Author Archives: sudestasie

This essay draws on Pheng Cheah’s insights in What is a World? to examine the contrasting spatiotemporalities of colonial adventure and continental drift in French Indochinese colonial-exotic literature of the 1920s and 1930s. I look first at how the genre worlds in a narrow, linear sense, discursively mapping the spatialized colony in concert with imperialist projections. TheContinue reading “New publication by Leslie Barnes: French Colonial Literature in Indochina”

Congratulations to Elizabeth Collins, who has won Modern and Contemporary France‘s Best article prize for 2022! Elizabeth’s brilliant article, “‘Le Riz d’Indochine’ at the French table: representations of food, race and the Vietnamese in a colonial-era board game” is described by the jury as “theoretically versatile and innovative, convincing in its ethical perspective and self-awareness.” SeeContinue reading “Elizabeth Collins wins Best article prize for “‘Le Riz d’Indochine’””

Congrats to Catherine Nguyen, who has just joined Emerson College as assistant professor of asian diasporic literatures in the department of writing, literature and publishing. Congrats, Catherine! Learn more about Catherine’s latest projects here.

Karl Britto has taken on the role of Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities at the University of California Berkeley, where he has taught in the French and Comparative Literature programs since 1996. Congratulations, Karl!

In June, ASERN members, Howie Tam, Tess Do, Alex Kurmann, and Leslie Barnes came together virtually to take part in Howie’s seminar, “Transnational Southeast Asian Literatures in the World.” Much has changed since Benedict Anderson conceptualized the idea of the nation as an imagined community nearly four decades ago. Primarily, borders have become more porousContinue reading “ASERN at the ACLA”

Dr Alexandra Kurmann recently gave a keynote presentation for the Women in French (Australia) Postgraduate and Early Career Researcher International Symposium: The Immersive Potential of Literature and Hybrid Media in the 20th and 21st Centuries (Jan. 13-15, 2022). Alex’s presentation was titled “Immersion in Literature as Other: The Sartrean Gaze and the Production of EmpatheticContinue reading “Alexandra Kurmann gives keynote for WiF “The Immersive Potential of Literature” symposium”

The Asian Cinema Research Lab at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore will host a book launch for Leslie Barnes and Joseph Mai’s The Cinema of Rithy Panh: Everything Has a Soul on November 12, 2021. Mariam B. Lam will launch the book, and contributors to the book will discuss its different themes. Please see posterContinue reading “The Cinema of Rithy Panh book launch”

Le site France-Vietnam : Bibliothèque des flamboyants (Bibliothèque nationale de France et Bibliothèque nationale du Vietnam), en mettant désormais à la disposition des historiens d’innombrables documents datant particulièrement de l’époque coloniale, rappelle opportunément que la France et le Vietnam ont une histoire commune depuis le XVIIe siècle jusqu’à nos jours. Il a l’ambition de jalonner des itinéraires dans lesContinue reading “New publication by Nguyen Giang Huong: Le Portail France-Vietnam”

Born in 1964, Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh grew up in the midst of the Khmer Rouge’s genocidal reign of terror, which claimed the lives of many of his relatives. After escaping to France, where he attended film school, he returned to his homeland in the late 1980s and began work on the documentaries and fictionContinue reading “New publication by Leslie Barnes: The Cinema of Rithy Panh”

Catherine Nguyen has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies fellowship (2021-2022) for her project, Children Born of War, Adoptees Made by War: Vietnamese Diasporic Contestations of Empire and Race.   Catherine’s project investigates the Vietnamese mixed-race child and the transracial adoptee as the figures through which France and the United States negotiate citizenship and refugee displacementContinue reading “Catherine Nguyen named 2021-2022 ACLS Fellow”