Episode 148: Arnisson Ortega, Associate Professor from the Department of Geography and the Environment, Syracuse University

Episode 148: Arnisson Ortega, Associate Professor from the Department of Geography and the Environment, Syracuse University

In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan speaks with Arnisson Andre Ortega, Associate Professor from the Department of Geography and the Environment at Syracuse University. First, they discuss his current project, "City of Imperialism," which examines the legacy of former U.S. military bases in the Philippines. Then, they unpack his lecture, "Geonarratives of Hope and Resistance," which is a part of a collaborative project with human rights defenders in Negros Island. It shows that mapping is more than a technical tool, but can be used to support resistance and justice, especially in a place suffering from authoritarian violence like the Philippines. Tune in to find out more about how Prof. Ortega and his colleagues turn cartography into a tool of care and resistance! Lightning round (Lecture Summary): 3:33 Main interview: 8:13 –Could you tell us about your intellectual journey—how you became interested in geography, colonialism, and what ultimately led you to pursue a PhD? 15:15 –How does the tradition of mapmaking connect to the history of colonialism in the Philippines? In what ways does countermapping challenge or push back against those inherited frameworks? 19: 20 –Could you share more about your current book project—its central arguments and what you hope it contributes to the field? 24: 41 – Your work involves collaboration beyond academia. How did these partnerships come about, and what does meaningful collaboration look like in your project? 27:36 – What drew you specifically to Negros Island as a focal point for your research? 34:13 – Could you walk us through the process of your project? Who are the key participants, and how do they shape the knowledge that emerges? 36:40 – In your lecture, you discuss how violence operates within everyday, seemingly mundane life. This brings to mind Hannah Arendt's idea of the "banality of evil." How does this concept help us understand the normalization of violence in the Philippine context? And how do human rights defenders resist within these conditions? 44: 48 – Finally, what advice would you give to students or scholars who want to use academic work to build infrastructures of care and support justice-oriented initiatives? Advice Advice for researchers and recommendations: 44:40 Dr. Ortega's top recommendation: * Urban Ecologies on the Edge: Making Manila's Resource Frontier [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/urban-ecologies-on-the-edge/paper] by Kristian Karlo Saguin The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here [http://14strings.com/]. Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu

Episode 147: Courtney Wittekind, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Purdue University

In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan speaks with Courtney T. Wittekind, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University. Together, they discuss Dr.Wittekind's lecture, which is part of her forthcoming book, City of Speculation: Unsettled Futures in Urban Myanmar [https://www.sup.org/books/anthropology/city-speculation] (Stanford University Press), and explore how speculation unfolds amid political, economic, and social instability. Focusing on Southwest Yangon, Dr. Wittekind examines everyday practices of speculation and gambling in a suburb where the Myanmar government proposed a plan to build a new city that never came to fruition. The conversation reflects on navigating the unexpected and uncertainty during fieldwork, especially the pandemic, and how these challenges reshaped her methodology and her scholarly work. Tune in to learn more! Lightning round (Lecture Summary): 1:15 Main interview: 6:36 6:50 – What did you do before you started a PhD, and what made you pursue a doctoral degree? 9:54 – Did you have a topic in mind when entering grad school, and how did it change? 14:21 – Did you intend to choose Southwest Yangoon as your research focus in your first fieldwork, or did it come afterward? 25:43 – Your research deals with instability. Meanwhile, speculation involves futurity. How do you think of speculation in Southeast Asia, which is fraught with political instability? 31:55 - Who speculates? What does this speculation reveal about Southwest Yangon? 35:03 – Your lecture mentioned the organizing movement advocating for the New City plan. This challenges my understanding of the grassroots movement, which usually organizes against real estate developers. What does this organizing movement reveal about the politics of urbanization in the context of Myanmar? 39:42 – One audience member asked about how to identify the people's desire in the movement, and you admitted that it is hard to identify the real agrarian desire, and one of your chapters discusses the two categories of authentic and inauthentic farmers. How do you distinguish between the two? Are the lines fixed, or are they more fluid? And how do you examine whether the movement stemmed from the real agrarian desire? 44:13 – How did the Coup in 2021 complicate the speculation you're looking at? 47:44 - Since speculation is about futurity, it is always a process involving hope. Given the context of political instability, would speculation be possible without hope? Advice Advice for researchers and recommendations: 50:28 Dr. Wittekind's top recommendations: * Yangon Film School: [https://www.yangonfilmschool.org/] an institution based in Myanmar, making cutting-edge films * Purin films: [https://www.purin.org/] a film fund that supports independent cinema in Southeast Asia Don't forget to check out Dr. Wittekind's forthcoming book: City of Speculation, Unsettled Futures in Urban Myanmar. [https://www.sup.org/books/anthropology/city-speculation] Description: In 2018, amidst a celebrated political transition, Myanmar's first democratically elected government since 1962 proposed a built-from-scratch "new city" just outside Yangon, the country's former colonial capital and current economic center. 20,000 acres of once-barren rice fields became the site of extraordinary developmental dreams. Farmers on Yangon's outskirts traded cultivation for speculation on land and property, betting on uncertain futures and weighing what, exactly, was worth risking for a chance at transformation. As plans for the new city stalled amid political turmoil, economic liberalization, a pandemic, and a military coup, speculation became both a source of hope and a means of survival when urban dreams faded. Drawing on three years of site-based fieldwork and digital ethnography, Courtney T. Wittekind shows how speculation reshapes citizens' contemporary demands and forward-looking dreams—for themselves as well as their country—in times of crisis. Adopting the lens of "vernacular speculation," she reveals how ordinary people create value, interpret ambiguity, and act on possible futures, even as the promises of democracy and development collapse around them. A powerful account of how hope, anticipation, and uncertainty reconfigure everyday life, City of Speculation captures what it means to imagine—and gamble on—the future in the wake of profound upheaval. The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here [http://14strings.com/]. Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu

Episode 146: Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies, National University of Singapore

In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan and Carrie Mo, a master's student in Asian Studies, interview Taomo Zhou, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore, about her research on the life of Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej, an Indonesian transnational activist in the Afro-Asian movement and the mother of seven. Because of her involvement with the Communist Party of Indonesia (Partai Komunist Indonesia, PKI), Francisca went into exile in China after the 1965 Indonesia massacre, forcing her to separate from her family for many decades. By examining Francisca's life and activism in Indonesia, China, and the Netherlands, Prof. Zhou tells us how contested international politics shaped gender roles and expectations, redefining what motherhood meant. Lightning round(Lecture Summary): 4:20 Main interview: 8:12 8:12 – How did you first discover Francisca Casparina Fanggidaej, and how did you piece together her story through archival materials and oral history interviews? 10:17 – Can you walk us through Francisca's background and life trajectory? What led her to political activism? 11:26 – How did Francisca become involved in politics, and what shaped her early political commitments? 13:44 – How does Francisca's life reflect shifting gender ideologies, particularly across the Sukarno and Suharto eras in Indonesia? 16:54 – During her exile after the 1965 political violence, Francisca arrived in Beijing. How should we understand China's role within a more rigid gender framework at the time? 19:54 – In her diaries, Francisca attempts to tell her story to her daughter. How do you interpret these writings in relation to the politics of maternal absence? 23:17 – Why is motherhood a critical lens for rethinking internationalism? 26:27 - How does the case of Francisca become useful to think about the gender roles and expectations in the present, especially for mothers? 27:38 – Your upcoming book, Made in Shenzhen, shifts focus geographically—what drew you to Shenzhen, and are there connections between this project and Francisca's story, particularly around migration? 31:33 – How does the concept of maternal absence reshape our understanding of domestic labor and caregiving? Advice Advice for researchers and recommendations: 33:50 Dr. Zhou's top recommendations: * The Majesties: A Novel by Tiffany Tsao [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/46221974-the-majesties] The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here [http://14strings.com/]. Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu

Episode 145: Liang Wu, SEAP/Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University

In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan, joined by Yi-Jen Chen, a Cornell PhD student in Anthropology, interviews Liang Wu, a postdoctoral associate in Environmental Humanities in the Southeast Asia Program and the Department of Science and Technology Studies. Together, they explore what it means to rethink "maritime Southeast Asia." Rather than treating Southeast Asia as a fixed geographic region, the conversation focuses on the circulation of labor and commodities across Southeast Asia and the globe. Dr. Wu highlights the central—yet often overlooked—role of Filipino seafarers, tracing how their prominence historically emerged from U.S. colonial training, postcolonial labor policies, and the expansion of the global shipping industry since the 1970s. Tune in to learn more about Dr. Wu's work, methodologies, and fieldwork experiences! Lightning round(Lecture Summary): 3:45 Main interview: 8:18 8:18 – What first sparked your interest in maritime Southeast Asia? 9:37 – The traditional framework divides Southeast Asia into "mainland" and "maritime" regions. Do you think this distinction still holds? What are its limitations, and how does your work challenge or move beyond it? 13:24 – Could you share your ethnographic experience—how did you first gain access to the field, and what were some of the most striking moments early on? 17:28 – As your fieldwork progressed, what observations or turning points led you to refine your core research questions and focus? How did you navigate and plan your work in such an unpredictable and high-risk environment? 20:35 – Where and when did you conduct your ethnographic research? 23:00 – What does "containerization" mean in your work? How does this concept help us understand maritime labor and organization at sea? 26:29 – What historical period does your research focus on? How do contemporary trade routes compare to those of the 16th century, when Southeast Asia is often described as a cosmopolitan hub? 30:29 – When you place these two moments side by side, what key contrasts and insights emerge? 34:35 – While ships are largely male-dominated spaces, the industry depends heavily on the "immobile" labor of women at home. How does the prolonged absence of seafarers reshape gender roles and power dynamics within Filipino families? 39:27 – In the confined, hyper-masculine environment of cargo ships, how do seafarers navigate intimacy, friendship, and vulnerability? Did you observe moments where the "tough sailor" persona breaks down, and how do they support each other emotionally? 43:33 – After years of listening to seafarers' stories—especially narratives of sacrifice—how have you grappled with the ethical dimensions of your research? Has this shaped your perspective or influenced your career trajectory? Advice for researchers and recommendations: 49:49 Dr. Wu' top recommendations: * In Asian Waters: Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama [https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691146829/in-asian-waters?srsltid=AfmBOooF3SgBj5aZsySZxS0RNxfK7NOfK2G9iqxOTS-rmrSor0HOxFtf] by Eric Tagliacozzo * Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia [https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780991047802/intertidal-history-in-island-southeast-asia/#bookTabs=1] by Jennifer L. Gaynor * Maritime Southeast Asia: Not Just a Crossroads by Jennifer L. Gaynor The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here [http://14strings.com/]. Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu

Episode 144: Lydia O'Meara, Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, Cornell University

In this episode, host Namfon Narumol Choochan is joined by Francine Barchett, former host of the Gatty Rewind Podcast and a Cornell PhD candidate in Natural Resources & the Environment. Together, they interview Lydia O'Meara, a postdoctoral fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Lydia studies how diets in coastal communities can reveal links between human nutrition and marine ecosystem health. Her research focuses on Timor-Leste in the Coral Triangle, a biodiversity hotspot where many people rely on fish but face growing threats from climate change and biodiversity loss. Using mobile phones to collect frequent dietary data, she works to fill important data gaps and track changes over time. Tune in to learn more about how her work connects nutrition and environment! Lightning round(Lecture Summary): 3:45 Main interview: 9:36 9:55 – How did you become interested in nutrition and food security, particularly with a focus on women and children? 13:39 – Why did you decide to focus on Timor-Leste? How did your research experience in Uganda help you navigate research in the context of Timor-Leste? 17:27 – What does fish species diversity look like in the region? 20:16 – Are there differences in fish consumption between men and women? 22:57 – What are the dynamics of mobile phone use, and how is the system structured? 26:38 – How did you develop the method of using mobile phones to collect data? 29:46 – How did the technical process work? What recommendations do you have for scholars using technology in their research? 31:59 – What languages are used in the project? 33:40 – Who are the main stakeholders in the current project? Did your experience collecting data in Uganda help you use or interpret the data differently in this context? 36:46 – What does development and growth look like in Timor-Leste? 38:00 – What are the implications if we overlook the data and marginalized women in Timor-Leste? Advice for researchers and recommendations: 40:34 Dr. O"Meara' top recommendations: * The End Of The Line by Charles Clover * My Octopus Teacher [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12888462/] * Books by Naila Kabeer [https://nailakabeer.net/] The music on the podcast is from "14 Strings!", a Filipino-style Rondalla group established at Cornell University. Check them out here [http://14strings.com/]. Produced by Neen Yada Tangcharoenmonkong, Adam Farihin, and Cecilia Liu