Events

October 2025 – March 2026

A showcase for new and impactful research on the range of human and more-than-human responses to environmental challenges and conditions. In an age of increased resource extraction, industrialized agriculture, green energy transition and rapid urbanization, this series explores how environments shape us, and how we in turn impact our environments. From the polluted air that urbanites in Asian megacities dare to breathe, to the clash between industrialization and Tokyo’s waterways, to the legacies of twentieth century warfare in Southeast Asia, environmental issues are at the forefront of Global Asia and its connected diasporas. A. Naomi Paik’s keynote lecture, “Sanctuary for None: Migrants and Nature in the Sonoran Desert” was recently published in Social Text (April 2026).

April 2025

A one-day symposium on current scholarship on South Asian borders, mobilities, and diasporas. Featuring keynote and critical discussion of Sahana Ghosh’s A Thousand Tiny Cuts: Mobility and Security across the Bangladesh-India Borderlands.

October 2024

A day-long symposium for scholars working in Global Asian, Asian diaspora, and Asian American studies. Featuring a tribute to Gary Okihiro, influential and field-defining scholar in Asian American studies.

October 2024

A two-part event at Northeastern University and Brown University with filmmaker and scholar Richard Fung, whose video work focuses on subjects ranging from the role of the Asian male in gay pornography to colonialism, immigration, racism, homophobia, AIDS, justice in Israel/Palestine, and his own family history.

Spring 2025

This series, Rethinking Korea: New Perspectives on a Critical Region, invites distinguished scholars of culture, transnational history, environment, and international relations to offer novel perspectives on Korea while situating its complex place within global developments. We invite speakers to share their work that will not only shed light on the internal dynamics and rich history of Korea but also explore the complex relationship between this critical region and the larger world.

September 2023 – April 2024

A series for speakers to share their work that will not only shed light on the internal dynamics and rich history of Korea but also explore the complex relationship between this critical region and the larger world.

November 2023

A one-day symposium that brings together scholars, student activists, and community organizers to think about the politics of the archive and its role in shaping what is forgotten and what is remembered.

Fall 2022 – Spring 2023

A series featuring the key debates and explorations between Asian Studies, Asian American studies and emerging fields; to consider how scholarship intersects with activism and social justice work; and to think about the political, intellectual, and ethical needs of scholarship now and in the future.