Dr. David Chu Program in Asia-Pacific Studies

Dr. David Chu Distinguished Leaders and Community Network

As part of the endowment by Dr. David Chu, the Asia-Pacific Studies Program is able to bring in a host of distinguished leaders and fellows each academic year to enrich the community of scholars on Asia-Pacific at the University of Toronto. For a full listing of upcoming events, click here. Some of the distinguished guests for 2010-11 include:

Professor Shirlena Huang visited the Asian Institute as a Dr. David Chu Distinguished Fellow. An alumnus of the University of Toronto, she is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Research Associate at the National University of Singapore's Asia Research Institute. She is also a Regional Editor (Asia) of Women’s Studies International Forum and on the editorial boards of the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography and the soon-to-be launched International Journal of Population Research. Her research and publications focus on gender and migration (particularly within the Asia-Pacific region), as well as urbanization and heritage conservation. Her current research projects examine transnational mobilities in the contexts of healthcare worker migration (in Asia), transnational families and national identity (comparing PRC and American families in Singapore), as well as the internet and religion (comparing Singapore and Los Angeles). She was also Head of Department of Geography, NUS, from 2005-2010.

During her visit to the University of Toronto in fall 2010, Professor Huang presented her work at an interdisciplinary event open to the public and co-sponsored by the Department of Geography. She held meetings with colleagues and students in the Dr. David Chu Program in Asia Pacific Studies, and contributed to founding the “Asian Geographies” initiative that supports an exchange program for undergraduate students from the National University of Singapore and the University of Toronto.

Website: http://ap3.fas.nus.edu.sg/fass/geoslena/

Kartick Kumar is the Dr. David Chu Distinguished Fellow at the Asian Institute. Kartick’s interests and expertise are varied and range from public policy and entrepreneurial and commercial capacity building in emerging markets to investigating the prospects for judicial reform in post-conflict societies. He has worked as a policy advisor, lawyer and consultant at different levels of government, in business and in academia. Kartick has studied politics, law and international relations at the University of Toronto, Columbia University and Cambridge University. While at the University of Toronto, Kartick founded and served as Executive Director of the Cambodian Genocide Group (CGG), an international NGO dedicated to the study of the Cambodian genocide.

In his role as the Dr. David Chu Distinguished Fellow, Mr. Kumar has spearheaded a series of events that provide guidance to students as they plan their careers. Under his leadership, the Asia Pacific Studies Student Group has organized “Careers in Asia” panel presentations that support students as they develop their international networks and strengthen their understanding of opportunities in the region.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/kartick_kumar
LinkedIn: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/kartickkumar
CGG: http://www.cambodiangenocide.org

Dr. Pujo Semedi is Assistant Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. His teaching and research focus on Indonesian rural economies and ethnographic research methods. Dr. Semedi has also served as a research fellow at the Institute of Anthropology and Linguistics (KITLV) in the Netherlands on a project titled, “In Search of Middle Indonesia.” He is a research collaborator on the Université de Montreal–based ChATSEA (Challenge of Agrarian Transformation in Southeast Asia) Program, and also a co-researcher with Professor Tania Li, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto, on a project titled, “Production of Wealth and Poverty in New Indonesian Rural Economies,” funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

While at the University of Toronto, Dr. Semedi has provided several presentations on his Indonesian research. He has also led discussions and workshops on qualitative methodology, and he has met with students in the Asia Pacific Studies Program to guide them in their efforts to refine their research proposals.