Department of Southeast Asian Studies
What is Southeast Asian Studies?
Southeast Asian Studies is a regional science in which the countries of Southeast Asia are studied comparatively. Our focus is on Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand. However, we also work on Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, East Timor, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines. We emphasize extensive language training. The Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the IOA in Bonn has a contemporary, social science, and interdisciplinary focus with an emphasis on social and cultural anthropology and sociology. Research focuses on human-environment relations, social and political transformation dynamics, gender and intersectionality, knowledge society, migration, globalization, civil society, and Indonesian literature.
A special feature of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies is the close link between teaching, research and language training. In our transdisciplinary orientation, we also work together with actors from the field. We offer students opportunities to complete their studies in a contemporary and social context through excursions, the arrangement of internships in development cooperation or in civil society organizations and through research stays (also for the Bachelor's and Master's thesis).
Due to the contemporary and socio-scientific orientation of the program, students gain multiple experiences with non-university actors and debates. Through study trips (e.g. in recent years: UNFCCC climate negotiations, Asia Europe Meeting, Asia Europe People's Forum, Asian Development Bank), students are familiarized with political and development policy institutions and debates at an early stage. Through cooperation with the Stiftung Asienhaus in Cologne, there is regular and easy access to civil society and Asia-related debates in Germany (Asia Day, conferences, workshops). Students can actively participate in the publication of the journal Southeast Asia or get involved with the Asienhaus university group. Through multiple connections with development policy organizations and research organizations (GIZ, ZEF, BICC) in the Bonn area, students are confronted with development policy issues. The many connections to organizations and universities in Southeast Asia (especially Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia) enable everyday experiences and organizational experiences on site.