The Weatherhead East Asian Institute’s Asia in Action initiative highlights scholarly, artistic, and advocacy work related to East, Inner, and Southeast Asia that extends beyond traditional academic frameworks. It brings attention to the practices and lived experiences of innovative professionals—including writers, filmmakers, artists, and activists—whose work engages with pressing issues in a rapidly changing world.
Through public programming, interdisciplinary research support, and collaborative projects, the initiative fosters meaningful connections between academic and broader communities. By amplifying voices and perspectives often overlooked by academia, Asia in Action widens our understanding of Asia and underscores the importance of action-driven narratives.
Asia in Action Video
Asia in Action News
Asia in Action Fellow Khashem Gyal’s Daughter of the Light depicts a family fracturing under pressures of a rapidly changing world.
At Asia Society New York, filmmaker Tony Bui revisits his celebrated debut with WEAI Director Lien-Hang Nguyen.
Artist-in-residence Tony Bui talks to Criterion about the remarkable slate of Vietnam War films he curated for their streaming platform.
Filmmaker and educator talks storytelling, stereotypes, and the many ways of addressing a war’s legacy.
Asia in Action Initiatives
In a webinar held on December 7, 2022, entitled "Migrant Workers Rights in Singapore: Advocacy, Legal Frameworks and Prospects for Change," Debbie Fordyce, president of Transient Workers Council Too, laid out the structural regime and history of how migrants come to work in Singapore. Also speaking at the event, Laavanya Kathiravelu, Associate Professor at Nanyang Technological University, focused on the impact of COVID-19 and the everyday lives of migrant men as well as Singaporeans’ views on migrant workers.
In a panel discussion on "Women, Modernity, and Sustainable Fashion in Contemporary Vietnam," fashion designer Vu Thao, FIT's museum director Valerie Steele, and Professors Dorothy Ko, Hazel Clarke, and John Phan addressed the intersection of fashion with sustainability, social justice, and economic change.
In an interdisciplinary discussion on December 2 titled “Open Science: Sino-US Collaboration in an Age of Surveillance,” panelists drew from personal experience and professional expertise, from the fields of science, law, and journalism, to consider the implications of the US government's counter-espionage policies for academia.
