Each year since 1977, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies has convened the Seminar to bring together junior and senior scholars for learning and exchange in Southeast Asian area studies. Initially, the seminar ran for two weeks, offering intensive lectures that provided an overview of the nature, culture, society, economy, and other aspects of the region and the basic knowledge needed to understand the concept of area studies. Subsequently, it became more topically focused, and the period had been shortened to one week for the convenience of participants. The seminar is open to graduate students and has attracted numerous participants each year, in particular many from within the region starting their engagement with Southeast Asian studies. Since the 1990s, with the increase in similar seminars off-campus, it has attracted increasing interest by choosing relevant topics and changing the format of participation.\n<\/p>\n
As the times have changed so has the seminar. Since the 33rd seminar in Kyoto, CSEAS has switched to an all-English seminar including lecturers from outside Japan. Since then, we have been holding a series of seminars in different countries in Southeast Asia, and participants have applied from all over the world. It provides a great opportunity for Japanese graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to exchange ideas with young scholars outside of Japan. The seminar has gradually shifted from a lecture-based format to a more participatory style in which lectures, field visits and group work provide the participants an opportunity to engage in multifaceted learning processes with not only the lecturers, but with local society and environments as well. The seminar now offers a unique framework for exchanges between young and upcoming scholars in the region helping to foster the next generation of researchers and expanding networks.\n<\/p>\n
In 2010, the seminar was in principle shifted from Kyoto to Southeast Asia, in recognition of the Center\u2019s deep commitment to understanding the region through intensive and sustained involvement in the field. The organizers also redesigned the seminar format to enable more discussion with the lecturers, exchanges between participants, and consider the thematic issues from the local point of view. This approach lets the Center engage more closely with its partner institutions around the region, adding a new element of education and training to the collaborations that have been developed around research activities.\n<\/p>\n
Topics of the Seminar vary, but endeavor to incorporate a number of disciplinary perspectives in the annual theme \u2013 particularly the integration of ecological perspectives within social frameworks for understanding the dynamics of regional, national and local change.\n<\/p>\n
Several of the previous Japan-based Seminars had already pioneered field-based models of the \u201cmobile workshop,\u201d which has long been a part of the Center\u2019s research tradition. What can a group see collectively when specialists from different backgrounds come together to conduct work on a shared research area? It is the consideration of this type of problematic that the Seminar hopes to foster among the participants. In addition to the value of multidisciplinary perspectives on an area, the Seminar also aims to cultivate added value in a heightened awareness of location of participants\u2019 own individual specialization within a broader collaborative research framework.\n<\/p>\n
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Entitled \u201cThe Covid-19 Pandemic in Japanese and Southeast Asian Perspective: Histories, States, Markets, Societies,\u201d this year’s seminar will be conducted online (via Zoom Webinar) on March 1, 2021, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m (Japan Standard Time\/GMT+9:00), and, for only core participants, on March 2, 2021, 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m (JST).\n<\/p>\n
For more information, please click the link below.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\nPast Southeast Asia Seminars<\/h1>\n