University of Michigan Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Join us online for a talk by two researchers working on upland areas of Vietnam and Laos! Dr. Nathan Badenoch and Dr. Hồ Thành Tâm will each speak about their unique work on the Central Highlands of Vietnam and Northern Laos, examining orality and writing respectively in each context. This talk will take place on Zoom, August 25, 8:00 pm-9:30 pm EDT. Register here: https://loc.zoomgov.com/webinar/register/3617870830296/WN_eKx0_sueRGyz1W1Ea7G3dQ.

We're excited to launch the SEAREG Postdoctoral Fellowship!

The 1-year fellowship will begin next summer with the fellow being hosted at one of four partner institutions: Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, Universiti Sains Malaysia or VinUniversity.

Learn more about the program and sign up for a virtual information session: https://dcid.sanford.duke.edu/seareg/postdoctoral-fellowship/

For any graduate students at U-M or other institutions, this is your chance to build your network and boost your academic work.

2026-27 ACLS Fellowship and Grant Webinars Register for upcoming information sessions and office hours for potential applicants to our 2026-27 fellowship and grant programs.

Come learn how to play Javanese gamelan music on the University of Michigan's own gamelan, Kyai Telaga Madu, the Lake of Venerable Honey this Fall 2026 semester.

Look up ENS 407 with Lab 001 for beginner and Lab 002 for advanced.

On June 30, 2026, the 3rd Teaching the World through Graphic Novels: Teacher Workshop brought together 13 outstanding K-16 educators from Michigan to explore how graphic novels and comics can be used to teach about different regions of the world.

This professional development event for K-16 teachers was hosted in partnership with Michigan State University and made possible by the U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant.

The workshop was co-organized by the U-M Center for Southeast Asian Studies and:

U-M Nam Center for Korean Studies
University of Michigan Center for Japanese Studies
Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan
University of Michigan Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies
Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University

The teachers came to Ann Arbor for a one-day workshop. The workshop was coordinated again by U-M CSEAS Program Specialist Jonathan Valdez. The teachers learned about the history of comics, the field of comics studies, how to read a comic book page, and about different world regions from academic faculty who use comics in their teaching.

The teachers also received copies of Clar Angkasa's "Stories of the Islands"; Tori Tadiar's "Illustra #1"; Trang Nguyen's "Saving Sorya: Chang and the Sun Bear"; and Christina Soontornvat's "The Try-Out" for their classrooms.

Lesson plans on how to use these graphic novels and others will be available soon on the University of Michigan International Institute's website.

Join us on Wednesday, August 19, 2026 for a special talk celebrating the opening of the Manuel Quezon Papers online!

As the first president of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Manuel Quezon spent years fighting for his country’s autonomy and independence. His papers are so significant that they are inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, which recognizes documentary heritage of global importance.

Improving access to these important papers has been a long journey, involving many crucial partnerships. The original collection was processed by specialists in the Philippines in the 1970s. U-M’s Bentley Historical Library and Center for Southeast Asian Studies then collaborated to create microfilm to connect researchers around the world.

Today, online access for the material – a joint project between the University of Michigan and the National Library of the Philippines – is the latest step forward!

During this virtual talk, you'll hear from both archivists who prepared the original Quezon materials as well as scholars who use the collection in their research. Interviewed by Ricky Punzalan, Associate Professor of Information and a Filipino scholar, they will explore the significance of the Quezon papers and what online access means for their future use.

Learn more and register here: https://myumi.ch/4xj83

Thank you very much to this event’s co-sponsors, the University of Michigan’s School of Information and University of Michigan’s Center for Southeast Asian Studies!

Please note: this event takes place in the morning in the United States and in the evening in the Philippines.

Applications are open for fall mini-courses (FREE virtual course)
GETSEA Fall Mini-Courses: https://get-sea.org/mini-courses/

Reading the Ruins of Southeast Asia
Taught by Joseph T. Salazar, University of the Philippines
Offered virtually from September 25 to October 30, 2026, Fridays, 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern Time. (Check this against your local time zone using a tool like this one). Apply here by August 28, 2026

Animal Studies of Southeast Asia
Taught by Nazry Bahrawi, University of Washington
Offered virtually from October 26 to November 30, 2026, Mondays, 7:00pm-9:00pm Eastern Time. (Check this against your local time zone using a tool like this one). Apply here by September 11, 2026

Armored fighting spiders. Dimension-hopping refugees. Flying whale sharks. “The Sea is Ours: Tales from Steampunk Southeast Asia” centers Southeast Asian voices using speculative fiction as a lens for colonial history, political critique, and regional imagination.

Edited by Jaymee Goh & Joyce Chng, this anthology proves that the future (and the past) has always belonged to Southeast Asia.

📚 4th Floor, Hatcher South | LOC # PR9570 .S6442 S43 2015

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