Workshops are opportunities to understand your own work in context relative to one’s field and geography, and this week’s Workshop on Southeast Asia Economic Development in the Post Pandemic Era held at Universiti Malaya in coordination with the Young Scholars Initiative East Asia Working Group from Cambodia.
Workshop was an opportunity to learn from three keynote addresses, and fourteen papers across five eclectic panel sessions from climate policy to socioeconomics to international trade.
Prof Evelyn Devadason spoke about a range of concepts on international trade barriers to Prof Thirunakarasu’s talk on Resource Nationalism. Prof Nanthakumar’s address on econometrics was an eye opener.
Amongst the graduate student presentations that stood out were Ms. Ling Ling Tai’s research with the Zomi Refugee Community in Malaysia to Mr. Denis Teo’s presentation on visually impaired people in the Malaysian workforce, when he is himself a blind person, so thoroughly inspiring. The workshop also gave space to community organisers such as Aaron Dinesh to speak on platform worker organising in Malaysia.
I presented my PhD work in progress on Carbon Markets as Signalling Infrastructure, proposing an ANT based approach towards thinking with/from Climate Capitalism.
We had participants and speakers from Holland, Portugal, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and India. The Policy Intelligesia from ISIS and ASB also participated actively in Malaysia in the workshop discussions.
A special thanks to Kosal Nith Sereyroth P. and the YSI team for their financial and logistical support in putting together the delightful intellectual feast. The UM SEAS Department team did a fantastic on ground support towards the successful delivery of the international workshop.
I learnt so much from MCeeing the workshop as well as helping to putting together the event over the past six months.
Change Thinker 