IAFOR’s Collaborative Efforts: AAS and the IAFOR Research Centre

Monday, March 27, 2023 | 14:30-15:15 | Orion Hall (5F)

The objective of The Asian Conference on Education & International Development (ACEID) is to showcase the importance of education as an integral (and indispensable) component of international development. In higher education, where the resource-rich Global North dominates in research capacity, as well as in shaping mainstream discourse, many institutions in the Global South still need considerable capacity building in order to make their voice count.

In this featured discussion, we invite Krisna Uk, Director of Special Initiatives at the Association of Asian Studies, who is leading the South and Southeast Asia initiative to “Cultivate the Humanities and Social Sciences in Under-represented Scholars in Asia”, to discuss this major region-wide, collaborative undertaking. She will be joined by Brendan Howe, Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University and President of APISA (Asian Political and International Studies Association) and Haruko Satoh, the co-director of the IAFOR Research Centre (IRC) at the Osaka School of International Public Policy, who are both contributing to this initiative through the IRC’s “Peace and Human Security in Asia: Toward a Meaningful Japan-Korea Partnership” project supported by the Korea Foundation.

Krisna Uk

Krisna Uk is the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Director of Special Initiatives, in charge of project development, outreach, and strategic initiatives. Prior to joining the AAS, she was the Executive Director of the Center for Khmer Studies, designing and running programs focused on the history, politics and culture of Cambodia and neighbouring countries in Southeast Asia. Krisna studied at the University of California-Berkeley and holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature from the Sorbonne University and an MSc in Environmental Change and Management from Oxford University. Her experience in Cambodia also includes overseeing landmine clearance programs and a period living in a remote village in the northeast of the country researching impacts of the Indochina Wars on ethnic minority communities. This formed the basis for her PhD in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University and subsequent book on the same topic.

Haruko Satoh

Haruko Satoh is Specially Appointed Professor at the Osaka School of International Public Policy (OSIPP), where she teaches Japan’s relations with Asia and identity in international relations. She is also co-director of the OSIPP-IAFOR Research Centre and she was previously part of the MEXT Reinventing Japan project on “Peace and Human Security in Asia (PAHSA)” with six Southeast Asian and four Japanese universities.

In the past she has worked at the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA), Chatham House, and Gaiko Forum. Her interests are primarily in state theory, Japanese nationalism and identity politics. Recent publications include: “China in Japan’s Nation-state Identity” in James DJ Brown & Jeff Kingston (eds) Japan’s Foreign Relations in Asia (Routledge, 2018); “Japan’s ‘Postmodern’ Possibility with China: A View from Kansai” in Lam Peng Er (ed), China-Japan Relations in the 21st Century (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); “Rethinking Security in Japan: In Search of a Post-‘Postwar’ Narrative” in Jain & Lam (Eds.), Japan’s Strategic Challenges in a Changing Regional Environment (World Scientific, 2012); “Through the Looking-glass: China’s Rise as Seen from Japan”, (co-authored with Toshiya Hoshino), Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(2), 181–198, (July 2012); “Post- 3.11 Japan: A Matter of Restoring Trust?”, ISPI Analysis No. 83 (December 2011); “Legitimacy Deficit in Japan: The Road to True Popular Sovereignty” in Kane, Loy & Patapan (Eds.), Political Legitimacy in Asia: New Leadership Challenges (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), “Japan: Re-engaging with China Meaningfully” in Tang, Li & Acharya (eds), Living with China: Regional States and China through Crises and Turning Points, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).

Brendan Howe

Brendan Howe is Dean and Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University, South Korea, where he has also served two terms as Associate Dean and Department Chair. He is also currently the President of the Asian Political and International Studies Association, and an Honorary Ambassador of Public Diplomacy and advisor for the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He has held visiting professorships and research fellowships at the East-West Center (where he is currently enjoying a second term as a POSCO Visiting Research Fellow), the Freie Universität Berlin, De La Salle University, the University of Sydney, Korea National Defence University, Georgetown University, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, and Beijing Foreign Studies University.

Educated at the University of Oxford, the University of Kent at Canterbury, Trinity College Dublin, and Georgetown University, his ongoing research agendas focus on traditional and non-traditional security in East Asia, human security, middle powers, public diplomacy, post-crisis development, comprehensive peacebuilding and conflict transformation. He has authored, co-authored, or edited around 100 related publications including Society and Democracy in South Korea and Indonesia (Palgrave, 2022), The Niche Diplomacy of Asian Middle Powers (Lexington Books, 2021), UN Governance: Peace and Human Security in Cambodia and Timor-Leste (Springer, 2020), Regional Cooperation for Peace and Development (Routledge, 2018), National Security, State Centricity, and Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2017), Peacekeeping and the Asia-Pacific (Brill, 2016), Democratic Governance in East Asia (Springer, 2015), Post-Conflict Development in East Asia (Ashgate, 2014), and The Protection and Promotion of Human Security in East Asia (Palgrave, 2013).