Dr. Rafiq Dossani, Senior Research Scholar; Executive Director, South Asia Initiative, will review and sign his new book "India Arriving: How this Economic Powerhouse is Redefining Global Business" at Foothill College on Wednesday, October 8 at 12:00 p.m.

This series of talks explore a number of issues which have arisen from a study of ethnogenesis, identity formation, state building, religious reform, and socio-economic "modernization" in selected regions of insular and peninsular Southeast Asia in the (late) modern period (late 19th century to the present).Clearly, none of these broad thematic areas can be adequately studied on its own.

The final talk examines the relationship between religion and secularisation, and specifically the implications of the so-called religious revival that is said to have taken place in different parts of Southeast Asia in recent years.  The main aim here is not, however, to engage in the normative debate over what constitutes a ‘proper’ relationship between religion and the modern (secular) state in modern societies – that is to contribute directly to current debates about the modern ‘public sphere’. Rather by focussing on the formation of alternative publics, he proposes to investigate relations between religion and secularity from a broadly phenomenological or experiential – rather than from a naturalist or socio-historical – perspective.

Among Joel S. Kahn’s many books are Other Malays (2006), Modernity and Exclusion (2001), Southeast Asian Identities (ed., 1998), Culture, Multiculture, Postculture (1995), and Constituting the Minangkabau (1993). His other writings include State, Region, and the Politics of Recognition (forthcoming in National Integration and Regionalism in Indonesia and Malaysia). He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has held appointments at Monash University and University College London, among other institutions. He serves or has served as an editorial board member of Critique of Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and Ethnicities. His doctorate is from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

A technical problem prevented the recording of Professor Kahn's third lecture.

This series of talks explore a number of issues which have arisen from a study of ethnogenesis, identity formation, state building, religious reform, and socio-economic "modernization" in selected regions of insular and peninsular Southeast Asia in the (late) modern period (late 19th century to the present).Clearly, none of these broad thematic areas can be adequately studied on its own.

The second is this series addresses the formation of group identities in Southeast Asia and their implication in modern processes of state formation, with a particular focus on the category ‘Malay’. In looking at the making of modern Malay-ness he will also address three areas of recent debate: firstly, over the nature and distinctiveness of so-called cultural identities in the modern period; secondly, over the (continuing) role of empire in the shaping of modern identities; and, thirdly, over the impact of cultural and religious pluralism on Southeast Asian polities.

Among Joel S. Kahn’s many books are Other Malays (2006), Modernity and Exclusion (2001), Southeast Asian Identities (ed., 1998), Culture, Multiculture, Postculture (1995), and Constituting the Minangkabau (1993). His other writings include State, Region, and the Politics of Recognition (forthcoming in National Integration and Regionalism in Indonesia and Malaysia). He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has held appointments at Monash University and University College London, among other institutions. He serves or has served as an editorial board member of Critique of Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and Ethnicities. His doctorate is from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

This series of talks will explore a number of issues which have arisen from a study of ethnogenesis, identity formation, state building, religious reform, and socio-economic "modernization" in selected regions of insular and peninsular Southeast Asia in the (late) modern period (late 19th century to the present).  Clearly, none of these broad thematic areas can be adequately studied on its own.

This talk is the first in a series of 3 lectures and explores the theme of modernity, specifically by asking whether we can or should speak of a distinctively Southeast Asian form, pattern, structure or trajectory of modernity - a question which arises out of the ‘revisionist' literature on so-called alternative modernities.

Among Joel S. Kahn's many books are Other Malays (2006), Modernity and Exclusion (2001), Southeast Asian Identities (ed., 1998), Culture, Multiculture, Postculture (1995), and Constituting the Minangkabau (1993). His other writings include "State, Region, and the Politics of Recognition" (forthcoming in National Integration and Regionalism in Indonesia and Malaysia). He is an elected Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and has held appointments at Monash University and University College London, among other institutions. He serves or has served as an editorial board member of Critique of Anthropology, Current Anthropology, and Ethnicities. His doctorate is from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Having dominated Danish politics for over a decade, as Prime Minister and leader of the Danish Social Democrat Party, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen was elected President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) in April 2004. As President of the PES, he leads 34 national socialist and social democrat parties in government and in opposition, in their common efforts at European level.

Member of the Danish Parliament since 1988, Poul took over the chairmanship of the Danish Social Democrats and its Parliamentary Group in 1992. In under a year he was elected Prime Minister, a post which he kept until 2001. Since then, Poul has concentrated his political engagement at the European level. From 2002 onwards, Poul has been a leading figure in the development of new policy ideas and initiatives for European social democrats, as chair of the PES High Level Group on globalisation and chair of the PES Lisbon Network.

Poul has also been chairman of the Global Progressive Forum from 2004 to 2007, a globalisation initiative involving a wide range of NGOs, and a Member of the European Parliament, having led the Danish Social Democrats to a stunning victory in the June 2004 European elections.