Keynote address of the 27th SEAP Graduate Student Conference.

This talk, drawing upon years of fieldwork in Malaysia and South India has two main aims: First, in questioning the mobility and translatability of biomedical interventions given cultural conceptions of self, spirit, and wellness, I ask to what extent cultural difference really matters, as some have argued for South and Southeast Asia? Second, I query the extent to which mobility, modernity, and madness are inextricably linked, problematizing the very construction of inside and outside forces as sometimes naturalized by anthropologists, healers, and clinicians when writing on mental health, particularly when concerning spirit possession, that most “traditional” of afflictions. This binary, in turn, has effaced the complex entanglements of difference and difference-making, the heterodox and power-laden values that posit binaries by those powerful and vulnerable alike, albeit with different stakes. I argue that mobility and immobility within symbolic and semantic registers also matters, along with geographic and social mobility.

Andrew C. Willford is a professor of anthropology and Asian studies at Cornell University. His latest book, The Future of Bangalore’s Cosmopolitan Pasts: Civility and Difference in a Global City (University of Hawaii, 2018) examines the politics of language, religion, identity, and belonging in Bangalore, India. His previous research focused on forms of Tamil and Hindu displacement, revivalism, and identity politics in Malaysia.

The conference schedule is available here.

More details are also available on the conference website here.

A full packet with information about all papers being presented is available here.

How is Southeast Asia animated and made to move? Who crosses boundaries, who stays still, and what jams, messes, conscriptions, and inscriptions are we bound to?

Resisting both dreams of frictionless passage and fantasies of fixed origins, the theme of the 27th SEAP Graduate Student Conference waves in reflections on mobility and its constraints. We await explorations of that which is trans (-national, -Pacific, -imperial, -gressive) or in trans (-ition, -mission, -lation). We welcome interrogations on that which is mobile yet clandestine, unintended, or interrupted. What kinetic energies are released by diasporas in seeds, chemicals, finances, and tastes? What constitutes the motion in activist, insurgent, protest, or resistance movements, and who moves against the movers? What disturbed temporalities, what uncertain spatialities, what contingent choreographies are produced by the travel of soldiers, pollutants, scientists, viruses, and images of young hippos in Thai zoos?

Moo Deng and we invite submissions which agitate stagnant pools of nationality and syncopate staid rhythms of history. Viewing the academy itself as a site of stupor, we also welcome scholarship which unsettles the heavy dust of area studies.

The 27th SEAP Graduate Student Conference will be held on March 7-9, 2025 at Cornell University’s George McT. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia in Ithaca, New York.

Please direct any questions to seapgatty@cornell.edu

The Southeast Asia Program presents in coordination with Cornell Cinema, "Song Lang".

About the Film:

Set against the lush, golden world of 1980s Saigon, Leon Le’s debut feature film follows a blossoming relationship between debt collector Dung (Lien Binh Phat) and folk opera singer Linh Phung (played by Vietnamese pop star Isaac). In a chance encounter while collecting payment from a local troupe, Dung is unexpectedly drawn to Linh Phung, captivated by the singer’s passion for cải lương, also known as reformed theatre. As their paths intertwine, initial misunderstandings fade, and Dung’s stoic veneer begins to melt, revealing a deeper, unspoken yearning. Beneath the curtains of a fading, once-glorious art form, Song Lang reveals the unfolding desires of two men, the stage that frames them, and the stillness that lingers between their glances.

"Song Lang" refers to a wooden, tempo-keeping instrument used in Vietnamese folk opera, cải lương, also referred to as reformed theatre. In Sino-Vietnamese, the term "Song Lang" can also mean "two gentlemen" or "two wolves."

Directed by Vietnamese American filmmaker Leon Le, Song Lang offers a nostalgic ode to Vietnamese folk opera and a contemplative reflection on quiet intimacy and unlikely bonds.

About the Series:

Join us for a two-part screening series offering tender glimpses into queerness centered on East and Southeast Asian contexts. Seen through the eyes of diasporic directors—Cambodian British Hong Khaou and Vietnamese American Leon Le—Lilting and Song Lang weave delicate, lyrical narratives to contemplate unexpected connections. Both debut feature films speak not only to the happenstance of those who enter our lives but also to the ephemerality of these relationships.

This series celebrates queer Asian filmmakers who employ cinematic language to traverse difficult spaces, reminding us of the playful gestures that films can offer to resituate our understanding of presence and absence, of memory and healing, and of intimacy and unspoken emotions.

Featuring:
Lilting (2014, dir. Hong Khaou)
Wednesday, March 5, at 6pm
Song Lang (2018, dir. Leon Le)
Wednesday, March 12, at 6pm

Sponsored by the East Asia Program and the Southeast Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and co-presented by QGrads, Cornell’s LGBTQIA2S+ Graduate Student Association.

Free Admission! Part of our “Love, Loss, and Longing” series. Courtesy of Breaking Glass Pictures. In Vietnamese with English subtitles.

Join us for our Wednesday Lunch Series, featuring guest speakers from Cornell's faculty and staff as well as the surrounding community. Enjoy an informal discussion where you can learn more about the speaker’s work or research, how they ended up doing what they are doing, current issues in higher education and local community. A free lunch will be served.

Dr. Billy Noseworthy is a historian of Southeast Asia and the World. He is also currently a Cataloging Associate for Vietnamese Language materials at Cornell University Library, while simultaneously serving as a Visiting Lecturer of World History at McNeese State University in Louisiana. He has published widely on the history of ethnic and religious minorities in Southeast Asia, on topics of historical preservation, indigenous rights, and rare languages, as well as on the history of the South China Sea and the transpacific history of Hip Hop culture, with recent publications appearing in Cogent: Social Sciences, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies and South East Asia Research. His graduate work combined the study of the History of Southeast Asia with a constructed minor focusing on Diaspora History and Literature, which he completed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His most recent book was a co-edited OER textbook for World History, 1500-Present, whose production was sponsored by the Department of Education and Louisiana Library Network (LOUIS). In addition to his academic labor, Dr. Billy is also the founding host of Kampung Jams on WRFI (89.7 FM Odessa, 88.1 FM Ithaca), which promotes the music of Southeast Asia and the diaspora.

East Asia Program presents "Lilting."

About the film: Junn, played by the beloved late Cheng Pei-Pei, is an elderly Cambodian Chinese widow still grappling with the death of her son, Kai. Her life is further complicated by Richard (Ben Whishaw), Kai’s boyfriend, seeking to build a more intimate connection despite their language barriers. With the help of a translator, the two uneasily embark on a journey of mutual understanding, transforming the prickly relationship into tethered solace. Through its non-linear narrative, Lilting delivers a tremendously insightful study of loss and coping, of fractured memories and graceful acceptance. Hong Khaou’s Lilting reminds us that grief can be a delicate bridge, a thin lifeline that transcends language and cultural barriers.

Free Admission! Part of our “Love, Loss, and Longing” series. Courtesy of Strand Releasing. In English and Mandarin (with subtitles).

About the screening series:

Join us for a two-part screening series offering tender glimpses into queerness centered on East and Southeast Asian contexts. Seen through the eyes of diasporic directors—Cambodian British Hong Khaou and Vietnamese American Leon Le—Lilting and Song Lang weave delicate, lyrical narratives to contemplate unexpected connections. Both debut feature films speak not only to the happenstance of those who enter our lives but also to the ephemerality of these relationships.

This series celebrates queer Asian filmmakers who employ cinematic language to traverse difficult spaces, reminding us of the playful gestures that films can offer to resituate our understanding of presence and absence, of memory and healing, and of intimacy and unspoken emotions.
Featuring:
Lilting (2014, dir. Hong Khaou)
Wednesday, March 5, at 6pm
Song Lang (2018, dir. Leon Le)
Wednesday, March 12, at 6pm

Sponsored by the East Asia Program and the Southeast Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies and co-presented by QGrads, Cornell’s LGBTQIA2S+ Graduate Student Association.
"Love, Loss, and Longing" is curated by Vince Ha, a Fulbright visiting researcher for the Southeast Asia Program at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies.

A discussion with Pita Limjaroenrat, hosted by the Center on Global Democracy.

About the Speaker
Pita Limjaroenrat (b. 1980) formerly led the Move Forward Party (MFP) in Thailand’s May 2023 general elections, where his social democratic platform won the most votes and seats in the Parliament. Despite this mandate, his attempts to form a government were blocked by institutional mechanisms, and the Constitutional Court dissolved the MFP on August 7. Pita’s policy focus centers on addressing grassroots issues, welfare improvements, and human rights, while advocating for the demilitarization of politics and economic demonopolization. Currently, he is Visiting Senior Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School. He holds a joint MPA-MBA from Harvard Kennedy School and MIT Sloan and has been named on the TIME 100 Next List. Today, Pita continues to champion transparent and equitable governance on a global scale.

About the Event

Join Pita Limjaroenrat, former leader of Thailand’s dissolved Move Forward Party, for a discussion on contemporary Thai politics and society. In this fireside chat, Pita will address audience questions on topics such as Thailand’s political and economic landscape, inequality, and democratic movements, as well as the country’s evolving relationships with ASEAN and major global powers. The discussion will also touch on broader regional challenges and the state of democracy on a global scale.

Hosted by librarians Emily Zinger (Cornell University Library) and Brent Bianchi (Yale University), this webinar will provide an overview of Yale’s Maurice Durand papers, as well as current work with the Digitizing Việt Nam project. Our first speaker, Trâm Phương Nguyễn, Ph.D. (Columbia University) will focus on the Hán-Nôm collection that she and her colleagues are working on and the digital humanities tools in development specifically for this collection and Hán-Nôm studies. She will also discuss how this collection has been formed and its accessibility to the public. Our second speaker, Thành Hà Thị Tuệ (Vietnam National University) will describe their work with the Maurice Durand papers, focusing particularly on 3 Hán Nôm texts: The Tale of Kiều; the dictionary 大南國音字彙; and Tú Xương thi tập 陳濟昌詩集.