Bo Kyi is a Burmese human rights defender, co-founder of the exiled Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, based in Mae Sot, Thailand. For his political activities Bo Kyi served seven years in Burmese prisons. In 2009, he received the Alison Des Forges Defender Award for his extraordinary activism and heroic efforts to disclose the opressions of the ruling junta and to advocate for pro-democracy activists.

Jeanne Hallacy is an award-winning photographer and a human rights advocate. She has worked as a producer for international broadcasters covering regional human rights and social issues and serverd as the Director of Programs at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand for a decade. Her commitment to Burma's non-violent movement deepened after filming videos with Nobel Peace laureaute Aung San Suu Kyi.

Into The Current follows the stories and sacrifices of former political prisoner Bo Kyi and an underground team who work tirelessly and often at great risk on behalf of their jailed colleagues. It illuminates the profoundly inspiring political vision of many recently released prisoners, at a time when Burma is just beginning historical change towards democratic reform. And it shows why the prisoners' moral courage and leadership will be vital during the fragile period ahead in a Burma on the cusp of change.

Kathleen Reen is the Vice-President for Asia and New Media Programs with Internews. Reen leads media and information development programs across Asia, and a global Open Internet programs with a team of 12 international and local partner organizations. She has worked for Internews on a variety of assignments from Bosnia and Serbia, founding Internews’ program in Indonesia in as well as projects in Thailand, Cambodia, Timor, Pakistan and China. As Country Director in Indonesia she managed a project developing and implementing media legal reforms, training and productions, Internet access, and local media NGO-building efforts. In late 2004 she led Internews first humanitarian media efforts in Aceh after the devastating earthquake and tsunami.

A journalist and documentary producer by background, Reen worked in Eastern and Southern Europe and Southeast Asia before joining Internews. In 2005 she was a co-founder and first Director of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD). In 2006 she was selected as a fellow of the Asia Society’s “Asia 21″ program. In 2008 she became a fellow of the Flowfund, which supports the development of US domestic and global philanthropy with a focus on social entrepreneurs. She has helped establish several national and regional organizations in Asia that are devoted to media development and information. She represents Internews to the GNI – the Global Network Initiative, a multi-stakeholder initiative that seeks to improve freedom of expression and best practices for companies with NGOs and human rights organizations around the world.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations has challenged itself is to become a single integrated community by 2015.  The prospect has raised high hopes inside the region.  Will they be met?  Efforts to build the community have intensified, yet the clock ticks and the deadline looms.  Although the result will not match what local enthusiasts of regional unification want to see, but it will likely exceed the expectations of skeptical outsiders.  ASEAN is the linchpin of East Asian regionalism, by design and by default.  What happens to the Association over the next several years has far-reaching implications for the United States, China, and not least for the states and peoples of Southeast Asia.  In his talk, Prof. Pongsudhirak will tease out these dynamics, assess their significance, and explore possible futures beyond 2015.

Thitinan Pongsudhirak heads the Institute of Security and International Studies and teaches international political economy at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.  In 2010 he was an FSI-Humanities Center International Visitor at Stanford and, in spring 2011, a visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies.  He has written many articles, chapters, and books on ASEAN and East Asian affairs, and on Thai politics, political economy, and foreign policy.  He has worked for The Nation newspaper (Bangkok), The Economist Intelligence Unit, and Independent Economic Analysis (London).  He currently serves on the editorial boards of Asian Politics & Policy, Contemporary Southeast Asia, the Journal of Current Southeast Asian Studies, and South East Asia Research.  His degrees are from the London School of Economics (PhD), Johns Hopkins University (School of Advanced International Studies, MA), and the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA). 

A series of events over the last few years, including attempts to deny non-Muslim rights to use the term "Allah," arson attacks on Christian churches, curbs on conversions of Muslims, and confiscation of bibles, alert us to disconcerting trends that have emerged in Muslim-Christian relations in multicultural Malaysia.  The purpose of this presentation is to analyze the underlying drivers behind these events, and to understand how and why the Christian community has mobilized in recent years in the face of perceived constriction of religious space.

Joseph Chinyong Liow is Associate Dean and Professor of Comparative and International Politics at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.  He was a visiting scholar at Stanford in 2007.  Among his forthcoming publications are “Malaysia’s 2008 General Election: Understanding the New Media Factor,” Pacific Review; “Creating Cadres:  Mobilization, Activism, and the Youth Wing of the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party,” Pacific Affairs; and “Islamist Ambitions, Political Change, and the Price of Power:  Recent Successes and Challenges for the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party,” Journal of Islamic Studies.  Earlier works include Islam, Education, and Reform in Southern Thailand: Tradition and Transformation (2009); Piety and Politics:  Islamism in Contemporary Malaysia (2009); and Islam in Southeast Asia (co-ed., 4 vols, 2009).  His PhD is from the London School of Economics.