Comparative literature has long been shaped by Euro- American schools of thought, namely the German, French, and American traditions. But what does it mean to practise the discipline from a Southeast Asian vantage point?
This seminar proposes Bandung as method, a comparative literature framework rooted in the region's own intellectual history. Drawing on the legacy of the 1955 Bandung Conference and its Afro-Asian imaginary, it examines contemporary pedagogical examples from Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Singapore to argue for a methodology that departs from Eurocentric paradigms and engages the distinct multiculturalism of the Global South.
The talk situates this 'small Asias' perspective in dialogue with recent scholarship on Big Asia, and draws from the Dr. Nazry Bahrawi's forthcoming contribution to the American Comparative Literature Association's state of the discipline report.
Dr. Nazry Bahrawi is Assistant Professor of Southeast Asian Literature and Culture in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Warwick and an M.Sc. (distinction) in Comparative and General Literature from the University of Edinburgh, where he studied on a Chevening Scholarship. His research spans Southeast Asian and Southeast Asian American studies, postcolonialism and decoloniality, race and indigeneity, and Islam and culture, with a particular focus on Malay-Indonesian literary and folkloric traditions.
He is the author of the forthcoming monograph How to Kin an Animal: Malayophone Folklores and Race in Southeast Asia (University of Hawai'i Press) and has published widely in journals including Comparative Literature, Journal of World Literature, and Journal of Asian American Studies. His book chapter "Bandung as Method in Southeast Asia" is forthcoming in Futures of Comparative Literature (Fordham University Press), and he is currently preparing a contribution to the American Comparative Literature Association's state of the discipline report. He has held visiting positions at MIT and the University of Brighton, and previously served as Senior Lecturer at the Singapore University of Technology and Design.
Beyond the academy, Nazry is an active public intellectual and creative writer. He is the editor of Singa-Pura-Pura: Malay Speculative Fiction from Singapore (Ethos Books, 2021), a literary translator from Malay to English, and a contributor to publications including Al Jazeera and The Straits Times. He serves as Editor-at-Large at Wasafiri literary magazine and is core faculty at the Center for Southeast Asia and its Diasporas at the University of Washington.
Last Update: 09/06/2026