Cornell Southeast Asia Program

Check out this year’s Cornell in Cambodia cohort! The students got to enjoy an amazing trip that focused on labor and industrial relations. Their trip included visiting with the Ministry of Education, Dakota Industrial Factory, and the famed Angkor Wat. They also beat the heat with Professor Vanchan with some delicious bubble tea @ Phnom Phen, Cambodia

Happy Meet SEAP Monday! Meet Anissa Desmiati Rahadiningtyas. She is a PhD Candidate in the History of Art and Visual Studies. Right now, she is the building manager for the Kahin Center. A long time ago (“the Golden Age of Co-Chairing” as she puts it), she was the Co-Chair for SEAP Graduate Students with Emiko Stock and Ryan Buyco.
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On her connection to Southeast Asia: “Well, I work on Indonesia, modern art and Islam. And I am also from Indonesia. My advisor works on Indonesia and Southeast Asia. I am friends with people that work with Southeast Asia or are from Southeast Asia.”
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She did her undergrad in Indonesia in Fine Art/Studio Art at the Faculty of Art and Design in Bandung. And she also did her Masters there as well with the same faculty.
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Why Cornell: “I did a random internet search of professors that work on SEA, and Kaja McGowan came up and her affiliation with Cornell came up. So, I emailed her asking about possibilities of coming to Cornell and working with her. I didn’t know about the graduate school system in the States or about Cornell. I just wanted to travel abroad and learn in the States. Fortunately, she was traveling in Bali at the time, so we met up to speak further. And the rest is history. Haha – I got rejected the first time, but reapplied and got in.”
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Fun Facts:
1) Her girlfriend is fluent in Thai, so every time they go to Thailand, Anissa is mistaken for being Thai. But she doesn’t speak any Thai. A lot of confusion occurs! "My identity is fluid in Southeast Asia.”
2) She loves eating at Asia Cuisine. She has a lot of favorites there. She highly recommends!
3) She’s been going to this hair salon that have been giving her different cuts of Korean boy band looks each time she goes.
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What do you think is special about SEAP: “The camaraderie, the warm atmosphere especially because it’s so hot here in the summer. And in the winter time the heaters are really strong. But yeah the people—you find friends at SEAP. Not just professional relationships, but you find true friends.” ◊◊
(Anissa is located in the foreground of the picture with her amazing Korean boy band haircut)

Today, Friday, October 25th Carol Hau from gives the 11th Frank H. Golay Memorial Lecture themed “For Whom are Southeast Asian Studies?”
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Physical Science Building Room 120, 4:30pm
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“Which audiences, publics, and peoples do Southeast Asianists address and serve? The question of “audience(s)”—real and imagined, intended and unintended—is arguably central to (re)conceptualizing the rationale, scope, efficacy, and limits of Southeast Asian Studies. It has an important bearing on what kind of topics are chosen for study, what and how personal and institutional networks and intellectual exchanges are mobilized, which dialogues and collaborations are initiated, what language(s) one writes in, where one publishes or works, which arenas one intervenes in, and how the region is imagined and realized. I focus on Jose Rizal’s two novels--Noli me tangere (1887) and El filibusterismo (1891)--and Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983, 1991, 2006) and examine the ways in which the issue of audience(s) crucially informed the intellectual projects of the two authors, and how the vicissitudes of production, circulation, translation, and reception shaped the intellectual, political, and artistic trajectories and legacies of these three notable Southeast Asian studies texts. I will also discuss the power of these texts to conjure and call forth unexpected and unintended audiences that have the potential to galvanize Southeast Asian studies while stressing the connected histories that link Southeast Asia to other regions and the world.”
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Caroline S. Hau is Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan. Born in Manila, she was educated at the University of the Philippines and Cornell University. She is the author and (co-)editor of more than thirteen books, including Necessary Fictions: Philippine Literature and the Nation, 1946-1980; The Chinese Question: Ethnicity, Nation, and Region in and beyond the Philippines; (with Kasian Tejapira) Traveling Nation-Makers: Transnational Flows and Movements in the Making of Modern Southeast Asia; and Elites and Ilustrados in Philippine Culture. She has published a novel, Tiempo Mu

Happy Meet SEAP Monday! Meet James Nagy!

James has been the SEAP Administrative Assistant since Summer 2017

James likes that SEAP encourages sincere engagement with critical issues. Though his background is in theology and religious history outside of Southeast Asia, SEAP has always been extraordinarily welcoming and supportive. One of his favorite aspects is the involvement with the graduate students in the program; for me, the energy of the grad students is contagious, and it’s always a pleasure working with them.

James also supervises a team of office staff, including about 8 student workers. Our student workers assist with reimbursements, publicity, flyers, listservs, and database management. SEAP is a large program with many moving parts, and our student workers heavily contribute to SEAP being able to function as smoothly as it does.

He can usually be found in 180 Uris at the front desk, and he’s always happy to talk about SEAP with any visitors!

James is featured in the image above (the third on the top row from left to right) The image also includes Librarian Jeff Petersen and former Kahin Center custodian Phil Rubin at Watkins Glen State Park in Summer 2018

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The Afterschool Language and Culture Program (ALCP) is recruiting student volunteers to teach their languages and cultures to children in local schools! ALCP is a collaboration between the Public Service Center and the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies. The goal of this program is to connect the Cornell Community's diverse language and cultures to underserved local schools in Upstate New York. Visit the link in bio to apply to volunteer as a language instructor! @ Ithaca, New York