standpoint that democracies are inherently advanced as opposed to authoritarian regimes. Hence, most scholars fail to see outlooks beyond the persistence of the Brunei monarchy instead of the causes and conditions for its emergence. Moreover, most studies tend to highlight Brunei’s similarities with the Gulf monarchies, such as Islamic ruling and oil wealth, rather than looking at the specificities and complexities of the situation in Brunei. However, based on the author’s ongoing dissertation, this workshop examines the emergence of absolutism in Brunei and explores the current political setup–– the symbiosis between the traditional negara and modern state–– that is, in fact, critical for its survival against the rolling waves of democratization.
The Cult of Wilderness and Green Militarization in Thailand - A talk by Pinkaew Laungaramsri
How can anthropological research help us to understand the unevenly distributed impacts of overlapping state security and environmental conservation projects? In this talk, Dr. Laungaramsri situates present day political and socioecological relations in Thailand within the specific history of the Cold War ideology of wilderness thinking, authoritarian politics, and neoliberal conservation. Dr. Laungaramsri explores how these intersecting political and social formations have generated a distinctly “green militarization” and accompanying violent conservation practices.
Chinese Privilage in Singapore Fact or Fiction, A Talk by Saroja Dorairajoo
In this paper, Dorairajoo explores the debate around the notion of Chinese privilege as discussed by race activists, academics, and the general public inSingapore. The notion of Chinese privilege has often been used synonymously with racism and its existence or absence thereof referred to by pointing to personal and institutional discrimination. Such discussion based on binary opposites fail to help us recognize the staying power of Chinese privilege inSingapore. In her discussion, Dorairajoo theorizes the notion of Chinese privilege by looking at it in the following ways (i) as a concept (ii) as an ideology and (iii) as policy. By exploring Chinese privilege through these frames, Dorairajoo argues that one can better appreciate how the notion exists as an enduring phenomenon in Singapore society and challenges entrenched principles of meritocracy and multiracialism as founding charters ofSingaporean society.
SEAG in Conversation with Dr. Oona Paredes
Oona Paredes is an anthropologist and Southeast Asianist and faculty member in the department of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of California Los Angeles. She specializes in the ethnographic and archival study of the southern Philippines, in particular its indigenous non-Muslim minorities known collectively as the Lumad. To date she has worked primarily with the Higaunon Lumad of northern Mindanao, but also studies the experiences of comparable indigenous minority groups regionally and globally. At UCLA she teaches classes on Southeast Asia, Indigenous Peoples, and the Philippines. Before joining UCLA in 2019, Oona was at the National University of Singapore, where she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, and also served as the Faculty Convenor for the Religious Studies Minor program, and as the Philippines country study group coordinator for the Asia Research Institute. She was also previously a Strom Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto Department of History (2017), a Fellow of the American Association of University Women (2009-2010), and a Graduate Research Fellow of the U.S. National Science Foundation (1995-1999).
SEAG with Lillianne Fan
On February 1st 2021, the Myanmar military launched a coup, further threatening Myanmar’s fragile democracy. The coup comes after Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party won in a landslide in the November 2020 elections. Despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s loss of international credibility (especially due to her handling of the Rohingya issue), the return of the junta has created significant fear and unrest, as seen in recent protests on streets by civilians. Media coverage has emphasized civil unrest in central cities, but how do we contextualize these current events within the broader history of democracy and representation across the Nation. How do we understand this event alongside the increased state violence against ethnic minorities even before the coup and the ongoing displacement of Rohingya, Karen, and other ethnic minority groups living at geographic margins. What are some of the political implications of the coup on the broader region?