Announcing Launch of Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA)

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University, proudly announces the launch of a Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA).

Over the past few decades, in tandem with ever-deepening economic integration and increasing cross-border flows and movements of people, goods, ideas and technologies, a number of leading organizations, communities, and individuals in East Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia)
have been initiating, cementing and institutionalizing both regional and global linkages and collaborations at the governmental and non-governmental levels, particularly in business, academia and the arts.

Network-style academic cooperation has become de rigueur among area specialists as well. But so far, academic cooperation in the East Asia region has mainly taken the form of bundles of bilateral (or at most trilateral) exchanges and collaboration, involving great expenditure of
time, energy and funds. There are many overlaps in the thematic focus of conferences, symposia and workshops sponsored individually or jointly by area studies institutions. Some of the unintended consequences of this noodle-bowl phenomenon include intellectual fragmentation and segmentation even within one particular topic of “area studies.” Fragmentation and segmentation may actually impede the development of synergistic, inter- and multidisciplinary and comparative approaches to area studies. These are goals and endeavors that are held and pursued in common by all of us scholars who are keen to promote area studies. In an era of budget cuts, it makes more sense for area studies institutions to work together.

The study of Southeast Asia is an integral part of Asian studies and is represented in various international academic meetings. Furthermore, there are many region-based institutions that have provided excellent platforms for promoting Southeast Asian studies. However, the establishment of a region-based consortium of Southeast Asian Studies aims to complement these regional and global efforts by linking these hubs into a cooperative venture. It will provide a multilateral regional forum in the form of annual meetings, along with smaller joint workshops or conferences; a system for sharing information about each other’s activities; opportunities for education and training of young and up-and-coming scholars -for promoting collaboration and exchanges among Southeast Asia- and other East Asia-based Southeast Asianists.

More importantly, we seek to connect institutions specializing in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities—for example, earthquake science and disaster management, medical research, urban studies, ecology, energy, resource management, industry specialists, creative
industries—whose scholars have an interest in, and who work on or in Southeast Asia, but do not necessarily consider themselves as area studies specialists.

Logistically, it is more convenient and affordable for Southeast/East Asia-based scholars to meet and interact with each other in the region compared to traveling long distances and at huge expense to America and Europe (although this consortium welcomes the participation of American and European Southeast Asianists).  Other places where Southeast Asian studies constitutes only one sub-regional branch of “area studies” among many other areas are subject to the vicissitudes of funding and institutional imperatives specific to the countries in which they are based. Yet, for scholars working on Southeast Asia who are based in East Asia, this “area” matters in geopolitical, economic, intellectual, institutional, social, cultural and affective terms. This makes it impossible to treat Southeast Asian studies as if this were something peripheral and external to what scholars, public intellectuals, policy-makers and activists are doing in
this region.

Building on the imperative to promote region-based Southeast Asian studies, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, in partnership with nine leading Asian and Southeast Asian Studies institutions in the region, established a Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies in Asia (SEASIA) on 11 October 2013. The consortium Charter was signed by the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, Academia Sinica; the Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University;
the Indonesian Institute of Sciences; the Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies; the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University; the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore; the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University; the Taiwan Association of Southeast Asian Studies; the Institute of Asian Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam; and the Asian Center, University of the Philippines.

Professor Sunait Chutintaranond of Chulalongkorn University is Chairperson of the Governing Board. The Governing Board has the following members:

Ikrar Nusa Bhakti (Indonesian Institute of Sciences)
Eduardo Tadem (University of the Philippines)
Michael Feener (National University of Singapore)
Liu Hong (Nanyang Technological University)
Tong Chee Kiong (Universiti Brunei Darussalam)
Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao (Academia Sinica)
Park Jang Sik (Korean Association of Southeast Asian Studies)
Shimizu Hiromu (Kyoto University): Secretary

The Secretariat is based in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto
University.

SEASIA will promote Southeast Asian studies by linking the leading area studies institutions in the region in a cooperative venture to provide a multilateral forum for organizing academic meetings, seminars, workshops, and symposia. One of its main activities will be to organize a biennial conference, the first of which is expected to take place in Kyoto in 2015.

SEASIA will promote research collaboration and networking, operate as a system for sharing information and offer opportunities for education and training of young and up-and-coming scholars. It also seeks to connect institutions specializing in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities whose scholars have an interest in, and who work on or in Southeast Asia, but do not necessarily consider themselves area studies specialists.

For any inquiries concerning SEASIA please contact Mario Lopez

http://www.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/networks/international-networks/seasia/

-----------
Mario Lopez
Center for Southeast Asian Studies,
Kyoto University