Speaking + Engagement
2025.
From the ground to the global: Conceptualizing Global China and how it is transforming development, Annual Geography Lecture, Mount Holyoke College.
Author Meets Critic: Seeing China’s Belt and Road. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers.
Panel, invited speaker: Interrogating the global energy transition: Green extractivism and (un)just futures. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers.
Roots, Resistance, and Decoloniality: Political Ecology by, of, and for Southeast Asia, organizer and chair. Association for Asian Studies in Asia, Kathmandu, Nepal
Global China: Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Future Directions, co-organized by Hong Zhang and Jessica DiCarlo, with Tim Oakes, Juliet Lu, Keren Zhu, Nicholas Loubere. Association for Asian Studies Conference.
Frontiers of Green Capitalism: Enclosure, Infrastructure, and Exploitation, chair and co-organized by Shae Frydenlund and Jessica DiCarlo. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers.
FOOD: City of nature, Becoming and sustaining the city, guest lecture for Dr. Alex Ponette-Gonzalez, Ecology of Human Settlements.
2024.
Rethinking d/Development and through Cold War histories and presents, workshop held at the University of Cambridge, December. Co-organized by Jessica DiCarlo, Emma Mawdsley, Seth Schindler, Ilias Alami.
Global China as Development? Geopolitical Worldmaking & China’s Global Development Initiative, Meredith DeBoom and Jessica DiCarlo, University of Cambridge.
Revisiting political ecology in Southeast Asia, workshop held at the Taft-Nicolson Center, University of Utah, September. Co-organized by Jessica DiCarlo and Hilary Faxon
Congressional House Staff Briefing on Critical Minerals, NCUSCR, with Jessica DiCarlo and Cory Combs
Author Meets Critics: A Conversation about Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China by Jesse Rodenbiker, with Tyler Harlan, Ding Fei, Gustavo Oliveira, Jessica DiCarlo, and Annah Zhu. Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers.
Navigating geopolitical infrastructures in Himalayan borderlands: Polyalignment, subjugation, and agency, with Dinesh Paudel, University of Manchester
On the genealogy of ‘Global China,’ Political Geography Specialty Group Early Career Workshop Series
Patient capital, disciplinary capital: Beyond the infrastructural debt trap toward encompassing accumulation and China’s spatiotemporal Fix. International Studies Association Annual Convention
China’s Environmental Turn amidst Geopolitical Tensions: Critical Minerals and the Global Race for Decarbonization, Association for Asian Studies Conference
Mapping Global China: Examining the Impact of the People’s Map of Global China as a Collaborative Pedagogical, Analytical, and Digital Tool, Roundtable with Hong Zhang, Igor Rogelja, Jordan Lynton Cox, Jessica DiCarlo, Association for Asian Studies Conference
Why can’t the US compete with China in infrastructure? with Lee Jones and Dr. Shahar Hameiri. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
India Rising: Navigating the Second Cold War in South Asia from Nepal to the Maldives with Dinesh Paudel and Aaron Magunna. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
The Second Cold War and the Politics of Polyalignment, workshop held at the University of Manchester, July. Co-organized by Shahar Hameiri, Jessica DiCarlo, and Seth Schindler
Making of South-South Relations: China’s Global Initiatives and the Global South’s Agency, Discussant, International Studies Association Annual Convention
Global Governance in the New Cold War: Nature, Challenges and Future Trajectories, Discussant, International Studies Association Annual Convention
Industrial policy and energy transition amidst geoeconomic restructuring: Perspectives from Eastern Europe, Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Navigating China-US webs of power: A relational approach to unraveling struggles for network centrality, Chair and co-organizer with Philip Nock. International Studies Association Annual Convention,
China and the Global South, guest lecture for Dr. Dinko. Mount Holyoke College.
Pecha Kucha: Mapping my journey to geography and across Asia, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences Advancement Board, University of Utah
US-Soviet scientific cooperation & implications for environmental politics today with Dr. Vladimir Jankovic. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
2023.
Africa and the Second Cold War: Infrastructure, corridors, and critical minerals with Dr. Tim Zajontz. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Fundamentals of China course guest speaker on regional relationships and the BRI with Dr. Jorge Heine, Canada School of Public Service.
Curiosity’s compass: Mapping my journey to geography and across Asia, Pecha Kucha at the University of Utah.
State Platform Capitalism with Steve Rolf. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Extractivist projects and environmental justice struggles on the Polar Silk Road with Dr. Ksenija Hanaček. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Fundamentals of China course guest speaker on the BRI in Africa and Asia with Dr. Lina Benabdallah, Canada School of Public Service.
Debt & Development Finance in a Changing Geopolitical Landscape with Nick Jepson. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Technological competition in Argentina: Nuclear energy and smart cities, with Dr. Maximiliano Vila Seoane. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
Road, river, and rail: An infrastructural history of connectivity in Laos on ‘The Genealogies of Infrastructure’ at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Denver.
Silk Road Cities and Beyond, plenary and chair at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Institute for Asian Research Fellows Academic Careers Talk with Drs. Jessica DiCarlo, Tim Cheek, and Priti Naraya, University of British Columbia.
Upland Geopolitics: Postwar Laos and the Global Land Rush, a book talk by Michael B. Dwyer, with discussants Juliet Lu and Jessica DiCarlo, University of British Columbia.
The micro-geopolitics of Kenya’s digital renaissance with Andrea Pollio. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
The Geopolitics of Renewable Energy and Resource Extraction in Argentina with Marcelo Saguier. Co-host, SCWO Podcast.
2022.
IR Tea Social with Dr. Jessica DiCarlo, Department of International Relations, University of British Columbia.
A granular view on the Belt and Road, guest lecture for Dr. Paul Evans, University of British Columbia.
Fundamentals of China course guest speaker on the BRI with Dr. Mike Lampton, Canada School of Public Service.
The Rise of the Infrastructure State Book Launch with Jessica DiCarlo, Charis Enns, Dinesh Paudel, Nick Jepson, and Seth Schindler, October 2022, Hosted by the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs and the Institute for Asian Research at the University of British Columbia.
Retooling the Belt and Road Initiative: Digital Guidance for Better Outcomes, Expert Panel for the Asia Society Policy Institute and Launch of ASPI's Belt and Road digital toolkit, a multilingual safeguard guide for BRI stakeholders, with Danny Russell, Blake Berger, Jessica DiCarlo, Shawn Shieh, and Mary Kay Magistad.
The Belt and Road Initiative and Responses, graduate seminar guest for Dr. Paul Evans, University of British Columbia.
Miniatures, models, and marketing: Remaking the zone as global city through scalar spectacles, Conference of the Asian Borderlands Research Network, Seoul Korea, paper presentation on a double panel: Beyond Exception: The Chinese “zone” as export model across Asian borderlands” organized by Alessandro Rippa and Timothy Oakes, featuring presentations by Max Hirsch, Verena La Mela, Jessica DiCarlo, Darren Byler, Dorothy Tang, Galen Murton, Juan Zhang, and Ayesha Omer.
Everyday experiences of Chinese megaprojects, webinar for the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Center, Luang Prabang, Laos.
Global China in a multipolar world and on the ground, guest lecture for Darren Byler, Simon Fraser University.
Infrastructures of Urban Life Yet-to-Come, a double-panel at the AAS Annual Meetings, Organized by Courtney Whittekind (Harvard University) and Jessica DiCarlo (University of British Columbia), featuring presentations by Jessica DiCarlo, Pallavi Gupta, Dan Luo, Sarah Moser, Tim Oakes, Jesse Rodenbiker, Laurence Côté-Roy, Courtney Whitekind, Grace Yixian Zhou.
(Il)licit urbanism, eventuality, and the rhythms of life in a city yet-to-come, Panel: Urban life of cities yet to come, Association of Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference.
China’s changing role as a development actor and the ‘China model’ as discourse, guest lecture for Sara Shneiderman and Elsie Lewison, University of British Columbia.
Examining Chinese d/Development through the Laos-China Corridor, guest lecture for Andrew Grant, Boston College.
Beyond debt trapping: Encompassing accumulation, infrastructure, and China’s spatiotemporal fix, public lecture, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, University of British Columbia.
Transforming mega-infrastructures: Unravelling mediations between local communities and regional powers, workshop, invited speaker.
2021.
Grounding global China in northern Laos: The making of the infrastructure frontier, University of Colorado Boulder, Doctoral dissertation defense (public talk).
Steel silk roads and the making of the infrastructure frontier, Invited talk for Roadwork Asia, dissertation presentation.
Corridorization, spectacle, and speculation: Reinventing zones of opportunity, Panel: Infrastructural transformations on China’s periphery, The 14th Pan-European Conference on International Relations: The Power Politics of Nature, September, paper presentation.
Grounding development finance and safeguards through land compensation on the Laos-China BRI corridor, Annual Conference on the Society for the Advancement of Socioeconomics, Panel: Development Finance in a Changing Global Context, paper presentation.
Governing infrastructure or infrastructural governing?, 15th Biennial Conference of the Nordic Association for China Studies at the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, paper presentation.
Life and death on the tracks: Suspension, waiting, and intersecting temporalities of infrastructure, Infrastructural Times: A Workshop Exploring the Temporalities of Urban-Regional Infrastructure. Regional Studies Association Research Network on Infrastructural Regionalism, paper presentation.
Living the zone as city-in-the-making: Vision of modernity, space of exclusion, or another day at the office?, Third China Made Workshop: The Social Life of Chinese Infrastructures in Southeast Asia, paper presentation.
2020.
Behind the spectacle of the BRI: Historical connections and contemporary engagements, China-in-Asia lecture series, University of Oregon, invited lecture.
Chinese special economic zones in Southeast Asia, DC-based US-Mekong Caucus, invited expert presentation.
How does Laos deal with Chinese megaprojects? A discussion on the BRI with Jessica DiCarlo and IHE Delft's Susanne Schmeier, Asia Society Webcast, invited talk.
HKU Studio Laos: Strategic Landscape Planning for the Greater Mekong, The University of Hong Kong and Design for Conservation, project reviewer.
Geopolitical infrastructures and economic corridors, Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Denver, postponed.
Connecting Laos, Cultural Studies Series, Vientiane, Laos, invited lecture.
2019.
Regional integration through major economic corridor development, National Institute for Economic Research, Vientiane, Laos.
The promise of megaprojects on the Laos-China Corridor, Roadwork Asia workshop, University of Zurich, invited speaker.
Railroaded: Land politics and priority projects, Global Development Policy Center, Boston University, Global China Colloquia speaker.
Defining the Laos-China Economic Corridor, Centre for Development and Environment, Vientiane, Laos, research presentation.
Models, planning and agrarian change in economic zones, Land Issues Working Group SEZ workshop, Vientiane, Laos, facilitator and invited speaker.
Train tracks, trade and tourism: Negotiating the Lao-China Corridor, International Workshop on the Belt and Road in Southeast and South Asia, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China, invited speaker.
Infrastructure Frontiers: Examining the ‘China model’ of development, Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Washington DC, conference paper.
Research agendas for the Laos-China Corridor, National Institute for Economic Research, Vientiane, Laos, presenter.
2018.
Fire & the American West, guest lecture, University of Colorado Boulder.
Left Coast Political Ecology workshop, University of California Berkeley.
The political ecology of mining on the Colorado Plateau, guest lecture, University of Colorado Boulder.
Human geography: An introduction to place, space and power, guest lecture, University of Colorado Boulder.
Society-environment and large-scale infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia, guest lecture, University of Colorado Boulder.
2017.
Adaptation and Recovery after the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes: A Smallholder Household Perspective, Research talk by Dr. Isha Ray and Dr. Robin Marsh on our inter-disciplinary project, University of California Berkeley. Available on YouTube.
Adaptation and recovery after the 2015 earthquakes: a smallholder perspective, Dolakha, Nepal, facilitator.
Water, water everywhere...Water politics, projects and pollution in rural China, University of Colorado Boulder, guest lecture.
Interdisciplinary political ecology masterclass with Bruno Latour, University of Tübingen, Germany.
Agroecological changes and the politics of access in post-earthquake Nepal, Annual Meet, American Association of Geographers.
Geographies of Nepal, panelist, Annual Meeting, American Association of Geographers.
2016.
Cultivating cardamom: Post-disaster agro-ecological transformation in Nepal, Social Science BAHA Conference on Nepal and the Himalaya, Kathmandu, Nepal, speaker.
Post-disaster resilience and agro-ecological transition in Nepal, Forest Action, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Post-disaster agro-ecological change in the Himalaya, University of California Berkeley, Master’s thesis presentation.
Adoption of ICTs for early detection of breast and cervical cancers in LMICs, Consortium of Universities for Global Health Conference, San Francisco, poster presentation.
Information and communication technologies for breast and cervical cancer prevention, Global Development Conference, Berkeley, presentation.
Decolonizing education in the Himalaya, Berkeley, panel discussant.
2015-earlier.
Global health and NGOs in Asia, University of California Berkeley Public Health DeCal, 2015, invited talk.
Careers in environmental and resource economics, University of California Berkeley, October 2015, panel discussant.
Defining development, China Exploration and Research Society, Shangri-La, Yunnan China, 2013, invited talk.
Women and social enterprise, Shem Women’s Group, 2013, invited talk.
Development initiatives and trends in Tibet, School of International Training, Yunnan, China, 2013, invited talk.
Crafting arguments and compelling essays, Kelly Yang School, Hong Kong, 2010, invited teacher.
Gendered relations and conflict in Afghanistan, Pepperdine University, 2008, BA thesis presentation.
Beijing’s Safari: Perspectives from Africa, AEI, 2007.
Democratization & development in post-apartheid South Africa, Pepperdine University, 2006, fieldwork presentation.