Southeast Asia

CSEAS Hosted the First Event Sponsored by the New RVN Endowment for Vietnamese Studies

October 3, 2026
On Friday September 25, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies hosted the first event sponsored by the new Republic of Vietnam Endowment for Vietnamese Studies. The endowment is a new privately funded scholarly initiative to grow the study of Vietnam on the UC Berkeley campus. It was founded in April 2026 thanks to a generous $500,000 pledge from Cuong Duc Nguyen and Mary Bui Nguyen of San Jose, both of whom attended the inaugural event. As part of its agenda to support scholarship on all eras and topics in Vietnamese history, the Republic of Vietnam Endowment includes in its mission the...

Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS)

SEALIVES Small Grants Program

The call for applications for the Year 3 cohort of the Southeast Asian Lives and Histories Small Grants Program is now open.

We invite applications for the third year of the annual UC Berkeley CSEAS Southeast Asian Lives and Histories small grants program. Applicants must be enrolled at or affiliated with UCB, other UCs, CSUs, or institutions located in Southeast Asia. Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to email cseas@berkeley.edu. For examples of projects from the first year cohort of SEALIVES...

Tani Sebro

Performing Merng Tai: The Life and Arts of Khru Saangkham Jangyod

Born in Shan State in 1967, following General Ne Win’s bloody military coup d’etat, Saangkham Jangyod came of age during a time of profound unrest in Burma. Yet, despite enduring the uproars of civil war, forced displacement, and personal loss, Khru (teacher) Saangkham would become one of the most revered cultural practitioners of the Tai (Shan) performing arts repertoire. Today, Khru Saangkham teaches and performs traditional Tai dance, martial arts, music, and opera while living in exile in Northern Thailand. His mission...

Margiana Petersen-Rockney

Agrarian Migrations and Hmong Diasporas in Siskiyou County, California

Team: Dr. Margiana Petersen-Rockney (PI), Morgan Vannavilaithong (videographer), Karen Vang (community-based researcher and...

Daniel Owen

The Poet and The Angkringan Proprietor

Afrizal Malna at home in Kahuripan Nirwana

Afrizal Malna and Dan Owen at a cafe

For my SEALIVES project, I proposed to...

Alan Yeh

Con ăn cơm chưa? Việt Kiều Care, Consumption, and Culinary Crossings

This project explores diasporic Vietnamese culinary histories and practices of care, as part of a larger dissertation entitled “Con ăn cơm...

Kavitha Ganesan

Self-narratives about home (“ruma”) and land (“bawang”): The stories of Len Lakong and Pelura Sinau, the indigenous Lundayeh women of Long Pasia, Sabah, Malaysia

This SEALIVES project brought together the researcher and...

Puangchon Unchanam and Khorapin Phuaphansawat

The Monarchy, the Mass, and the Marginalized: Lèse-majesté Prosecutions and People at the Periphery

This interview project is part of our research which aims to examine how Thai commoners with socio-economic disadvantages decided to join the monarchy reform movement during 2020-2022 and how they have been prosecuted and endured legal prosecutions. Their marginalized and precarious experiences would provide an immensely rich accounts for a study of the monarchy reform movement, political activism, and ongoing lèse-majesté prosecutions in Thailand...

Harifa pye Siregar

Literacy amidst Ignorance: Anton Solihin and Batu Api Library, as observed by pye siregar

My project focuses on filming Anton Solihin, the owner and caretaker of Batu Api Library. Batu Api is a private library located in Jatinangor, an educational area approximately 26 miles from Bandung, the capital of West Java Province, Indonesia. Since its founding on April 1, 1999, Batu Api has amassed thousands of books, documents, films, musical recordings, and newspaper clippings related to Indonesia. Anton and Batu Api would provide interesting stories about the side...