Asia and Asian Diaspora Events
Winter 2012

Taiwan's Super Saturday: Perspectives on the 2012 Polls from Canadian Election Observers
How is Taiwan's democracy affected by the island's authoritarian past and its relations with China and the United States? Panelists will weigh in on these critical questions in light of Taiwan's recent presidential and legislative elections. Panelists Michael Stainton (President, Taiwan Human Rights Association of Canada) and Susan Henders (Associate Professor, Political Science) will also discuss their participation in an election observation mission organized by the International Committee for Fair Elections in Taiwan. Discussant B. Michael Frolic (Professor Emeritus, Political Science) will speak on the election in light of Taiwan-China relations and democratization in other contexts.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012 | 3:30 to 5:30pm | 857 York Research Tower | York University

From Impunity to Accountability? The Khmer Rouge Tribunal photo exhibition
Exhibition curated by Carla Rose Shapiro, Research Fellow at the Asian Institute at the University of Toronto. The photos are now exhibited on the first floor, Scott Library, Keele campus until 15 February 2012.
The Exhibition is hosted at York University by York University Libraries.

What is it to Witness?: Humans, Animals and Visuality in Urban India
Talk by Naisargi N. Dave (Anthropology, University of Toronto) on rethinking the concept of intimacy through a human witnessing of violence against a non-human life and the subsequent tethering of human to non-. As Elizabeth Povinelli has recently elaborated, the very meaning of 'intimacy' within Enlightenment thought is the freely chosen bond between sovereign subjects. Might the case of the human and animal further complicate that crucial fiction? These activists show us that where proper intimacy is inconceivable (between human and animal), the witnessing of violence both explodes and exacerbates the species divide, leading the human to a sense of singular, intimate knowledge of a singular Other's life, but an intimacy that requires the giving of 'voice' for  that other which cannot speak.
Part of the YCAR and South Asian Studies Programme Colloquia on Contemporary South Asia and co-hosted the Department of Anthropology
Wednesday, 29 February 2012 | 12:30 to 2:30pm | 280A York Lanes | York University

Events organized by YCAR faculty associated with the 2012 Association of Asian Studies (AAS) conference
Click here for more information

YCAR Annual General Meeting
Wednesday, 25 April 2012