NTU Global Asia Research Centre Workshop - Asian Disruptors & Disruptions

Global Asia Research Centre's inaugural workshop aims to bring together a diverse group of participants—scholars, practitioners, journalists, artists, and others engaged with Asia’s public life—to reflect collectively on moments of rupture that have shaped political and social trajectories across the region. We hope the workshop will open a space for broad, cross-disciplinary conversations about how societies break, transform, and reimagine themselves.
 
The workshop will explore several guiding questions:

•    What forces have driven political rupture and socio-economic transformation in contemporary Asia?
•    How have political actors—formal and informal, individual and collective—organized, mobilized, and sustained movements for change?
•    What political ideas, emotions, and imaginaries have animated acts of protest and calls for transformation?
•    Given the rapid economic, technological, and social changes across Asia, how should we rethink disruption and upheaval today?

We hope that this gathering will help us reconsider familiar narratives, draw connections across cases, and open new conversations about the region’s evolving political landscapes. The discussion will be informal and exploratory by design, and we welcome perspectives grounded in research, lived experience, creative practice, and professional engagement.

The format of the event will be informal: the emphasis is on curated discussions between panelists rather than full academic presentations. The event is designed to appeal to policy-makers, journalists and diplomats, as well as students and professors. We hope that it may form the basis of an edited collection of papers, and also stimulate the creation of some podcasts and op-ed pieces for a broader audience.

Morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea will be provided for all attendees.

Please note that there may be photography, video or audio recordings during the event. By attending this event, you consent to the use of your photograph and voice in any broadcasts of the event and in subsequent productions drawn from photograph, video or audio recordings of this event for publicity and marketing purposes.

For more information, please contact Prof Duncan McCargo (duncan.mccargo@ntu.edu.sg) or Asst Prof Simon Luo (simon.luosh@ntu.edu.sg).