REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
About the Seminar
The National Gallery’s inaugural exhibition on Singapore art, SIAPA NAMA KAMU?, which opened in November 2015, pushes the beginnings of art in Singapore back to the nineteenth century. This seminar presentation builds on an essay I was invited to contribute to a forthcoming National Gallery publication. In my essay I argued that if the received view is that art in Singapore began with a group of artists who developed what in the National Gallery exhibition is periodised as “The Nanyang Reverie”, then what we have in the National Gallery is a revision of that received view. This seminar will probe further into the underlying assumption of the argument for extending the narrative of art in Singapore back to the nineteenth century. What unifies the rather disparate categories of natural history drawings, landscapes, historic photographs and portraits as nineteenth century art in Singapore? Were they “works of art” when they were produced in nineteenth century Singapore, or were they more commodities? When did they become appropriated as “works of art”?
About the Speaker
Kwa Chong Guan is an Associate Fellow with the Archaeology Unit of the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre at ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. He is also a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies where he works on a variety of regional security issues, and an Adjunct Associate Professor at the History Department of the National University of Singapore. Kwa was a Director of the old National Museum and continues to serve on various advisory committees of the National Heritage Board today. He also serves on various advisory committees of the National Library Board. Among his publications is an edited volume, Early Southeast Asia viewed from India, An anthology of articles from the “Journal of the Greater India Society”, published as part of the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Series.
Registration
To register, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by Friday, 15 July 2016.
REGIONAL SOCIAL AND CULTURAL STUDIES PROGRAMME
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
It is commonly thought that meaningful contact between Asia and America did not begin until the 19th century, with the massive arrival of Chinese laborers for gold mining and railroad construction in California. Before that, however, the China trade between New England merchants and Canton merchants had thrived since the 18th century, before and after the American Revolution. But well before that, if we think of “America” hemispherically as “the Americas,” then we must go back to the mid-16th century to locate the beginning of sustained contact between Asia and America, in this case, between Manila on Luzon island in Las Filipinas and Acapulco on the Pacific coast of Mexico, then called New Spain. From 1565 to 1815, for 250 years, one to three galleon ships made the round trip trans-Pacific voyage without fail, carrying American silver (mined in Mexico and Peru) to Manila. There, the largely Hokkien traders and settlers in Manila’s Chinatown, called the Parián, acted as indispensable intermediaries in the trade of American silver for Chinese silk, porcelain, lacquer, ivory carvings, as well as spices and many other precious commodities from the larger Indian Ocean and Nanyang world. Chinese and other Asian goods were also trans-shipped from Mexico across the Atlantic to Spain and Europe. Without the critical role played by the Chinese in Manila, this first truly global trading system could not have happened. Because Spanish Manila was an extension of Mexico in the Americas, should we not consider the Parián in Manila as “America’s First Chinatown?”
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Evelyn Hu-DeHart is Professor of History, American Studies and Ethnic Studies at Brown University, USA. During AY 2014-15, she is Visiting Professor in the History Programme of HSS. She received her B.A. from Stanford University and her PhD in Latin American and Caribbean history from the University of Texas at Austin. She has written and edited more than 10 books and over 60 articles, in English, Spanish and Chinese, on three main topics: Indigenous peoples of the US-Mexico borderlands; the Chinese and other Asian diasporas in Latin America and the Caribbean; race and ethnicity in the Americas. Her most recent publication is on Latino politics in the U.S., and she has a forthcoming translation of collected works in Chinese from Zhejiang U. Press. While at NTU, she is interested in sharing research interests and scholarship with scholars in Singapore and the rest of Asia; most of all, she hopes to learn about new methods and perspectives, and to delve into new historical archives and materials. At Brown, she is a founder and co-director of the long-term research project on “Asia-Pacific in the Making of the Americas,” and with her alma mater Stanford University, she is a founder and principal investigator of the Chinese Railroad Workers of North American Project. Both research projects involve international collaborators from Asia and Latin America, and include strong Public Humanities as well as Digital Humanities components. Please check out our websites:
http://web.stanford.edu/group/chineserailroad/cgi-bin/wordpress/ and http://www.brown.edu/conference/asia-pacific/home.
REGISTRATION
For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 1 April 2016.
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
This seminar explores notions of trauma and associated therapy in order to reflect upon the devastating rise of ISIS in the Middle East, and how it can be addressed. Reflecting on the traumatizing conditions of modern Middle East, and their role in the production of traumatizing ideologies, the seminar looks at extremists tendencies, such as ISIS, that actually weaponize trauma. The seminar will also consider therapies that can be developed in order to address trauma, both as a phenomenon, and as a deliberate methodology. The seminar concludes with pedagogical considerations on how to integrate extremism-prevention therapies into national educational programmes, with view to peaceful and compassionate co-living.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Aref Ali Nayed is the Ambassador of Libya to the United Arab Emirates and is the Founder and Director of Kalam Research & Media (KRM) and Chairman of the Libya Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS). During the Libyan revolution he was also the Chief Operations Manager of the Libya Stabilization Team. Dr Aref has taught and lectured Islamic Theology, Logic, and Spirituality at the restored Uthman Pasha Madrasa in Tripoli, Libya. He is Senior Advisor to the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme; Fellow of the Royal Aal Al-Bayt Institute in Jordan; Visiting Professor at Fatih Sultan Mehmet University in Istanbul; and a member of the Board of Advisors of the Templeton Foundation. He was Professor at the Pontifical Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies (Rome), and the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization (Malaysia). He previously headed an Information Technology company based in the UAE and Libya. He received his BSc in Engineering, MA in the Philosophy of Science, and a PhD in Hermeneutics from the University of Guelph (Canada). He also studied at the University of Toronto and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He has been involved in various Inter-Faith initiatives since 1987, including the seminal “A Common Word” process, which was one of the most important inter-faith initiated by Muslims.
His published works include Vatican Engagements: A Muslim Theologian’s Journey in Muslim-Catholic Dialogue (KRM, 2016); Operational Hermeneutics: Interpretation as the Engagement of Operational Artifacts (KRM, 2011); co-authored with Jeff Mitscherling and Tanya Ditommaso, The Author’s Intention (Lexington Books, 2004); ISIS in Libya: Winning the Propaganda War (KRM, 2015); Overcoming ISIS Libya: A Disaster Recovery Plan (KRM, 2015); Libya: From Revolutionary Legitimacy to Constitutional Legitimacy (KRM, 2014); Beyond Fascism (KRM, 2013); Growing Ecologies of Peace, Compassion and Blessing: A Muslim Response to ‘A Muscat Manifesto’ (KRM, 2010); and Duties of Proximity: Towards a Theology of Neighborliness (KRM, 2010).
REGISTRATION
For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 27 March 2016.
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
Naypyitaw has been Myanmar’s capital for the past decade. Carved out of scrubland and paddy fields, and built on a grandiose scale, the city has proved hard for most people to love. Even now that the National League for Democracy has power, Naypyitaw is commonly dismissed as a bizarre addition to the Myanmar landscape. In this presentation, Dr Nicholas Farrelly will offer an up-close appraisal of the city and its people. His analysis of Naypyitaw’s purpose and politics draws on substantial, long-term field research. Dr Farrelly has taken the time to understand the many dimensions of the city and will sketch out how its evolving role fits the trajectory of Myanmar’s reforms. Through a better understanding of Naypyitaw, other aspects of Myanmar’s rapidly changing political, economic and cultural environment can also be explained.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Dr Nicholas Farrelly is a Fellow in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, where he is also Director of the Myanmar Research Centre. After graduating from the ANU with First Class Honours and the University Medal, he completed Masters and Doctoral theses at the University of Oxford where he was a Rhodes Scholar. In 2006, Nicholas co-founded New Mandala, a prominent website on Southeast Asian affairs. He currently holds an Australian Research Council fellowship for a major study of political change in Myanmar, especially in Naypyitaw. Nicholas also writes a weekly newspaper column for The Myanmar Times.
REGISTRATION
For registration, please fill in this form and email to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by Tuesday, 1 March 2016.
ABOUT THE WORKSHOP
As attached here.
REGISTRATION
Attendance is free of charge but registration is required. Please register early as seats are limited.
To register, please complete and email this form to iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 11 Nov 2015.
ABOUT THE SEMINAR
ABOUT THE SPEAKER/AUTHOR
Farouk Yahya, Ph.D. (2013), School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, is Senior Teaching Fellow at that university. He was Assistant Curator of the exhibition The Arts of Southeast Asia from the SOAS Collections (2014-16) in the Brunei Gallery, SOAS.
REGISTRATION
To register, please complete this reply form and return it by fax: 6775-6264 or email: iseasevents2@iseas.edu.sg by 16 October 2015.