EMScom Lecture: «Conversing with New Asia» with Professor Bridget Welsh
Bridget Welsh (Foto: John Hopkins Gazette)
Basel – Join us for a conversation on how to converse with today’s ‘new Asia’. There is little dispute that Asia is rising, especially China. The region has moved from supplying the world’s goods to consuming and developing products; it is now the driver of the global economy. Despite this rise in economic power, conflicting trends emerge with regard to political stability and the wide-sweeping social transformations taking place.
Profound changes are taking place on multiple levels, often in conflict with one another. Confidence with Insecurity. Economic integration with rising nationalism. Populism with elite greed. Inequality with social mobility. Growth without development. These conflicting trends in today’s ‘new Asia’ require reflection and analysis. They are often overshadowed in the focus on economic opportunities and markets. To start the conversation, we begin by mapping these important undercurrents which are of great relevance for effective engagement with the region
Give the audience the tools to converse with a «new Asia»
The aim is to give the audience the tools to converse with a ‘new Asia.’ We move further to disaggregate the different perspectives of these changes, both within the region and outside of Asia. Unpacking the different assumptions about what Asia is like and what it should involve is essential for understanding effective communication with the region. More often than not, those outside of the region try to visualize Asia through their own experience instead of engaging with Asia on its own terms and seeing its own unique trajectories and perspectives. We look at how to move the talk towards understanding and effective dialogue. Special attention will be focused on Southeast Asia, traditionally the bellwether for important political and economic shifts in the region. (EMScom/mc/hfu)
Bridget Welsh
is Associate Professor of Political Science at Singapore Management University where she teaches courses on comparative politics, gender and international relations. Prior to teaching at SMU, she taught at the School of Advanced International Studies of the Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC and Hofstra University in New York. She received her doctorate in political science from Columbia University, her language training at Cornell University (FALCON) and bachelor’s degree from Colgate University. In 2009 she received the Max M. Fisher Prize for teaching excellence at Johns Hopkins University –SAIS, at SMU she was awarded a Distinguished Teaching Award in the School of Social Sciences in 2011 and nominated as SMU’s Excellent Teacher on behalf of the School of Social Sciences in 2013. She specializes in Southeast Asian politics. In 2004, she was a Henry R. Luce Southeast Asian Fellow at Australian National University and in 2007 she received a USIP fellowship. She is a consultant for Freedom House and the United Nations and a member of the International Research Council of the National Endowment for Democracy.
