Uncategorized – Page 2 – Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions

Slow Seminar – Mekong Dreaming: Life and Death Along a Changing River

seacoast Slow Seminar, Uncategorized April 1, 2021June 22, 2021slow seminar

On April 29th, 8-10am PDT, the UCSC SEACoast Center and Aarhus University BLUE will be co-hosting a seminar to discuss Andrew Alan Johnson’s Mekong Dreaming: Life and Death Along a Changing River. The reading and discussion are aimed at exploring an ethnographic insight into the impact of infrastructural changes on a river and on its human and nonhuman inhabitants.

We are fortunate to have PhD student Natalie Ng from the UCSC Anthropology Department join and open the discussion with a few questions.

Please email seacoast@ucsc.edu to RSVP for this event. For security reasons, the zoom link will be sent at least 30 minutes before the start of the event.

Slow Seminar – Mangroves and Metal Pollution

seacoast Slow Seminar, Uncategorized March 1, 2021June 22, 2021slow seminar

On Thursday, April 1 from 5 – 7 pm PDT on Zoom, we will be hosting a seminar focused on mangroves as a socio-ecological system from a chemical perspective. Dr. Gonzalo Carrasco (Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University) will guide our conversation about metal contamination in mangroves, highlighting the significance of metals in coastal degradation and climate change:

I will introduce the reasons why it is important to study metals in mangroves in these times and in Asia in particular, as the story that I will tell you relates to land and coastal natural vegetation degradation, growing metal pollution sources, and impending climate change. For this, I will present mangroves from a chemical perspective, and will discuss highlights in recent literature as well as some of my results from Singapore mangroves. Finally, multiple scenarios with different stages of development will be discussed looking at the metal pollution coping capacity of the coastal ecosystem, with the aim to start a conversation about possible solutions and social implications.

Gonzalo has offered a recommended reading. Please email seacoast@ucsc.edu for the reading and to RSVP for this event. For security reasons, zoom links will be sent at least 30 minutes prior to the seminar.

Slow Seminar – The City and the Wilderness: Indo-Persian Encounters in Southeast Asia

seacoast Slow Seminar, Uncategorized January 1, 2021June 22, 2021slow seminar

On January 28, 3:30-5:30PM PST, we discuss Arash Khazeni’s The City and the Wilderness: Indo-Persian Encounters in Southeast Asia. The reading and discussion are aimed at expanding our knowledge of Indian Ocean histories and interactions by exploring a new set of voyages and connections. We are thrilled to have Professor Vilashni Cooppan of UCSC Literature join and open the discussion with a few questions.

Please email seacoast@ucsc.edu for the readings and RSVP in order to receive the Zoom link and password.

Slow Seminar- Horseshoe crabs: Blood, trade and genes

gbogart Slow Seminar, Uncategorized May 21, 2020June 22, 2021slow seminar

On Wednesday, June 10 from 8-10 am PST (5-7 pm Denmark time) via Zoom. The focus of this seminar will be Horseshoe crabs: Blood, trade and genes. Associate Professor Peter Funch, from the Aarhus University, Denmark, with assistance from biologists Stine Vestbo and Hanne Christiansen will guide our conversation.

There are four extant species of horseshoe crabs; one ranging along the eastern coast of North America, and three ranging in Asian waters, from India east to Indonesia, and from Indonesia north to Japan. Horseshoe crabs reside in shallow waters on the continental shelves, and utilize coastal and estuarine habitats for mating and spawning. While horseshoe crabs feed on invertebrates and plant material found in the sediment, they are themselves important prey for many migratory bird species. In some regions of Southeast Asia, horseshoe crabs are considered a delicacy and are fished and traded across borders for the purpose of consumption. However, the usage of horseshoe crab blood in the medical and pharmaceutical industries (extracts from the blood is used to test if equipment and products are free of bacterial contamination) makes these animals invaluable to humans, although it also seems to be the reason behind population declines. This seminar discusses how the future of horseshoe crabs is intertwined with their blood, genetics and unknown distributions, based on book chapters and primary natural science papers covering a variety of subjects.

Please email seacoast@ucsc.edu for the readings and RSVP in order to receive the Zoom link and password.