SOFT LAUNCH
softlaunchThis is a soft launch of the Center's new website. Not all links are active and we will be rolling out new features in the coming weeks. Please stand by.


KEEP IN TOUCH!
softlaunch
Sign up for the Center's Mailing Lists for info on film screenings, seminars and events!

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FILM SERIES
filmseriesWe're screening the Singaporean film Love Story on 5/7! More info.


BROWNBAG SERIES
filmseriesRead Kaleo's story on Aya Kimura's 4/9 talk on power, food and Indonesia! The Brown Bag Series will resume in August 2008. More info.


EXPLORATIONS
bookAmerica's only grad journal of SEA studies is back! More info.


BOOK LAUNCH!
bookYuphaphann Hoonchamlong's new text Thai Language and Culture for Beginners has just been published! More info.



 


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Welcome to the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa!

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 Other Pasts: Women, Gender and History in Early Modern Southeast Asia.

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 2005, 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.