We hosted our inaugural DC Holiday Potluck, celebrating the end of the year with our fellow NABEA members from the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Everyone brought delicious dishes to share and wore their best ugly holiday sweaters. It was truly a night filled with great food, good company, and unforgettable memories!

NABEA Conversations are back by popular demand! This week, we dived into the world of the Chinese video game industry in a discussion led by Chelsea Anglin titled, The Transformative Cultural Power of Chinese Wuxia Video Games. This engaging discussion left our members inspired and eager to explore the intersection of culture and gaming, setting the stage for more exciting NABEA Conversations in the future!

Our happy hour was a success! Members from around the world joined for a relaxing evening of smiles and laughter. Members spoke about everything from automatic trash cans to the results of the recent elections and everything in between.

NABEA hosted a second New York meetup for members across the New York tri-state area.

We kept the good times rolling with our first ever Atlanta member meetup! Members came from the Greater Atlanta area and surrounding cities to meet other NABEA members in their area.

The NABEA Tokyo community met at the Mori Art Museum for an exclusive, private tour of the “Theaster Gates: Afro-Mingei” exhibit by museum curator Hirokazu Tokuyama. This remarkable installation blended Black and Japanese cultures using ceramics, architecture, and music to create a profound cultural encounter.

Our back-to-school happy hour at La Cosecha in D.C.’s Union Market District was our most engaging yet! Despite the rain, members came out to connect with the rest of the NABEA Community.

NABEA met on Zoom for a Virtual Member Meetup for a fun and engaging happy hour with members showing up from Texas, Tennessee, Boston, Atlanta, and beyond.

NABEA came to the Big Apple! To bring our members together from across Greater New York, we hosted a casual afternoon mixer in Brooklyn. Members came together at Spritzenhaus 33 where Alex Foote, Tyrell Walker, and Chadwick Eason hosted members for lively Asia-related discussions.

NABEA celebrated the rich history of Juneteenth and the significance of Pride Month with a member meetup in Washington, D.C. Members gathered together for an evening that united Black Asia experts from across the Washington DC metropolitan area.

Our Tokyo community met, bringing together longstanding members and new members alike. They gathered at Legacy Lounge, a Black-owned gem in Tokyo to meet each other and make new friends.

Our Osaka community met, bringing members from Osaka, Kyoto, and beyond. Members gathered for lunch and shared stories about their experiences living in Japan while eating tasty okonomiyaki.

NABEA hosted an enlightening event, where we demystified the process of securing language scholarships in Asia! This virtual event unlocked valuable insights and insider tips from experienced language scholars.

NABEA kicked off the Year of the Dragon with its first member meetup of 2024 in Washington DC. Members came from across the Washington DC metropolitan area (and even as far as Philadelphia) to gather for a vibrant happy hour.

NABEA members in the Greater Tokyo Area met in a local park for a BBQ with family and friends. Everyone had a great time, exchanging business cards and making new friends.

NABEA hosted a joint event with Schwarzman Scholars. Panelists Amani Core, Chayla Cherry, Damian Murray, and Raven Witherspoon–all Scholars, and members of NABEA–shared their experiences with the program and describe how it shaped their professional trajectories. The panelists, who are all members of NABEA, represented various sectors and provided attendees an understanding of how becoming a Schwarzman Scholar can help them incorporate Asia into their own careers no matter their area of interest.

NABEA members based in the Greater Tokyo Area met for a fun afternoon in the city Yokohama with family and friends.

NABEA hosted an impromptu happy hour to host members who happened to be visiting Washington DC at the same time. Members gathered in Chinatown, sharing their experiences on living across the US and comparing them to their experiences living in Asia.

In The Rohingya Crisis, NABEA member and Southeast Asia expert Danielle Fallin explored the Rohingya crisis ongoing within the region, including the history of the Rohingya identity in Myanmar, foreign policy, and where things stand after the 2021 military coup that plunged Myanmar’s formerly-civilian run political infrastructure into chaos.

This Thursday NABEA members gathered for our largest Washington DC happy hour yet. Members met at Crimson Whiskey Bar in Chinatown and had a great time getting to know one another.

In The Politics of Who Can Say What and Why, NABEA member and Princeton PhD candidate Jessica LeGare led a roundtable discussion on her work with postwar censorship and literature in Japan, as well as answered questions on how the topic relates to and differs from more recent times.

In China & The Caribbean, Rasheed Griffith, host of the ‘China in the Caribbean Podcast‘, discussed the evolution and implication of the US-China-Caribbean relationship amid China’s increased development finance provided under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In response to an influx of mainstream attention brought to anti-Asian hate crimes and violence, Hurdles to Solidarity Between Black & Asian Racial Advocacy Movements was an interactive discussion led by NABEA leadership member Tabatha Anderson on what continues to wedge Black and Asian Americans apart on issues related to racial justice.

Aimed at current undergraduate and graduate students, Studying Abroad in Asia provided a view into the wide ranging possibilities of studying abroad in Asia. Attendees heard humorous anecdotes about panelists’ experiences living in a variety of countries in Asia and got first-hand insight into the many internship and career opportunities available for those interested in traveling to Asia.

In Taiwan in Hindsight: How History Shapes Policy Today, host and NABEA member Shahn Savino led attendees through the important aspects of Taiwanese history, setting the state for a discussion during which members learned from each other about the ways today’s policies on the island have been shaped by past events. This was the second event in the NABEA Conversations series.

Many of NABEA’s members are interested in working in Japan or have experience working in the country. During Working in Japan: How to Start and What to Expect, host and NABEA member, Stephen Chance, shared insightful information and led an informative discussion about Japanese working culture, Japanese language requirements for work, and different pathways to take advantage of to work in a variety of fields in Japan. This was the first event in a new internal series called NABEA Conversations, which take the form of topical discussions and conversations led by members of the NABEA community.

The international relations field often focuses on relationships between national governments. However, local government engagement is also a vital tool in foreign policy formulation and implementation. Engaging with Local Governments in Asia was a conversation with Reta Jo Lewis, senior fellow and director of congressional affairs at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. During the conversation, Ms. Lewis discussed the importance of subnational government engagement, the differences between diplomacy work with national and subnational level governments, and how geopolitical developments in Asia are shaping trends in U.S. subnational government relations in the region.

As Asia continues to move to the forefront of economic, political, and cultural influence in the global landscape, it is increasingly important to ensure underrepresented voices, particularly Black voices, are heard and at the table in U.S.-Asia discourse. Only when historically marginalized voices are included in the conversation can it be said the face of U.S. engagement with Asia is as diverse as the U.S. itself.