Southeast Asia Crossroads Podcast - Cseas @ Niu

Dr. Kanjana sits down with Dr. Oona Parades, Dr. Micah Morton, and Joseph Allen Ruanto-Ramirez to discuss the diaspora of the Lumad people of the Philippine Island of Mindanao. Together they all break down the differences between the Modern Pilipino people and the Modern Lumad. Parades dispels the idea that this group is the window to precolonial Philippines, breaking down the group's history, traditions, and experiences with Spanish colonists. Dr. Parades is an anthropologist and ethnohistorian of Southeast Asia. A teacher and researcher, she studies the way ethnic minorities have interacted with the dominant culture and government within areas of Southeast Asia.

Dr. Kanjana Thepboriruk sits down with Dr. Melissa Lenczewski to discuss groundwater quality and testing in Southeast Asia and the United States. Together they bring to light how Arsenic and Microplastics have a strong presence in the water quality of countries that have poor infrastructure for testing and regulation, and the issue of water quality could lead to permanent structural damage if not properly monitored. Dr. Melissa Lenczewski is a professor of Hydrogeology in the Department of Earth, Atmosphere, and Environment at Northern Illinois University, a specialist in groundwater testing, and a Fullbright Research scholar of Cambodia and Thailand.

Dr. Eric Jones is joined by Dr. Wang, Dr Atkins, and this week's guest: Professor Jeremy Wallach to talk all about metal music in Southeast Asia. Wallach talks about how metal music is a genre for the youth, and how it is bringing attention to civil issues within the Southeast Asian political landscape. Wallach dispels the rumors about metal heads and sheds light on the political topics their songs tend to cover.

Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk is joined by Dr Taylor Easum, Trude Jacobson Gidaszewski, and Peter Alexander to discuss the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, a city at the crossroads of culture. Together, they discuss how the province is not just a Thai city, but multicultural and rich in history created by colonizing forces. Dr Taylor Easum is a historian at the Department of History at Indiana State University.

Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk sits down with Sharon Quinsaat to discuss diasporas within the Philippines and their effect on the country's national identity. Through the context of Filipinos living within the Philippines, Filipinos living within other countries, and the government's historical attempts to influence Philippino culture, Quinsaat discusses the ever-changing identity of the country. Quinsaat is a member of the Department of Sociology and Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies, at Grinnell College

In this episode of Crossroads, Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk speaks with Phan Nhiên Hạo about his experience as an immigrant from Vietnam translating into his poetic works and existing between two cultures and languages. Hao Phan (Phan Nhiên Hạo) is the Curator of the Southeast Asia library collection at Northern Illinois University and a published poet. He is the author of three collections of poetry written in Vietnamese and two collections of poetry translated into English. His recent book, Paper Bells (The Song Cave, 2021), translated by Hai-Dang Phan, was on the Longlist of the 2021 PEN America Literary Awards for poetry in translation, and on the Shortlist of the 2021 Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize.

Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk sits down with Dr Michael Dwyer to talk aboutstate reversals of earlier agrarian reforms in Southeast Asia that have rolled back “land-to-the-tiller” policies created in the wake of Cold War–era revolutions. They disucss this trend, marked by increased land concentration and the promotion of export-oriented agribusiness at the expense of smallholder farmers, and exposing the convergence of capitalist relations and state agendas that expand territorial control within and across national borders. Here is a link to his book Upland Geopolitics https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295750491/upland-geopolitics

Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk sits with VC Tang to discuss her new cookbook released titled "Come Eat, Grandma!" In this podcast, they discuss the writing process, some of the experiences that lead to the creation of this book, and growing up Thai in America and the joys and struggles it entails. VC Tang's book has been described as "A collection of flashbacks, lessons, and recipes along a personal journey of growth in the kitchen. The menu ranges from popular Thai favorites to lesser-known home comfort food to the meeting of Thai and Chinese flavors that represent the Teochow migrants in the author's family line." You can purchase this book on her website https://www.stirfrystories.com/

In this podcast, Dr Kanjana Thepboriruk and Chomkate Ngamkaiwan, a PhD candidate in Criminology at Mahidol University, Thailand, examine the ongoing PM2.5 crisis in Bangkok, the capital city of Thailand, and its vicinities as a form of environmental crime. She also explores the relationship between the air pollution and policy corruption. In these research areas, PM2.5 pollution has been magnified by the misuse of economic power and political influence towards public policies and legal loopholes related to the major sources of pollutants: transportation, factories, open burning, and construction. To acquire the insight about the issue, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions have been conducted with government officials, NGOs, scholars, entrepreneurs, and local leadership.

Drs Jones and Jui-Ching Wang sit down with Dr Joe Kinzer to explore how centuries of conflicting Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic influences from India and the Middle East have transformed and continue to complicate Malay cultural politics in 21st century musical practices. Joe Kinzer received his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology from the University of Washington in 2017, and specializes in issues of identity and religious expression in Asian musical contexts. He has taught ethnomusicology courses at the University of Washington and Northern Illinois University. Currently, he is the Senior Curatorial Assistant for Harvard University’s Archive of World Music and Affiliate Faculty member for Antioch University’s Individualized Master of Arts (IMA) Program. He plays the ‘ud (Arab lute) in Boston College’s Astaza! ensemble and is Section Editor for the Malaysian Journal of Music

This podcast Dr Jones speaks with Drs Kanjana Thepboriruk and Laura Vilardell and examine the ways in which the team of volunteer Thai language translators navigated their own identities, the collaborative translation process, and the linguistic and cultural challenges of producing the 2020 Thai Letters for Black Lives. Thai was one of fifty-two languages used for translating the 2020 version. The discussion focusses on the ways that translators’ identities and stance informed the translation process, translation choices, and the end product. In particular, the study focuses on how the translators perform their identities, especially Thainess, during the metalinguistic discussions that were essential to the translation task and translation process. The findings contribute to and widen our understanding of Thainess and what it means to be Thai in diaspora.

In this episode, Drs Jones and J. Casey Hammond discuss China and their 5g network and tensions with Huawei and the United States. J. Casey Hammond is a China and Southeast Asian affairs analyst, university lecturer, and independent researcher. He received his PhD in History from the University of Pennsylvania and holds an MCP in Economic Development and Regional Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In this episode, Drs Kanjana and Jones talk to Hmong hip hop sensation Tou SaiKo Lee about his experience as a Hmong American reclaiming and uniting the old and new in his culture through hip hop. Today Tou SaiKo is an intergenerational bridge builder, worldwide teaching artist, cultural revitalizer, cultural innovator and catalyst for movement. He was born in the Nong Kai refugee camp in Thailand. He is currently a community outreach coordinator for Frogtown Neighborhood Association, a teaching artist for COMPAS Arts, a spoken word poet, intergenerational storyteller and a hip hop lyricist. https://soundcloud.com/tou-saiko-lee https://www.facebook.com/tousaikunites

In the film Apocalypse Now (1979), a single phrase marks an iconic enemy and creates a chain of associations separating the shared kinship and apotheosis of Western Selves and Eastern Others. “Charlie don’t surf” signals conflicted interactions with Southeast Asia water lifeworlds that call for critical relationality and understanding, concepts Dr Eric Haanstad will explore in this podcast with Dr Jones and Isabelle Squires. Eric Haanstad began exploring anthropology at the University of Minnesota where he studied Anishinaabe Ojibwe (Chippewa) languages and cultures in American Indian Studies. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in August of 2008 and since then taught and conducted research in Cambodia, Thailand, Germany, and the U.S. Seacoast. He is publishing a book, To Protect and Suppress Protective Suppression in the Year of the Thai Police, focusing on his research with the Royal Thai Police.

Nicholas Kuipers is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of California, Berkeley and a predoctoral scholar at the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. Most of his research is interested in identifying whether and when certain political institutions worsen group-based antagonisms. In this podcast, he and Dr Jones discuss the civil service exams in Indonesia and the civil unrest that follows.

Dr. Jones talks with Dr. Clayton about using his expertise to work on issues of demining in Cambodia using robotics. In a country where more than 1.1 million acres are contaminated with explosive remnants of war, the nonprofit was looking for ways to develop robotic solutions to help technicians with their disposal.

Dr. Jones talks with MauMau, a refugee from Myanmar's February coup. MauMau talks about the nature of the coup and living under military law in Myanmar as a protestor post-Covid.

Drs Jones and Arnold discuss the African American experience in the Vietnam War. Professor Stanley Arnold's research interests are concentrated in two related areas, civil rights movement in the United States from 1920 to 1970 exclusive of the South and the intersection of race and sports in the United States. As a historian, one of his goals is to link the study of the past to the relevance of today. His work in these two principal fields serves to illuminate many aspects of the contemporary American experience.

In this talk Dr Jones interviews Jan Middendorf, who serves as the Associate Director for Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Sustainable Intensification (SIIL) at Kansas State University (KSU). In this role, Middendorf oversees the operational, programmatic, and reporting aspects of SIIL’s $75 million research portfolio in Africa, Asia, and Central America (Burkina Faso, Malawi, Niger, Senegal, Ethiopia Tanzania, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guatemala, and Honduras).

Dr Jones and Glynnis White talk with Elizabeth Clendinning about gamelan in America. Elizabeth Clendinning's research addresses concepts of space, time, cultural representation, and pedagogy within transnational Balinese gamelan communities and in film and television music. Her writing has appeared in various journals and edited volumes, including Musicultures and Ethnomusicology. She embraces her role as a teacher-scholar through incorporating her research into her teaching and providing hands-on opportunities for students to experience music and culture.