Skip to main content

Southeast Asia Program

Sotong & Against This Messy World

April 6, 2026

5:00 pm

Rockefeller Hall, 374

Join SEAP and GETSEA for a simulcast film screening of two short films: Sotong and Against This Messy World.

We will watch the films on the Cornell campus, then join an online discussion with audiences at universities across the US for a Q&A with the filmmakers.

Sotong follows four fierce local drag queens who were part of the 2022 Halloween party raided by the authorities. One of them, Juan, was arrested for ‘a man dressing up as a woman’. Two years later, they revisit on the fallout of that night as they continue to perform underground and nurture the Malaysian drag scene in all its beauty, joy, and pain.

Against This Messy World is a deeply introspective and visually captivating short documentary that delves into the heart and soul of artistic expression in Malaysia. A personal exploration, narrated by Malaysian artists, this documentary takes viewers on an evocative journey to understand the essence and purpose of being an artist in a world marked by chaos and uncertainty and piece together conversations and unfiltered moments in their lives.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Southeast Asia Program

“The Illegally Well Graphic Novel and Un-planner: On Collaboration, Undocumented Temporality, and Ethno-Graphic Storytelling”

March 17, 2026

4:45 pm

Kaufmann Auditorium, G64 Goldwin Smith Hall

Undocumented Thai American artist and activist Bo Thai is wary of undocumented resilience narratives. The sequence of maddeningly arbitrary events that has kept him from accessing legal immigration status in the US has made him critical of the idea that undocumented people should live lives of endurance – that is, a life in which the present is perpetually deferred to a promised moment of future relief in the form of papers. In this talk, Elizabeth Rubio will discuss how ten years of collaborative work with Bo has culminated in co-authorship of a graphic novel that employs speculative fiction to explore how undocumented status and immigrant justice activism structure relationships to time. In addition to demonstrating how ethnographic and artistic co-theorization has led her and Bo to develop an understanding of undocumented activist temporality that challenges dominant depictions of undocumented movement life, Dr. Rubio will discuss the challenges and possibilities of ethnographic storytelling through visual mediums and activist-academic collaboration.

Elizabeth Rubio is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at University of California, Riverside. She builds on her work as a community organizer and cultural anthropologist to conduct ethnographic research that responds to emergent questions in Asian American and leftist social justice spaces. Elizabeth is currently completing her book manuscript entitled Dreams Beyond Borders: Undocumented Temporality and Asian American Immigrant Justice Activism. Based on seven years of ethnographic research with undocumented Asian American organizers in Southern California, Washington D.C., and Chicago, Dreams Beyond Borders examines the fraught politics of multiracial coalition-building in immigrant justice spaces and the complexities of enacting immigrant justice through an abolitionist lens. You can find Elizabeth’s work published in Truthout, Journal for the Anthropology of North America, Amerasia, Frontiers: A Women’s Studies Journal, the LA Review of Books, and other mediums.

Additional Information

Program

Southeast Asia Program

International Fair

August 26, 2026

11:00 am

Uris Hall, Terrace

International Fair showcases Cornell's global opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students. Explore the fair and find out about international majors and minors, language study, study abroad, funding opportunities, global internships, Cornell Global Hubs, and more.

The International Fair is sponsored by the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and Office of Global Learning (both part of Global Cornell) in partnership with the Language Resource Center.

Register on CampusGroups to receive a reminder. Registration is not required.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies

East Asia Program

Southeast Asia Program

Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Institute for African Development

Institute for European Studies

South Asia Program

Migrations Program

Southwest Asia and North Africa Program

Nguyễn Modern: Imperial Vietnam and its Multicultural Futures

April 30, 2026

12:15 pm

Kahin Center

Gatty Lecture Series

Join us for a talk by Bradley Davis, Professor of History from the Eastern Connecticut State University.

This Gatty Lecture will take place at The Kahin Center, 640 Stewart Ave. Lunch will be served. For questions, contact seapgatty@cornell.edu.

Abstract

In 2025, leadership in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam initiated sweeping reforms to the administration of the country. Some territorial units became blended into others and long-standing categories in Vietnamese political geography, such as “city” thành phố and “province” tỉnh either transformed beyond recognition or vanished completely from the map. Despite its seeming novelty, and contrary to the judgments of policy analysts and commentators, these twentieth-century reforms were neither unprecedented nor, from a long-term historical view, entirely unexpected. In fact, we might find their clearest antecedents in reforms launched two centuries ago, when the imperial Vietnamese state sought to enhance its control over people, territory, and resources. Vietnam’s imperial past not only presaged its administrative present, it also opens a view towards possible multicultural futures.

About the Speaker

Bradley Camp Davis examines Vietnamese history with a multicultural and interdisciplinary approach. His publications include Imperial Bandits (University of Washington Press, 2017), which was long-listed for the ICAS book prize, and, as co-editor, a two-volume annotated collection of Yao texts, Sách Cổ Chữ Dao (Hanoi, 2009), and The Cultivated Forest (Washington, 2022) along with research articles in English, Vietnamese, and French. He has held visiting appointments at Université Paris-Cité, the Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University, and, most recently the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Currently, he is completing a book manuscript on the multi-species environmental history of imperial Vietnam as well as a book manuscript on the history of administrative reform. Since 2012, he has taught courses on Southeast Asian and world history at Eastern Connecticut State University.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Southeast Asia Program

Across the Archives: Colonial Collections in and on the Philippines

April 22, 2026

3:00 pm

Join us for an online discussion on colonial collections in and on the Philippines, featuring speakers from Yale University.

Dr. Cheryl Beredo, Director of Collections and Chief Curator, Yale University

Surveying several collections that can support the study of U.S. colonial archives of and on the Philippines, this presentation considers the conditions of their formation and explores their continuing dynamism. This talk examines how familiar government documents, national archives, and independent research collections in the United States and the Philippines not only chronicle the activities of the colonial state, but also the enduring work of both collection- and institution-building. It concludes with observations on possibilities to continue to build archives in this area today.

Aurélie Vialette, Associate Professor, Yale University

This presentation will discuss the colonial administrative archive of San Ramon penal colony (Zamboanga, Mindanao, the Philippines, 1869). The study of this archive provides an entrance to examine the transportation and labor of the imprisoned indigenous in the Philippines under colonial rule. It will cover the experiences working with archives, both in the Philippines and in Spain, and explain how to work with both databases and documents, showing specific examples from both countries.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Southeast Asia Program

Asian Game Night

April 17, 2026

5:00 pm

Kahin Center

Come learn and practice Mahjong, a game popularized by films such as Crazy Rich Asians and played widely in countries such as Japan (riichi), China (Shanghai), Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Learn to play Kla Klouk, Tiến lên, and more!

Asian Game Night is co-sponsored by the East Asia Program, Southeast Asia Program, and the Asian and Asian American Center as part of the APIDA Heritage Month Celebration.

Snacks will be provided.

Please register here.

APIDA Heritage Month

In honor of Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Heritage Month, the Asian & Asian American Center collaborates with academic departments, Cornell Health, student organizations, Cornell Dining and other campus partners to host a series of events in April.

Celebrated nationally in May, APIDA Heritage Month honors Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans who have enriched U.S. history and are key to its future success. The month consists of programs and events that educate all members of the Cornell University community about the histories, cultural diversity, contributions, and often underreported challenges of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi Americans.

View the full list of APIDA Heritage Month events here.

Additional Information

Program

East Asia Program

Southeast Asia Program

Reimagining International Aid

April 16, 2026

5:00 pm

Rockefeller Hall, 201 (Schwartz Auditorium)

Bartels World Affairs Lecture

In this year’s Bartels lecture, Ambassador Samantha Power examines the causes and consequences of dismantling the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). While reductions in United States foreign assistance have inflicted harm on millions of people, the principal beneficiaries of the cuts, Power contends, are the People’s Republic of China and other governments that prefer to operate without scrutiny or accountability.

Join us as Power outlines a strategy for revitalizing a broad bipartisan coalition to support foreign assistance. To succeed in building resilient aid structures, politicians and stakeholders will need to demonstrate the effectiveness of aid programs to the public. U.S. resources should be used as leverage to secure new commitments from partner countries and mobilize additional investments from allied governments, the private sector, philanthropy, and members of the diaspora.

***

Speaker

Ambassador Samantha Power served in the Biden-Harris administration as the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the world’s premier international development agency. She was the 28th U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama-Biden administration. Her first book, "A Problem from Hell": America and the Age of Genocide, won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

***

About the Bartels World Affairs Lecture

The Bartels World Affairs Lecture is a signature event of the Einaudi Center for International Studies. This flagship event brings distinguished international figures to campus each academic year to speak on global topics and meet with Cornell faculty and students, particularly undergraduates. The lecture and related events are made possible by the generosity of Henry E. Bartels ’48 and Nancy Horton Bartels ’48.

Additional Information

Program

Einaudi Center for International Studies

Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies

East Asia Program

Southeast Asia Program

Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Institute for African Development

Institute for European Studies

South Asia Program

Migrations Program

Southwest Asia and North Africa Program

SEADL Undergraduate Paper Award

A flyer advertising the SEADL Undergraduate Paper award, with an image of a Southeast Asian performer.
March 9, 2026

Submit your undergraduate papers by June 30.

The Southeast Asia Digital Library Paper Award seeks papers from undergraduates concerning original research in Southeast Asian Studies. The first-place winner will receive their choice of two books from the Cornell University Press catalog. Both first- and second-place winning papers will be published on the Southeast Asia Digital Library (sea.lib.niu.edu).

Applicant Eligibility

Applicants must be current undergraduate students at Southeast Asia Digital Library (SEADL) affiliated institutions* at the time of submission. Applicants must agree that, should they win, their papers will be made openly accessible and published online on SEADL.

Paper Eligibility

Eligible papers must be within the field of Southeast Asia Studies and reference primary source materials. Papers may be written for a class or independent study within the past three academic years: Spring 2023 - Spring 2026. Papers must be between 2,000 and 10,000 words, excluding references.

Evaluation Criteria

Winning papers will demonstrate the student's ability to support original research with analysis of primary source materials. Papers that reference materials held in SEADL collections will be given increased consideration.  

Submission Materials

Submission packets should include a cover page containing the paper title, author name, author email, institutional affiliation, and date. Papers should be submitted as a separate PDF document listing only the title. No author information should be included in the paper itself to allow for blind evaluation.

Email submission packets to seadl@cornell.edu by June 30,2026.

*SEADL Affiliated Institutions:  

Arizona State University; The City University of New York; Columbia University; Cornell University; Duke University; Harvard University; Indiana University, Bloomington; King’s University College at Western University; McGill University; Michigan State University; Northern Illinois University; Ohio University; The State University of New York; Université de Montréal; Université Laval; University of British Columbia; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Riverside; University of Hawai’i at Manoa; University of Michigan; University of Saskatchewan; University of Toronto; University of Victoria; University of Washington; University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yale University; York University 

Additional Information

Indonesian Night 26

March 14, 2026

12:00 am

Physical Sciences Building, PSB ATRIUM

Hi everyone!

The Indonesian Association at Cornell (IAC) invites you to Indonesian Night 2026!

Clark Atrium will be transformed into a vibrant Pasar Malem (Indonesian night market) where you can experience Indonesia’s culture through interactive booths, performances, traditional games, regional clothing, music, and more.

Enjoy Indonesian food, Indonesian specialty coffee, and sambal tasting — ALL IS FREE!

Date: Saturday, March 14, 2026

Registration starts: 6:30 PM

Event time: 7:00 – 9:00 PM

Location: Clark Atrium, Physical Sciences Building

Link: https://cornell.campusgroups.com/IndonAssoc/rsvp_boot?id=2300855

Bring your friends and come experience the vibrant culture of Indonesia with us! See you there!

Additional Information

Program

Southeast Asia Program

Ladies of Manila Sound

March 9, 2026

11:40 am

Join PMA for Ladies of Manila Sound Presented by PMA 1183 FWS: Hip-Hop’s Global Vibrations (NYC, LA, Southeast Asia). This event will take place on Zoom on Monday, March 9, from 11:40 am - 12:55 pm. There will be a short DJ turntablist performance, followed by a Q&A session.

Join on Zoom: https://cornell.zoom.us/j/97871338956?pwd=jkVtNRwYV9DOw8MtoeQ9Sf5vYgyLQ…

DJ COLLECTIVE MANILA SOUND:

DJ Wee Jay, Thatflypinay, and January are Los Angeles based DJs who each bring their own eclectic style and unique perspective to the Manila Sound. Together, they create a harmonious blend of sound that reflects both individuality and unity. At the heart of their sets is the mission of Manila Sound: amplifying Filipino and Philippine diaspora music and artistry. Their music is rooted in cultural learning and intention, inviting the community to come together in celebration. Whether it is your Tita finding songs she grew up with or the community joining in chorus, their sets are a reminder that culture and community belong at the center of every dance floor.

Additional Information

Program

Southeast Asia Program

Subscribe to Southeast Asia Program