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Flows and currents in South East Asia graduate conference 2025
Key information
- Date
- to
- Venue
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Room
- Khalili Lecture Theatre (KLT)
- Event type
- Conference
About this event
This conference seeks to explore the complex and thriving flows that shape South East Asia, from its literary traditions to its sociopolitical landscapes.
The theme, Flows and Currents in South East Asia, invites interdisciplinary engagement with South East Asia’s vibrant cultural, intellectual, and material currents. Drawing inspiration from Chen Kuan-hsing’s influential Asia as Method, the conference emphasises the importance of inter-referencing within and beyond South East Asia. As Chen writes, “through imaginings of a new Asia... diverse frames of reference cross our horizon, multiply our perspectives, and enrich our subjectivity” (2010: 255).
By encompassing inter-referencing, this conference seeks to explore how regional and transregional interactions generate fresh insights into South East Asia’s literature, cultures, and histories. These dialogues challenge static knowledge frameworks, fostering decolonial practices and enriching intellectual imaginaries. The conference encourages critical approaches to how South East Asia engages with itself and the broader world.
The conference is supported by the Centre for Cultural, Literary, and Postcolonial Studies, Centre of South East Asian Studies, School of Languages, Cultures, and Linguistics, SOAS University of London and the SOAS Doctoral School.
Programme
| Time | Description |
|---|---|
| Day 1: 3 July 2025 | |
| 8:15am–9:15am | Registration |
| 9:15am–9:30am | Welcome remarks – Dr Keya Anjaria (Lecturer in Comparative Literature and Chair of the Centre for Cultural, Literary and Postcolonial Studies, SOAS University of London) |
| 9:30am–10:00am | Keynote Lecture – Mainland South East Asia as Cultural Method – Dr Rachel V. Harrison (Professor of Thai Cultural Studies and Head of the Doctoral School, SOAS University of London) |
| Panel 1: Media and cultural encounters Moderator: Professor Rachel V Harrison (SOAS) | |
| 10:00am–10:15am | Flows of Memory, Currents of Code: Post-Internet Documentary and Southeast Asian Migrant Media Practice – Huh Nam Joo (Loughborough University) |
| 10:15am–10:30am | Recasting Shadows: Locating Banyumas in the Currents of Southeast Asian Art and Identity – Binar Astri Lestari (SOAS University of London) |
| 10:30am–10:45am | A Deep Dive into South China Sea Narratives among Pro-Duterte Social Media Influencers in the Philippines – Regine Miren Cabato (SOAS University of London) |
| 10:45am–11:00am | Singapore as Method: SBC’s Documentary Film Production and Reimagining Singaporean Chinese Identity in the 1980s – Zhang Zhaowenzhe (National University of Singapore) |
| 11:00am–11:30am | Q&A and open discussion |
| 11:30am–1:00pm | Lunch break (at participants’ own expense) |
| Panel 2: Gender, art and resistance Moderator: Annechien Selimi-ten Brinke (SOAS) | |
| 1:00pm–1:15pm | Scents of Resistance: Vegetal Flows in Vietnamese Cinema – Feng Yixuan (King’s College London) |
| 1:15pm–1:30pm | Dalamhati Sa Pelikula: Aesthetics of Grief in Filipino Independent Films at Cinemalaya – Jose P. Mojica (University of Santo Tomas) |
| 1:30pm–1:45pm | Good Daughtering and Decolonial Praxis: Reimagining Mother-Daughter Dynamics in Southeast Asia – Maya Ibrahim (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| 1:45pm–2:00pm | Modern Girl as Method: Gendered Modernity and Transcolonial Circuits in Late Colonial Burma – Htet Thazin Myo Lwin (University of Glasgow) |
| 2:00pm–2:30pm | Q&A and open discussion |
| 2:30pm–2:45pm | Coffee break |
| Panel 3: Textual circulations and language politics (Part 1) Moderator: Dr Mulaika Hijjas (SOAS) | |
| 2:45pm–3:00pm | Ink and Tides: The Sulu Zone’s Maritime Manuscript Trade as a Decolonial Archive – Ramapuram Samuel Vijay Sukumar Babu (Goethe University Frankfurt) |
| 3:00pm–3:15pm | A Fable of Debt: The Hikayat Nakhoda Muda and Self-Sufficiency in 18th-Century Sumatra – Nicole W Yow (Yale University) |
| 3:15pm–3:30pm | Defining Love, Marriage and Female Sexuality in Burmese Literary Guidebooks – Tongchen Hou (SOAS University of London) |
| 3:30pm–4:00pm | Q&A and open discussion |
| 4:00pm–4:15pm | Break |
| Panel 3: Textual circulations and language politics (Part 2) Moderator: Leif Garinto (SOAS) | |
| 4:15pm–4:30pm | AI Writing as an Ocean Medium: Mapping Cultural and Environmental Flows in South East Asia – Mujie Li (Monash University Malaysia) |
| 4:30pm–4:45pm | Flowing but Never Rooting: The Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca and its Unfulfilled Malay Instruction (1818–1843) – Ye Youyun (University of Tokyo) |
| 4:45pm–5:00pm | Linguistic Currents and Khmer Language Standardization: Pronunciation of Phnom Penh Khmer Dialects – Chem Vatho (University of Cologne) |
| 5:00pm–5:30pm | Q&A and open discussion |
| 5:30pm–5:45pm | Closing remarks (Leif Garinto and Fauzan Roslee, SOAS University of London) |
| Day 2: 4 July 2025 | |
| 9:00am–9:30am | Registration |
| Panel 4: Memory and identity-making Moderator: Tongchen Hou (SOAS) | |
| 9:30am–9:45am | Intergenerational Differences in Malaysian Chinese Identity: Case of the Tan Family, Seremban – Chen Yizhen (Xiamen University) |
| 9:45am–10:00am | Temporal Flows: Colonial Injustice, Memory and Southeast Asia Ghost Culture – Victoria Allen Stainsby (SOAS University of London) |
| 10:00am–10:15am | Trapping Spirits with Words: Ghost Stories in Contemporary Singapore – Ashley Chin (University of Cambridge) |
| 10:15am–10:30am | Community Archiving, Future Shaping: Engaging Diasporic Communities with the An Việt Archives – Cường Minh Bá Phạm (University of Birmingham) |
| 10:30am–11:00am | Q&A and open discussion |
| 11:00am–11:15am | Coffee break |
| Panel 5: Labour and political economy Moderator: Fauzan Arif Roslee (SOAS) | |
| 11:15am–11:30am | Laboring Lives at Sea: Ethnography of Filipino Seafarers and the Maritime Industry – Sorata Watanabe (Linköping University) |
| 11:30am–11:45am | Unequal Exchange: Migrant Reproductive Labour and Remittances between the Philippines and Singapore – Kevin Tan (SOAS University of London) |
| 11:45am–12:00pm | Southeast Asian Chinese Labourers and Diasporic Nationalism (1900–1912) – Qiu Chenyu (University of Edinburgh) |
| 12:00pm–12:15pm | Reconciling Human Rights with Neoliberal Critiques in Citizenship Education in South East Asia – Zin Mie Sharr (Nord University) |
| 12:15pm–12:45pm | Q&A and open discussion |
| 12:45pm–1:00pm | Closing remarks (Leif Garinto and Fauzan Roslee, SOAS University of London) |
Flows and Currents - Conference Pack
PDF document, 1.03MB
Registration for non-speakers
Please register to attend the conference as a non-speaker using the link above. The conference is free but registration is required for everyone who will attend. Please note that the conference is an in-person event only.
The deadline for registration is 1 July 2025.
Contact
Organisers: Leif Andrew Garinto and Fauzan Arif Roslee (School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, SOAS University of London)
Enquiries: soasseaflows2025@gmail.com
Leif Garinto: lg37@soas.ac.uk
Fauzan Roslee: 704720@soas.ac.uk
Header image credit: 'Damnoen Saduak Floating Market, Damnoen Saduak, Thailand' by Andrew Ly via Unsplash
