Centre of South East Asian Studies

SOAS hosts two international peer-reviewed journals focussing on Southeast Asia

South East Asia Research

South East Asia Research is an international quarterly peer review journal. South East Asia Research publishes papers on all aspects of South East Asia within the disciplines of archaeology, art history, economics, geography, history, language and literature, law, music, political science, social anthropology and religious studies. Papers are based on original research or field work.

Indonesia and the Malay World

Indonesia and the Malay World is a peer-reviewed journal that is committed to the publication of scholarship in the arts and humanities on maritime Southeast Asia. It particularly focuses on the study of the languages, literatures, art, archaeology, history, religion, anthropology, performing arts, cinema and tourism of the region. In addition to welcoming individual articles, it also publishes special issues focusing on a particular theme or region. The journal is published three times a year, in March, July, and November.

Note: these journals are not directly affiliated to or managed by CSEAS.

SOAS has a lively and active research culture on South East Asia. Listed below are a selection of current and past projects. Note: these research projects are not directly affiliated to or managed by CSEAS. 

Circumambulating Objects: on Paradigms of Restitution of Southeast Asian Art: Prof. Ashley Thompson and Dr Stephen Murphy  

Circumambulating Objects: on Paradigms of Restitution of Southeast Asian Art (CO-OP) assembles individuals across the arts, culture and heritage fields to question entrenched systems of valuation, ownership, collecting and power as these are brought into relief through restitution processes today. Exploring Southeast Asian epistemologies and needs at the intersection of these processes, we ask to whom or to where ‘art’ belongs—within state-building agendas, colonial ideations, collective memories…?   

DeCoSEAS – Decolonizing Southeast Asian Sound Archives: Dr Cristina Juan 

DeCoSEAS is a transnational research project focused on hearing and listening as dialogical modes of knowledge formation in order to renegotiate established understandings of heritage curation. 

Digital Filipiniana: Dr Cristina Juan 

Digital Filipiniana is a collection of digital, open-access material from the SOAS Library and Archives. With a 2017 grant from the Philippine Embassy in London and the Office of Senator Loren Legarda, Digital Filipiniana is an on-going project to digitize copyright-free material from the SOAS Archival Collections, and make them accessible to the public. 

Leverhulme Research Leadership Award: Mapping Sumatra’s manuscript cultures | SOAS: Dr Mulaika Hijjas 

This project’s interdisciplinary team investigates manuscript libraries from the Indonesian island of Sumatra, the first landing point, geographically and historically, of Islam in South East Asia, to better understand the intellectual and writing traditions of the region. 

Mapping Philippine Material Culture: Dr Cristina Juan 

This digital humanities project is a visual inventory of Philippine objects dating to the mid-20th century which are in holdings of museums and private collections outside of the Philippines. The open access online inventory gathers photographic and textual information about these objects and aggregates the data in an easy-to- navigate, all-in-one sortable portal. 

Meritorious Collecting and Curating in Buddhist Southeast Asia: Dr Heidi Tan 

The series of photographs in this collection were taken by Heidi Tan in Shan State, Myanmar. Together with the accompanying materials, the images illustrate how pagoda museum collections are highly diverse and often curated in ways that highlight the importance of merit-making rituals within Theravada Buddhist practice. 

SOAS-Alphawood Programme

The Alphawood scholarships form part of an academic programme which is generously supported by the Alphawood Foundation (Chicago). The remit of the programme is to support and advance, through study and research, the understanding and preservation of Southeast Asian Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture from ancient to pre-modern times.

The remit includes study of the built environment, sculpture, painting, illustrated texts, textiles and other tangible or visual representations, along with the written word related to these, and archaeological, museum and cultural heritage studies.

Since 2014, Alphawood has provided for over 100 scholarships which supported Southeast Asian scholars' postgraduate study at the Diploma, MA and MPhil/PhD levels at SOAS.  

Alphawood scholarships also provide support for our students to advance their English-language proficiency through dedicated courses at the SOAS Department of International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies (IFCELS). 

For further details and information on how to apply, please visit the SOAS-Alphawood Programme web page.

Jointly organized by CSEAS and the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme, this lecture series invites leading experts to share their latest insights and research on Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia. The series is hybrid in format consisting of both in-person and online lectures. 

This year’s series is convened by Dr Mizuho Ikeda (Research Associate, CSEAS) and Dr Panggah Ardiyansyah (Research Associate, Digital Humanities Institute, University of Sheffield). 

Funding for this lecture series has been kindly provided by the Alphawood Foundation.

Lecture programme

18 November 2025, 12pm UK time (Online): Ancient Kedah As A Trans-Oceanic Economic Hub: Recent Findings In The Bukit Choras Archaeological Site. Associate Professor Dr. Nasha bin Rodziadi Khaw (Director, Centre for Global Archaeological Research, Universiti Sains Malaysia).

16 December 2025, 12pm UK time (Online): Currents Of Currency: Tracing Early 1st Millennium Southeast Asian Trade Through “Die Studies” Of Rising Sun/Srivatsa Coinage. Dr. Andrew Harris (Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow, National University of Singapore).

20 January 2026, 5:30pm UK time (In-person): The Precarious Past in Premodern Java. Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan (Australian National University).

27 January 2026, 12pm UK time, (Online): Iconography of the Vessantara Jātaka in Khmer Temples: Change and Continuity from the Angkor to the Post-Angkor Period. Associate Professor Makiko Kubo (Faculty of Buddhist Studies, Rissho University, Japan). 

4 March 2026, 5:30pm UK time, (In-person): Stylistic Networks in Early Southeast Asia: Mitred Viṣṇu Sculptures from Bangka. Nainunis Aulia Izza (Universitas Jambi, Indonesia). 

This annual lecture, in honour of Prof Elizabeth H. Moore (1949–2024), invites a leading scholar in the field to present on their latest research. The lecture will take place in person in late Spring 2026. Stay tuned for more details. 

Funding for the Annual Elizabeth H. Moore Memorial Lecture has been kindly provided by the Alphawood Foundation.

Practices of Life in Southeast Asia

This semester’s theme foregrounds how communities across Southeast Asia have sought to live, believe, and flourish through the practices of everyday life. From ritual and governance to kinship and sport, the seminars explore how ordinary practices are imagined and enacted across different times and places. The series brings historical and ethnographic perspectives into conversation to illuminate the ethical, political, and creative dimensions of daily life in the region.

This year’s graduate-led seminar is convened by Dr Daniel Whitehouse | SOAS (British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Anthropology and Sociology) and Conan Yongneng Cheong | SOAS (PhD candidate, School of Arts). 

Lecture programme

3 February 2026, 5:30pm UK time (In-person): Beyond National Transitions: Local Political Orders and the ReMaking of Authority in Myanmar. Anna Plunkett (King’s College London).

17 February 2026, 12pm UK time (Online): From loneliness to connection in later life: Insights from Thailand and Myanmar. Samia C. Akhter-Khan (Brandenburg Medical School).

10 March 2026, 5:30pm UK time (In-person): Re-contextualising Colonial Conflicts: First Anglo-Burmese War 1824-1826 from the Konbaung Perspective. "Arthur" Swan Ye Tun (King's College London and National University of Singapore).

17 March 2026, 5:30pm UK time (In-person): Coming of Age In- and Out-of-Place: Frictions of Adolescent Mobility in Island Southeast Asia. Catherine Allerton (London School of Economics).

This interdisciplinary seminar series explores the deep connections between creative expression and the shifting political and social landscapes of Southeast Asia. It engages with themes including development, migration, poverty, identity, and freedom of expression, focused particularly on how the visual intersects with shifting social, economic and ultimately geo-political trends. We will examine how artists and cultural practitioners illuminate complex realities, from structural inequality to personal experiences of alienation and explore how the visual responds to power, providing a means to both critique, but also aid state structures and inter-state relations. Designed to be accessible in content, language, and approach, without compromising academic depth, the seminars invite participants from all backgrounds to consider creativity as a powerful mode of inquiry, critique, and engagement in a rapidly changing region.

This series is convened by Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra (Research Associate, CSEAS) & Dr Matthew Phillips (Research Associate, CSEAS). 

Programme

21 April 2026, 11:00am UK Time (Hybrid session, venue tbc): Storytelling, Place, and Cultural Resilience in the Award-Winning Film Tegkang, Shalini Amerasinghe Ganendra, in conversation with Tegkang’s Director, Josh Nawan and Producer, Lyn Nasihin.

Stephen Murphy, "Buddhist Landscapes: Art and Archaeology of the Khorat Plateau, 7th to 11th Centuries" (NUS Press, 2024)
New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

Ashley Thompson, Engendering the Buddhist State: Territory, Sovereignty and Sexual Difference in the Inventions of Angkor (Routledge 2016)
New Books in Southeast Asian Studies

Ashley Thompson and Piphal Heng, In Our Time: Angkor Wat
BBC Radio Sounds

Each year, the Centre of South East Asian Studies welcomes Visiting Scholars and Research Associates working in the field of South East Asian studies. These scholars join us to benefit from SOAS's vibrant research culture and world-class library collections.

We are pleased to support both early-career and established researchers seeking affiliation with the Centre.

For full details on eligibility, fees, and how to apply, please visit our Honorary Appointments page.

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