Director of the CNRS Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia visits Kyoto University (20 June 2019)

On 20 June, Dr Claire Thi Liên Tran, director of the Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia of the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS-IRASEC), visited Kyoto University to meet with officials including Professor Motoki Takahashi, vice-director of the Center for African Area Studies (Africa Center, or CAAS), and Professor Yoko Hayami, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS). The discussion was primarily focused on future collaboration between KyotoU and CNRS-IRASEC in Africa and Southeast Asia.

Afterwards, Dr Tran delivered a special lecture at CSEAS, where, based on the history of a North Vietnamese Catholic family in the first half of the 20th century, she illustrated how belonging to a religious minority could create a strong minority identity while also providing opportunities to expand horizons through transnational networks. A lively Q&A session followed, further enriched with the participation of Dr Nhung Tuyet Tran, visiting researcher at CSEAS and associate professor at the University of Toronto's Department of History.

KyotoU and CNRS-IRASEC officials are scheduled to meet again in July 2019 at the International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS), hosted by Leiden University, the Netherlands. This next meeting is anticipated to further advance the discussion on student exchange and research collaboration between the two institutions.