Center for Southeast Asian Studies

The mission of the University of Michigan's (U-M's) multidisciplinary Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) is to expand knowledge and deepen expertise about Southeast Asia (SEA), a region of 11 countries with nearly 600m people. Established in 1961, CSEAS has received U.S. Department of Education (US/ED) Title VI National Resource Center and FLAS (fellowship) support since 1964. Faculty research and involvement in the region began in the 1870s, and formed the basis of our excellent library and museum resources on the region open to the public and scholars from other institutions. CSEAS is a constituent unit of the U-M International Institute, and has faculty, student and programmatic linkages throughout the University.

Nearly 70 U-M faculty on our Ann Arbor campus have a known interest in SEA, including 19 tenured, 6 tenure-track and 9 non-tenure-track "core" faculty in 8 liberal arts departments and 7 professional schools, who have primary or significant research and/or teaching in the area. Our faculty are expert on and active in all the countries of SEA, with particularly strong concentrations on Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. On average, they annually enroll over a thousand students in graduate and undergraduate SEA area and language courses. In addition, the Center organizes or co-sponsors an average of 90 lecture and conference programs, performances and outreach activities per year.

Through the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures (ALC), CSEAS helps support instruction at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels of Filipino, Indonesian, Thai and Vietnamese language, with occasional offerings of Javanese, and summer intensive training in these and other SEA languages available through various consortia. ALC offers an undergraduate concentration and minor in SEAS, while CSEAS offers a two-year M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies (SEAS) and dual-degrees with various professional schools, including business and public policy. Students in PhD and professional school Masters programs can also obtain a Graduate Certificate in SEAS. Many opportunities exist for undergraduate study-abroad and exchange programs, and for graduate field research and internships, in SEA.