Conference
Coastal Environments in Global Asia — Mapping Coastal Environments: Homelands of Globalization
Thursday, March 11, 2021, 5:00PM
Online via Zoom
Past Event
Open to the Public
Sea coasts around the world are now wrapped securely in national states and their separate national histories, but they also have connected histories as homelands of globalization, as productive spaces, woven together by networks of oceanic mobility, which continue to nurture global capitalism. The world’s most productive coastal environments had been connected from ancient times by sailors across the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea, but in the centuries running through and following the Mongol Empire, overland and overseas mobility expanded rapidly; this dramatically increased productive powers in coastal environments around the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, where commercial capital fed by local communities enriched Europeans who would then go on to imagine themselves as inventors of capitalism.
This webinar focuses on coastal environments around the Bay of Bengal, where local societies sustained militant European merchant companies. This is the start of a Coastal Histories Collaboration, and we invite others to share research on other coastal environments.
Sea coasts around the world are now wrapped securely in national states and their separate national histories, but they also have connected histories as homelands of globalization, as productive spaces, woven together by networks of oceanic mobility, which continue to nurture global capitalism. The world’s most productive coastal environments had been connected from ancient times by sailors across the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and South China Sea, but in the centuries running through and following the Mongol Empire, overland and overseas mobility expanded rapidly; this dramatically increased productive powers in coastal environments around the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, where commercial capital fed by local communities enriched Europeans who would then go on to imagine themselves as inventors of capitalism.
This webinar focuses on coastal environments around the Bay of Bengal, where local societies sustained militant European merchant companies. This is the start of a Coastal Histories Collaboration, and we invite others to share research on other coastal environments.
Coastal Environments in Global Asia Conference
Monsoon Asia’s coasts and islands supported most of the world’s pre-modern sea trade. They sustained empires. Now, they host the world’s largest ports and support most global shipping. They lie in the world’s most hotly contested sea lanes and face catastrophic effects of climate change.
In this six-part webinar series, Global Asia research centers and initiatives from NYU, NYU Shanghai, and NYU Abu Dhabi share findings from their joint three-year research project, “Port City Environments in Global Asia” (funded by the Luce Foundation) and offer a first look at new research agendas for the years ahead.
March 4 — Coastal Precarity and Managed Retreat Shaping Global Asia
Hosted by May Joseph, featuring Godfrey Baldacchino, Alexis Dudden, Sudipta Sen and Nitya Jacob.
March 11 — Mapping Coastal Environments: Homelands of Globalization
With Marina Kaneti (NUS), David Ludden (NYU) and Vidhya Raveendranationan (NYU Shanghai)
March 18 — Coastal Development and Coastal Livelihoods
Hosted by Vidhya Raveendranathan, featuring the EquiP project (Madras Institute of Development Studies/ French institute Pondicherry) and Sridhar Rao.
March 25 — Himalayan Water Security: An Unfolding Global Challenge
With David Michel (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), Sophia Kalantzakos (NYU/AD), and Mark Swislocki (NYUAD)
April 1 — Long Rivers, Deep Histories
Hosted by Sunil Amrith and featuring Ruth Mostern, Faisal Hussain, Maya Peterson, and Hieu Phung.
April 8 — Belts and Roads in Environmental Perspective
With Maria Adele Carrai, Sophia Kalantazakos, Yifei Li, and Ayesha Omer
- Vidhya Raveendranathan, NYU Shanghai
- Marina Kaneti, NUS
- David Ludden, NYU