The National University of Singapore (NUS) and Stanford University (Stanford) are pleased to announce that applications are welcome between now and 1 November 2013 for the 2014 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellowship on Southeast Asia. Interested individuals with backgrounds or positions in the social sciences or humanities are encouraged to apply. Candidates may be of any nationality or seniority.

Please visit the link below: 

http://seaf.stanford.edu/fellowships/nus_stanford/

Annually since 1995, the American Political Science Association has given an Aaron Wildavsky award to the "best" recent PhD dissertation on the subject of religion and politics.  Normally a single dissertation is selected.  In 2013, for the first time, a second dissertation was recognized with an Honorable Mention.  Its author is Jeremy Menchik, an assistant professor in international relations at Boston University.  Its title is "Tolerance Without Liberalism: Islamic Institutions and Political Violence in Twentieth Century Indonesia." 

In 2011 Prof. Menchik was chosen to be a Shorenstein post-doctoral fellow at APARC.  During his stay at Stanford in 2011-12 he revised his thesis for publication, worked on a new project on religio-political identity in Indonesia as revealed by election campaign symbols, and presented findings from his research and writing at a seminar hosted by SEAF.  In 2012-13 he was a research associate at the American University of Beirut.  In 2013 he began his tenure-track position at Boston University.  His advanced degrees in political science are from the University of Wisconsin- (PhD, MA) and the University of Michigan.

Dr. Dominik Mueller, hosted by SEAF in 2013, is back in the Department of Anthropology at Goethe University in Frankurt.  His revised dissertation will be published in January 2014 as Islam, Politics and Youth in Malaysia: The Pop-Islamist Reinvention of PAS.  A recent article by him on this topic is linked on this site under "Publications."

The more a country depends on aid, the more distorted are its incentives to manage its own development in sustainably beneficial ways. Cambodia, a post-conflict state that cannot refuse aid, is rife with trial-and-error donor experiments and their unintended results, including bad governance—a major impediment to rational economic growth. Massive intervention by the UN in the early 1990s did help to end the Cambodian civil war and to prepare for more representative rule. Yet the country’s social indicators, the integrity of its political institutions, and its ability to manage its own development soon deteriorated. Based on a comparison of how more and less aid-dependent sectors have performed, Prof. Ear will highlight the complicity of foreign assistance in helping to degrade Cambodia’s political economy. Copies of his just-published book, Aid Dependence in Cambodia, will be available for sale. The book intertwines events in 1990s and 2000s Cambodia with the story of his own family’s life (and death) under the Khmer Rouge, escape to Vietnam in 1976, asylum in France in 1978, and immigration to America in 1985.

Comparative, policy-oriented research aimed at improving health care and the overall quality of life across the Asia-Pacific region is at the heart of AHPP’s mission and activities. As a research program within a world-class university, focusing exclusively on comparative health policy in Asia, it is unique. AHPP aims to provide evidence for addressing key health policy challenges in the Asia-Pacific, from links between poverty and ill health, to improving “value for money” and defining appropriate government and market roles in health systems. The program brings researchers to Stanford for on-site collaboration, and creates opportunities for Stanford students to conduct research in and about Asia.

The study of comparative health policy at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) dates back almost a quarter century, with its roots in the Comparative Health Care Policy Research Project inaugurated in 1990. Starting with pioneering research on health economics in Japan, the program has expanded since then to encompass research on health policy and demographic change throughout the region, albeit with a continuing focus on East Asia in comparative perspective.

Collaborative initiatives and global researchers

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AHPP is also analyzing evidence on health service delivery and financing in the Asia-Pacific region, such as the impact of expanding insurance coverage, reforming provider payment incentives, and contracting with the private sector. In addition, the program is conducting a comparative analysis of the historical development of health care institutions — like physician drug dispensing and recent reforms to separate prescribing from dispensing. AHPP also sponsors collaborative initiatives to address critical global health issues, including tobacco control, promotion of child health, and control of infectious diseases.

Preparing future health care policy experts

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In addition to numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, recent AHPP publications include Aging Asia: The Economic and Social Implications of Rapid Demographic Change in China, Japan, and South Korea and Prescribing Cultures and Pharmaceutical Policy in the Asia-Pacific. AHPP also runs its own working paper series that is open to scholars and health policy experts around the world.

Annual workshops and engaging seminars

Each year, AHPP assembles some of the world’s greatest health policy minds at Stanford to examine focused topics at conferences and workshops, resulting in special issues of journals, edited volumes, and ongoing collaborative research. In this thirtieth anniversary year of Shorenstein APARC, director Karen Eggleston organized a conference on “Economic Aspects of Population Aging in China and India,” co-sponsored by several related research programs at Harvard University.

In addition, AHPP organizes numerous public seminars throughout the academic year. Recent topics have included the battle against HIV/AIDS in Cambodia; immunizations and child health in Bangladesh; population aging in Japan; Vietnam’s health policy challenges; tobacco control in China; air pollution in South Asia; private health insurance in South Korea; and many other important health policy-related issues.