About CSEAS

History

In the spring of l959， a group of scholars in Kyoto met to discuss the feasibility of holding informal seminars on various aspects of Southeast Asian culture and society. This resulted in monthly seminars which gradually attracted an increasing number of faculty members and postgraduate students from universities in and around Kyoto. Eventually the enthusiastic participants in the seminars turned to the possibility of organizing the informal gathering into a more institutionalized forum.

A preparatory committee was formed in l961 to organize a systematic program of Southeast Asian studies， including the natural sciences， which had been neglected by most many area studies programs in Western universities and research institutes. This culminated in the creation of CSEAS in January 1963 on the campus of Kyoto University as a semi-official body changed with coordinating Southeast Asian studies.

The newly organized Center lost no time in launching a joint research project on Thailand and Malaysia. Researchers went to these two countries to conduct fieldwork ranging from detailed community studies by anthropologists to investigations of tropical forests， paddy soils， and agricultural techniques by natural scientists. It was to facilitate these field activities that the Bangkok liaison office was opened in October 1963. A residence in Jakarta has been similarly set up in 1970. Funding for fieldwork in these early years came primarily from private sources， including a research grant from the Ford Foundation and a domestic fund raised by supporters of the Center.

The results of the Center's research programs in its inceptive stage were so promising that the Ministry of Education， Science and Culture (Monbusho) decided to grant it formal status in order to promote the further development area studies. Thus， in April 1965， the Center was reorganized as a "research center" with four full-time staff members. It was the first such center to be created at Kyoto University. New research sections were subsequently added as the research programs expanded. By April l984， the Center had grown to encompass nine research sections covering the humanities， social sciences， and natural sciences. In May 1989， these nine sections were reorganized into five larger divisions， including new chairs for medical science.

In 2001， the Center restructured itself into a Research Department of four divisions and three sections for visiting fellows， a Documentation Department， an Administration Department， and the overseas liaison offices. The four research divisions were Humans and the Environment， Society and Culture， Economics and Politics，and Regional Dynamics， the last a new one to facilitate research management, and coordinate and integrate the research of the other three divisions. The Documentation Department consists of an editorial office， library， and information processing office. The Administration Department， charged with management of both CSEAS and the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS)， was comprised of General Affairs， Accounting， Student Affairs， and the International Office.

The Center's academic structures again underwent considerable reform in 2004 in connection with the government-mandated administrative reorganization of all national universities into autonomous and independent legal bodies. The latest renovation is the Center's change in administrative status from "research center" to "institute." Our official status and name in Japanese is now "Institute for Southeast Asian Studies，" giving us more a concrete institutional basis even under the circumstances of the reorganization of national universities. Although the name and administrative status changed to "Institute，" we decided to maintain the name "Center for Southeast Asian Studies，" along with the acronym CSEAS， in all non-Japanese contexts.

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