Panel 4: Modern Southeast Asia in Transregional and interdisciplinary perspective

Panel 4: Modern Southeast Asia in Transregional and interdisciplinary perspective

Convenor: Pingtjin Thum , University of Oxford (pingtjin@projectsoutheastasia.com)

Panel description

The field of Southeast Asian studies is severely hampered by two important limitations. The first is a lack of truly transregional studies of the region that transcend national boundaries and address, instead, geographic, ethnic, linguistic, or other cross-border groupings. Southeast Asian studies are limited by artificially imposed boundaries which belie networks and relationships that predate these borders and continue to thrive largely beyond the political sphere. What transnational studies that do exist of Southeast Asia are almost inevitably from the pre-modern or pre-colonial era. The second is a broader academic issue of a lack of interdisciplinary studies or multidisciplinary collaboration, which makes it difficult in particular to address contemporary problems facing Southeast Asia.Papers in this panel will explicitly address themes of transnationalism, global integration, or diffusion and will come from a wide range of disciplines, with preference given to papers which demonstrate multidisciplinary approaches. Papers arising from collaboration between different disciplines are especially encouraged. It is designed to encourage the development of new transregional approaches and new methodology towards studying Southeast Asia.

Possible topics include:- Problems of democratization, demilitarization and human rights- Migration- Social media and telecommunications- Environment and community- Constructing, maintaining and policing ethnic/religious boundaries- Fluctuations in gender/sexual identity- New developments in arts, literature, and performance 

Instructions for interested participants: please contact the convenor in the first instance