Events

Every semester, APSI hosts, co-hosts, and supports a variety of academic events including conferences, films, and guest speakers as well as social gatherings that provide opportunities for cross-cultural interaction.

Visit our upcoming events calendar and click on the links below for additional details. Summaries of some events can be found in our news section and descriptions are included in the past events list.

Speaker Series

APSI's speaker series highlights new research about East and Southeast Asia.

Each semester, APSI faculty nominate experts from around the world to present their work on important topics and engage audience members in intellectual exchange.

All talks in this series are free and open to the public.

View upcoming events in the series >>

Explore some of the recent past events in the series >>

Asia-Pacific Forum

The Asia-Pacific Forum is an interdisciplinary colloquium series for graduate students at Duke.

Held monthly during the academic year, the Forum provides masters and doctoral students with the opportunity to share their research with peers and faculty.

The Forum also provides a venue for students to hear presentations from visiting scholars and faculty experts.

Conferences

Conferences sponsored by APSI, often in collaboration with other Duke programs and area universities, enable participants to delve deeply into important topics and themes that impact our present understanding and future actions.

Upcoming Conferences

August 29–30, 2025: Global China: Circulatory Currents in History and Culture

^{Bookmark this page for additional information about upcoming conferences and links to other events.}

PASt Conferences

May 15–16, 2025: Environmental Futures in Asia Network meeting—The Durham Workshop
July 4–6, 2024: Environmental Futures in Asia Network meeting—The Jeju Workshop
December 7–9, 2023: 17th meeting of the Southeast Asia Research Group
April 28–30, 2023: Histories and Society in the Hydrosphere
October 27–29, 2022: Christianity, Modernity, and Ethnicity in the China-Southeast Asia Borderlands
February 14–15, 2020: New Perspectives on Nursing History: Women & Care in East Asia
December 6–7, 2019: Getting China Right: China in the World
October 11–12, 2019: The Philip Kapleau Papers: Zen Buddhism in Post-World War II Japan and the United States
December 1–2, 2018: The Radicalism of Possibility: In Remembrance of Arif Dirlik
February 8–9, 2018: The Logic of Sanctuary: Religious Movements in Non-Sovereign Spaces
November 10–11, 2017: Meiji Japan in Global History
January 22–23, 2017: Environmental Humanities for Sustainable Citizenship in Asia
November 12, 2016: Theorizing Colonial Cinemas
November 3, 2016: Religion and Nationalism in Asia
October 28–29, 2016: Cultural Revolution in Asia and Beyond

Film Series

APSI sponsors public screenings of films from or about Asia each semester. These are often supported by Duke Screen/Society, and co-sponsored by the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image.