Southeast Asia Section

The Southeast Asia department of the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics is unique in the UK as a centre for teaching and research on the languages, literatures, cinemas and cultures of Southeast Asia.

Our academic and teaching staff are committed to encouraging a world-leading environment for students and researchers. SOAS provides unrivalled access to this culturally diverse, fast developing and strategically important region.

Southeast Asia is a diverse region with a fascinating mix of cultures, languages, religions and traditions. It is also a dynamic, fast developing region that is assuming an increasingly important strategic role in global affairs.

Nothing can match the intensity and depth of engagement with a different culture than that achieved through knowledge of a local language and in our section we are committed to delivering specialist language-based scholarship in combination with regional focus and disciplinary skills.

We collaborate with several universities across Southeast Asia to offer our students an opportunity to spend a year of study abroad.

The year abroad takes place during the third year of study and provides a unique opportunity for students to advance their linguistic skills, gain a deeper insight into different societies and cultures and apply their skills to independent study projects.

The Department offers the widest coverage in Europe of research and teaching related to the languages, literatures, and cultures of the principal countries of Southeast Asia, and is the only department of a British university within which these subjects can be studied as part of a named degree.

Its primary commitment is to five languages (Burmese, Indonesian/Malay, Khmer, Thai, and Vietnamese) and their literatures, cinemas and associated cultures.

The research and teaching in this Department draw heavily upon the resources of the Library’s extensive Southeast Asia collection, and are closely connected with the work of many of the School’s other Departments.