Speakers and Events

In keeping with the educational mission of the university, the Pacific Basin Research Center sponsors campus conferences, occasional lecture series, and student seminars that extend and support its research activities.

Speaker events include the long-running Distinguished Speaker series, innovative panel events featuring SUA student discussants, panels by the PBRC Faculty Fellows, academic conferences and workshops, and other types of events.

Lecture Series

Since 2005, the PBRC has been hosting Distinguished Speaker series as well as invited lectures at the Soka University of America campus.

Sophal Ear, associate professor, diplomacy & world affairs, Occidental College, "What does China's Belt and Road Mean for Democracy? The Case of Cambodia"

PBRC Faculty Fellow Presentations #1 by Dr. Shane Barter, "Indonesian Autonomies: Or How I Spent My 2019-20 Sabbatical as a PBRC Faculty Fellow" and Dr. Lisa MacLeod, "The Women, Peace and Security Agenda at 20"

PBRC Faculty Fellow Presentations #2 by Dr. Monika Calef, "What Vegetation is There? Finding Wildfire Hazards and permafrost in the Western Arctic" and Dr. Osamu Ishiyama, "A Crosslinguistic Investigation of Historical Sources of First and Second Pronouns"

Nahum Chandler, Professor in the School of Humanities, the University of California, Irvine, "On the Virtues of Seeing - At Least But Never Only - Double: W.E.B. Du Bois, Asia, and Japan"

Jennifer Rudolph (Worcester Polytechnic Institute), “Integrating Liberal Arts and STEM to Tackle Wicked Problems."

Eric Bjorlund (Democracy International), "Opportunities in International Development Assistance”

Alexandra Cuerdo and Rey Cuerdo, Documentary Screening of ULAM: Main Dish.

Dr. Ajay Verghese (University of California, Riverside), "Ancient Hatreds: Evidence from 12 Centuries of Hindu-Muslim Conflict in India."

Dr. Michael Jerryson (Youngstown State University), "Humanity's Penchant for Violence: Patterns of Religious Expressions."

Richard Fox (Universität Heidelberg), "How to Have Your Soul and Eat It Too: Moments of Translational Indeterminacy on the Indonesian Island of Bali."

Dan Caldwell (Pepperdine University), "Warriors into Peacemakers."

José Luis León-Manríquez (Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana), "México, Asia, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership."

Maxwell A. Cameron (University of British Columbia), "Constituent Power in Latin America."

Leo Chavez (University of California, Irvine), "Children of Immigrants, Belonging, and Citizenship."

Tom McLean (Arnold and Porter, LLP), "The Value of Foreign Direct Investment In Bringing Nations Together."

Lynda Stone (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill), "Education's Hero? Icons, John Dewey, and Ethics."

Michael R. Curtis (Office of Sustainable Development Bureau of Africa), "Sub-Saharan Africa and the Bottom Billion."

Garry Brewer (Yale University), "The Business of the Environment: Trends and Challenges of Natural Resource Management."

Hilal Elver (University of California, Santa Barbara), "Water Barons vs. Water Warriors: New Water Wars."

Robert Tignor (Princeton University), "African Underdevelopment: Historical Perspectives."

Michael Ross (University of California, Los Angeles), “Oil Wealth as an Obstacle to Peace and Democracy."

Richard Falik (Princeton University), "A Vision of UN Reform: Global Challenge to Governments and Citizens."

Natalia S. Mirovitskaya (Duke University), "International Development and Poverty-Insecurity Nexus."

Masao Miyoshi (University of California, San Diego), "From Humanities to Ecology."

Pranab Bardhan (University of California, Berkeley), "The Rise of China and India: A Comparative Economic Assessment."

Anand Yang (University of Washington), "Contemporary India in Comparative and Global Perspective: The View from Beijing and Washington."

Arif Dirlik (University of Oregon), "Asia Pacific Studies in an Age of Global Modernity."

Carlos Alberto Torres (University of California, Los Angeles), "The Globalization Question and Education."

Conferences

Below is a list of conferences and workshops that the PBRC has either held on the SUA campus or co-sponsored at other sites.

"The 2018 Western Conference of the Association for Asian Studies (WCAAS)." Held at Soka University of America.

"Governance, Internal Migration, and Urbanization Workshop." Jointly co-sponsored by the PBRC and the East-West Center. The workshop was held in Honolulu, Hawai'i. For the workshop issue paper, please click here.

"Environmental Corporation-NGO Partnership Taskforce Conference." Jointly co-sponsored by the PBRC and the Roberts Environmental Center.

"Cultural Communications and Cultural Dissemination in the Asia-Pacific." Jointly co-sponsored by the PBRC and the Asian Cultural Studies Research Institute at Kyungwon University.

"Workshop on Sustainability and Policy-making: Reconciling Short and Long-term Policy Needs in Democratic Governance." Organized in cooperation with the East-West Center and the United Nations University’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP). The workshop was held in Honolulu, Hawai'i.

"Workshop on Economic Development Strategies and Averting Violence."

"Study Group of Eminent Scholars on Civil Society Engagement in National and Global Governance." Jointly co-sponsored by the PBRC, the East-West Center, United Nations University’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace (UNU-ISP), and Harvard University's Ash Institute for Democratic Governance. The workshop was held in Honolulu, Hawai'i.