I am delighted to take up the reins of the CSEAS in 2018. In supporting the vast range of expertise on South East Asia at SOAS, and encouraging interdisciplinary exchange, my aim is to make the most of the Centre as a dynamic European hub for research on South East Asia. The line-up for lectures, seminars and events for 2018/19 is coming together but new initiatives are welcomed at all times!
We produce, on a fortnightly basis during term time, a News and Updates eBulletin which provides information about the activities of the SOAS Centre of South East Asian Studies.
The eBulletin highlights the latest events, funding and knowledge being shared and other topical opportunities that we think will be of interest to you.
One of the main activities of the CSEAS is the ongoing public seminar series. Speakers include researchers, writers, artists and other experts from around the world from diverse fields related to South East Asia. The seminars are held regularly throughout the academic year.
As well as producing articles and books staff in the Department of South East Asia edit the following journals:
The Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme (SAAAP) was made possible by a £20 million donation to SOAS from the Alphawood Foundation in Chicago. Over five years the Programme aims to enhance the study and preservation of Buddhist and Hindu art of South East Asia.
SOAS University of London’s Centre of South East Asian Studies will be hosting a week-long festival showcasing South East Asian contemporary feature films from each of the ten member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN): Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
The Annual Philippine Studies Conference SOAS focuses its 2019 edition on Mindanao. It seeks to gather academics, policymakers, cultural workers and artists to map the contours of Mindanao’s porous and overlapping ethnolinguistic homelands and its conceptual and physical sites of representation, identity formation, and conflict.
The annual Indonesia Kontemporer takes place this year on Saturday 5 October. Artists and crafts people participating in this event hailed from many parts of the world outside Indonesia.
The School hosted its first graduation celebration event in Singapore, marking the graduation of 40 Alphawood Scholarship students. The event included four cohorts of Alphawood Scholars who graduated from SOAS between 2014 and 2018, completing Masters and Postgraduate Diploma programmes in the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at SOAS. Graduates came from across the region to take part in the celebratory event at the Asian Civilisations Museum.
The scholarships are open to students wishing to study a range of courses from Postgraduate Diploma to Doctorate level. The purpose of the Scholarships programme is capacity building therefore support will be available to successful candidates who require extra English language training.
Please note that successful candidates will be asked to provide valid UKVI approved English language test results to demonstrate that they hold the minimum UK Borders Agency requirement to obtain a Tier 4 Student visa.
Please visit the Alphawood Scholarships web page for more information on candidate eligibility and how to apply.
Commissioning new works and developing ongoing projects by 11 artists from, or working in, the Philippines – each of whom examine transnational and temporal themes in their practice – as well as featuring a display of materials from the never before exhibited Ifor B. Powell archive held at SOAS, Motions Of This Kind will chart the historical and contemporary forces linking this archipelagic chain with other key spheres of global power. By placing the theme of belatedness as our principal concern however – as both a concept, reference, and argument – the project will underscore the way time has been used both as a weapon of power and a tool of everyday resistance, a way of dominating the marginalised and creating alternative imaginations alike.
The exhibition runs at the Brunei Gallery until 22 June.