Southeast Asia Seminar: “Catching up Southeast Asian New Body: States, Markets and Public Spheres”

Date: September 26-28th, 2013
Venue: Cape Panwa Hotel

Southeast Asia is one of the most active regions of the world, exhibiting significant dynamism since the very early period to the present. This is a result of the fact that the region is situated at the world’s crossroad, bounded by the Indian Ocean on the west and the open sea of the Pacific to the east. Southeast Asia consequently is characterized and identified in accordance to the heterogeneity of its “socio-cultural body,” which is subject to change from time to time depending mainly on external impacts and internal adjustments. Nanyang, Golden Khersonese, Chrysee, Suvarnabhumi, Further India, East India Island, British India, French Indochina and Netherlands East Indies are all terms that have been created and externally applied to Southeast Asia. This, to a considerable degree, reflects the fundamental nature of the region which, as previously mentioned, is significantly dynamic. The term “Southeast Asia” which is popularly circulated after the Second World War, indeed, emerged as a political and strategic term only in the summer of 1943 “with the creation of Louis Mouthatten’s South-East Asia command, an offshoot of the more traditional India command.” The term was further popularized in the global political and academic arenas during the Vietnam War. It was during this period that “Southeast Asian studies” as a branch of area studies was established and developed in the U.S. and many parts of the world where the U.S. had extended its influence. To be more precise, Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian studies blossomed within the context of the Cold War era, and represent another form and spirit of the region after the end of the colonial period.

The end of the Cold War period signifies the beginning of the decline of area studies in the U.S. Southeast Asian studies, which has made many contributions to world knowledge, has also been directly effected. The growth and development of Southeast Asian studies in the western world are at a crossroad, too. Their future as a result is now in the hands of Asia-based scholars and activists who are increasingly becoming interested in this field of study. Moreover, Southeast Asia as a region has been radically transformed after the Cold War period. It is, accordingly inescapable for Southeast Asianists to explore the most suitable methods, approaches and possible academic tools in the effort to “rethink” and seek new directions for Southeast Asian studies. Issue-based studies, trans-regional approaches and comparative perspectives; the integration of natural sciences and social sciences and humanities; and dynamic focus on and localization in regional context are some of the possible approaches that may play a role in transforming Southeast Asian studies.

program>>