Stanford University

Singapore's Cartographic Cinema: Mapping an Identity

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Singapore brandishes an unusual post-colonial identity. As several of its eminent voices have suggested, the country remembers its colonial past with “no hangups.” Meanwhile the visibility of Singapore’s cinema has surged at festivals and in film criticism. Prof. Sim will argue that the films reflect the city-state’s distinctive location between post-colonialism and globalization. He will show how the films evince a local preoccupation with space, which is desperately scarce on the island nation and thus intensely politicized. He will explore how the films map, organize, and understand Singapore as a place, and Singapore’s place in the world, while retaining the ideological inflections of its post-colonial status.

Existing scholarship on cinema in Singapore dwells on how the films, as texts, respond to social realities, political power, and state ideology. These readings are legitimate and illustrative. But they do not adequately account for Singapore’s postcolonial identity and how that identity is expressed in a mapping impulse. Prof. Sim will go beyond this literature to analyze key films, art and museum exhibits, and other cultural artifacts as symptoms of Singapore’s intriguing but understudied fixation on space and place.

Gerald Sim is associate professor of film and media studies at Florida Atlantic University, and the author of The Subject of Film and Race: Retheorizing Politics, Ideology, and Cinema (2014). His current book-in-progress, tentatively entitled Besides Hybridity: Postcolonial Poetics of Southeast Asian Cinema, is contracted with Indiana University Press. In 2016 and 2013 he was a visiting senior research fellow in the National University of Singapore’s Asia Research Institute.

 

Gerald Sim 2016-17 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellow on Southeast Asia
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Caixin: Poor Parenting Hinders Development of China's Rural Children, Study Shows

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Caixin Media writes about REAP's research on rural China's epidemic of slow cognitive development, caused by poor parenting. Read the original article here.

Children in rural areas of China suffer from slow cognitive development due to a lack of proper parenting and nutrition, casting a shadow over the future of the country's economy, a Stanford University study shows.

Scott Rozelle, co-director of the Stanford University Rural Education Action Program (REAP), told Caixin that more than half of the toddlers 24 to 30 months old and about 40% of the infants 6 to 18 months old scored below average in IQ tests. The average IQ score for these age groups should range between 90 to 109.

By monitoring the development of 2,500 children across Shaanxi, Hebei and Yunnan provinces in 2015, the REAP study found that the poor development of rural children was mostly due to poor parenting.

Only about 5% of parents in rural areas read books to their children, and 70% of families surveyed possessed only one book, or no books at all, the study showed.

"Chinese families love their children but don't know much about parenting," Rozelle said. "They think reading a book or singing to their babies is silly because they think 'They're just babies.' "

The study also showed that malnutrition also contributed to poor development.

The situation in rural areas could pose a major challenge for China as the country shifts its economy from traditional low-margin manufacturing to services and technology, Rozelle said. If learning difficulties cannot be overcome before a child reaches the age of 3 — a crucial window for child development — hundreds of millions of young people could be in danger of becoming permanently impaired physically and developmentally.

"Ultimately, if China becomes a high-wage, high-income society, a large share of these children will be unemployable," he said.

Malnutrition also contributes to slower intellectual development, the study showed. More than 70% of infants 6 to 18 months old in Yunnan have anemia — a lack of red cells that ferry oxygen around the body. The figure is about 60% in Hebei, and 50% in Shaanxi.

While nutritional supplements could help promote improved cognitive skills, the impact was seen to be relatively small and only aided infants 6 to 18 months old, the study showed.

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Education and the Global Expansion of Formal Organization

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Formal organizational structures have expanded, worldwide, over recent decades, particularly in the neo-liberal period. In the background are the scientization of many aspects of social life, expanded conceptions of human empowerment, and the consequent explosive expansion of education.  Educational systems have a great deal in common worldwide, so expanding international organizational structures are also common. Prof. Meyer will discuss the domestic and international expansion of organizations, including for-profit, non-profit, and public agencies of all sorts, and the consequential rise of social movements for organizational “social responsibility.” 

John W. Meyer is Professor of Sociology (and, by courtesy, Education), emeritus, at Stanford.  He has contributed to organizational theory, comparative education, and the sociology of education, developing sociological institutional theory.  Since the 1970s, he has studied the impact of global society on national states and societies. In 2003 he completed a collaborative study of worldwide science and its national effects. He is currently working on a collaborative project on the impact of globalization on organizational structures.  

For registration, please email your name, affililiation, number and event title to: sanjiu39@stanford.edu 

 

STANFORD CENTER AT PEKING UNIVERSITY

 The Lee Jung Sen Building, Langrun Yuan, Peking University

 

John Meyer Professor of Sociology and, by courtesy, of Education, Emeritus Stanford University
Lectures

FSI Student Programs Info Session

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Join us for a conversation with FSI Director, Michael McFaul, as he showcases all the ways to get involved in student programs at FSI.

Light refreshments will be served. RSVP by 10/28 here.

 

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Michael A. McFaul

Encina Hall
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies, Department of Political Science
Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow, Hoover Institution
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Michael McFaul is the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, all at Stanford University. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1995 and served as FSI Director from 2015 to 2025. He is also an international affairs analyst for MSNOW.

McFaul served for five years in the Obama administration, first as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council at the White House (2009-2012), and then as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation (2012-2014).

McFaul has authored ten books and edited several others, including, most recently, Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America, and the New Global Disorder, as well as From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia, (a New York Times bestseller) Advancing Democracy Abroad: Why We Should, How We Can; and Russia’s Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin.

He is a recipient of numerous awards, including an honorary PhD from Montana State University; the Order for Merits to Lithuania from President Gitanas Nausea of Lithuania; Order of Merit of Third Degree from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, and the Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching at Stanford University. In 2015, he was the Distinguished Mingde Faculty Fellow at the Stanford Center at Peking University.

McFaul was born and raised in Montana. He received his B.A. in International Relations and Slavic Languages and his M.A. in Soviet and East European Studies from Stanford University in 1986. As a Rhodes Scholar, he completed his D. Phil. in International Relations at Oxford University in 1991. 

International Working Group on Russian Sanctions

The International Working Group on Russian Sanctions aims to provide expertise and experience to governments and companies around the world by assisting with the formulation of sanctions proposals that will increase the cost to Russia of invading Ukraine, and support democratic Ukraine in the defense of its territorial integrity and national sovereignty.
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Global Populisms

A new project examining the global surge in populist movements and what it means for established democratic rules and institutions.
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Fertility Restrictions and Life Cycle Outcomes: Evidence from the One Child Policy in China

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Wei Huang uses the experience of China's One Child Policy to examine how fertility restrictions affect economic and social outcomes over the lifetime. The One Child Policy imposed a birth quota and heavy penalties for “out-of-plan” births. Using variation in the fertility penalties across provinces over time, He examines how fertility restrictions imposed early in the lives of individuals affected their educational attainment, marriage and fertility decisions, and later life economic outcomes. Exposure to stricter fertility restrictions when young leads to higher education, more white-collar jobs, delayed marriage, and lower fertility. Further consequences include higher household income, consumption, and saving. Finally, exposure to stricter fertility restrictions in early life increases female empowerment as measured by an increase in the fraction of households headed by women, female-oriented consumption and gender-equal opinions. Overall, fertility restrictions imposed when agents are young have powerful effects throughout the life cycle.

Wei Huang is a Post-doctoral Fellow in Aging and Health Economics at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His main research studies public economics, labor economics, and health economics. He is interested in the topics such as health, education, ethnicity, and China. Wei received his PhD in economics from Harvard University in 2016. He received an M.A in economics from National School of Development at Peking University in 2011, and a B.A. in physics from School of Physics at Peking University in 2008.

 

Wei Huang Post-doctoral Fellow in Aging and Health Economics, the National Bureau of Economic Research
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Do Startups Learn When They Fail? Using Crowdfunding Data to Compare When and If Entrepreneurs Learn from Experience and Observation

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Do startups learn from their own past experiences? What about observing other entrepreneurs' experiences? Using the results of her recent study on tech ventures on Kickstarter, Jaclyn Selby will share the circumstances under which startups do - and do NOT - learn from previous success and failure. She will also explore whether startups learn best from prior experience in related or in unrelated industries.

Speaker Bio

Jaclyn Selby's research is at the intersection of technology, management and policy. She focuses on competitive dynamics in high tech and media industries, emphasizing innovation, startups, and intellectual property. She joins Stanford from a postdoctoral fellowship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth. Her work has been published in Communications & Strategies, Foreign Policy Digest, and Intellibridge Asia.  Jaclyn holds a PhD from the University of Southern California, an MA from Georgetown University, and a BA from Sarah Lawrence College.

Prior to PhD life, Jaclyn was a Senior Researcher heading federally-funded tech strategy projects at Project Argus, a leader in disease and disaster intelligence. Her group worked with partners at the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Open Source Center, the University of Iowa Avian Flu prediction market, and the Al Fornace molecular biology lab. Prior to Argus, she was Research & Marketing Director of the Style and Image Network, a boutique consultancy, and a geopolitical analyst (Intellibridge, Castle Asia, Courage Services). A U.S. citizen, Jaclyn was raised overseas in Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

 

Agenda

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP Required

 
For more information about the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project please visit: http://www.stanford-svnj.org/
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Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project

Fighting Infection: AIDS to SARS to ZIKA: Where Do We Go From Here?

 

Dr. Cohen is the Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health, and the Yeargan-Bate Distinguished Professor of Medicine in Microbiology and Immunology, and Epidemiology at University of North Carolina. He received his BS from the University of Illinois, Urbana, and MD from the Rush Medical College. His research focuses on the transmission and prevention of transmission of STD pathogens including HIV. Much of his work has been conducted at the research sites he and his group have developed in Lilongwe, Malawi and Beijing, China. Dr. Cohen and his coworkers have identified the concentration of HIV in genital secretions required for transmission of HIV, and the effects of genital tract inflammation on HIV. Dr. Cohen is currently studying Zika as a sexually transmitted disease.

For registration, please send your name, affiliation, phone number and event name to: sanjiu39@stanford.edu

 

 

Stanford Center at Peking University, The Lee Jung Sen Building, Langrun Yuan, Peking University

 

Myron Cohen Associate Vice Chancellor for Global Health University of North Carolina
Lectures

FROM MOLECULES TO HEALTH: THE TRANSLATIONAL POWER OF CONNECTING CHEMISTRY, ENGINEERING, AND MEDICINE

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Professor Khosla is the recipient of multiple distinguished awards including the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award (2009) and Pure Chemistry Award (2000) of the American Chemical Society, and the Alan T. Waterman Award of the National Science Foundation (1999).

In addition to his role as the founding Director of Stanford ChEM-H, he serves on the Board of Directors of Protagonist Therapeutics (PTGX) and is a member of the Scientific Policy Committee of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. His laboratory research focuses on problems where deep insights into enzymology and metabolism can be harnessed to improve human health. 

For registration, please send your name, affiliation, number and event title to: sanjiu39@stanford.edu 

 

The Lee Jung Sen Building, Langrun Yuan, Peking University

 

CHAITAN KHOSLA Director, Stanford ChEM-H, and Wells H. Rauser and Harold M. Petiprin Professor, School of Engineering; Professor of Chemistry, and, by courtesy, of Biochemistry Stanford University
Lectures

The Whore, the Hostess, and the Honey: Policing, Health, Business and the Regulation of Prostitution in China

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Speaker Bio:

boittin margaret
Margaret Boittin is Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. She studies Chinese law and politics.

She was a predoctoral and postdoctoral fellow at CDDRL (2012-2015).

Margaret Boittin

Encina Hall
616 Serra Street
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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The Governance Project Postdoctoral Fellow, 2013-15
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Margaret Boittin has a JD from Stanford, and is completing her PhD in Political Science at UC Berkeley. Her dissertation is on the regulation of prostitution in China. She is also conducting research on criminal law policy and local enforcement in the United States, and human trafficking in Nepal.

The Governance Project Postdoctoral Fellow, 2013-15
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Assistant Professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada
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