07 Jul 25 Monday Briefing
Heavenly Bodies
I’m a little under the cosh, friends, as Sam and I barrel through our paper and presentation for Chiang Mai University’s Decolonizing Southeast Asian Studies academic conference next week. Throwback to uni days, cranking out essays through the wee hours, but with full-time jobs and now-visible eyebags (on me, not Sam)!
I fly to Chiang Mai this Saturday for a sabbatical at Seapunk’s Midsummer Studio, and I’m delighted that I get to meet
, and see and again. I’ll be recording a podcast episode with Dev for his Light Forest World podcast, so stay tuned!Between all this side hustling and full-time work, it’s a miracle I have any time to read at all, but here’s a sampling of what I’ve managed to finish over the past two weeks, along with current reads. Props to Weiman for recommending some of them! Until next week, where I’ll be writing from Chiang Mai.
Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global by Laura Spinney
About half the world speaks an Indo-European language, which includes languages as seemingly different as English, Armenian, Sanskrit and Lithuanian. Spinney delves into its ancestor, Proto-Indo-European, and shows how material technology, climate change and human migration patterns all affect the way we construct language, and the way it evolves.
Making Kin: Ecofeminist Essays from Singapore edited by Esther Vincent Xueming and Angelia Poon
Just started on this thanks to a loan from Weiman, and I’m keen to read more works by female Singaporeans – their musings on making kin with the human and non-human world, navigating worlds increasingly fractured by climate change.
Heavenly Bodies: A Zine of Art and Objects by Munkao
Not quite a book, but a zine filled with beautiful sketches by Munkao. Hard to believe he only informally learned art for about a year. Please grab a copy in support!