High Profile Events – Sigur Center for Asian Studies

[4/23/24] A Conversation with Geling Yan

April 8, 2024April 25, 2024Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Tuesday, April 23, 2024

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM EDT

Lindner Family Commons

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

RSVP

Join the Sigur Center for Asian Studies for a conversation with accomplished novelist and screenwriter Geling Yan 嚴歌苓. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

After more than a decade with the PLA, she published her first novel in 1986 and has been writing constantly ever since. Her best-known novels in English are The Secret Talker, Little Aunt Crane, The Banquet Bug, The Lost Daughter of Happiness, and White Snake and Other Stories. Many of her novels have been adapted for films and television series, including Youth (Feng Xiaogang), three films by Zhang Yimou (The Flowers of War, Coming Home, and One Second), Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (directed by Joan Chen), A City Called Macau (directed by Li Shaohong) and Siao Yu(directed by Sylvia Chang and produced by Ang Lee). Her novel The Lost Daughter of Happiness is being adapted into a musical, FUSONG, which was presented to the New York Citytheater community earlier this month and addresses anti-Asian racism, violence, and the transcendence of love.

In this talk, Ms. Yan will discuss her life, her works, censorship, and her latest book Milati, which was published in 2023. The story is about a young woman named Milati, a dancer tuned novelist, her cohort, and that of her artist father during the 1980s in China, when the country opened up, everything seemed possible, and they thought would go on forever. Selected copies of Ms. Yan’s works will be sold at the event.

Speaker

Geling Yan 嚴歌苓 is one of the most acclaimed novelists and screenwriters in the Chinese language and a well-established writer in English. Born in Shanghai, she served with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) during the Cultural Revolution, starting at age twelve as a dancer in an entertainment troupe.

Many of Ms. Yan’s works have been adapted for film and television, directed or produced by famous directors such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Ang Lee, Li Shaohong and Joan Chen. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Ms. Yan holds an MFA in Fiction Writing from Columbia College, Chicago. She has published over 40 books and has won over 30 literary and film awards. Her works have been translated into twenty-one languages. She has been subject to an unwritten ban in China since March 2020, when she wrote an essay criticizing the Chinese government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis. She resides in Berlin, Germany and has recently co-founded a company, New Song Media GmbH, to produce films and to publish her works outside China.

Discussant

As a Public Interest Technology Scholar Program fellow and an affiliate at the Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law and Society (TRAILS), Alexa Alice Joubin is a leading voice in generative AI and social justice issues. She is the inaugural recipient of the bell hooks Legacy Award and holder of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. She writes about artificial intelligence (AI), race, gender, globalization, Taiwan and Sinophone diaspora studies, cultural diplomacy, and film and theatre. The bell hooks Award recognizes her achievements in “dismantling intersectional systems of oppression with the distinct goals of uplifting members of historically marginalized populations and striving for social justice,” through her “groundbreaking work that speaks to our moment in history and our hope for the future” and her public scholarship, use of generative AI tools as assistive technology in class, open-access publications, and inclusive pedagogies. The recipient of George Washington University’s Trachtenberg Research Award, Dr. Joubin is the co-author of Race (2018) and the author and editor of 24 books on global feminism, critical race theory, and performance studies.

Dr. Joubin teaches in the English department, is an affiliated faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and co-founded the GW Digital Humanities Institute . She directed the Dean’s Scholars in Shakespeare (a signature program of GW’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences). At MIT, she is co-founder and co-director of the open access Global Shakespeares digital performance archive. Her publications can be accessed on ResearchGate.

Her teaching and publications are unified by a commitment to understanding the mobility of early modern and postmodern cultures in their literary, performative, and digital forms of expression. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, International Shakespeare Association, Folger Institute, and other agencies.

Moderator

Janet Steele is professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs, and the interim director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and focuses on how culture is communicated through the mass media.

Dr. Steele is a frequent visitor to Southeast Asia where she lectures on topics ranging from the role of the press in a democratic society to specialized courses on narrative journalism. Her book, “Wars Within: The Story of Tempo, an Independent Magazine in Soeharto’s Indonesia,” focuses on Tempo magazine and its relationship to the politics and culture of New Order Indonesia. “Mediating Islam, Cosmopolitan Journalisms in Muslim Southeast Asia,” explores the relationship between journalism and Islam in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Awarded two Fulbright teaching and research grants to Indonesia and a third to Serbia, she has served as a State Department speaker-specialist in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei, the Philippines, East Timor, Taiwan, Burma, Sudan, Egypt, India, Bangladesh, Jamaica, and Kosovo. The author of numerous articles on journalism theory and practice, her 2014 book, “Email Dari Amerika,” (Email from America), is a collection of newspaper columns written in Indonesian and originally published in the newspaper Surya. Her most recent book, forthcoming in October 2023, is called “Malaysiakini and the power of independent media in Malaysia.”

[2/2/2024] Historical, Cultural, and Linguistic Approaches to Elections in Southeast Asia

January 17, 2024February 23, 2024Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Friday, February 2, 2024

3:00 – 5:30 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

As Benedict Anderson once observed, “normal voting is in many ways a peculiar activity”:

One joins a queue of people whom one does not typically know, to take a turn to enter a solitary space, where one pulls levers or marks pieces of paper, and then leaves the site with the same calm discretion with which one enters it – without questions being asked. It is almost the only political act imaginable in perfect solitude, and it is completely symbolic.

With alarm bells ringing in recent years about democracy’s decline, the election experience is more closely watched than ever. But how just much can elections tell us? The panelists in this session consider historical, linguistic and cultural contexts as a means of exploring the diverse ways in which electoral practices are framed, interpreted and enacted in one of the most richly varied regions of the world: Southeast Asia. With experts presenting case studies from Myanmar, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Vietnam and Cambodia, scholars will not only ask how the elections are events that point to the future, but also how they presuppose cultural assumptions rooted in the past.

Day and time: Feb 2, 3-5:30, with a reception to follow.

“Sins of the Father: Elections and Accountability in the Philippines” Sheila Coronel, Toni Stabile Professor of Practice in Investigative Journalism, Columbia University

“Religion and Gender in Myanmar’s 2015 and 2020 Elections” Khin Lay, Fouding Director, Triangle Women’s Association and Christina Fink, Professor of International Affairs, the George Washington University

“Fear and Survival: Cambodia’s Elections Since 1993” Sebastian Strangio, Southeast Asia Editor, The Diplomat

“Public Participation in Vietnam: Invited and Claimed Spaces” Andrew Wells-Dang, Senior Expert in Southeast Asia, the United States Institute of Peace

“Who’s Afraid of May 13? Malaysia and the ‘Ghost’ of the 1969 Race Riot” Janet E. Steele, Director, Sigur Center for Asian Studies, the George Washington University

“Language Use and Voter Experience: Some Examples from Indonesia” Joel Kuipers, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, the George Washington University

Speakers

Sheila Coronel began reporting in the Philippines during the twilight of the Marcos dictatorship, when she wrote for the underground opposition press and later for mainstream magazines and newspapers. As Marcos lost power and press restrictions eased, she reported on human rights abuses, the growing democratic movement and the election of Corazon Aquino as president.

In 1989, Coronel and her colleagues founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. Under Coronel’s leadership, the Center became the leading investigative reporting institution in the Philippines and Asia. In 2001, the Center’s reporting led to the fall of President Joseph Estrada. In 2003, Coronel won Asia’s premier prize, the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

Coronel has written and edited more than a dozen books on the Philippines, freedom of information and investigative journalism. She has trained journalists around the world and written investigative reporting textbooks for journalists in Southeast Asia and the Balkan region. She speaks frequently at international investigative reporting conferences and writes about global investigative journalism.

Coronel joined the faculty of the Journalism School in 2006, when she was named director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism. In 2011, she received one of Columbia University’s highest honors, the Presidential Teaching Award.

Coronel believes we are in a pivotal moment for investigative reporting, one that is ripe with opportunity but also fraught with challenges and threats. Coronel’s work outside of the Journalism School reflects her desire to build strong institutions that support free and independent reporting in a turbulent media landscape. She is chair of the Media Development Investment Fund board. She also sits on the boards of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Columbia Journalism Review, ProPublica and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. She is also a member and former board chair of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Her recent work is on the populist Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte and police abuses in the war on drugs.

Khin Lay is a women’s rights activist and the founding director of Triangle Women Organization. She is dedicated to promoting the status of women in Myanmar through individual empowerment and legal and policy reforms. Her organization works to build women’s capacity to assume leadership roles in politics and public life. After the February 2021 coup in Myanmar, Khin Lay and her family went into hiding and eventually escaped Myanmar. Since then, she has worked to support the democracy movement and continues to provide direct support to women who face increased threats of sexual and gender-based violence under the military junta. In 2022, she was a Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy, and she established the Women’s Advocacy Coalition-Myanmar together with other prominent women leaders. The coalition seeks to promote gender equity in the democracy movement and in the on-going political negotiations around Myanmar’s future. Before establishing Triangle Women Organization, Khin Lay was a prominent political activist and youth leader for the National League for Democracy. She has also held numerous other roles, including as an Eisenhower Fellow, a chair of the Access To Justice Initiative, a steering committee member of Women’s Organization Network, the Country Coordinator for Freedom House, and a Program Consultant on Gender and Land Rights for Landesa Rural Development Institute. She holds a BA and MSc from Yangon University.

Christina Fink joined the Elliott School in 2011 as an associate professor in the International Development Studies Program. Since 2022, she has also been serving as the Director of the BA and BS in International Affairs Program.

She received her B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Social/Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley.

She has combined research, teaching, and international development work throughout her career. Primarily based in mainland Southeast Asia from 1995-2010, her full-time positions and program evaluation consultancies addressed civil society capacity building in Myanmar with particular attention to gender and social inclusion, and political, economic, and social reforms. During this time, she also wrote Living Silence in Burma: Surviving Under Military Rule (Zed Books: 1st edition 2001, 2nd edition 2009) and served as a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand.

In recent years she has contributed to the development of the GenderPro capacity-building and credentialling program run by GW’s Global Women’s Institute in partnership with UNICEF. She also served on the United States Institute of Peace senior study group on Myanmar which produced two reports: China’s Role in Burma’s Internal Conflicts (2018) and Anatomy of the Military Coup and Recommendations for the US Response (2022).Her latest publications have addressed the position of religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar, anti-Muslim violence and the role of Facebook, and the many facets of civil society engagement in development in Myanmar.

Sebastian Strangio is Southeast Asia editor at The Diplomat.

In 2008, he began his career as a reporter at The Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia, and has since traveled and reported extensively across the 10 nations of ASEAN. Sebastian’s writing has appeared in leading publications including Foreign Affairs, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The New York Times, The Diplomat, and Nikkei Asian Review, among many others. He is the author of “Hun Sen’s Cambodia” (Yale, 2014), a path-breaking examination of Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, and “In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century“ (Yale, 2020).

Alongside his journalistic work, Sebastian has also consulted for a wide variety of economic risk firms and non-government organizations, and is quoted frequently in the international media on political developments in Southeast Asia. Sebastian holds a B.A. and Master’s degree in international politics from The University of Melbourne. He currently lives in Adelaide.

Dr. Andrew Wells-Dang leads the Vietnam War Legacies and Reconciliation Initiative at USIP and contributes to other projects on Southeast Asia. Dr. Wells-Dang joined USIP following over 15 years of experience with international nongovernmental organizations in Vietnam, including as Oxfam’s senior governance advisor and Catholic Relief Services’ country representative. He has also worked in China, Cambodia, and Laos. In these roles, he designed and led programs in education, disability rights, UXO/landmine risk reduction, environmental and health policy advocacy, and judicial reform with a range of Vietnamese governmental and non-state partners.

Dr. Wells-Dang’s Washington experience includes his most recent role as deputy director for advocacy strategy and learning at CARE USA and Washington representative for the Fund for Reconciliation and Development. His research interests include U.S.-Vietnam relations, war legacies, land rights, civil society and governance.

Dr. Wells-Dang holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Birmingham and a master’s in social change and development from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of Civil Society Networks in China and Vietnam (Palgrave Macmillan). He is fluent in Vietnamese and proficient in Mandarin, French, and German.

Janet Steele, smiling and looking at the camera

Janet Steele is professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs, and the interim director of the Sigur Center for Asian Studies. She received her Ph.D. in History from the Johns Hopkins University, and focuses on how culture is communicated through the mass media.

Dr. Kuipers is a linguistic anthropologist interested in the role of language in the description and interpretation of social life, particularly how authoritative discourse shapes institutionally defined activities in clinics, courtrooms, classrooms and religious settings. He is Director of GW’s Discourse Laboratory.

In 1978, Dr. Kuipers began nearly three years of ethnographic and linguistic research into a distinctive style of poetic ritual speech among the Weyewa people of the eastern Indonesian island of Sumba. Through intensive recording, transcription and analysis of ritual performances, he examined how the mastery and use of a parallelistic style of ceremonial discourse established the cultural authority of individuals, lineages and sacred spaces. Beginning in 1990’s, he analyzed the role of language ideologies in the rapid decline of ritual speech on Sumba, and the rise of the Indonesian national language as the language political and religious authority. Since 2000, he has carried out extensive video ethnographic analyses of the use of authoritative language in psychiatric clinics, Indonesian courtrooms, and U.S. science classrooms.

[3/28/23] NBAS: Assignment China: An Oral History of American Journalists in the People’s Republic with Mike Chinoy

January 6, 2023March 30, 2023Archives & Recordings, High Profile Events, New Books in Asian StudiesLeave a Comment

Tuesday, March 28, 2023

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM ET

City View Room

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW Washington, D.C. 20052

Reporting on China has long been one of the most challenging and crucial of journalistic assignments. Foreign correspondents have confronted war, revolution, isolation, internal upheaval, and onerous government restrictions as well as barriers of language, culture, and politics. Nonetheless, American media coverage of China has profoundly influenced U.S. government policy and shaped public opinion not only domestically but also, given the clout and reach of U.S. news organizations, around the world.

This book tells the story of how American journalists have covered China—from the civil war of the 1940s through the COVID-19 pandemic—in their own words. Mike Chinoy assembles a remarkable collection of personal accounts from eminent journalists, including Stanley Karnow, Seymour Topping, Barbara Walters, Dan Rather, Melinda Liu, Nicholas Kristof, Joseph Kahn, Evan Osnos, David Barboza, Amy Qin, and Megha Rajagopalan, among dozens of others. They share behind-the-scenes stories of reporting on historic moments such as Richard Nixon’s groundbreaking visit in 1972, China’s opening up to the outside world and its emergence as a global superpower, and the crackdowns in Tiananmen Square and Xinjiang. Journalists detail the challenges of covering a complex and secretive society and offer insight into eight decades of tumultuous political, economic, and social change.

At a time of crisis in Sino-American relations, understanding the people who have covered China for the American media and how they have done so is crucial to understanding the news. Through the personal accounts of multiple generations of China correspondents, Assignment China provides that understanding.

Guests can purchase the book from Columbia University Press. Copies will be sold by the George Washington University Bookstore at the event.

Registration is free and open to the public.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event.

Speaker

Mike Chinoy is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the U.S.-China Institute at the University of Southern California. He spent 24 years as a foreign correspondent for CNN, serving as the network’s first Beijing bureau chief and senior Asia correspondent. Before joining CNN, Chinoy worked for CBS News and NBC News. He has won Emmy, Dupont, and Peabody awards for his journalism. Assignment China is his fifth book.

Moderator

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He previously served in the Department of State and on the National Security Council staff during the Carter administration (1977-1979). From 1996-2016 he was also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. Professor Shambaugh was previously Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Reader in Chinese Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), 1987-1996, where he also served as Editor of The China Quarterly. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Advisory Board of the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), East-West Center Fellowship Board, is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and member of its Board of Studies, is a participant in the Aspen Strategy Group, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. An active public intellectual and frequent commentator in the international media, he also serves on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds.

He has been selected for numerous awards and grants, including as a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a Senior Scholar by the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). He has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, German Marshall Fund, Hinrich Foundation, the British Academy, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and has been a visiting scholar or professor at universities in Australia, China, Denmark, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, and he has lectured all over the world.

As an author, Professor Shambaugh has published more than 30 books, including most recently International Relations of Asia (third edition, 2022); China’s Leaders: From Mao to Now (2021); Where Great Powers Meet: America & China in Southeast Asia (2021); and China & the World (2020). Other books include The China Reader: Rising Power (2016); Tangled Titans: The United States and China (2012); China’s Communist Party: Atrophy & Adaptation (2008); Power Shift: China & Asia’s New Dynamics (2005); and Modernizing China’s Military (2002); Making China Policy (2001); The Modern Chinese State (2000); Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory & Practice (1994); American Studies of Contemporary China (1993); and Beautiful Imperialist (1991). He has also authored numerous reports, scholarly articles and chapters, newspaper op-eds, and book reviews. He is reasonably fluent in Chinese, and has some French, German, and Spanish.

11/04/2022 | The CCP 20th Party Congress and China’s Road Ahead

October 21, 2022March 17, 2023Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Friday, November 4, 2022

12:30 – 5:45 PM ET

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E ST NW, Washington, DC 20052

Critical questions about China’s future have swirled around the CCP’s 20th Party Congress: What will Xi Jinping’s third term mean for Chinese domestic politics? What are China’s intentions for Taiwan? How will the party manage slowing economic growth along with mounting demographic and environmental problems? The Sigur Center for Asian Studies will host a half-day congress where leading experts from GW’s distinguished China faculty and top scholars from other institutions seek to address these questions. The event will be in person only and open to the general public. Brief presentations will be followed by extended opportunities for Q&A with the audience.

Registration is free and open to the public. This event is IN-PERSON only.

This event will be recorded and will be available on the Sigur Center YouTube channel after the event.

Speakers

Panel 1: Domestic Politics

Bruce Dickson

Professor Dickson received his B.A. in political science and English literature, his M.A. in Chinese Studies, and his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan. He joined the faculty of The George Washington University and the Elliott School in 1993.

Professor Dickson’s research and teaching focus on political dynamics in China, especially the adaptability of the Chinese Communist Party and the regime it governs. In addition to courses on China, he also teaches on comparative politics and authoritarianism.

His current research examines the political consequences of economic reform in China, the Chinese Communist Party’s evolving strategy for survival, and the changing relationship between state and society. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Smith Richardson Foundation, the US Institute of Peace, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Iza Ding

Professor Iza Ding is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Pittsburgh, with a courtesy appointment in Public Policy at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. In 2019-2020, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in Political Science and a Visiting Associate at the International Institute at the University of Michigan.

Professor Ding’s research explores the paradoxes and pushbacks attending economic, political, and cultural modernization, such as creative resistance against institutional rigidities, lingering moral traditions against legal development, enduring historical memories against rapid socioeconomic transformations, and humans’ simultaneous degradation of nature and attachment to nature. Her book The Performative State: Public Scrutiny and Environmental Governance in China has been recently released by Cornell University Press.

Professor Ding received her Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University, and her B.A. in Political Science and Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Michigan.

Jeffrey Ding

Professor Jeffrey Ding is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University. Previously, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, sponsored by Stanford’s Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence.

Professor Ding’s research agenda centers on technological change and international politics. His dissertation investigates how past technological revolutions influenced the rise and fall of great powers, with implications for U.S.-China competition in emerging technologies like AI. Other research projects tackle how states should identify strategic technologies, assessments of national scientific and technological capabilities, and interstate cooperation on nuclear safety and security technologies. His work has been published in Foreign Affairs, Security Studies, The Washington Post, and other outlets.

Professor Ding received his Ph.D. in 2021 from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Previously, Profesor Ding worked as a researcher for Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology and Oxford’s Centre for the Governance of AI at the University of Oxford. Growing up in Iowa City, he became a lifelong Hawkeye fan and attended the University of Iowa for his undergraduate studies.

Panel 2: International Relations

David Shambaugh

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and award-winning author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. He is the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science & International Affairs, and the founding Director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He previously served in the Department of State and on the National Security Council staff during the Carter administration (1977-1979). From 1996-2016 he was also a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at The Brookings Institution. Professor Shambaugh was previously Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, and Reader in Chinese Politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), 1987-1996, where he also served as Editor of The China Quarterly. He has served on the Board of Directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, Advisory Board of the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR), East-West Center Fellowship Board, is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and member of its Board of Studies, is a participant in the Aspen Strategy Group, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. An active public intellectual and frequent commentator in the international media, he also serves on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds.

Patricia M. Kim

Patricia M. Kim is a David M. Rubenstein Fellow at Brookings and holds a joint appointment to the John L. Thornton China Center and the Center for East Asia Policy Studies. She is an expert on Chinese foreign policy, U.S.-China relations, and U.S. alliance management and regional security dynamics in East Asia.

Previously, Kim served as a China specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace, where she focused on China’s impact on conflict dynamics around the world and directed major projects on U.S.-China strategic stability and China’s growing presence in the Red Sea region. She was also a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, International Security Program Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program at Princeton University.

Kim’s writing and research has been featured widely in outlets such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Washington Post and The South China Morning Post. She frequently briefs U.S. government officials in her areas of expertise and has testified before the House Intelligence Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade.

Kim received her doctoral degree from the Department of Politics at Princeton University and her bachelor’s degree with highest distinction in political science and Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley. She is fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Korean, and proficient in Japanese. Kim is also a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Robert Sutter, pictured in professional attire

Robert G. Sutter

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University (2011-Present ). He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011).

A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 22 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent book is Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, Fifth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021).

Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) saw service as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Panel 3: Economic Policy

Maggie Chen

Maggie Xiaoyang Chen is a professor of economics and international affairs at George Washington University. Professor Chen’s areas of research expertise includes multinational firms, international trade, and regional trade agreements and her work as been published extensively in leading academic journals.

She has worked as an economist in the research department of the World Bank, a consultant for various regional divisions of the World Bank and the International Finance Cooperation since 2003, a contributor to the World Development Report and World Bank’s Latin America and Caribbean Flagship Report, and a trade policy consultant for the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Professor Chen is also a co-editor of the Economic Inquiry. Professor Chen received her Ph.D and M.A. in Economics from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her B.A. in Economics from Beijing Normal University.

David Dollar

David Dollar is a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution and host of the Brookings trade podcast, Dollar&Sense. He is a leading expert on China’s economy and U.S.-China economic relations. From 2009 to 2013, Dollar was the U.S. Treasury’s economic and financial emissary to China, based in Beijing, facilitating the macroeconomic and financial policy dialogue between the United States and China. Prior to joining Treasury, Dollar worked 20 years for the World Bank, serving as country director for China and Mongolia, based in Beijing (2004-2009). His other World Bank assignments focused on Asian economies, including South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, and India. Dollar also worked in the World Bank’s research department. His publications focus on economic reform in China, globalization, and economic growth. He also taught economics at University of California Los Angeles, during which time he spent a semester in Beijing at the Graduate School of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in 1986. He has a doctorate in economics from New York University and a bachelor’s in Chinese history and language from Dartmouth College.

portrait of Stephen Kaplan smiling at the camera

Stephen B. Kaplan

Stephen B. Kaplan is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs; and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for International Economic Policy. He is also a current global fellow at the Wilson Center. Professor Kaplan joined the GWU faculty in the fall of 2010 after completing a postdoctoral research fellowship at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. While completing his doctorate at Yale University, Kaplan also worked as a researcher for former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo at the Yale Center for the Study of Globalization. Prior to his doctoral studies, Professor Kaplan worked as a senior economic researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, writing extensively on developing country economics, global financial market developments, and emerging market crises for more than a half-decade.

3/22/2022 | “The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China” with the Honorable Kevin Rudd

March 11, 2022April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Kevin Rudd speaking at the podium in front of Sigur Center banner

Kevin Rudd and David Shambaugh talking and laughing

Tuesday, March 22, 2022

4:00 PM – 6:00 PM EDT

Lindner Family Commons

1957 E ST NW Room 602

AND Zoom

You are invited to a presentation at GW by Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society, on his new book, The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the US and Xi Jinping’s China.

Elliott School Dean Alyssa Ayres will provide welcome remarks. The presentation will be followed by a conversation between the Honorable Kevin Rudd and David Shambaugh, the Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, and International Affairs at GW. The event will conclude with an extensive Q&A with the audience.

Those attending this hybrid event in person will have the opportunity to have the Honorable Kevin Rudd sign a copy of his new book.

Speaker

portrait of Kevin Rudd in professional attire

Kevin Rudd is a former Prime Minister of Australia and current President and CEO of the Asia Society. He became President and CEO of Asia Society in January 2021 and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. He is also a leading international authority on China. He began his career as a China scholar, serving as an Australian diplomat in Beijing before entering Australian politics.

Moderator

David Shambaugh is Gaston Sigur Professor of Asian Studies, Political Science, & International Affairs and the founding director of the China Policy Program in the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Before joining the GW faculty, Professor Shambaugh taught Chinese politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS) and was editor of The China Quarterly.

He also worked at the U.S. Department of State and National Security Council. He served on the board of directors of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Asia-Pacific Council, and other public policy and scholarly organizations. A frequent commentator in the international media, he sits on numerous editorial boards, and has been a consultant to governments, research institutions, foundations, universities, corporations, banks, and investment funds. Professor Shambaugh has published more than 30 books and 300 articles.

Dr. Shambaugh received his bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from George Washington University, his master’s degree in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and his doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan.

Opening Remarks

Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School

Alyssa Ayres is Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Dean Ayres is a foreign policy practitioner and award-winning author with senior experience in the government, nonprofit, and private sectors. She was Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), where she remains an adjunct senior fellow. From 2010 to 2013 Ayres served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia in the Barack Obama administration, where she covered all issues across a dynamic region of 1.3 billion people at the time (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka) and provided policy direction for four U.S. embassies and four consulates. Her work focuses primarily on India’s role in the world and on U.S. relations with South Asia in the larger Indo-Pacific. Her last book is, Our Time Has Come: How India is Making Its Place in the World (OUP, 2018). She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

09/16/2021: Poverty, Climate, and Unemployment: Towards a World of Three Zeros featuring Muhammad Yunus

September 3, 2021April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Thursday, September 16, 2021

10:00 AM – 11:30 AM EDT

Zoom Event

GW is pleased to invite you to a conversation with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh who created a model for combating poverty through microlending. He is the author of three books, including Banker to the Poor. The event will be moderated by Dr. James Foster, Oliver T. Carr Jr. Professor of International Affairs and Professor of Economics at the Elliott School of International Affairs. Prof. Foster is known for developing the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) along with Dr. Sabina Alkire.

Speaker

Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus is the father of both social business and microcredit, the founder of Grameen Bank, and of more than 50 other companies in Bangladesh. For his constant innovation and enterprise, Fortune magazine named Professor Yunus in March 2012 as “one of the greatest entrepreneurs of our time.” In 2006, Professor Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work to “create economic and social development from below.” Dr. Yunus is the recipient of 61 honorary degrees from universities across 24 countries. He has received 136 awards from 33 countries including state honours from 10 countries. He is one of only seven individuals to have received the Nobel Peace Prize, the United State Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Congressional Gold Medal. He has appeared on the cover of Time magazine, Newsweek and Forbes magazine. In 2016 GWU awarded him the President’s Medal in recognition of his service.

Moderator

portrait of James Foster in professional attire

James E. Foster is the Oliver T. Carr, Jr. Professor of International Affairs, Professor of Economics, and Vice Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University. He is also a Research Associate at the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) at Oxford University. Prof. Foster’s research focuses on welfare economics — using economic tools to evaluate and enhance the wellbeing of people. His joint 1984 Econometrica paper (with Joel Greer and Erik Thorbecke) is one of the most cited papers on poverty. Other research includes work on economic inequality with Amartya Sen; on the distribution of human development with Luis Felipe Lopez-Calva and Miguel Szekely; on multidimensional poverty with Sabina Alkire; and on literacy with Kaushik Basu. Prof. Foster’s work underlies many well-known social indices, including the global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), and dozens of national MPIs used to guide domestic policy against poverty.

Opening Remarks

02/24/2020: Ambassador of Timor Leste on Climate Change and Small Island Nations

March 17, 2020April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Monday, February 24, 2020

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM

Lindner Family Commons, Room 602

Elliott School of International Affairs

1957 E Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

The Elliott School of International Affairs, Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia, the Sigur Center for Asian Studies, and Sustainable GW invite you to join a conversation with His Excellency Isilio Coelho, Ambassador of Timor-Leste to the United States.

This event is public and open to the media.

Moderator:
Linda Yarr, Research Professor of Practice of International Affairs, Director of Partnerships for International Strategies in Asia (PISA)

A political scientist and specialist on Southeast Asia, Linda Yarr has for decades fostered academic engagement in international affairs teaching and research with China, Vietnam, Myanmar, and other countries in Asia. She holds an M.A. from Cornell University, an advanced degree in international relations from Sciences Po in Paris, and a B.A. from D’Youville College.

ABOUT AMBASSADOR COELHO:
Ambassador Isilio António de Fátima Coelho da Silva (Isilio Coelho) is the current Ambassador of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (Timor-Leste) to the United States of America.   Prior to this position, he served as the Acting Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation (MFAC) of Timor-Leste, and concomitantly held the position of Director-General for Bilateral Affairs of this Ministry. Prior to these positions, he served as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Timor-Leste to Japan. Before taking up this Ambassadorial post, he served as Director-General for External Relations of MFAC; Director for the Department of Bilateral Affairs; Charge d’Affairs of Timor-Leste Embassy to the Holy See (Vatican), Rome, Italy; Deputy Head of Mission to Timor-Leste Embassy in Lisbon, Portugal; Director of Public Relations and concurrently Director of State Protocol (Chief of State Protocol) of the MFAC.

5/30/19: National Committee on U.S.-China Relations’ 16th Foreign Policy Colloquium: Reception and Keynote Address with Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering

May 22, 2019April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

Thursday, May 30th, 2019
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM

Jack Morton Auditorium
School of Media and Public Affairs
805 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20052

We are honored and pleased that Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering will be the keynote speaker at this year’s U.S. Foreign Policy Colloquium (FPC). The annual event will take place Thursday, May 30, at 6:30 p.m. at The George Washington University’s Jack Morton Auditorium.

National Committee Chair Carla A. Hills and representatives from the Elliott School of International Affairs, the Chinese Embassy, and Chubb, one of FPC’s sponsors, will make brief welcoming remarks prior to Ambassador Pickering’s remarks and Q&A. A reception for guests and participants will follow. We hope you will join us to hear this distinguished speaker, as well as to meet the terrific Chinese graduate students who make up this year’s FPC cohort.

FPC brings together some of China’s best and brightest graduate students to help them develop a more nuanced understanding of the American foreign policy-making process. Now in its sixteenth year, the Colloquium provides opportunities for Chinese students in a variety of disciplines at universities across the United States to interact with current and former administration officials, members of Congress, and representatives from academia, business, think tanks, the military, and the media through lectures and site visits. These provide a firsthand look at how ideals, interests, history, institutions, and individuals influence U.S. foreign policy.

The keynote program and reception is co-sponsored by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and The George Washington University’s Sigur Center for Asian Studies and East Asia National Resource Center.

This event is free and open to the public and media.

Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering is vice chair of Hills & Company, an international consulting firm providing advice to U.S. businesses on investment, trade, and risk assessment issues abroad. Ambassador Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the U.S. Foreign Service, having served as undersecretary of state for political affairs under President Clinton and as U.S. ambassador to Russia, India, Israel, El Salvador, Nigeria, Jordan and the United Nations. Other senior positions included assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Oceans, Environmental and Scientific Affairs, and special assistant to secretaries of state William Rogers and Henry Kissinger. After government service, Ambassador Pickering joined The Boeing Company as senior vice president for international relations and led its transition internationally to a global organization. He chairs or serves on many not-for-profit boards, including The International Crisis Group and the American Academy of Diplomacy. Ambassador Pickering speaks French, Spanish, and Swahili fluently, and has working knowledge of Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian.

2/13/19 Ethics and Leadership: A Discussion with Ambassador Rich Verma

February 4, 2019April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile EventsLeave a Comment

logos of the sigur center and the elliott school leadership, ethics, and practice initiative

Wednesday, February 13, 2019 5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Elliott School of International Affairs

Room 505

1957 E Street, NW, Washington, District Of Columbia 20052

headshot of richard verma in professional attire

The Sigur Center and the Elliott School’s Leadership, Ethics, and Practice Initiative cordially invite you to a lunch discussion on the ethical and leadership challenges Ambassador Rich Verma encountered throughout his career.

Ambassador Richard Verma is Vice Chairman and Partner at The Asia Group. He previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to India from 2015 to 2017, where he is credited for the historic deepening of bilateral ties. From 2009 to 2011, he served as the Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. Department of State.
A leading expert on trade and diplomacy in Asia, Ambassador Verma brings 25 years of experience across senior levels of business, law, diplomacy, and the military.

This event is on the record and open to the media.

2/7/19: The Strategic Asia Program Presents: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions

January 17, 2019April 26, 2022Archives & Recordings, High Profile Events, New Books in Asian Studies2 Comments

Introductory Remarks and Panel 1

(Starts at 45 minutes)

Panel 2

(Starts at 12 Minutes)

Keynote and Closing Remarks

(Starts at 23.5 Minutes)

logos of the NBR and sigur center

Thursday, February 7, 2019 9:30 AM – 2:00 PM

Elliott School of International Affairs

City View Room, 7th Floor

1957 E Street, NW, Washington, District Of Columbia 20052

book cover of china's expanding strategic ambitions

NBR invites you to join us for a discussion and luncheon on China’s rise and the international order to mark the release of the eighteenth volume in the Strategic Asia series: Strategic Asia 2019: China’s Expanding Strategic Ambitions, edited by Ashley J. Tellis, Alison Szalwinski, and Michael Wills.

This event will feature remarks by Strategic Asia research director, Ashley J. Tellis, as well as two panels of Strategic Asia authors discussing China’s regional geographic ambitions, and China’s influence on international rules and order. The panels will be followed by a luncheon and keynote remarks by Assistant Secretary of Defense, Randall Schriver.

PROGRAM:

9:30 AM – 10:00 AM Registration

Keynote Remarks:

Randall G. Schriver – Department of Defense | Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs

Featured Speakers:

Ashley J. Tellis – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace | Strategic Asia Research Director

Samantha Custer – AidData | College of William & Mary

Patricia Kim – United States Institute for Peace

Elizabeth Wishnick – Montclair State University

Joel Wuthnow – National Defense University