A group of SUNY/CUNY faculty (including SBU Faculty Benjamin Tausig) called the SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Council (SUNY/CUNY SEAC) have won a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Southeast Asia!
This grant will provide $550,000 for a four-year pilot to establish a robust Southeast Asian studies network in the SUNY and CUNY systems. I have attached a one-sheet with a detailed summary of the activities to be supported by these funds, which include special courses, an annual field school and workshop abroad in a Southeast Asian country, publication support, a speaker series, and much more. The SUNY/CUNY SEAC program will begin with a launch event and other activities in fall 2023.
The principals of NYSEAC are Mitchitake Aso (SUNY-Albany), Nerve Macaspac (Queens College), Peter Marcotullio (CUNY Hunter) Lauren Meeker (SUNY New Paltz), Martina Nguyen (Baruch), Antoinette Raquiza (UP Diliman), EK Tan (SUNY Stony Brook), Benjamin Tausig (SUNY Stony Brook), Vida Vanchan (SUNY Buffalo State), and Meredith Weiss (SUNY-Albany).
The Henry Luce Foundation’s Luce Initiative on Southeast Asia (LuceSEA) is a multi-year grants competition with the broad goal of strengthening the study of Southeast Asia in institutions of higher learning in North America and in Southeast Asia by providing resources for the creation of models, strategies, and partnerships that not only bolster existing program structures but also take them in new directions.
The SUNY/CUNY Southeast Asia Consortium (SEAC) aims to enhance Southeast-Asia-related teaching and research to benefit both Southeast Asian-identified and Southeast Asia-focused students and researchers. As a statewide link for faculty, students, alumni, and surrounding communities, SEAC will develop and enhance collaboration and networks across New York as well as between the United States and Southeast Asia.
Each year, SEAC will delve into one interdisciplinary theme through curricular, research, and public-outreach components as a way to explore new and emerging areas of inquiry. For the first three years, the themes will be:
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- Sites and Spaces of Mobilization and Protest (2023-24)
- Southeast Asian Identities in Popular Culture and Literature (2024-25)
- Climate Change, Sustainability, and Geography (2025-26)
Students statewide will have the opportunity to take an interdisciplinary course co-taught by SUNY and CUNY faculty that aligns with the year’s theme. In addition, students, faculty, and researchers will have access to supplemental programming, including lectures, research workshops, an experiential field school – the first in Chiang Mai, Thailand — as well as research, language-training, and publication grants.
With 64 campuses and 370,000 students in the State University of New York (SUNY) system and 25 campuses and 270,000 students in the City University of New York (CUNY) network, SEAC has the opportunity to make New York’s public university systems a hub for the study of Southeast Asia.
*Some information used from SUNY Albany’s announcement here.