Virtual lecture by Mohammad Ayoob, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Relations.

Bangladesh marks the 50th anniversary of its independence this year. Dr. Ayoob will discuss Indian Diplomacy during the Bangladesh Crisis and War.

This year commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh. The year 1971's geostrategic significance for the Indian subcontinent rivals that of 1947 when British India was divided into India and Pakistan. While the roots of Bangladesh's secession from Pakistan lay firmly within the Pakistani polity, India's political support for the Bangladesh freedom movement and its military intervention were crucial for the liberation of Bangladesh. Although humanitarian considerations, especially the influx of close to ten million refugees into India, played a role in India's decision, the major factors determining the decision to intervene militarily in the Bangladesh crisis were political and strategic in character. This presentation by a close observer of the events of 1971 will analyze these factors as well as the decision-making process that led to India midwifing the birth of Bangladesh.

 

Co-sponsored the Muslim Studies Program and the  MSU Asian Studies Center.
 

Indian and South Asian language & cultures brings you Chai & Chat. Join them for evenings of festivities, fun, food, and all things Indian and South Asian.
• Chai & Chat | October 19, 2021
• Diwali Celebration | November 4, 2021
• Chai & Chat | November 16, 2021
• Film Screening | November 30, 2021
Sponsored by the Hindi-Urdu Language Program and Asian Studies Center

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

Zoom Registration Link: https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8s93GSwkQsOz1SVPqfJTDA

In this talk, Dr. Wu will examine the "prehistory" of WeChat and the growth of gig work platforms in China. In doing so, she explores the historical continuity and rupture in China's booming digital economy. In her discussion, she focuses on the tensions and negotiations between global and local infrastructures. Responding to recent calls to deWesternize digital platform studies by drawing on experiences outside Euro-North America, Dr. Wu proposes a contextualized approach. She argues that China's domestic economic restructuring and uneven integration into global digital capitalism mediate tensions between global and local infrastructures. These tensions in turn shape the practices and trajectories of digital platforms in China. Consequently, rigorous contextualization of the situated history of platforms and their infrastructural relations is needed to produce knowledge about digital platforms in global contexts.

For more information, please contact the event organizer, David Humphrey (dhumphre(at)msu.edu).

This event is part of the MSU Asian Studies Center's Global Virtual Speaker Program. It is also co-sponsored by the Program in Global Studies in the Arts and Humanities.

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

Presenter: Jennifer L. Fluri is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

This presentation provides an overview of the US-led economic development projects and programs in Afghanistan that focused on increasing
women's education, political and economic participation in society. This overview includes a critical examination of the challenges, opportunities,
and failures of these interventions, and the limited opportunities for women in Taliban controlled contemporary Afghanistan.
Jennifer L. Fluri is Professor and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She is a political geographer interested in gender, geopolitics, international assistance, economic development, and conflict in Afghanistan. She has published over thirty peer reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her publications also include three co-authored books and one co-edited book. She is the co-author of The Carpetbaggers of Kabul and
other American-Afghan Entanglements, published in 2017 by University of Georgia Press as part of the Geographies of Social Justice series. She is one of four co-authors of the 2017 book Feminist Spaces: Gender and Geography in a Global Context published by Routledge, and co-author of Engendering Development: Capitalism and Inequality in the Global Economy. She is also a co-editor of Critical Geographies of Migration Handbook published in 2019 by
Edward Elgar Press. Her current research project examines gender, security, and development in Afghanistan with a focus on Afghan women's leadership. This  project has been funded by the National Science Foundation. She is the co-editor of the Gender, Feminisms and Geography book series at West Virginia University Press, and she serves on the editorial board for the journal of Political Geography and the journal of Cultural Geography. She received a Fulbright
Fellowship in 2020 to examine the experiences of young Afghans seeking higher education in India, and will begin this project in 2022. In Colorado, she codirects the CU-Boulder Affordable Housing Research Initiative (www.colorado.edu/bahri), a community-based service-research project that provides information for individuals and organizations seeking, living in, or caring about affordable housing.

This Supporting Women in Geography (SWIG) event is co-sponsored by the Department of
Geography, Environment, and Spatial Sciences, College of Social Science, the Visiting
International Professional Program (VIPP), and the Asian Studies Center at MSU.
Special thanks to the support from the Center of Gender in Global Context and the Muslim

Featuring the young adult novel All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney

Join us this year for another Muslim Journeys series, centered on the theme of encounters: encounters between friends, encounters between strangers, encounters between people of different faiths, and encounters between individuals and their own faith practices.  Our first event, featuring the young adult novel All-American Muslim Girl by Nadine Jolie Courtney will be held in late October in a hybrid form.  Look for more sessions in 2022, including an event in conjunction with the Libraries' Stephen O. Murray and Keelung Hong Special Collections, a talk from a literary translator, a film screening, and more.

Discussion led by Leila Tarakji (MSU).  Register in advance here.
 

Arabic language practice and culture presentations.

27th Joseph and Lucy Lee Memorial Lecture

Speaker: Professor LY Wei, Department of Chinese Language and Literature, Peking University

Ancient Xi'ian, also known as Chang'an, was the cradle of Chinese civilization. Thirteen dynasties established their capitals in ancient Xi'an. It was the city with the longest history of being a dynastic capital in China (longer thatn Luoyang, Nanjing, and Beiming). It was the starting point of the Silk Road. It was also the largest in the world during the 6th-10th centuries. 

Many historical sites remain in present-day Xi'an. Six, including the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, have been named as UNESCO World Heritage sites. This lecture will introduce ancient Xi'an's history and culture by discussing famous historial sites, food, theater, arts, and literature. 

The Joseph and Lucy Lee Memorial lecture series is an annual event in memory of Joseph Lee - Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture in (now LiLaC) at Michigan State University - and Lucy Lee, an alumna of MSU and a steadfast supporter of MSU ad the Asian Studies Center.

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Speaker: Dr. Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley, Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS, University of London. Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley is Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. She was Secretary-General of the European Association of Taiwan Studies (EATS) from 2012 to 2018 and is also the founding Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Taiwan Studies (IJTS).

Democratization is arguably Taiwan's most significant achievement since 1945. Yet most studies have failed to devote sufficient attention to the cultural dimensions of the process, which I term 'cultural democratization.' This talk addresses the impact of democratization from the perspective of culture by using the development of Taiwan cinema as a case study. I take three approaches—historical, structural, and agency-focused—to examine how culture in Taiwan has democratized since the 1980s.

Co-Sponsored by the Asian Studies Center Global Virtual Speaker Program through the Joseph Lee Endowment and Office of China Programs