2022 > US > Directed by David Siev
With Skyler Janssen, Michael Meinhold, Chun Siev, Jaclyn Siev
David Siev's directorial debut captures a closely-knit Asian American family living in rural Michigan during the pandemic as they fight to keep their local restaurant and American dream alive.
1 hr 40 min

The Global University, Addressing New Subjects of Knowledge is Panel 1 of a 4 panel series which is part of Working in the Traces of Area Studies hosted by faculty emerita Brett DeBary (Asian Studies, Cornell) and Naoki Sakai (Asian Studies, Cornell).

We propose that the disciplines called “Area Studies,” while greatly
contributing to the postwar reform of the university, have reached a point
of historical stasis that demands we search for novel objects,
unaccustomed viewpoints, and different methods of inquiry. After World
War II, the “West’s” center of gravity shifted from Western Europe to North
America, with the United States beginning to occupy the epistemological
center in knowledge production. But Area Studies now confronts the
emergence of global universities transformed by the requirements of
neoliberal economic reforms, the shifting geopolitical balance of power,
unprecedented mobility of information and subjects of knowledge, and the
formation of transnational communities based on media-generated affect.
What are the implications for Area Studies, and its relation to the
humanities in general?

Panelists:

Rey Chow (Literature, Duke University)

John Kim (German/Japanese Comparative Literature, UC, Riverside)

Lisa Yoneyama (East Asian Studies, University of Toronto)

Discussant: Setsu Shigematsu (Media and Cultural Studies, UC, Riverside)

Faculty hosts: Brett DeBary and Naoki Sakai

What is Working in the Traces of Area Studies?

“Working in the Traces of Area Studies” will convene a series of international virtual symposia over the 2023 academic year. “The situation of area studies” will be the overarching theme, with the objective of developing thinking on how the tasks assigned to postwar “area studies” might be re-envisioned, and asking if there is still a plausibility of a trans-national, trans-ethnic, and trans-civilizational positionality from which the discipline of area studies may be revised. Discussions will focus on the implications of the ongoing reconfiguration of power relations which have rendered uncertain the places of the “West” and “non-West” in the disciplinary structure of area studies. Particularly critical will be analysis of the inter-related related concepts of “area,” “language,” “culture” and embodied “ethnicity” or “race.” On this basis, the series will suggest that new comparative perspectives are urgently needed, especially to African and East European Studies, which have traditionally shared with Asian Studies the designation of “area studies.”

In his new book “Contemporary State Building: Elite Taxation and Public Safety in Latin America” (Cambridge University Press 2022) Professor Flores-Macías discusses experiences of elite taxation in Latin America, in the context of the public-safety crises facing several countries in the region.

Contrary to prominent explanations in the literature on the fiscal strengthening of the state – including the role of resource dependence and inequality – the book advances a theory of elite taxation that focuses on public-safety crises as windows of opportunity and highlights the importance of business–government linkages to overcome mistrust toward government from corruption and lack of accountability. Based on the evidence from across Latin America and rich case studies from experiences in Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Mexico, the book provides scholars and policymakers with a blueprint for contemporary state-building efforts in the developing world.

Government professor Kenneth Roberts will interview Gustavo about his book.

About the Author

Gustavo Flores-Macías is Associate Vice Provost for International Affairs and Professor of Government and Public Policy at Cornell University. His research and teaching interests include a variety of topics related to political and economic development, such as taxation, state capacity, and militarization of law enforcement. He is the author of After Neoliberalism? The Left and Economic Reforms in Latin America (Oxford 2012), and the editor of The Political Economy of Taxation in Latin America (Cambridge 2019).

About the Interviewer -- Kenneth Roberts is the Richard J Schwartz Professor of Government at Cornell. He leads the Einaudi Center's democratic threats and resilience global research priority in academic years 2022–24. He teaches comparative and Latin American politics, with an emphasis on the political economy of development and the politics of inequality.

His research is devoted to the study of political parties, populism, labor and social movements, and democratic resilience. He is especially interested in the cases of Chile, Peru, Venezuela, and Argentina.

Register to attend Virtually at this link

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Denni Purbasari, who will be discussing her work with Indonesia's Kartu Prakerja Program, which is a large-scale program for Indonesians looking to develop the skills which are needed to enter the modern workforce.

About the Speaker

Denni Puspa Purbasari has been the Executive Director of the Project Management Office (PMO) of the Kartu Prakerja Program at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs since March 2020. She is also a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Universitas Gadjah Mada. She earned her Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2006. Before serving at PMO Kartu Prakerja Program, she was the Economic Deputy Chief of Staff of the Preseident of the Republic of Indonesia in 2015-2020, and the Assistant to the Economic Advisor for the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia in 2009-2014. She is the recipient of the Satya Lencana Karya Satya X, Fulbright Scholarship, Stanford Calderwood Student Teaching Award, James C. Campbell Thesis Research Award, Beverly Sears Student Research AWard, and the University of Colorado Fellowship.