Date: 14 February 2025 (Friday)

Time: 9.15am to 4pm

Venue: National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University

BLK 1, Conference Room (NIE1-01-09)

[This event is held both in-person and online]

In this symposium, literature, history and cultural studies scholars of Southeast Asia will discuss the post-WWII period of decolonization Southeast Asia as it was represented in literature, public discourse, and other cultural media. The period in question was a significant time of flux and ferment for many of today’s Southeast Asian nations then emerging from the shadow of European imperialism into political independence and the new hegemonic rivalries of the Cold War. Competing ideologies, ardent feelings of nationalism, and aspirations towards modernity led to an outpouring of cultural expression by writers, public intellectuals and political leaders in different languages and across various forms of media

Before the paths to nation-statehood and present trajectories were concretized, what alternative visions of modernity and sociality were explored, articulated, and debated in poetry, fiction, film, speeches, reportage and popular culture? Our speakers will share their ongoing work on Southeast Asian imaginings and cultural trajectories emanating from wartime London, Malayan-Chinese ecologies, postwar Vietnam, the Western film genre, socialism in the Philippines and queer modernity in Malaysia. 

Click here to view the full programme and abstracts.

Click here to view the list of speakers who will be presenting at the symposium.