Asia Symposium 2025 — InterAsian Circulations April 11, 2025

This year's Asia Symposium examined the historic and contemporary connections within and beyond Asia, with attention to phenomena such as migration, religious and cultural movements, and political/economic connections. 

The first panel, on Religious and Social movements, investigated the contours of several contemporary social movements and their transnational connections. Yi-Ling Chen (University of Wyoming) compared the social housing movements in Taiwan and South Korea and explored how they have influenced each other. Dheepa Sundaram (University of Denver) discussed how the contemporary Hindutva movement has taken shape in digital spaces and involved both diasporic connections and linkages with US right wing and white supremacist movements. Neda Shaban (CU Boulder) discussed the anti-hijab movement in Iran and how it has been shaped by diasporic politics.  

The second panel, on Migration and Refugee Circulations, explored migration from the perspective of Asian societies. David Cook-Martin (CU Boulder) discussed the migration of Indian indentured workers to Mauritius and the West Indies and how this created legal and institutional templates for temporary labor migration that continue to shape global mobility patterns today. Jerry Jacka (CU Boulder) talked about how resource extraction and climate change in Papua New Guinea have reshaped traditional forms of internal migration and circulation. Shae Frydenlund (CU Boulder) discussed her research on Rohingya refugee women in Malaysia and how they have used online platforms to make money and supplement their families' meager income. 

In his keynote, Ismail Fajrie Alatas (NYU) discussed the history of alternative forms of circulation and mobility of Muslim Sufi scholars across the Indian ocean. He argued that their concept of wilāya, which encapsulates ideas about friendship across territoriality, offers a vision of a trans-regional geography shaped by protection, care, hospitality, and grace. Thinking with this concept opens up a fresh perspective on circulations across Asia, past and present. 

The 2025 Asia Symposium was made possible by the National Resource Center/FLAS grant from the US Department of Education.