Current News
- 2026 Spring Colloquium Book Talk: The Trade-Offs of Legal Status: Safe Migration, Documentation, and Debt in Southeast Asia
Wednesday, April 8, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM HST | Online Register https://go.hawaii.edu/D59 Join us for a conversation with Maryann Bylander, Professor at Lewis & Clark College, as she discusses her latest book, The Trade-Offs of Legal Status (University of Hawai’i Press). About the book: The Trade-Offs of Legal Status explores the costs, risks, and unfreedoms produced… Read more: 2026 Spring Colloquium Book Talk: The Trade-Offs of Legal Status: Safe Migration, Documentation, and Debt in Southeast Asia - 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #3: Smart Cities in Southeast Asia? Present Realities and Future Ventures.
Wednesday, April 1, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) | Registration: https://go.hawaii.edu/DAL Join us for the second webinar of the 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar Series on Smart Cities in Southeast Asia: Present Realities and Future Ventures. This webinar explores Southeast Asia’s fast-evolving smart city initiatives – from data governance to climate adaptation. This session asks, “Are Southeast… Read more: 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #3: Smart Cities in Southeast Asia? Present Realities and Future Ventures. - 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #4: Imagining Borders: Nationality, Mobility and Belonging in Southeast Asia
Wednesday, April 29, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) | Registration: https://go.hawaii.edu/7AD Join us for the second webinar of the 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar Series on Imagining Borders: Nationality, Mobility and Belonging in Southeast Asia. The webinar discusses how Southeast Asian borderlands live, negotiate, and challenge national boundaries. From disputes to statelessness. By discussing Stateless populations, informal… Read more: 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #4: Imagining Borders: Nationality, Mobility and Belonging in Southeast Asia - Support Friends of Southeast Asia on UH Giving Day, April 8
Aloha ‘Ohana & Friends of Southeast Asia, Wednesday, April 8, is Giving Day for the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. This year, UHCSEAS is focusing our Giving Day efforts on raising funds to support programs and events that will benefit the SEA faculty, students and community. CSEAS has faced severe reductions due to the recent… Read more: Support Friends of Southeast Asia on UH Giving Day, April 8 - Benjamin Moseley’s Dissertation Defense｜Conversion and Power at the “Ends of the Earth”: Islam, Christianity, and Localization in Southeast Asia’s Eastern Archipelago, 1450 – 1650 (April 9)
Please join us for Benjamin Moseley’s dissertation defense on April 9th from 9:30-11:30 AM (HST). - Olivia Meyer’s Dissertation Defense｜Plastic Panacea: Circular Economies and the Political Ecology of Plastic Waste in Thailand (April 9)
Please join us for Olivia Meyer’s dissertation defense on April 9th from 1-3pm. - Professor Barbara Andaya receives a prestigious award in Asian Studies
We are proud to celebrate Professor Emeritus Barbara Watson Andaya on receiving the Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies Award from the Association for Asian Studies (AAS). Professor Andaya’s expertise centers on the Malay-Indonesian world. Since 2014, she has published more than 30 works, including The Flaming Womb, which was recognized as an outstanding academic title.… Read more: Professor Barbara Andaya receives a prestigious award in Asian Studies - 2026 GETSEA event: How to Do Research in the Philippines
Tuesday, March 31, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) | Online Join us for the 2026 GETSEA Event on How to do Research in the Philippines. This event highlights opportunities and challenges doing research in the Philippines by bringing together individuals with unique and extensive backgrounds on Philippine research. Date, Time & Location: Speakers: Register here Free… Read more: 2026 GETSEA event: How to Do Research in the Philippines - 2026 Balinese Wayang Listrik: Panji & The Lost Princess
April 17 – 26, 2026 | John F. Kennedy Theatre Mainstage Co-Directed by Kirstin Pauka and I Madé MojaAdapted from a traditional Balinese folktale by Ketut Wirtawan and Madé Moja Panji and the Lost Princess is a large-scale Balinese shadow puppetry performance in the tradition of wayang listrik. The story is based on the Balinese interpretation… Read more: 2026 Balinese Wayang Listrik: Panji & The Lost Princess - 2026 GETSEA event: Simulcast Film Screening
Monday, April 6th , 2026, 11:00–1:00 PM (HST) | Moore Hall 155A Join us for the 2026 GETSEA Simulcast Film Screening on Sotong (2022) & Against The Messy World (2023). These two short films highlight the challenges to art and expression in Malaysia’s complex political, legal, and societal landscape. Date, Time & Location: About the… Read more: 2026 GETSEA event: Simulcast Film Screening - 2026 Spring Colloquium: ‘Exiled!’ documentary by Pollie Bith-Melander(In-person)Friday, April 17th, 2026, 12:00–1:30 PM (HST) @ Hamilton Library Room 306 Join us for the Spring 2026 Colloquium on Exiled! “Exiled!” [2020] is an ethnographic film on the deportation of Southeast Asian Refugees. It explores the myriad struggles of Cambodian refugees as they survived the Vietnam War, the Khmer Rouge, relocation to the U.S., and… Read more: 2026 Spring Colloquium: ‘Exiled!’ documentary by Pollie Bith-Melander(In-person)
- Call for Papers｜Ecofeminist Drama: Theatre, Performance, and Ecological Futures (Submission Deadline: March 30)Submission deadline: April 15, 2026
- Call for Submissions｜2026 Indonesia Consul General’s Prize for Best Scholarly Writing on Indonesia (Submission Deadline: April 15)
Submission deadline: April 15, 2026 - Call for Submissions｜2026 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Myanmar’s Borderlands (Abstract Deadline: April 15)
Submission deadline: April 15, 2026 (11:59 PM EST) - Call for Submissions｜2026 Southeast Asia Digital Library Undergraduate Paper Award (Submission Deadline: June 30)
Submission deadline: June 30, 2026 - Public lecture ‘Saints, Companions, and Sinners’ by Dr. Teren Sevea (Harvard Divinity School) featured on Manoa Mirror
On February 5, CSEAS and Department of Religion hosted a public lecture, titled ‘Saints, Companions, and Sinners’ by Dr. Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Harvard Divinity School. The lecture explores interspecies histories from Islamic Asia, learning from communities’ narratives about the entangled relationships among animals, humans and trees. Highlights… Read more: Public lecture ‘Saints, Companions, and Sinners’ by Dr. Teren Sevea (Harvard Divinity School) featured on Manoa Mirror - Bringing Vietnamese Cinema to global audiences
We are pleased to announce the completion of Southeast Asian film project led by the Center Southeast Asian Studies. Recently, in partnership with Vietnam Film Institute in Hanoi, more than 70 classic Vietnamese feature films have been digitized and subtitled in English. For more on this exciting project, read the full story on UH News… Read more: Bringing Vietnamese Cinema to global audiences - 2026 Spring Colloquium: On Record: Telling the Stories in Our Voices (In-person)
Tuesday, March 3, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) @ Moore Hall 319 Join us for the Spring 2026 Colloquium on On Record: Telling the Stories in Our Voices. This colloquium draws on archival materials, exhibitions, and research related to the 1975 Operation Babylift evacuation. Drawing from the speaker’s work developing Operation Babylift Collection, this talk explores… Read more: 2026 Spring Colloquium: On Record: Telling the Stories in Our Voices (In-person) - SEAREG Pre-Dissertation Fellowship
Open for applications until February 27, 2026. - 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #2: Arts and Resistance: Cultures of Expression, Censorship, and Resilience in Southeast Asia.
Wednesday, March 4, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) | Registration: https://go.hawaii.edu/ZAD Join us for the second webinar of the 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar Series on Arts and Resistance: Cultures of Expression, Censorship, and Resilience in Southeast Asia. This webinar explores how artists across Southeast Asia resist censorship through music, performance, and visual arts. This session highlights… Read more: 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #2: Arts and Resistance: Cultures of Expression, Censorship, and Resilience in Southeast Asia. - Annual Report 2022-2023The Center is pleased to announce the release of our annual report covering 2021-2022 academic year!
- Vietnamese Cinema for Libraries Catalog
A landmark Southeast Asia film subtitling project has reached completion. Through a multi-year collaboration between the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS) at the University of Hawai’i-Mānoa (UHM) and the Viện Phim Việt Nam (Vietnam Film Institute – VFI) in Hanoi, more than 70 classic Vietnamese feature films have been digitized, translated, and subtitled in… Read more: Vietnamese Cinema for Libraries Catalog - SPAS joined Research Day at the State Capitol
The School of Pacific & Asian Studies (SPAS) at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa participated in the annual UH Mānoa Research Day at Hawai’i State Capitol on February 3, 2026. Representing the “The School of Pacific & Asian Studies (SPAS) at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa participated in the annual UH Mānoa Research Day at the Hawai’i State… Read more: SPAS joined Research Day at the State Capitol - Announcing LuceSEA Spring 2026 Webinar Series
Join us for four thought-provoking webinars this Spring, bringing together scholars and practitioners to explore critical issues shaping Southeast Asia today. LuceSEA Spring 2026 Webinar Series Schedule 1) Facing Nature: Disaster Preparedness, Responses and Innovations 2) Arts and Resistance: Cultures of Expression, Censorship, and Resilience 3) Smart Cities? Present Realities and Future Ventures 4) Imagining… Read more: Announcing LuceSEA Spring 2026 Webinar Series - Call for Papers｜School of Pacific and Asian Studies Annual Graduate Student Conference: April 1 – 2, 2026 (Abstract Deadline: Feb 15)
Weaving Webs: Encounters, Exchanges, and Emerging Worlds in Asia April 1 – 2, 2026 | Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Honolulu, Hawai‘i Conference Theme The conference seeks to rethink Asia as a dynamic web of relations in which many fields of study intersect to shape new possibilities for knowledge and life.… Read more: Call for Papers｜School of Pacific and Asian Studies Annual Graduate Student Conference: April 1 – 2, 2026 (Abstract Deadline: Feb 15) - New Co-Authored Article: “Joint Field School: Towards Cultivating Parity in Research Partnerships”
We are pleased to share a new co-authored research article by Dr. Ming Ling Yong (SUSS, Singapore), Dr. Micah R. Fisher (UH Mānoa), Olivia Meyer (UH Mānoa) and Dr. Krisnawati Suryanata (UH Mānoa). The article titled “Joint Field School: Towards Cultivating Parity in Research Partnerships” is published in Journal of Geography in Higher Education. Abstract… Read more: New Co-Authored Article: “Joint Field School: Towards Cultivating Parity in Research Partnerships” - Call for Papers｜Southeast Asian Studies Graduate Student Association Annual Conference (May 15 – 16, 2026)
Invisible Worlds: Lesser Told Stories of Southeast Asia May 15-16, 2026 | University of California, Riverside General Description Southeast Asia is a large and diverse area of the world. With that diversity, there is also a wide array of stories to be told. This year, SEASGRAD annual conference will be held at University of California,… Read more: Call for Papers｜Southeast Asian Studies Graduate Student Association Annual Conference (May 15 – 16, 2026) - 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #1: Facing Nature: Disaster Preparedness, Responses, and innovations in Southeast Asia
Wednesday, February 4, 2026, 3:00–4:30 PM (HST) | Registration: https://go.hawaii.edu/DAu Join us for the first webinar of the 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar Series on Facing Nature: Disaster Preparedness, Responses, and innovations in Southeast Asia. This webinar explores how Southeast Asia responds to intensifying climate disasters through Indigenous knowledge, scientific innovation, and community resilience. This webinar… Read more: 2026 Spring LuceSEA Webinar #1: Facing Nature: Disaster Preparedness, Responses, and innovations in Southeast Asia - Spring 2026 Southeast Asia Potluck Gathering: Mingle, Mix & Munch!
Friday, January 23, 2026, 6:00 – 8:00 PM | Ethnomusicology Courtyard RSVP for headcount: https://go.hawaii.edu/DPQ Join us for our Spring 2026 CSEAS Gathering! This event brings together students, faculty, and researchers interested in the languages, cultural traditions, and communities of Southeast Asia. This semester, we’re excited to partner with the Ethnomusicology Program, who will host… Read more: Spring 2026 Southeast Asia Potluck Gathering: Mingle, Mix & Munch! - Muslim Societies of Asia & the Pacific Lecture: Public Lecture
As part of the Muslim Societies of Asia & the Pacific Lecture, CSEAS will host two events featuring Teren Sevea, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at Harvard Divinity School. The Muslim Societies of Asia & the Pacific Lecture is a public lecture series hosted by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies… Read more: Muslim Societies of Asia & the Pacific Lecture: Public Lecture