The Center forSoutheast Asian Studies
University of Hawaii at Manoa
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BROWN BAG SERIES
The Brown Bag Series will resume in the Fall 2009 semester. Miss a lecture? Download the podcast!
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EXPLORATIONS
Explorations, the graduate journal of Southeast Asian Studies, is available on-line!
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CAKALELE
All eleven volumes of Cakalele, the inter-disciplinary journal of Maluku studies, are now available on-line!
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BOOK LAUNCH
UH History Professor Vina Lanzona's book Amazons of the Huk Rebellion was just published by the University of Wisconsin Press.
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Center for Southeast Asian Studies > Welcome
With more than 70 faculty members, the Center represents the largest concentration of Southeast Asia specialists in the United States. The Center is one of only eight National Resource Centers for Southeast Asian Studies in the nation. More than 140 language and area courses are regularly offered, with particular strengths in the humanities and social sciences. The Center's Southeast Asia Working Papers series, established in 1972, now has more than forty titles, while the Center's Southeast Asia Papers series, established in 2000, has two edited volumes. The Center's most recent publication is Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng: a Tai Lu Principlaity of the Upper Mekong, by Volker Grabowsky and Renoo Wichasin.
Since 2003, special emphasis has been directed toward the development of new materials for teaching Southeast Asian languages. Instructional efforts have been made in Khmer studies, Thai studies, Philippine studies, and Indonesian studies. Similarly, an ongoing theme has been to explore the concept of identity in Southeast Asia through language, religion, performance, and history. The Center has also continued to publish Explorations, a graduate student journal committed to Southeast Asian Studies. And in 2009, the Center began to pursue a new initiative: Muslim Societies in Southeast Asia.
The Center maintains exchange programs with universities in Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, East Timor, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia, as well as specialized faculties in Europe. The Center also facilitates individualized study programs, specific to students' needs. These in-country experiences provide students with opportunities to conduct research and/or pursue advanced language study.
It acts as a coordinating body for Southeast Asian studies thoughout the university. It does not have faculty in its administrative unit and does not award degrees. However, some 70 faculty, scattered through 21 departments, are all affiliated with the Center. Degrees are awarded by the University's departments and schools. It acts as a focal point, initiating and publicizing various talks and events on the campus with a Southeast Asian focus. CSEAS students organize twice-monthly Brown Bag talks.
But other departments also offer talks, seminars and events. It obtains and administers grants. CSEAS is the lead unit in the competition for the National Resource Center grants awarded by the United States Department of Education. These awards are for 3 years, and the money is used to fund projects. The Center, through its director and affiliated faculty, is responsible for administering and awarding the Foreign Language and Area Study (FLAS) fellowships. It works to promote Southeast Asian studies nationally. The Center took teachers from minority serving institutions to Vietnam in 1999, the Philippines in 2000, Thailand and Burma in 2002, and a group visited Malaysia in 2004.
The Center has a strong commitment to outreach programs for the community of Hawaii and continually produces and distributes K-12 educational materials throughout the country. The Center, in partnership with the Southeast Asian Studies Student Association, has broadened the public's interest in Southeast Asia through a weekly film series.