Writing a Story of Southeast Asia, with Eric Thompson (National University of Singapore) (Sept. 24, 2024)

Join Eric C. Thompson as he discusses his new book, The Story of Southeast Asia (NUS Press, 2024), in which he examines a series of themes that have created the region as we know it today: state building (and state avoidance), adoption of popular religions, contested sovereignty, and modernity. Prof. Thompson will engage us in a discussion of how to frame the ongoing debates in Southeast Asian studies through the such questions as: What were the motivations for writing this book? Why attend to an exceptionally longue durée? What are the parallels between the adoption and spread of Theravada, Islam, Confucianism, and Christianity in the region? How can we (and should we) put colonialism in its place? And, of course, what the heck was Sriwijaya?

Writing a Story of Southeast Asia

Eric C. Thompson

(Dept. of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore)

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024 from 5-6:30 pm 

at the Pardee School of Global Studies, 121 Bay State Road, Boston MA