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The pontianak, or female vampire, is one of the most significant supernatural creatures, or hantu, in Malay cinema. A series of pontianak films were among the most successful made in the studio system in Singapore between 1957 and the city-state’s independence in 1965. Although the pontianak appeals to discourses of Malay cultural identity in particular, the films achieved something rare: they were popular across different races in late-colonial Singapore. In the 21^st century, the pontianak genre has regained popularity in film and television by returning to the racialized politics of belonging in Malaysia and Singapore. The pontianak registers intersecting anxieties about femininity and modernity, race and nation, local and transnational cultural influences, and Islam in relation to indigenous beliefs. Prof. Galt’s talk will analyze the pontianak in recent Malaysian and Singaporean cinema and explore what the figure tells us about the role of film culture in shaping and contesting ideas of postcolonial Malay identity.

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Abstract:

A new trust framework is emerging – fueled by social, economic and technological forces that will profoundly alter how we trust, not only what we see and read online, but also one another. At the same time, technology is influencing how we behave and relate to one another, with AI starting to mediate human-to-human communication. In this talk we will discuss how principles from psychology and communication can help understand and predict trust dynamics in a world in which fake news is salient and uncertainty about AI is rampant. We will discuss several studies that reveal key principles to guide how we think about truth and trust on the internet.

Jeff Hancock Bio

Downloadable Flyer

The demographics of Japan’s aging society has galvanized a wide range of corporate efforts, supported both directly and indirectly by the government, to aggressively develop artificial intelligence-driven technologies and IT systems to perform work for which labor shortages are accelerating. We are beginning to see concrete corporate offerings to address shortages of specific types of skilled and unskilled labor, as well as numerous efforts underway to develop systems to cope with sparsely populated, elderly geographic regions and the logistics surrounding eldercare more generally.

In this talk, based on a forthcoming book chapter, Kushida examines specific corporate cases and government strategies suggesting how Japan’s population aging and shrinking has led to three primary interrelated drivers of significance to shaping technological trajectories: 1) Demographics as market opportunity of an entirely unprecedented scale to serve the needs of a rapidly aging society; 2) demographic change creating an acute labor shortage; and 3) favorable political and regulatory dynamics for pursuing the development and diffusion of new technological trajectories to solve social and economic challenges caused by demographic change. A critical implication is that if technologies developed or deployed within Japan to solve domestic demographic problems are applicable elsewhere, then Japan’s demographic challenge can be an opportunity to cultivate competitive products and services in global markets.

SPEAKER

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Kenji E. Kushida is a Japan Program Research Scholar at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and an affiliated researcher at the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy. Kushida’s research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political economy, and information technology. He has four streams of academic research and publication: political economy issues surrounding information technology such as Cloud Computing; institutional and governance structures of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster; political strategies of foreign multinational corporations in Japan; and Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s. Kushida has written two general audience books in Japanese, entitled Biculturalism and the Japanese: Beyond English Linguistic Capabilities (Chuko Shinsho, 2006) and International Schools, an Introduction (Fusosha, 2008). Kushida holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He received his MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

PARKING

Please note there is significant construction taking place on campus, which is greatly affecting parking availability and traffic patterns at the university. Please plan accordingly. Nearest parking garage is Structure 7, below the Graduate School of Business Knight School of Management.

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This talk describes the disinformation campaign targeting the Syria Civil Defense (or “White Helmets”), a humanitarian response group that works in rebel held areas of Syria. The White Helmets provide medical aid, search, and rescue to people affected by the civil war in Syria. They also document the impacts of atrocities — including airstrikes and chemical weapons attacks — perpetrated by the Syrian regime and their Russian allies. For several years, the White Helmets have been the target of a campaign to undermine and delegitimize their work. In this talk, I describe a multi-study research effort that reveals how this multi-dimensional, cross-platform campaign “works” — including a look at the media ecosystems that support the campaign, the networks of actors who collaborate to produce and spread its narratives (including government agents and “unwitting crowds” of online activists), and the “work” that these actors participate in, using the affordances of social media platforms to connect, recruit, organize, promote their messages, attack opposing messages, and otherwise advance the goals of their campaign. 

Kate Starbird Bio

In connection with the 100th anniversary of Yenching University, the opening ceremony of the Stuart Conference Room (SCR) was held at the Stanford Center at Peking University (SCPKU) on October 8. We were honored by the attendance of Isabel Crook, recent recipient of the Medal of Friendship awarded by President Jinping Xi, Mr. Liliang He, former Deputy Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mingyi Wei, an alumnus of Yenching University and former president of the CITIC Group.

The Executive Director of SCPKU Mr. Jiashu Cheng delivered a welcoming speech and pointed out that the Stanford Center, as a bridge of cultural communication between China and US, is committed to promoting the mutual understanding and the mutual progress between the two countries. He also stated that the ceremony was being held in appreciation of Dr. John Leighton Stuart’s great efforts and his contributions to furthering US-China relations, especially the establishment of Yenching University, which are legendary and remain an inspiration to this day.

Jean Oi, a chaired professor in the political science department of Stanford University and Director of SCPKU expressed her sincere gratitude to Mr. Jiashu Cheng and his wife Mrs. Wan Xu for their generous donations. She emphasized that this multi-functional video conference room has the means to greatly advance the efforts started by Yenching University and Dr. Stuart to further strengthen cross-straits development and cooperation in education, science and technology, culture and many other fields.

The technology of SCR is a US-China joint effort. The state-of-the-art telecommunication / video conference technology is a product of Cisco Corporation of the United States, while the LED screen display technology comes from China’s Leyard Group. The SCR allows faculties and students from Chinese Universities who are sitting at SCPKU to connect, in real time, with more than 250 classrooms, labs, conference facilities and offices at Stanford University. Classes can be taught with teachers and students interacting in real time on both sides of the Pacific. The Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) performed an inaugural trial run of the system a couple weeks ago, when students at the GSB held a joint class with Peking University’s Yenching Academy students who attended the class in the SCR.