York Centre for Asian Research Updates

In this Issue…

YCAR News	* YCAR scholar Habib Rahman accepts position at University Brunei Darussalam
	* Award-winning visual artist seeks contacts with Filipino diaspora knowledge
YCAR Publications	* Keith Barney’s paper launches YCAR working paper series
Opportunities	* End of June deadlines approaching
	* UWindsor-based publication seeks submissions on social justice struggles
Upcoming Events	* Sikh scholar will speak @ York in late June
	* Southeast Asia uplands change, academic response are focus of October conference (Thailand)
York News	* Osgoode students provide pro bono legal service in the Philippines
	* Japanese diplomat honoured to become a member of the York community

YCAR News: YCAR scholar Habib Rahman accepts position at University Brunei Darussalam

Brunei is the next destination for Dr. Mohammad Habib Rahman, a recent YCAR visiting scholar and research associate. Habib accepted a position at the University Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begwan. He will spend three years as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Policy and Administration. In his first semester, he will be offering courses on ‘Government and Politics’ to second year undergraduate students.

Before coming to York, Habib conducted research at the University of the South Pacific (Fiji) on governance reforms dealing with civil servants’ perception of governance of poverty in the South Pacific and South Asia, impact of e-governance in promoting transparency and accountability in the South Pacific, and public sector reforms in Asia and Pacific.

YCAR News: Award-winning visual artist seeks contacts with Filipino diaspora knowledge

Rod Dioso is hoping to make connections within the YCAR community that will enrich his upcoming project on the Filipino community in Toronto.

Rod, a graduate of the Ontario College of Art and Design, was recently awarded an Ontario Arts Council Visual Artists grant for a digital arts project that will document the virtual representation of this diaspora group. He will explore the parallels between the fluidity of this transnational community and the emerging new media of digital art.

Rod’s research interests include the Filipino diaspora and migration to the West, themes of transnational identity and the connections between digital art and globalization. He has exhibited his art in Tokyo, Toronto and Montreal and was a 2006 Spotlight Artist in MIX Magazine: a declaration of creative independence. He has also been involved with charitable organizations and events benefiting the arts in Laos, the Philippines and Thailand.

For more information on Rod’s work, please visit his website . He welcomes emails from interested YCAR associates or members of the community who may have an interest in the project or would be willing to share their experiences and/or other knowledge about the Filipino community in Toronto. His email is roddioso@gmail.com . (Art work by Rod Dioso)

YCAR Publications: Keith Barney’s paper launches YCAR working paper series

The YCAR Papers were launched earlier this week with Keith Barney ’s Power, Progress, and Impoverishment: Plantations, Hydropower, Ecological Change and Community Transformation in Hinboun District, Lao PDR. The paper is co-published by the Rights and Resources Initiative and Probe International .

The paper can be found on the YCAR Papers page on the YCAR website .

YCAR welcomes submission for the YCAR Papers from York faculty and graduate students. For more information, email us or telephone 416 736 2100 ext. 44068.

Opportunities: End of June deadlines approaching

There is a late June deadline for three opportunities previously mentioned in the YCAR Update:

1. June 29: The IDRC Call for Concept Notes: Action Research on “Value Chains and the Rural Poor in Disadvantaged Regions” . This deadline is June 29. For more information, visit the website .

2. June 30: The International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan, is offering three Visiting Research Scholar Fellowships for 2008-09:

* Strategy of the Japanese Civilization – Towards the life civilizations

* Reformation of Intellectual Systems in Modern East Asia

* New Directions in the Study of Folksong

For more information or for an application form, visit www.nichibun.ac.jp or email kyoudou@nichibun.ac.jp .

3. June 30: The Canadian Association of Taiwan Studies’ (CATS) 2007 George Leslie Mackay Thesis Award competition: The award aims to encourage Masters and PhD candidates to do research on Taiwan. Submissions are encouraged from all disciplines.

For more information or award details, contact Dr Scott Simon, CATS President at ssimon@uottawa.ca or tecoedu@taiwan-canada.org

Opportunities: UWindsor-based publication seeks submissions on social justice struggles

The Editors of Studies in Social Justice are inviting submission for the bi-annual publication.

The electronic journal publishes articles on issues dealing with the social, cultural, economic, political, and philosophical problems associated with the struggle for social justice. The journal focuses on debates that move beyond conventional notions of social justice, and views social justice as a critical concept that is integral in the analysis of policy formation, rights, participation, social movements, and transformations.

The latest issue features articles by: David Harvey (CUNY), Nancy Fraser (New School for Social Research), Michael Reisch (University of Michigan) and Gary Craig (University of Hull) among others.

For more information, contact Nicole A. Noël, Managing Editor at 519 253 3000 ext 3492 or visit the website .

Upcoming Events: Sikh scholar will speak @ York in June

Late June 2007 * Keele Campus

YCAR Faculty Associate Dr Balbinder Singh Bhogal (Humanities) has invited a ‘young scholar of great potential’ to speak at York in late June. Prabhsharanbir Singh will speak on Guru Granth Sahib (Sikh scripture). He is currently working on his PhD in Sikh Studies at Punjabi University in Patiala, India. He also teaches philosophy at S.B.S. College in Kotkapura, Punjab, and has written on "interrogating the universalism of the Post-Secular." For more information, contact Dr Bhogal .

Upcoming Events (Thailand): Southeast Asia uplands change, academic response are focus of October conference

Organizers are seeking paper and poster submissions for the International Agroforestry Education Conference on Integrating Conservation in Upland Agriculture in Southeast Asia. It will be held from October 24 to 26, 2007 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The deadline for submissions is June 30.

The objective of the conference is to examine how landscapes in Southeast Asia’s uplands are changing and how higher education institutions are responding to that change. It will provide a venue to explore and discuss the theme “Integrating conservation in the upland agriculture in Southeast Asia, and how to improve agroforestry and natural resources education in the region.

Chiang Mai University (CMU); The Uplands Program; and the Thailand Southeast Asian Network for Agroforestry Education Network (SEANAFE) are co-organizers. The conference is sponsored by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida); German Research Foundation (DFG); and World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF)

For more information, visit the conference website or email icraf@icraf-cm.org .

York News: Osgoode students provide pro bono legal service in the Philippines

Osgoode Hall Law School students Chad Aboud, Shane D’Souza, Sarah Robicheau and Grace Wang, who are working this summer in the Philippines as part of a law school initiative known as the International Legal Partnership (ILP), hosted a forum on June 1 to assist the province of the Guimaras Island in the aftermath of the Philippines’ worst oil spill.

The ILP, a non-profit student organization based at Osgoode that provides pro bono legal service to developing countries around the world as well as international experience for law students, is partnering with the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI) to assist Guimaras to better understand local, national and international legal frameworks that govern environmental rehabilitation. The project was prompted by the Philippine's worst oil spill, which took place in the Western Visayas region, which contains Guimaras, in August 2006. Since the oil spill, the CUI has offered assistance to Guimaras in the coordination of the various local government units, donor organizations, and NGOs working on recovery efforts.

Other ILP projects are also under way this summer in Kenya involving Osgoode students Tasha Adams, Joanna Bryan, Paul Carbonelli and Jason Mehar with project director Muneeb Yusuf, and in Cambodia with Heather Clark. (Original published in the June 14, 2007 issue of Y-File. Y-File photograph)

For the complete story, visit the Y-File Archive .

York News: Japanese diplomat honoured to become a member of the York community

Retired Japanese diplomat Peter Sato was honoured by York University on Tuesday, June 12, with a doctor of laws honoris causa. The honorary degree was presented to Sato in recognition of his strong role in advancing Canada’s relationship with Japan.

With quiet dignity, Sato spoke to graduands of the Faculty of Arts and expressed his deep gratitude for the honour. "I thank York University for offering the most prestigious award to me, who is only a retired diplomat of Japan. I have received the honour with my deepest gratitude."

Sato has served Canada and Japan with distinction. As a distinguished Japanese diplomat, he is the former ambassador to the People's Republic of China and to the Organization for Economic Co-operation & Development, senior member of the Japanese Embassy in Washington, and a true friend of Canada. A respected individual within business and diplomatic circles in Japan, Sato has been instrumental in making recommendations to nurture and encourage interchange in all sectors between Canada and Japan. For the past three years he has been the Japanese co-chair of the Canada-Japan Forum, which is examining the bilateral Canada/Japan relationship in all of its elements – cultural, academic, economic and political – and the two countries’ roles in the world. (Story published in the June 15, 2007 issue of Y-File. Y-File photograph)

For the complete story, visit the Y-File Archive .

York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) To comment or for more information, contact ycar@yorku.ca

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