Category: Visiting Scholar Roundtables

The Sigur Center for Asian Studies cordially invites you to a discussion with Fulbright scholar and Sigur Center Visiting Scholar, Xianghui Zhu, and Professor Christina Fink on where Myanmar is headed in the midst of an election year with many critical issues on the table. These include constitutional amendments to reduce the power of the military, international pressure to address abuses committed against the Rohingya, and a stalled peace process. At the same time, major planned Chinese investments may reshape the economy.

This event is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided.

Professor Christina Fink joined the Elliott School in 2011. She is a cultural anthropologist who has combined teaching, research, and development work throughout her career. 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 served as a visiting lecturer at the Pacific and Asian Studies Department at the University of Victoria in 1995, and from 2001-2010, she was a lecturer and program associate at the International Sustainable Development Studies Institute in Thailand. During the same period, she also ran a bi-annual capacity building training and internship program, which she developed for members of Burmese civil society organizations, including women’s groups. In addition, she has worked as a coordinator for the Open Society Institute’s Burma Project, a trainer and project consultant for an Internews oral history project, and a program evaluation consultant for the Canadian International Development Agency, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Dag Hammarskjold Foundation.

Dr. Xianghui Zhu is a Fulbright scholar with the Sigur Center for Asian Studies at George Washington University. He is also Associate Professor with the Institute of Myanmar Studies, Yunnan University, China. He was educated at Peking University in China with a Ph.D. in Burmese language and literature. Before embarking on his academic career, he worked for China-Myanmar Oil and Gas Pipelines Company and was in the Public Affairs Section of the Chinese Embassy in Myanmar.

Friday, April 12, 2019
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Elliott School of International Affairs
Chung-wen Shih Conference Room, Suite 503
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, District Of Columbia 20052

The Sigur Center cordially invites you to a lecture on how Singaporeans study and perceive the acts of World War II.

About the Event:

This lecture will feature updates by Professor Lau on contemporary WWII commemorative ceremonies and practices in Singapore, taking observations from her recent visit home and attendance at three commemorative events in mid-February 2019, which marked the 77th anniversary of the Japanese imperial army’s invasion (February 15, 1942) and the subsequent Occupation of the island state until the war’s end in August 1945. One of the events was an official ceremony at Fort Canning, while the other two were a heritage walk following the route where Singapore’s Malay Regiment and others fought the Battle of Pasir Panjang along Kent Ridge, and a talk by some Aboriginal Australian descendants of Australian POWs whom the Japanese had captured and imprisoned in Singapore during the Occupation.

From the diverse and at times conflicting or dissonant messages conveyed (when taken altogether) to the audience or consumers of these different events, one initial question that begs urgent answers is, How do today’s Singaporeans and others affected by these momentous historical events make sense of this patchwork of different memories? Another fruitful question is whether and how reconciliation or healing can finally take place, for those with direct or received war memory and experience, even two generations or more after war’s end.

As part of her engagement with and long held interest in teaching and learning pedagogy for political science students, Professor Lau will also introduce at her talk a former student of hers, graduating senior Mr. Jacob V. Schofell, to present his research on the Cambodian genocide, and to discuss how war memory has become one of his research interests during his undergraduate career.

Julia M. Lau – Non-Resident Scholar, Sigur Center for Asian Studies

A native of Singapore, Julia has taught international relations and law, comparative politics and research methods courses as a lecturer at Georgetown University and The Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., and at McDaniel College in Westminster, MD. Her current research interests include war memory in Southeast Asia and China. She is also a member of the American Political Science Association’s status committee on Contingent Faculty, advocating for better working conditions and understanding of contingent and adjunct faculty in the profession.

Jacob V. Schofell

Jake is an undergraduate graduating in Political Science and Arabic at McDaniel College in May 2019. He plans to pursue a graduate degree in Global Policy studies. His research interests include the current conflict in Yemen, genocide memory, and Gulf relations. For this event, he will discuss his research on a paper entitled “A Generation Removed: Differences in Survivors’ and their Children’s Remembrance of the Cambodian Genocide”.

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

12:00 PM – 1:30 PM

Elliott School of International Affairs

Room 505

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

The Sigur Center and the Organization of Asian Studies cordially invite you to a panel discussion on the development of the Sino-Japanese relationship after the Xi-Abe meeting in 2018.

About the Event:

Despite the fact that China and Japan have not reached agreement on the Diaoyu/Senkaku island issue, their relationship is getting warm after the cold spell since 2015. In 2018, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo visited Chinese President Xi in Beijing and reached many economic agreements. The commercial agreements reached in the meeting reflect not only the strong economic bound between Chinese and Japanese economies but also the recovery of their political relationships. What will be the geopolitical influence on the development of the Sino-Japanese relationship? Will China and Japan explore a new path in gathering consensus and controlling conflicts among neighboring countries? Join us as we examine the Sino-Japanese relationship during the period of a rising China.

The Speakers:

Shinji Yamaguchi – Senior Research Fellow at Tokyo’s Regional Studies Department of the National Institute for Defense Studies, Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University, Specialist in Chinese politics

Mike M. Mochizuki – Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University, Specialist in Japanese politics

Thursday, March 21, 2019
12:30 PM – 1:45 PM
Room 503, Chung-Wen Shih Conference Room
The Elliott School of International Affairs
1957 E Street, NW, Washington, District Of Columbia 20052

A month into the military confrontation between India and Pakistan in Kashmir set off by a suicide bombing killing 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force members by Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, the crisis seems to have receded—or has it?

What are the ongoing threats that might re-ignite the crisis? Are there opportunities to further diffuse the situation? What are the main forces at play in Kashmir, the region and internationally that will influence these outcomes?

The Rising Powers Initiative and the Sigur Center for Asian Studies invites you to a discussion on the crisis and its aftermath.

About the Speakers:

Deepa Ollapally is directing a major research project on power and identity and the worldviews of rising and aspiring powers in Asia and Eurasia. Her research focuses on domestic foreign policy debates in India and its implications for regional security and global leadership of the U.S.

Dr. Aqab Malik is a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Sigur Center at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. He has previously been a visiting scholar at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and is currently working on a book on the geostrategic consequences of the belt and road initiative on the global transfer of power.

Navnita Behera is a reader in the department of political science at Delhi University, and the author of “State, Identity and Violence: Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh” (Manohar Publishers, 2000). She has been a visiting scholar at the Brookings Institution and has published extensively on South Asia.

Emmanuel Teitelbaum is assistant professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University. His research examines the political roots of class conflict and the foundations of class compromise. His articles have appeared in leading journals, including World Politics, Comparative Political Studies, Political Research Quarterly, PS: Political Science & Politics, the Journal of Development Studies and Critical Asian Studies. His forthcoming book, Managing Dissent: Government Responses to Industrial Conflict in Post-Reform South Asia, explores the dynamics of state-labor relations and industrial conflict following the implementation of neoliberal economic reforms.