The Mandala Newsletter of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Center for Southeast Asian Studies Fall/Winter 2010-11 520 College View Court, DeKalb Illinois 60115 www.cseas.niu.edu 815-753-1771

Field school stories Students learn the art of the ethnographic interview in Cambodia

Anthropology professor Judy Ledgerwood’s field school visits Angkor Wat in summer 2010. Page 13.

Following Director’s SEAYLP Chair Turning action Forging new plans into initiatives one meaningful actions linkage at a time Page 16 Page 2 Southeast Asian studies. engineering, and possibly women’s studies and geography as well. Inside This Issue NIU has long boasted a strong infrastructure for Southeast Asian studies: Director’s Chair...... 2 Expanding our orbit a large and well-known faculty researching Visiting Scholars...... 6 With these ambitious plans to expand the and teaching about the region; a vast Southeast Asia curricular program at NIU, Grantsmanship...... 8 Southeast Asia library collection of more the center is focused on expanding the Center Council News...... 9 than 120,000 volumes; a complex Internet number of faculty and students involved Feature: Field School...... 13 resource, SEAsite, for the study of the with Southeast Asia, both on campus and Feature: Following SEAYLP...... 16 region’s languages and cultures; and a off. This is especially important in light Fellowship Notes...... 20 strong outreach program. Now we are of the retirement of three key CSEAS about to build on that strong foundation Outreach Update...... 24 associates since last spring. Associate by launching new courses and detailed, Professor Saw Tun, the first Burmese Museum Notes...... 26 course-specific curricula. What’s Coming Up...... 27 language instructor at NIU, retired in In fall, NIU became the first American June. Similarly, Anthropology Museum university to teach Malay, the national Director Ann Wright-Parsons, curator of language of Malaysia and Brunei, and NIU’s collection of 12,000 ethnographic Director’s Chair an official language of Singapore, in a and archaeological artifacts, half of James T. Collins full program of instruction. By opening which is from Southeast Asia, retired a course in beginning Malay, and effective Jan. 1 of this year. Her position The news cascaded into the Center for continuing to offer intermediate and is already being advertised so that the Southeast Asian Studies this past fall like advanced Malay, NIU has gone a long museum’s renovated collections storage birthday greetings way toward strengthening its language rooms and new exhibition gallery in Cole on Facebook: portfolio. Looking ahead, we plan to offer Hall will continue to maintain a strong Vietnamese in fall 2012 in order to provide profile for Southeast Asian studies on • the re-funding of the most comprehensive Southeast Asian the campus (see Museum Notes, page the online Malay language program in the country, offering 26). At the center, CSEAS staff member dictionary project instruction in all Caroline Quinlan, who for 2010–11; seven national By expanding the number masterfully oversaw • a second year languages of of NIU faculty working in the center’s transition of budgeting for Southeast Asia. from print publications Southeast Asia, particularly to enhanced Internet the Southeast Asia In addition to communications Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP); language learning, in the professional colleges, in 2010, retired in • a Foreign Languages and Area Studies though, a strong we can diversify the profile December. (FLAS) program making it possible center must also and increase the number of for NIU to offer 17 undergraduate and offer innovative The first strategy for graduate students full fellowships in and diverse area NIU students committed to enlarging the CSEAS Southeast Asian studies; and studies courses. In studying about the region. circle aims at inviting fall, NIU offered a more NIU faculty • a new four-year designation as a new multidisciplinary course, History of into the field. Since fall 2009, CSEAS National Resource Center (NRC) for the Malay Language, in both graduate and has worked closely with faculty in the Southeast Asian Studies that secures undergraduate sections. Three other new public health program to encourage some CSEAS’s outreach and curriculum Southeast Asia-focused courses—History of them to choose Southeast Asia for programs. of Violence, Political Anthropology, and their research areas. Assistant Professor These announcements of solid federal Political Violence—were also taught for Tomiyuki Shibata, a new CSEAS affiliate, support, from both the U.S. Department of the first time. This spring, there are three was the first to make a solid commitment Education and the U.S. State Department, new courses: The State and Illegality in to Southeast Asian studies, first by were not only acknowledgments of the Southeast Asia, Global Islam, and The revising his EPFE 530: Comparative and hard work that CSEAS associates, staff, Politics of Identity: Ethnicity, Religion, International Education course syllabus and students have put in over the years, and Conflict. In the next four years, we this past fall to include 25 percent SEA but more importantly they were signposts are committed to developing new courses content and then by spending two for directions the center must take to in public health, history, political science, weeks at Hasanuddin University, our secure its place in the national network of business, public administration, and Indonesian partner university, to develop

2 joint research projects. Two more public health faculty members are working on a research planning team initiated by Shibata and including faculty from the geography department. Alecia Santuzzi (psychology) was made a center affiliate so that she and her students can help CSEAS maintain an effective evaluation program. Shi-Ruei “Sherry” Fang of the Family and Child Studies program, who has long taught about Southeast Asian families, joined CSEAS as an affiliate and is a member of the executive committee. Ambassador visits More than 150 NIU students, faculty, and others fill the room to hear new Indonesian By expanding the number of NIU faculty Ambassador to the United States Dino Patti Djalal speak Oct. 18 about his country’s working in Southeast Asia, particularly in developing democracy in an address, followed by a reception, at the Holmes Student Center. the professional colleges, we can diversify the profile and increase the number of commitment to our national clientele is Jan. 4–5 in Kuala Lumpur in cooperation NIU students committed to studying SEAsite, the country’s pioneering online with the University of Chicago’s NRC about the region. In the coming months, resource for Southeast Asian languages Center for East European and Russian/ we hope to identify more colleagues who and area studies. With the help of center Eurasian Studies (CEERES) and the can be appointed center affiliates. associate Jim Henry (computer science), National University of Malaysia’s Institute A second approach to increasing the the center has begun discussions to for Ethnic Studies (KITA). In another center’s reach is to link up with partner seek funding to renovate this important MAXIS initiative, Southern Illinois institutions in Southeast Asia. Our strong learning source for Southeast Asia studies. University - Edwardsville will join forces partnership with Hasanuddin University Moreover, through the Mid-America with the center to spearhead workshops has already heightened Southeast Asian Consortium for Southeast Asian Studies and panels about Southeast Asia and interest in NIU’s public health program. (MAXIS), which was founded by the Islam in the Mississippi River region with In November, NIU Provost Ray Alden center in 2009, CSEAS is coordinating CSEAS adjunct at Edwardsville, Nancy signed a memorandum of understanding efforts with community colleges and Lutz, working to establish this new linkage with Daing Nasir Ibrahim, vice chancellor other universities to increase education for the center. in the region about Southeast Asia. Since of Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP), Close to home Malaysia’s premier institution for the study fall 2009, CSEAS has collaborated with of engineering. With center assistance, Texas State University-San Marcos, a On the high school level, CSEAS NIU’s College of Engineering and the charter member of MAXIS, to assist in outreach coordinator Julie Lamb and International Training Office expect its development of an undergraduate center graduate student for outreach to organize a short course for UMP’s certificate in Southeast Asian studies. Laura Iandola early this year introduced students this spring, while NIU plans to In October, associates Kenton Clymer Southeast Asia in a two-hour “in-school send students to UMP beginning in June. (history) and Michael Buehler (political field trip” to about 300 Sycamore High By exchanging students, NIU’s faculty and science) accompanied me to Texas State School students taking World Cultures engineering students can learn more about for its fifth Southeast Asia workshop with classes (see Outreach Update, page 25). Southeast Asia. To further this endeavor, a sixth planned later this spring. With our This follows on a very successful program an undergraduate engineering course, cooperation, Texas State has launched of interaction with students and faculty Technology and Society (TECH 294), is the first courses in its certificate program. at the Illinois Mathematics and Science being retooled with new Southeast Asian I also traveled last fall to Creighton Academy (IMSA) in Aurora in October, content. University in Omaha, Neb., to meet with when twenty-eight teenagers from Brunei, NIU alumnus and new CSEAS adjunct Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Reaching out nationwide Michael Hawkins and his colleagues to and Vietnam met their counterparts in But we must always remember that explore potential Southeast Asia studies classroom visits and other activities at the as a federally funded resource center, workshops and conferences. As a result, school. The Southeast Asian students were CSEAS is mandated to serve not just Hawkins and another Creighton historian, participants in the third session of the our students and faculty, and not just John Calvert, participated in NIU’s Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program the communities in DeKalb County, but co-sponsored colloquium on Islam in (SEAYLP), a U.S. State Department the entire nation. NIU’s long-standing Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia held continued on page 4

3 One link at a time A delegation from the Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) visits the center Nov. 22 while at NIU to sign a memorandum of understanding and to discuss cooperating with the College of Engineering and Engineering Technology and the center. From left are Associate Provost for International Programs Deborah Pierce; Rozita Rosli, education attaché from Education Malaysia in Evanston, Ill.; Dr. Wan Norlidah Al Qadri, Director, International Office, UMP; center director Jim Collins; Dr. Daing Mohd. Nasir bin Daing Ibraihim, UMP vice chancellor; Dr. Badrulhisham Abdul Aziz, UMP deputy vice chancellor; and Mohd. Raizalhilmy bin Mohd. Rais, UMP senior assistant registrar. initiative managed by CSEAS and NIU’s community members in shopping centers, students in Malaysia. These developing Division of International Programs since churches, and mosques as well as private connections here in the U.S. were further fall 2009 (see “Following SEAYLP,” homes. They returned to Sulawesi with a strengthened over this past semester page 16). In April, the center will host a renewed commitment to their dissertation break when I joined College of Liberal fourth SEAYLP group, this time for youth projects, but also assisted the center Arts and Sciences Dean Chris McCord from Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, in showcasing Southeast Asia through and Associate Provost for International and Thailand. As have the groups before their active participation in campus and Programs and center associate Deb them, this one will meet fellow teens at community life here at NIU, and also Pierce on our fourth collaborative trip to local schools, live with host families, and during visits to Chicago, Madison, New Southeast Asia (see sidebar, page 5). interact with NIU faculty and students York, Newark, and Washington, D.C. CSEAS staff and associates remain as well as local community members If managing the SEAYLP and Dikti busy working to maintain our national while they are on campus. Through programs has given CSEAS another profile as a committed and innovative such interactions with these young way to build greater understanding of center for Southeast Asia resources and ambassadors chosen by State Department Southeast Asia in the U.S., these programs programming. This is a tradition that representatives, SEAYLP offers the center have also helped strengthen our links began in the early 1960s when scholars an opportunity to introduce Southeast with State Department staff in the U.S. with vision and global expertise laid the Asians to Americans who might not embassies in Southeast Asia and with groundwork for the establishment of a otherwise have the chance to meet them. Southeast Asian representatives in the Southeast Asian studies center at NIU. Reinforcing this connection, the center U.S. Through our stronger ties with the One of these visionaries, political science also took on the task of hosting fifteen Indonesian Consulate General in Chicago, professor emeritus Ladd Thomas, was PhD students from three universities in three important public lectures were held honored with a Distinguished Faculty Sulawesi, Indonesia, from September at NIU this past fall, each drawing between Award by the College of Liberal Arts and to December (see Visiting Scholars, 80 and 150 people. These included a Sciences in October (see Kudos, page12). page 6). With funding from Indonesia’s panel by Indonesian scholars (one an As the first director of the center, Thomas Department of Education at the NIU alumnus) on decentralization in initiated many of our contemporary Directorate of Higher Education (Dikti), Indonesian government; a lecture about partnerships in Thailand, and conducted these scholars from Hasanuddin, Makassar democratization by Indonesia’s new research in the Philippines and Malaysia State, and Sam Ratulangi universities ambassador to the United States; and a as well. The acknowledgment of his studied with NIU faculty mentors in panel on religion by three Indonesian great service to NIU foreshadows foreign languages and literatures, English, scholars. Similarly, representatives the celebration of the center’s 50th economics, public administration, and of Education Malaysia, Malaysia’s anniversary in 2013. May a cascade of anthropology; participated in numerous Ministry of Education in the Midwest, birthday wishes for the center reflect our seminars and classes on campus; made use have made two visits to NIU to discuss continuing commitment and service to of NIU’s library resources; and met with education opportunities for NIU global education.

4 On the road: Reinforcing ties old and new School was out, but another round of travel was in over semester break when the NIU team of Chris McCord, Deborah Pierce, and James T. Collins returned to Southeast Asia for the fourth time in an effort to strengthen existing relationships and to build new ties with universities in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. “As NIU's students seek education opportunities in Southeast Asia, we need strong partners to assist them. We also need to explore other structures for cooperation so that students and faculty from the region can join us at NIU for their studies and research,” Collins said. In Malaysia, the National University of Malaysia signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with NIU during the Jan. 4-5 Islam in Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia conference co-sponsored by the university, CSEAS, and the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago. The team also visited another partner university, Universiti Malaysia Pahang, to plan for the upcoming visit of NIU's dean and associate On their fourth round of Southeast Asia travel together, CSEAS Director dean of engineering in March and to organize a Malay James T. Collins, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Chris McCord, language program for NIU students in June. McCord and Associate Provost Deborah Pierce, in center of photo, visited Payap and Pierce also visited Nilai University College to University in Chiang Mai, Thailand, in January. Among Payap staff they discuss collaborative efforts, and later in the trip met were three NIU alumni who are now faculty members: Dr. Jenjit visited the U.S. embassy in Kuala Lumpur to discuss Gasigitamrong, far left, Dr. Napisa Waitoolkit, second from left, and Dr. future directions for NIU initiatives to attract students Ratanaporn Sethakul, standing directly in front of Collins. (photo courtesy from Malaysia. of Deborah Pierce) In Thailand, Collins, McCord, and Pierce visited the four NIU partner academic institutions there—Payap University in Chiang Mai, where they discussed opening an NIU PhD program taught in the region, and Chulalongkorn and Thammasat universities, and the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) in Bangkok. At NIDA, center associates Kurt Thurmaier (public administration) and Curtis Wood (public administration) were also there to advance their joint research project with their Thai colleagues. NIDA later hosted a banquet for the entire NIU contingent, including professor and center associateDanny Unger (political science), who has been active in networking with NIU alumni in Thailand and facilitating the Bangkok Research Seminar for PhD students working on dissertations in the country. Meetings and venues in Thailand were set up by associate professor and center associate Andrea Molnar (anthropology), who has long been active in establishing MOUs in Thailand, Collins said. NIU also hosted a banquet for NIU alumni in the Bangkok area. Before McCord and Pierce’s arrival in Malaysia, Collins visited Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Pontianak, an Islamic university in Pontianak, Indonesia, where he met with linguist colleagues and presented two talks: one about the languages of Islam and the other about NIU's Malay CLAS Dean Chris McCord, left, and Associate Provost Deborah dictionary project. While in Malaysia he also gave two public Pierce, center, sign a memorandum of understanding between NIU lectures about the dictionary project, one at Malaysia's and the National University of Malaysia during the Jan. 4-5 Islam in National Language Planning agency, where he shared ideas Southeast Europe and Southeast Asia conference co-sponsored by the about dictionaries and the contemporary Malay language university, CSEAS, and the Center for East European and Russian/ with twenty-five lexicography specialists. Eurasian Studies at the University of Chicago. (CSEAS photo)

5 Visiting Scholars

The Sandwich Program: Reflections of a faculty mentor

Buttoned up against the weather, the center’s visiting scholars from Indonesia visit Chicago on a particularly windy fall day. While doing research and attending classes at NIU during fall semester, the group traveled to Chicago and to several other U.S. cities before returning to Sulawesi in early December. By Doris Macdonald Editor’s note: Fifteen PhD scholars Nicknamed the Sandwich Program because When Jim Collins first asked me if I from Hasanuddin, Makassar State, and the students’ NIU activities were fitted in would be willing to act as a faculty advisor Sam Ratulangi universities in Sulawesi between their regular academic programs for a visiting scholar on a “sandwich spent the fall semester at NIU in an at their home institutions, the informal program” from Indonesia, little did I know exchange program funded by the Indonesia program drew on NIU’s diverse faculty that I would meet and work with five Department of Education and coordinated members to serve as mentors for the equally advanced scholars from Sulawesi whose by the center with the cooperation of diverse group of students. Associate English scholarship and teaching interests were the Division of International Programs. professor Doris Macdonald was one of them. so varied and well-developed. Two of my Indonesian colleagues are doing research in teaching English as a foreign language, while another is teaching Indonesian. Still another is pursuing sociolinguistic research in Kendari and yet another is analyzing Buginese pantun (a four-line poem) using literary theory. NIU’s faculty and facilities provided these Indonesian scholars with a wealth of resources, direction, expertise, and advice. While I may have pointed them to a local colleague or to a library resource, the scholars immersed themselves in their research projects and took advantage of many university events—sitting in Associate English professor Doris Macdonald, second from left, with mentorees, from on classes when they could, attending left, Sudarmin Harun, Syamsidar Murad, Andi Tenri Ampa , and Syahruddin at a CSEAS’s weekly lectures and other guest December ceremony where the fifteen visiting Indonesian scholars received certificates of completion.

6 seminars, and helping to host the new Indonesian ambassador to the United States [Dino Patti Djalal] when he visited Leang Un, NIU in fall. Institute of Social Science Research, Meeting with these colleagues on University of Amsterdam at least a weekly basis helped me to understand some of the unique and For three and a half months during the Fall semester, Cambodian scholar sometimes challenging issues they face Leang Un was holed up in the Southeast Asia collections at Founders Library in pursuing research in South Sulawesi, and interacting with Southeast Asia experts on campus working on his but it also helped me to understand dissertation. Un, was currently on leave from his position teaching philosophy how rich, rewarding, and diverse their at the Royal University of Phnom Penh. He has been pursuing his PhD through teaching contexts are. Andi Tenri Ampa the University of Amsterdam’s Institute of Social Science Research where he and Syahruddin are creating state- is involved in an interdisciplinary, multi-country research project looking at of-the-art computer applications to comparisons between Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia in terms of their teach English and Indonesian; Waode different level of economic developments. The purpose of the project, which is Hanafiah (Fiah) is using the most being funded by the Dutch Foreign Ministry, is to discern new and improved recent research in interactive language ways for donor countries like the Netherlands and the United States to assist teaching to create a new English grammar such countries in charting and tracking their development. teaching curriculum; Sudarmin Harun Un’s research has involved closely looking at Cambodia and Uganda. “The two is developing a “grand theory” to draw countries have similar histories and tragedies in the 1970s, followed by civil together his literary analysis; and war,” Un said. “In the postwar period, both countries have been dependent on Syamsidar Marud (Sam) has developed a foreign aid.” But there are differences in how the countries are progressing, he methodology to gather data on language said, with Cambodia slightly edging out Uganda. In Cambodia, for example, he acquisition and use as related to social said, there is a higher rate of education and a higher gross domestic product per class. Each of these projects is certain to capita than in Uganda. Why and how that is the case, and digging into other enhance the teaching and research profiles comparisons between the countries, has been the focus of Un’s dissertation, of these scholars and of their academic which he plans to complete in 2012. departments and institutions. Un left DeKalb in January to return to his home in Cambodia for two weeks to I wish I had had more opportunities to visit his wife and seven-year-old son. From there he will return to the University get to meet all the sandwich program of Amsterdam to complete his dissertation writing. scholars, but I certainly benefited from hearing the final reports of their research projects, and I enjoyed our time together at the final farewell ceremony. I hope one major lasting outcome for all these colleagues is that they feel a personal, individual connection to Northern and our faculty. I look forward to staying in touch and following the research of my new friends and colleagues. Best wishes especially to those I came to know best: Sam, Sudarmin, Fiah, Syahruddin, and Andi. Other NIU faculty mentors serving as mentors for the visiting Indonesian scholars were Carl Campbell III (economics), Kurt Thurmaier (public administration), Andrea Molnar and Susan Russell Visiting scholar Leang Un stops by the center for a cup of tea the week before his departure in (anthropology), and CSEAS director Jim January. Collins (foreign languages and literatures). 7 Grantsmanship Development of multimedia online dictionary of Malay gets underway

For the past year and a half, a team of dictionary project in the U.S., Germany, multiethnic communities to incorporate five scholars in NIU’s departments of Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, with the contemporary Malay language of computer science, foreign languages two more planned for this spring. About today’s society while reflecting the and literatures, and history has joined 800 entries are now under construction country’s diversity. It is being aimed forces to create and pilot a major new at various phases of completion with at American learners of Malay, so it is Malay dictionary for the use of learners plans to complete 1,000 main entries by essential that the dictionary provide studying the Malay language. When August. sociological information taken for complete in 2012, The Multimedia Funded since 2009 by a three-year granted in other dictionaries, Collins Online Learner’s Dictionary of Malay $534,000 grant to the center from the U.S. said. For example, it is important for non- will be the first scholarly Malay-English Department of Education’s International native learners of Malay to know how dictionary released in more than eighty Research and Studies Program, the new Malaysians use terms of address to mark years, and the first in a series of planned dictionary will be unique in the two ethnicity and politeness. Malaysians learn major additions to NIU’s Southeast Asia these distinctions at a very young age, but language and culture website, SEAsite. kuali n. existing dictionaries do not provide this A bowl-shaped pan with handles, made of iron or information for Malay language learners, Creating this unique dictionary resource aluminum, used for frying, steaming, simmering, or sautéing, a wok. Large woks are used to cook Collins said. is a big job, acknowledged center director curries and rendang especially at ceremonial meals for a large number of and linguist James T. Collins, who has guests, such as a wedding Moreover, words in everyday use but banquet. Panaskan setengah been working on the project with center cawan minyak dalam kuali dan that are often overlooked in today’s goreng bahan perap hingga associates Jim Henry (computer science) garing. Heat a half cup of oil in monolingual (Malay-Malay) dictionaries the wok and fry the marinated A kuali, or wok Patricia Henry (foreign languages and ingredients until crispy. kuali need to be included in a learner’s leper a flat iron surface for grilling meats or literatures), Eric Jones (history), and cooking Indian breads (such as chapatti), a dictionary. Words as mundane as those griddle. Sapu planta di roti hotdog dan bakarnya Robert Zerwekh (computer science). In di atas kuali leper yang telah panas. Smear some related to contemporary technology margarine on a hot dog bun and grill it on a the past year, the faculty team has been heated griddle. like air conditioning and cell phones aided by project manager Darus Tharim, Sample entry from Multimedia Online Learner’s Dictionary of as well as widespread loanwords from a native Malay speaker, four to five Malay Iban, Hokkien, English and other graduate assistants who have been writing sources should be included to prepare draft entries under Collins’ supervision, language learners for today’s Malaysia. and two to three undergraduate assistants ways it differs from existing dictionaries: Learners also need to know differences who have helped enter edited entries technological and sociological. in vocabulary based on ethnicity and and revise earlier ones. After many First, the new dictionary will take religious affiliation, Collins noted. revisions and improvements, Zerwekh advantage of available technological To provide users with basic knowledge has developed an editing program for resources, Collins said. It will be an about the language that supports the the input stage of the dictionary and online Malay-English dictionary accessed contemporary Malaysia’s complex a presentation program that shows through SEAsite, and it will incorporate society, the dictionary must take into how the future users of the dictionary multimedia features (audio and visual) as account modern language use by all will interface with the project. Two well as advanced search capacity. Indeed, segments of Malaysian society, according preliminary handbooks have also been the compiling of the dictionary uses to Collins. Unlike its predecessors, it produced for team members: one a guide the search engines of the internet as its won’t be a dictionary based on classical to data entry, the other directions for corpora in order to find new words, refine Malay literature, but one based on today’s compiling dictionary entries. definitions of long-known words, and newspapers, pamphlets and online Work on the dictionary hasn’t just taken find appropriate illustrative sentences and sources, ranging from blogs and social place on campus either, Collins said. phrases to make the entries more useful to network sites to government ministry Since November 2009, there have been the user. websites and electronic doctoral thesis seven public seminars to disseminate Second, the dictionary is drawing on abstracts, he said. information about this innovative the sociological diversity of Malaysia’s

8 Center Council News and Notes

Michael Buehler (political science) • interviewed Nov. 1 about current Indonesian government by journalist Jimmy Manan for Voice of America broadcast. • presented “Towards Democratic Consolidation? Examining Indonesia’s Reform Efforts 1998– 2011” Feb. 3 in Washington, D.C., at the University Professional & Continuing Education Association’s Washington Briefing for Global Associates.

Kenton Clymer (history) • published “China as a Factor in American Policy toward Southeast Asia: A Review from the Nineteenth A member of the tribe Century to the George W. Bush Professor Susan Russell (anthropology), center in purple scarf, was made an honorary Administration” in the Silliman member of the indigenous Manobo tribe in the Philippines in January, the first non- Journal 49.1 (2008), which was Filipino to receive the honor. For the past eight years, center associates Russell and Lina printed October 2010. Davide-Ong of the NIU International Training Office have directed the Philippine Youth Leadership Program, funded by the U.S. State Department, to help bring peace to the conflict-torn region of southern Mindanao, working with teenagers and young John Hartmann (foreign languages adults on conflict resolution and leadership skills. In fall, they welcomed twelve young and literatures) adult leaders from indigenous and minority communities to NIU for three weeks • will be the keynote speaker at the of training. In April twenty-two Muslim and non-Muslim teenagers and four adult international conference, Thai leaders will arrive at NIU for a five-week exchange and leadership training program. and Asian: Language, World View, Culture, May 26–27 at Kasetsart University, Bangkok. Judy Ledgerwood (anthropology) for a one-month research trip, • will present “Hidden Histories and • co-authored with Kheang Un partially funded by the CSEAS Thai Disappearing Environments” at the (political science) “Is the Trial of Teaching and Research Endowment 11th International Conference on ‘Duch’ a Catalyst for Change in Fund. Thai Studies, Visions of the Future, Cambodia’s Courts?” in the East- • presented “A Sandy Path near July 26–28 at Mahidol University, West Center journal AsiaPacific Issues a Lake: Translating a Southern Bangkok. 95 ( June 2010). Thai Autobiography” with center • has returned from a five-month associate Chalermsee Olson Eric Jones (history) sabbatical in Cambodia where (Founders Library) at the Council • presented “The Orientalist Can(n) she conducted research for book on Thai Studies meeting Oct. 29–30 on: Power and Customary Law in the on evolving social relations in a at University of Wisconsin-Madison. East Indies” Feb. 17–18 in London Cambodian village over 50 years. at Journal of Comparative Law Catherine Raymond (art history) workshop on law and Orientalism. Wei Luo (geography) • discussed Burmese cosmology and • co-authored with John Hartmann Lao and Thai mural paintings in a Kheang Leang (foreign languages and and F. Wang “Terrain Characteristics special lecture, “New and Renew,” literatures) of Watershed Basins Containing held Jan. 27 in conjunction with the • was invited by the American Tai Place Names” in GeoJournal 75: NIU School of Art Faculty Biennial Council on the Teaching of Foreign 93–104. Exhibition: Sabbatical Research and Languages to Sept. 8–10, 2010 Publications (2009–10). workshop at the Defense Languages Grant Olson (foreign languages and Institute Foreign Language Center in literatures) Monterey, Calif. • traveled to Thailand in spring 2010 continued on page 10

9 scientist became a political scientist programs. He has also produced political- play out in different contexts. risk evaluations for various mining and oil instead and Indonesia became his “Does corruption have a negative companies in Southeast Asia. In addition laboratory. influence on economic programs, for to being a visiting research fellow at the Buehler, 34, who received both his PhD example? China is ranked the same as Royal Netherlands Institute on Southeast in political science and a master’s degree Angola in Transparency International’s Asian and Caribbean Studies in Leiden in comparative politics from the London Corruption Perception Index, but China in the late-2000s, Buehler served as School of Economics and Political is doing well and Angola is not,” he political analyst for the Asia and Pacific Science, came to NIU with years of said. These are the kinds of important department of Transparency International experience as a research fellow, consultant, questions facing the developing world and for the Asia Research Unit of the and political analyst. Most recently he was today, with implications for the developed German Institute for International Affairs a postdoctoral fellow from 2008 to 2010 world as well, he added. and Security in Berlin. at Columbia University’s Weatherhead In his spare time, Buehler enjoys movies, Buehler is happy to be able to continue East Asian Institute, where he taught two music, traveling and exploring new cities, combining research and teaching in his courses on contemporary Southeast Asian which he has been doing in earnest since new post at NIU, he said. This year, he politics and political corruption in the moving to Illinois where understanding is teaching POLS 371, The Politics of region. Prior to that, Buehler’s research local politics is a science unto its own. Southeast Asia, and POLS 672, a graduate on local Indonesian politics led him to “Being here is similar in many ways to course on the causes and consequences work as a consultant on anti-corruption being in Indonesia,” said Buehler, who of corruption. On the research side, he is monitoring strategies for the World Bank plans to head back to the country as well interested in broadening his comparative and a governance project involving local as Malaysia over the summer to continue focus, bringing Asia and Africa together administrative reforms in Indonesia his research. “I feel quite foreign here, and under the microscope to examine how for the United Nations Development in that sense, it’s as inspiring as being in development, politics, and corruption Programme, among other development Indonesia.” Faculty books on Southeast Asia Released or reviewed in 2010

Eric Jones (history), Wives, Slaves, and Concubines: A History of the Female Underclass in Dutch Asia (Northern Illinois University Press, Southeast Asian Studies Series). An examination of the societal impact of Dutch colonial practices and laws on women in eighteenth-century Batavia-Jakarta (now Indonesia), which favored families headed by men employed by the Dutch East India Company and who had married Asian women. “A lively readable work. . .that closes a gap in the literature on Indonesian and Dutch colonial history.” — Carol G.S. Tan, School of Law, School of Oriental and African Studies, London. 978-0-87580-410-1. James T. Collins (director, CSEAS), co-editor with Dr. Chong Shin, Bahasa di Selat Makassar dan Samudera Pasific (Institute Alam dan Tamudun Melayu, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia). A collection of seven essays about language use in eastern Indonesia. Many of the essays were written as part of a research project about Sulawesi languages led by Collins from 2005 to 2008. Authors include scholars from Indonesia, Japan and the U.S. Topics range from the history of Malay in eastern Indonesia (Collins) and of Ternate (Gufran) as well as of Buginese in Papua (Sukardi) to language classification (Yamaguchi) and mapping (Abdul Rajab) in southern Sulawesi as well as verbal morphology in Maluku (Patty) and north Sulawesi (Rurut). 978-983-2457-17-6. Forthcoming in 2011 Kheang Un (political science), co-editor and co-author Trude Jacobsen (history), The Historical Dictionary of two chapters with Caroline Hughes, Cambodia’s of Women in Southeast Asia (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Economic Transformation (Copenhagen: Nordic Institute Press). For anyone interested in gender issues in of Asian Studies Press). This cross-disciplinary study Southeast Asia past and present, this reference tool details looks at the impact of Cambodia’s 2002–08 economic names, events, and practices of particular significance for boom on governance, economic structure, and women in the region; includes chronology and detailed opportunities for the poor. 978-8-77694-082-9. bibliography. 978-0-81085-968-5.

11 Center Council News and Notes (cont'd) Kudos M. Ladd Thomas, NIU political science of the political science department and as spent the past professor emeritus whose involvement a respected mentor of graduate students, year working with CSEAS goes back to the center’s directing numerous dissertations and to establish the founding in 1963, and center associate developing the department’s strength in museum’s move Ann Wright-Parsons, recently retired Thai studies. from the Stevens Building into new director of the NIU Anthropology A former Fulbright scholar to the exhibition and Museum, were honored Oct. 15 as two Philippines and Thailand, Thomas is a upgraded storage of eleven people receiving the 2010 widely published authority in Southeast spaces in Cole Distinguished Alumni, Faculty, and Staff Asian politics and governments, Hall, currently Ann Wright-Parsons Awards given by the College of Liberal particularly Thailand. His areas of under renovation and scheduled to be Arts and Sciences (CLAS). expertise also include rural development completed in the fall (see Museum Notes, Thomas, who administration in Southeast Asia and page 26). Prior to returning to NIU as retired in 2005 international relations, particularly foreign museum director in 2001, Wright-Parsons after 42 years policies and security concerns of selected worked as a senior assistant to the curator at NIU, was co- Southeast Asian countries. In 1986, the of the Asian collection at the American nominated by the King of Thailand awarded him with the Museum of Natural History in New York. center and the prestigious Crown of Thailand medal political science for research and other academic as well Over the years as director of the department. as advisory contributions to Thailand. anthropology museum, Wright- Wright-Parsons In 2001, he received NIU’s Outstanding Parsons curated a number of exhibits M. Ladd Thomas was nominated by International Educator Award from the involving Southeast Asia, drawing the anthropology department. Division of International Programs. In from NIU’s extensive collection of 2008, the president of Thailand’s National ethnographic, archaeological, and physical Thomas joined NIU’s political science Institute of Development Administration anthropological materials in addition to department in 1963 after earning his declared Thomas a founder of that outside sources. One of her most recent bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the institute. Thomas lives in DeKalb and exhibits was Cambodia Born Anew, a University of Utah and his PhD from the returns to campus frequently to visit with joint effort with the Cambodian American Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy colleagues and attend events and lectures. Heritage Museum in Chicago. She is at Tufts University. Soon after arriving credited with increasing the number of on campus, the dean of CLAS appointed Wright-Parsons, who received her students receiving certificates in museum him the first director of CSEAS. Thomas master’s degree in anthropology with a studies at NIU, and has served as a mentor also was a key figure in the college’s role in concentration in Southeast Asian studies to many of them as they have entered the establishing an early Peace Corps training from NIU in 1993, served as director professional world. Wright-Parsons now site for Southeast Asia at NIU. During of the NIU Anthropology Museum for lives in Vermont. Thomas’s career at NIU, he served as chair nine years. She retired in January, having

New books and favorite texts from Northern Illinois University Press In collaboration with the NIU Center for Southeast Asian Studies

Tagalog Southeast Asia Verb Dictionary Crossroads of the World, 2nd edition Clark D. Neher Michael Hawkins &Rhodalyne Gallo-Crail 211 pp., paper, $25.00

Tagalog Verb Dictionary Wives, Slaves, and Concubines An essential, portable guide to Burmese Language Course John Okell with U Saw Tun and Now with downloadable audio les A History of the Female Underclass in Dutch Asia Tagalog verbs, available in March Daw Mya Swe Eric Jones Michael Hawkins & Burmese (Myanmar): An Introduction to the Burmese (Myanmar): An Introduction to the 204 pp., 10 illus., 1 map, cloth, $38.00 Rhodalyne Gallo-Crail Spoken Language, Book 1, paper, $49.95 Script, paper, $59.95 Meaningful Tone 170 pp., paper, $19.00 Burmese (Myanmar): An Introduction to the Burmese (Myanmar): An Introduction to the A Study of Tonal Morphology in Compounds, Form Available in March Spoken Language, Book 2, paper, $49.95 Literary Style, paper, $49.95 Classes, and Expressive Phrases in White Hmong Martha Ratli www.niupress.niu.edu To order, call 800-621-2736 288 pp., $29.00, paper 12 Field school stories Learning the art of the ethnographic interview in Cambodia

Anthropology professor Judy Ledgerwood, back row, third from left, visits Angkor Wat with students from her summer 2010 Cambodia field school.

Day three deserves attention, but I am unable to give it all it home and into another world. deserves right now. Today was what Dr. Ledgerwood called the “At first I was very nervous to travel to a country which hardest day of the entire trip; today I saw Tuol Sleng and the killing most people consider remote and under-developed,” said fields. I predict nightmares tonight. The prison echoed the energy Emily Dow, a senior in anthropology at NIU. “Once I of thousands of people pushed to the limit of humanity. More later arrived, however, I was so overwhelmed by the exciting new . . . I will try to write like a good blogger tomorrow, in an effort to atmosphere that my fears became unimportant.” communicate the emotions I have experienced over merely the past 48 hours. Dow was one of twelve American undergraduate and graduate students, five from NIU, who traveled to Phnom Penh in July — Excerpt from blog by Emily Dow, summer 2010 to participate in the field school, the third such ethnographic- Cambodia ethnographic field school participant methodology program led by Ledgerwood in Cambodia (the By Liz Poppens Denius others were in 2003 and 2007). Once in the capital city, and after two days of orientation to Cambodian culture and religion Just getting to Cambodia from DeKalb is no small feat: at the Royal University of Fine Arts (RUFA), the American 13 hours over the ocean in one leg of the 24-hour trip, students joined up with eighteen undergraduate RUFA changing planes–at least three of them–and finessing customs students to learn ethnographic methods and take them out into and security each time. But for students participating in the field. last summer’s ethnographic field school in Cambodia led by professor and center associate Judy Ledgerwood The field school, a collaboration between RUFA ‘s archaeology (anthropology), it was a major step out of the comfort zone at department and NIU’s anthropology department, is focused

continued on page 14 13 on the rebirth of Buddhism in Cambodia since the fall of the Khmer Rouge, which Notes from the field:Emily Dow outlawed all religious practices during its My favorite experiences during repressive 1975–79 regime. “All of the the field school, simple as it buildings were razed, Buddhas smashed, might sound, came from my and monks killed. It did effectively everyday interactions with eradicate religion,” said Ledgerwood, locals. Even though there was who returned from a five-month a bit of a language gap, the sabbatical in Cambodia in January. warmth and sincerity that I After the Khmer Rouge were routed by got from people during even Vietnam in 1979, religion was allowed simple interactions, like buying to slowly come back during Vietnam’s water from a street vendor, was Dow with one of her interview subjects, left, occupation of the country until 1989 impossible to misunderstand. and her two translator colleagues from the and UN-supervised elections in 1993. As an anthropology student, Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh. Since then, there has been a resurgence being able to go to another of Buddhism in the country. country and have meaningful interactions with local people and a chance to try Ledgerwood and her students have been participant observation was a big deal for me. Learning about anthropology and documenting the rekindling of Buddhist doing anthropology are two very different things. I consider myself incredibly practice and the re-establishment of local lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to Cambodia with Dr. Judy temples through interviews with village Ledgerwood, an expert and icon in her own right. Seeing how highly respected elders, monks, and other residents in she is within the Cambodian academic community was inspiring to me. small communities within a 40-mile My first day alone in the field was a Buddhist holiday. There were a lot more radius of Phnom Penh. Their research people at the temple than there would be in subsequent days, and all eyes were this time focused on nine temples on me. Everyone was curious to know why I was there, and luckily they were in communities on the south side of also friendly and helped me feel included in the holiday activities. Phnom Penh; the two previous schools Doing interviews in the field was (obviously) a new experience for me. I had focused on the southeast side of the city the help of two Cambodian university students who worked as my colleagues in 2003 and the northwest side in 2007. and translators. Using translators while doing interviews was frustrating Before going out in the field, all of the at times, because I knew that I was missing out on important data, like the students trained up on the ethnographic figures of speech and tone used by the speaker. The experience emphasized the research methods they would use in the importance of speaking the local language and I'm more determined than ever field, Ledgerwood said. They learned to become multi-lingual. how to conduct structured and semi- structured interviews, participant and structured observations, life histories, And not always easy. “For me, language and Cambodians, the elders rise to the and site mapping and photography. “The was the big takeaway,” said NIU senior occasion. They want to tell their stories.” students had to do each technique in the Emily Kruse, a contract Southeast Because Ledgerwood’s project has been field,” Ledgerwood said. “Then for the Asian Studies major who worked with conducted over a decade and across a next two and a half weeks, they would go two translators with differing English region, it was important that this group out to the countryside every day, starting capabilities. “It could be pretty difficult of students ask the same questions and at 6:30 a.m. and getting back at 3 p.m.” at times because they didn’t always know use the same research techniques as in what I wanted. We had to learn how The students, Cambodian and American, the two previous field schools to allow to work together because we were all were divided up into three- and four- for congruent comparison of the data doing research. While my vocabulary person teams, with the Cambodians from all three, Ledgerwood said. But the didn’t grow as much, my listening skills serving as translators as necessary project didn’t necessarily start out with definitely improved a lot.” and the Americans learning how to that emphasis. work in an unfamiliar environment. It also helped that the student “When I designed this whole thing, I For students, learning to negotiating researchers were usually warmly thought this was primarily a teaching that relationship, while successfully welcomed. “Buddhist temples in exercise,” she said. “When I got back the completing their research on site, is Cambodia are places where elders go to results, I thought, ‘This is really valuable a “very big part” of the field-school hang out,” Ledgerwood said. “So to have data!’ No one’s really looking at Buddhist experience, Ledgerwood said. these young people come, Americans practice at the village level.”

14 Some of the results, for example, indicate that while the number of Buddhist monks today in Cambodia (60,000), is Summer study abroad 2011 greater than before the war, and there are Two CSEAS faculty associates are leading study abroad trips to Southeast more temples (4,000) than before the Asia this summer. Anthropologist Andrea Molnar will take a group to war, there are fewer monks per person. Thailand to study cultural diversity while historian Eric Jones returns “Recruitment is down dramatically,” to Malaysia/Brunei to study the history, culture, and environment of the Ledgerwood said, because there are region. Financial aid and travel grant support is available to qualified better opportunities to go through the students. For information about programs, financial aid, travel grants, state education system than through scholarships, and applications, contact the NIU Study Abroad Office, temple schools, which used to be the 417 Williston Hall; or e-mail [email protected]. Deadline to apply for main avenue of education for many summer study abroad travel grants is May 6. Cambodians. History and Culture of Southeast Asia Meanwhile, however, the ongoing Malaysia/Brunei reconstruction of local temples is a May 15–June 3 “success story,” Ledgerwood said. Three-week Malaysia/Brunei program offers students the opportunity to And for many of the students helping to experience ethnically and religiously diverse region at the crossroads of document that story in Cambodia, life Southeast Asia commerce and culture for centuries. Program incorporates will never be the same after a summer a home-stay experience with significant time spent in Kuala Lumpur, in the field. With access to the entire Melaka, Penang, the jungles of Sarawak and Borneo, and the Islamic center body of research from the three field of Brunei. For details, see Jones’s video on YouTube. Deadline to apply: schools, two students are incorporating April 15. some of it into their master’s theses, Cultural Diversity in Thailand Ledgerwood said. Kruse, who will Thailand graduate in May, remained in Cambodia May 30–June 25 and later Thailand after the field school to conduct her own research (funded by Four-week Thailand program focuses on cultural diversity in Thailand a USOAR grant) on the changing impact and the relationship between the dominant majority and minorities of of Buddhism today on young people in the country. The course introduces students to diverse cultural groups in the region. Dow, who also graduates in Thailand, the existing power relations between dominant and minority spring, is applying to NIU’s graduate groups, and the practical implications of these relations in everyday Thai program in anthropology. life. Program includes lectures, briefings, field trips, and visits to Thai sites, including temples, museums, the Royal Palace, markets, and beaches. On “Because of this trip, most of my friends field visits, NIU students will be paired with Thai students. Deadline to and family now know more about apply: April 15. Cambodia than they ever wanted to, and I find myself talking to strangers about my experience all the time,” Dow said. “I wish that everyone could have the opportunity to study abroad, and I encourage everyone I know to take the extra initiative and get out there. The world has opened up for me, and is somehow both a larger and smaller place now that I have gotten to explore it further.” Editor’s note: The three other NIU students participating in the Cambodia field school were Eleanor Fritz (undergraduate, anthropology), Shawn McCafferty (PhD candidate, political Associate anthropology professor Andrea Molnar promotes her new science), and Jordan York (MA candidate, Thailand study abroad program at NIU’s Study Abroad Fair in anthropology). September.

15 Following SEAYLP Program participants apply leadership skills learned at NIU in their home countries

By Liz Poppens Denius and Maria Hancock By the end of spring, four groups of Southeast Asian high school students will have gone through the center’s Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP), beginning in fall 2009. That represents 106 students, 22 adult leaders, and $535,000 in funding from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. In many ways, however, the numbers are just beginning to add up. Since returning home, SEAYLP participants have been putting project plans they developed at NIU into action, launching community projects ranging from a childhood cancer awareness project in Vietnam to an environmental action club in Cambodia. While reaching out to their communities and peers, they are also staying in close touch with each another, sharing ideas on Edcel Paul of the spring 2010 SEAYLP Philippines group makes friends with one e-mail, networking through a SEAYLP of the needy children in Bacalod City Public Plaza the group wants to help with Connections page established by the tutoring and other supportive action. center on Facebook and individual group Facebook pages, and sometimes getting projects around the world including as soon as it returned home with an idea together through the U.S. embassies in the NIU International Training Office’s for an “Amazing Race”-style event to their countries. Several Brunei and Laos Philippine Youth Leadership Program help young people in their country learn students have visited their SEAYLP (PYLP), is watching the SEAYLP more about Brunei’s history and culture. friends in Singapore. Many responded alumni groups’ progress closely. “We After months in the planning, and to a center request for anecdotes for are very proud of our participants, and working closely with Brunei’s Ministry a presentation, “A Day in the Life of a particularly the ideas and energy they of Education, 63 high school students Southeast Asian Teenager,” put together put forward to complete projects that representing 21 teams hit the pavement by the center’s outreach department to serve others in their home communities,” on Nov. 29, 2010, in the Rediscover give to area high schools studying world said Carolyn Lantz, branch chief of the Brunei Race at Maktab Sains Paduka cultures (see Outreach Update, page Bureau of Educational and Cultural Seri Begawan Sultan. The theme of the 25). This spring, the center will launch Affairs’ Youth Programs Division. race was “Culture: A Treasure for the a SEAYLP alumni newsletter as another Youth.” SEAYLP organizers set up the Here are snapshots of some SEAYLP way to keep participants in touch with race events to put participants’ brains alumni projects so far: what their counterparts are doing. and brawn to the test. Among the twelve Fall 2009 / Brunei Darussalam The State Department, which sponsors events, teams had to make a traditional SEAYLP among other youth leadership The Brunei group was up and running kite, learn and perform a Bruneian dance,

16 identify disguised traditional foods by taste, prepare ambuyat (a traditional Bruneian porridge made from the Words into action filtered pith of sago palms) to judges’ satisfaction, play a word game using If a picture paints a thousand words, classical Bruneian words, and identify Doesn’t this clearly describe SEAYLP? traditional folk songs and costumes. The In the beginning, there were 28 individuals, Ministry of Education’s Dayang Noridah All grouped together at Chicago O’Hare airport, Strangers to one another, getting acquainted, Binti Abdullah said in a local newspaper At the ending, there were 28 individuals, article that preserving Brunei’s culture All staying for a while at Days Inn, is a primary goal for the ministry, noting Family members amongst each other, saying goodbye, that Brunei’s rapidly changing society Isn’t it amazing what 25 days together can do? poses significant challenges to preserving the country’s culture and traditions. If a picture paints a thousand words, Let’s travel back in time and look at the albums, Fall 2009 / Cambodia At all the times we spent together, Upon its return, the Cambodia group From the theatre and the arts session with Shana, established a community organization, To the Halloween party, what a blast it was! the Alumni Environmental Youth Club From the Welcome Luncheon, To the water testing sites, (AEYC), to raise the awareness of the From learning about the river ecology, litter problem in Kampong Cham City. To studying about the great Abraham Lincoln, On May 17, 2010, the group, led by From our time with our foster families, SEAYLP alumna Ban Sophorn Watey, To the times shopping at WALMART and BestBuy! organized a cleanup campaign May 17 in From the interesting trips all over America, the city’s Children’s Park that attracted To the ‘exhilarating’ DIPLOMACY SIMULATION! From Day 1 to Day 25. Kampong Cham city governor Thuch That and more than 450 students, If a picture paints a thousand words, teachers, monks, and U.S. embassy staff I would draw a big heart surrounding that picture, members. After everyone gathered, more Signifying all the friendships we have fostered, than thirty rubbish bins were awarded to Treasuring them till the day we leave this Earth, the city authority to be placed in public SEAYLP has truly been a once-in-a-lifetime experience, places where litter accumulates. The Something that does not happen every day in our lives, I’m sure we are missing one another, group then marched together, collecting I see posts of people dreaming of SEAYLP here and there, litter along the waterfront, with some Memories of SEAYLP flashing randomly in our minds, individuals shouting environmental Although, it’s only been slightly more than a week since we all parted, slogans through megaphones: “Good I miss all of you SEAYLPers! environment! Good health! Together we can clean our environment!” The city They say all good things come to an end, governor, who had met with the group Yet, I can safely say that this is only the beginning of something new, We’ll all meet again someday in the future, to schedule the event, encouraged more As leaders making a difference in the world, such public actions to improve the city, Let’s make SEAYLP our inspiration! remarking that he hoped that young The future’s in our hands! people would become future government A SEAYLP reunion will definitely be planned officials, teachers, doctors, engineers, and However, we have to do something first! other professionals in Cambodia. The Action Plan’s the first step, Education’s next, Prior to the May event, the Cambodia The future is yet to be written, group also conducted a public Emulate Abraham Lincoln! environmental campaign to get people Let’s make the most of it! to take action to clean up litter and Let’s change the world for the better! Let’s make a difference! trash to improve the quality of life for city residents as well as city visitors. — Posted by Kyle Chan, fall 2010 SEAYLP participant, The group also conducted Earth Day on the SEAYLP blog, Dec. 1, 2010 events and met with about 140 students

17 Fall 2009 SEAYLP / Cambodia participant Thearith Sreang, fourth from the left, recently helped his home village of Boeng Basak build its first library, assisted by community residents and Thearith's fellow SEALYP participants Ban Sophorn Watey, Khin Chan Thearanita, Sophalgnean Chan, Dalin Hy, and Pisey Sreng. at Dei Dos High School in April to finally filled in early March 2011, and the April 17, 2010, to raise public awareness encourage youth involvement in keeping library was officially opened March 5. of recycling among their peers. Only the city clean, involving the students “We hope we will be able to start a new those party-goers bringing newspapers, in environment-related games, group mission now,” Thearith said. plastics, other recyclable or reusable discussions, and a rubbish-collection Fall 2009 / Singapore items in good condition, along with paid contest. In June, the group shared admission, were allowed into the event. A little more than five months after their “eco-games” especially designed for SEAYLP organizers Soon Kah Leong, return home, the Singapore group, all visually and hearing impaired children Gabriel Goh, Tan Qiuying, Vivian Chan, students at Commonwealth Secondary in a special event at the Kruosa Thmei Diamanta Lavania, and Noor Amirah School, held a three-band dance party on Organization for Blind and Deaf collaborated with three other school Children. The group concluded its groups in organizing the event. They environmental action project with persuaded seven companies to sponsor a celebration later in June, inviting the event, including Darlie, Garnier Men, city officials, AEYC members (now Haaru.com, Nutrition Park, 77th Street, numbering about 60), community Starbucks and THM, a distributor of members, and some embassy staff. sports apparel. By the end of the event, there was a looming pile of recyclables at Over the course of a year since his return, the door. Thearith Sreang helped his home village of Boeng Basak, about 77 miles northeast Fall 2009 / Vietnam of Phnom Penh in the Kampong Cham Five alumni from the Vietnam group province, build its first community launched a website project in June 2010 library. Village authorities granted space to build more awareness of childhood for the library in an abandoned brick cancer in Vietnam and to raise funds to room in the village’s aging primary support Vietnamese children affected school. About 200 residents and by the disease. The group launched the village elders, led by a group of village website (in Vietnamese), after recruiting youth including Thearith, began work ten more high school students in June on the project in May 2010. They to help, with a photo contest dubbed repaired, cleaned and painted the room, Poster from a three-band event organized “For Future Smile.” The website contains raised funds to buy bamboo to make by the fall 2009 SEAYLP / Singapore information about the causes, diagnosis, bookshelves, and sought donations for group to increase public knowledge of and treatments of cancer as well as a list supplies and books. The shelves were recycling among Singapore youth.

18 have also gone to a secondary school where they talked about their SEAYLP experience and gave a simple English lesson to about 26 high school students, playing some games in English to make it more fun. “We hope that our project will make a difference and be useful for others,” the group said in a Facebook posting. On Nov. 8, the group planted mangroves in an environmentally sensitive area in the region. Spring 2010 / Philippines Team Aguila, as this group has dubbed itself, created a project to serve underprivileged children hanging out in the Bacolod City Public Plaza by offering free tutoring in reading, arithmetic, and other basic lessons in September 2010. Tran Thi Ngoc Han, a member of the inaugural fall 2009 SEAYLP session and now a student Many of the youngsters spend much at Bates College in Maine, reads a book to a young cancer patient in July at the Academy of of their days at the plaza, not in school. Pediatrics in La Thanh, Vietnam, part of a project organized by five SEAYLP / Vietnam The group has spent Sunday afternoons alumni to raise community awareness about childhood cancer. with the kids, and late last fall organized a holiday party in December to provide of resources for local and international La Thanh, Vietnam, and volunteered an free sandals to the children, many of connections that can offer assistance to additional seven days there. Their slogan: whom did not have shoes. The group has young cancer patients in the country. To “Share a smile, save a life.” also conducted leadership training and recruit peer volunteers, the group worked Spring 2010 / Indonesia given talks on community values at local with area high schools and the Pediatric schools. Since their return, the Indonesia group Hospital in Hanoi. As part of the project, has collected books and given them Liz Denius is the CSEAS outreach media the group organized a volunteer day to children who live along the river in coordinator and Maria Hancock is a center in July reading books to young cancer Banjarmasin Kalimantan Selatan. They graduate assistant. patients at the Academy of Pediatrics in

Southeast Asian studies meets science at NIU STEMfest Southeast Asian studies meets science STEM major + SEA minor = Global Career Prospects. That’s the formula at NIU STEMfestCSEAS graduate assistants Laura Iandola (history) and Maria “Rai” Hancock STEM major(history) + SEA minor pitched = Global while staffingCareer aProspects CSEAS table. That’s at NIU’s the formula first Science, CSEAS graduate assistantsTechnology, Laura Iandola Engineering (history) and andMath Maria (STEM) “Rai” festival Hancock Oct. (history) 23 at the pitchedConvocation while staffingCenter. a CSEAS STEMfest, table at a NIU’sDivision first of Science,Administration Technology, and University Engineering Outreach and Math (STEM)project, festival is Oct. an outgrowth 23 at the Convocation of Spooky Science Center. Saturday, STEMfest, a perennially a Division popular of AdministrationHalloween and University event featuringOutreach the project, Haunted is an Physics outgrowth Laboratory of Spooky and Science other science Saturday, a perenniallydemonstrations. popular These Halloween were folded event featuringinto a new the larger Haunted event Physicsdesigned to attract Laboratory andstudents other scienceof all ages demonstrations. and promote career Theses inwere STEM folded fields. into To a promotenew larger science event designedand to Southeastattract students Asian studiesof all ages at NIU, and Iandolapromote andcareers Hancock in STEM created fields. a brochure To promote sciencelinking and theSoutheast need for Asian science studies students at NIU, proficient Iandola in and a Southeast Hancock Asian created language, a brochure linkingstudy the abroad need for experience, science students and cultural proficient literacy. in “STEM a Southeast majors Asian are neededlanguage, in study abroad experience,Southeast Asia and to cultural research literacy. and find “STEM solutions majors for: are sustainable needed in development, Southeast Asia to researchenvironmental and find solutions degradation, for: sustainable global dise development,ase and hunger, environmental population growth and degradation, globalmigration, disease and and economic hunger, competiveness,” population growth they and pointed migration, out in and their economic brochure. competiveness,” they pointed out in their brochure.

19 Fellowship Notes Graduates and undergraduates take up the FLAS challenge Seventeen NIU students—fourteen graduate middle-power countries, such as the context of the Red Shirt-Yellow students and three undergraduates—are, for Thailand, on U.S. foreign policy, and Shirt social movements. the first time in National Resource Center the success or failure of these states’ Mary Thomas (MA candidate, history, studying Southeast Asian languages strategies in specific policy areas. anthropology), Malay this year as recipients of the center’s 2010–11 Siew Lian Lim (MFA candidate, art), • Research focuses on the ethnographic Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Indonesian study of food security and urban fellowships program, which is funded by a • Research focuses on using images from agriculture in Malaysia, with Title VI grant from the U.S. Department of wayang kulit shadow puppet shows of comparisons to urban agriculture in the Education. The disciplines represented in this Indonesia and Malaysia in contemporary United States. year’s group range from anthropology, history, artworks. Sarah Wiley (MA candidate, history), and political science to art, applied family Brett McCabe (MA candidate, Malay and child studies, and nursing. Fellows for the anthropology), Malay • Research focuses on the intersection 2011–12 academic year will be announced in • Research focuses on Malay identity and and interactions of British colonial and late spring. Jawi script (Malay language written in Malay hunting cultures in nineteenth- FLAS fellows 2010–11 Arabic script) in Malaysia. Has studied century Malaya. abroad in Indonesia and Malaysia while Michael Zack (MA candidate, history), Shahin Aftabizadeh (MA candidate, at NIU. Received a 2010 Florence Tan Burmese anthropology), Burmese Moeson Fellowship to conduct research • Research interests include oral histories • Research focuses on the effects of at the Library of Congress in summer of contemporary events in Burma. globalization on migration from the 2010. state of Burma. His focus has been on Emily Dow (BA undergraduate, Shawn McCafferty (PhD candidate, the complex Burmese community on anthropology), Tagalog political science), Thai the Thai-Burma border. • Goal is to become fluent in Tagalog in • Research focuses on comparative order to study Filipino culture from an Coral Carlson (PhD candidate, history), analysis of non-governmental anthropology perspective. Malay organizations in the developing world, Chanta Sam (BS undergraduate, • Research focuses on cross-cultural and including Thailand. interdisciplinary exploration of pre- nursing), Khmer Wendy Perzynski (MS candidate, applied modern trade between Asia and • Discovered the opportunity to family and child studies), Burmese Europe, focusing on ceramics (in study Khmer while pursuing a nursing • Studies focus on effective training particular Khmer ceramics) as an degree at NIU; is interested in serving strategies of social workers and the indicator of this trade and its routes. as an interpreter for Cambodian- provision of social services to refugee speaking patients and to helping others, Laura Iandola (PhD candidate, history), populations in the U.S., with an particularly Cambodian-Americans, Indonesian emphasis on Burmese refugees. learn Khmer. • Research focuses on Indonesia’s Researched Karen and Rohingya Robin Waters (BA undergraduate, intentions to become a nuclear power refugees in Malaysia. during the Cold War as a deterrent to political science), Indonesian Daniel J. Pojar, Jr. (PhD candidate, western intervention in the Southeast • Pursuing a career in international political science), Thai Asia region. relations, with a special emphasis on • Research focuses on the character and Indonesia. Matthew Jagel (PhD candidate, history), strength of civil society in Thailand in Khmer • Research focuses on Cambodian nationalist leader Son Ngoc Thanh and relationship with the U.S. in the post- World War II years within the larger context of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia during this period. Aaron Johnson (PhD candidate, political science), Thai • Research interests include comparative political issues in Thailand and Cambodia. Tapped to teach This year’s Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants, seen here at the Aug. 25 Scott LaDeur (PhD candidate, political CSEAS open house, are Nanda Octavia (Indonesian), Leizel Arsenal (Tagalog), and science), Thai Jocelyn Sim (Malay). They have been teaching with foreign language faculty Patricia Henry, • Research focuses on influence of Rhodalyne Crail, and James T. Collins respectively this year. 20 Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship: Afoot and afield in the Library of Congress By Brett McCabe

Brett McCabe with the Library of Congress’s senior reference librarian, Dr. Allen Thrasher, in the Asia Division at the library last summer.

Editor’s note: For a week in August last periods. In the 1500s, Jawi script was Malaysia was declared in 1963]. summer, anthropology MA candidate used to write trading agreements, treatises Day by day in the stacks Brett McCabe toiled in the collections at and other official documents, and then the Library of Congress as a Florence Tan spread to intellectual Islamic centers of The first day at the library I accessed Moeson fellow. This article is adapted from learning to become the script of Malay materials that directly addressed the his post-fellowship report. McCabe has since intellectualism, seen in various versions Jawi script and the vernacular press in defended and submitted his master’s thesis, of law codices and works of literature Malaysia to establish a base when I started and has been accepted as a PhD candidate (hikayat), which led seventeenth-century looking at the Malaysian periodicals for in history at NIU. Europeans to describe Malay, and the following five days. I also examined presumably the Malay script, as the Latin materials in the rare books collection to While at the Library of Congress last of the Southeast Asian trading states. find academic writing and educational summer, I conducted research on books from the early 1900s. the changing role of the Jawi script During the British colonial era in in Malaysia as a recipient of the 2010 what is now Malaysia, especially in the Examining the rare books collection Florence Tan Moeson Fellowship. My nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Jawi provided the opportunity to take pictures time in the Asian Division at the Library script was seen in nearly every newspaper of various hikayats for later translation. of Congress was and will be very helpful and was the practical, everyday script These pictures and later translations will in my current and future research used to disseminate information and strengthen my analysis on early Malay endeavors. For six days I had the rare innovation well into the 1960s. Since literature and how Malay ethnic identity opportunity to peruse the library’s Jawi the late 1960s, however, Jawi script has was perceived in specifichikayats . These script materials from the late nineteenth all but disappeared as a writing system hikayats will be useful when I examine to early twentieth century, from for information and innovation. My MA early Malay literature and how it relates Malaysian newspapers in the periodicals thesis is focused on describing the process to Malay ethnic identity, which I plan to section to educational and academic of Jawi script’s change from a practical be part of the first chapter of my master’s writings in the rare books collection. source of information to a principally thesis. Works such as Roff (1967), symbolic use that pertains to Malay ethnic Lubis et al. (2006), Kim and Baharrudin Jawi, based on Arabic script, is an identity. The newspapers and periodicals (1980), and Tregonning (1962) [see orthography used for the Malay language. in the Asian Division at the Library of references below] give a historical Although it is based on the Arabic writing Congress were very useful, particularly background of the vernacular press and system, there are six additional symbols those from the 1950s to 1980s, because how it has shaped Malaysian history and to denote sounds in Malay that are not this period represents pre- and post- society. It is important to understand the used in the Arabic language. Over its independent Malaysia [Malaya became external circumstances of the time period 700-year history, Jawi script has changed independent in 1957; the Federation of when searching through periodicals in various ways during numerous time continued on page 22 21 Fellowship Notes (cont'd) in Jawi script. These sources plus prior on a smaller level, but it appears that it script is written about, it is usually in one knowledge of Malaysian history allowed was in the 1960s that Malaya Merdeka of two ways: either pedagogical or in a me to search periodicals by looking for began its shift to Roman-script Malay. sort of nostalgic, orientalist tone, as if it key words, phrases, and sentences. My Soon there was a mix of Roman-script is an ancient relic of Malay history. Also method was to read the title and parts of Malay and Jawi, with a little bit of English it is said that a Malay must read Jawi; the article, in order to ascertain whether in ads for businesses, corporations and otherwise he or she will be unable to read and if it will relate to my research. various other companies. the Quran (written in Arabic). Today’s On page 4 in the January 31, 1968 weekly Utusan Melayu Jawi edition, for From day two until day six I intensively edition, for example, the Malaya Merdeka example, is constantly reprimanding studied Malaysian periodicals from the published an article called “Imej Baru” Malay youth for not learning Jawi and 1950s to the 1980s, including Malaya therefore denying their history and Merdeka (Independent Malaya), Utusan heritage. Melayu (The Malay News),Berita Harian (The Daily News), andUtusan Pelajar. There are some exceptions, as noted in Out of these periodicals I printed roughly Lubis’ (et al.) Tulisan Jawi: Sehimpunan 120 examples of articles and ads that I Kajian and James T. Collins’ 2004 anticipate will be relevant to my research. research discussing Jawi as a symbol of Most of the periodicals I looked through Malay authority and dominance. Collins were written inJawi , so I had to skim collected empirical data related to the use the periodicals and look for key words, of Jawi in Kota Bharu, Kuala Terengganu, phrases and read a few sentences and and Pahang. Following the same path predict what the rest of the article was While at the Library of Congress in August, Abdullah Munshi did more than 100 about. Specifically, I carefully considered McCabe looked at one of the earliest versions years earlier, Collins concluded that articles about primary schools, students, of the Hikayat Abdullah [1843], a firsthand more surveys and fieldwork should be studying, and literacy because they will account of Munshi Abdullah bin Abdul conducted to see how Jawi is being used Kadir's experiences in Malaysia. A valuable relate to my field research. While I did and under what contexts. source for academics, the Hikayat Abdullah find articles discussing education I did offers a glimpse into the everyday lives of Jawi’s history as a practical script to not find articles specifically about theJawi Malaysians during this time period. disseminate information and innovation script, presumably they are there but I in the everyday lives of the Malaysians have not found them yet. I had anticipated (New Image) in which, under the advice has come to an end. However, Jawi relying more on Utusan Melayu, but so far of UMNO, they announced they would script is still widely used in various I have found Malaya Merdeka to be very begin publishing the Merdeka in Roman- contexts and will continue to evolve. My useful as it is the uncompromising voice script Malay in order to, among various library research in the Asia Division will of nationalism, and funded by UMNO, other things, accommodate the diverse complement the fieldwork I have already still Malaysia’s leading political party. groups in Malaysia. Interestingly, the conducted in Kelantan, Malaysia. I would Particularly in the 1950s, leading up to newspaper chose to keep printing Jawi like to thank the Florence Tan Moeson Malaysia’s independence in 1957, there ads. In the midst of the new Roman- Fellowship committee for this unique are various motivational pieces on each script Malaysian newspaper, there are opportunity. page. ads in Jawi about drug companies, types Concrete contributions of Chinese medicines, and a cure for i Khoo Kay Kim and Jazamuddin Baharuddin, My goal during my time at the Library of children’s fever. So the Jawi ads seen in the Monograf Lembaran Akhbar Melayu, (Kuala Congress was to find sources that would 1968 Merdeka are a mirror image of what Lumpur: Persatuan Sejarah Malaysia, 1980); help explain the process of the change the paper was like just one year earlier. In Muhammad Bukhari Lubis et al., eds., Tulisan Jawi: in Jawi script, from a practical script to a the Malaya Merdeka, Roman-script Malay Sehimpunan Kajian (Shah Alam: Pusat Penerbitan and the Jawi script became inversed after University); William Roff,The Origins of Malay symbol of Malay ethnic identity. What I Nationalism (New Haven, CT: Yale University was able to glean from Malaya Merdeka 1968, which reflects a major shift in its Press, 1967); K. G. Tregonning, ed., Malaysian was an interesting overview of the gradual use. Historical Sources (Singapore: University of Singapore, 1962). process whereby the Roman-script Malay This is not some sort of revelation, but replaced Jawi. Most noticeably in the rather an interesting process because ii James T. Collins, “Jawi Script and Identity in 1960s Roman-script Malay would appear there are a variety of social conditions only sparingly in the newspaper. This is Contemporary Malaysia,” in International Workshop and circumstances surrounding this. on Southeast Asian Studies: Script as Identity-Marker not to say this was not happening earlier Just forty-two years later when the Jawi in Southeast Asia (IIAS, KITLV, and LIPI, 2004).

22 NIU Press’s Southeast Asian Studies series: new titles, new looks

New titles, new packaging, and new formats are leading the way with NIU Press’s Southeast Asian Studies series. Since launching its collaboration with the center in 2009, the Press has released two titles in the series, Martha Ratliff’s Meaningful Tone: A Study of Tonal Morphology in Compounds, Form Classes, and Expressive Phrases in White Hmong and Eric Jones’s Wives, Slaves, and Concubines: A History of the Female Underclass in Dutch Asia. It has also repackaged the second edition of Clark Neher’s bestselling Southeast Asia: Crossroads of the World with a bright new cover and John Okell’s successful Burmese language course with new covers and free downloadable audio replacing the older audiotapes and CDs. “It’s been a good partnership so far,” said NIU Press Director Alex Schwartz. “We’ve got several new books coming out in the next eighteen months. We have a dictionary on Tagalog [Tagalog Verb Dictionary by center adjunct Michael Hawkins and center associate Rhodalyne Gallo-Crail] coming out in the spring. We’ve also got a project on political cartooning in Southeast Asia and another book looking at Islam in the Philippines during American military rule.” Converting the Burmese language course’s old-tech audio to Web-accessible MP3 files is just part of a larger effort by the Press to move all of its publications to new technology, Schwartz said. All new books in the Southeast Asia series will be available as e-books as well as traditional printed books, he said. The Press is also using its marketing muscle to give a higher profile to Southeast Asia publications produced by NIU. In addition to tapping into a national sales force with University of Chicago Press, which markets all NIU Press books, Schwartz and his staff will host a book table at the spring Association of Asian Studies meeting in Hawaii. For now, the future for the new Southeast Asia series looks bright. “It’s too early to tell,” Schwartz said, “but we think it will be successful.”

23 Outreach Update

participants, with thirty speakers from around the world, attended the Sept. 18–19 event, funded in part by the center’s U.S. Department of Education Title VI National Resource Center grant. The theme of the conference was “Educational and Cultural Enhancement,” which was highlighted Saturday evening with a banquet and cultural performances by regional South and Southeast Asian performance troupes: the Indonesian Performing Educators and Genocide and Human Rights Institute Director J. D. Bowers (history), second Arts Chicago (IPAC), the Mudra from left, third row, at the summer 2010 Roger W. Smith Genocide and Human Rights Summer Institute. (CSEAS photo) Dance Academy, Thai Cultural and Fine Arts Institute, and the Anila Sinha Roger W. Smith Genocide and Russell, anthropology, NIU); human Foundation. The conference closed Human Rights Summer Institute rights in Burma (Julia Lamb, CSEAS, Sunday with an educators’ workshop 2010 NIU); the Holocaust and genocide featuring I Ketut Gede Asnawa, visiting In its fifth year, the Roger W. Smith studies (Brett Weiss, teacher, Bartlett professor of musicology/gamelan at Genocide and Human Rights Summer High School); the Germans and the the University of Illinois at Urbana- Institute at NIU offered K–16 educators Herero of Namibia, Burundi, Rwanda, Champaign, performing “The Abduction the opportunity to study with some of and the Congo (Bowers); Darfur and of Sita,” a scene from the Balinese the leading scholars and teachers in the the Sudan (Ismael Montana, history, Ramayana dance drama. NIU). Bowers and Lamb also gave a field of genocide, human rights, and The IMSA connection: CSEAS violence. Seventeen educators attended presentation on teaching genocide in the modern classroom. reaches out to Illinois Math the June 14–17 program focused on and Science Academy Africa and Southeast Asia, funded in Third International Ramayana In April 2010, CSEAS Director James part by the center’s U.S. Department of Conference 2010 T. Collins and Laura Iandola, center Education Title VI National Resource CSEAS, in cooperation with the Center graduate assistant and PhD candidate Center grant and NIU's Genocide and for South Asian and Middle Eastern in history, met with the principal and Human Rights Institute. Studies (CSAMES) at the University faculty members of the Illinois Math and Professor Scott Straus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Science Academy (IMSA) to discuss of Wisconsin-Madison opened the the International Ramayana Institute center outreach programs that would institute with the keynote address, of North America (IRINA), organized interest the faculty and students of the “What Have We Learned about the a two-day conference on the Asian innovative secondary school located Causes of Genocide since the Early epic, the Ramayana. More than sixty just outside Chicago. Since then, the 1990s?” Institute director J. D. Bowers connection has solidified with several (history, NIU) led off the presentations outreach programs. with a discussion of genocide in the On Nov. 5, students participating twenty-first century. Other topics and in the center’s Southeast Asia Youth speakers were: the Cambodian genocide Leadership Program (SEAYLP) spent (Judy Ledgerwood, anthropology, the day at IMSA. In the morning NIU); Cambodia and the ECCC and they took part in a history lecture and post-genocide justice (Bowers and discussion, followed by lunch with Shay Galto, NIU graduate student Keynote speaker Dr. Satya Vrat Shastri of the University of Delhi, left, and plenary IMSA students. After lunch, SEAYLP in sociology and Southeast Asian speaker Catherine Raymond, art historian students participated in science classes studies); Indonesia and East Timor and Center for Burma Studies director, and experiments, before leaving to do (Nancy Lutz, anthropology, Southern discuss the Ramayana at the Sept. 19 Third water testing at the nearby Fox River. Illinois University-Edwardsville); International Ramayana Conference at NIU. Several students from Vietnam told the the Philippines and Thailand (Susan (CSEAS photo)

24 Future teachers In October, Shay Galto, left, NIU graduate student in sociology and Southeast Asian studies, and center graduate assistant and CSEAS Outreach Coordinator Julia Lamb shared research experiences in Cambodia and teaching resources with thirty NIU pre-service elementary and middle school teachers. (CSEAS photo) center they were so impressed by the Sycamore High takes an school to music and family holidays. It educational experience at IMSA that ‘in-school field trip’ to also introduced them to more serious they hoped to involve themselves in Southeast Asia subjects such as the destruction of educational reforms within Vietnam. On Jan. 6, CSEAS Outreach Cambodian rock music and musicians during the Cambodian genocide On Feb. 28, the center launched a three- Coordinator Julia Lamb and center and the impact of illegal logging on part lecture series on post-war Southeast graduate assistant Laura Iandola Indonesian villages. Julia Lamb opened Asia for more than 200 IMSA juniors presented “A Day in the Life of a the event by giving students a look at taking World Cultures. Collins delivered Southeast Asian Teenager,” a two-hour the center’s resources and programs, the first lecture on the emergence of a multimedia program, to more than which were highlighted on a nearby strong anti-colonial force in Indonesia three hundred Sycamore High School display table. in the 1930s and the Dutch attempts to freshmen studying Southeast Asia as suppress the movement, the impact of part of their the Japanese occupation, the post-war World Cultures interests of U.S. foreign policy, and the class. Enlisting triumph of the Indonesian Revolution. the input, photos, Two other lectures are planned for later and texts from this spring. past participants of the center’s Also this spring, SEAYLP participants Southeast Asia will spend April 15 “shadowing” IMSA Youth Leadership students in science, math, and computer Program, the science classes. (Each Southeast Asian Sycamore High student will be assigned an IMSA School program student with whom they will spend the gave students day and attend classes.) On April 18, a vivid sense IMSA students have been invited to of day-to-day attend a Kane County Cougars baseball life for teens all game with SEAYLP participants (as well over Southeast as with students from Sycamore High Sycamore High school freshmen Alex Swedberg and Jake Zwick check Asia, from School). out the CSEAS traveling display at the center’s “in-school field trip to Southeast Asia” presentation on Jan. 6. (CSEAS photo)

25 Museum Notes Making the move, one artifact at a time

NIU Anthropology Museum interim director Sara Pfannkuche in front of the museum’s former home in Stevens Hall, which has been turned into a temporary storage destination for the museum’s permanent collection formerly housed in the basement of Cole Hall.

This past fall, student workers at NIU’s In order to meet the Oct. 15 interim director until the anthropology Anthropology Museum moved the move deadline, the anthropology department hires a permanent director, more than 12,000 ethnographic and department hired an additional possibly this spring. Assisted by archeological specimens, artifacts, and three work-study students and graduate assistant Karly Guldan and objects in its collection from permanent four outside experts to help pack senior work-study student Ariel Begley, storage in the basement of Cole Hall the museum’s collections. Many she will continue work on the inventory to temporary storage in the museum’s anthropology department faculty process, updating the museum’s now-closed exhibition space in Stevens members and graduate students also database, and making preparations for a Hall. When construction on Cole Hall assisted in the monumental project, new director, she said. Wright-Parsons, is complete, currently scheduled for Pfannkuche said, spending a Saturday is continuing to work on writing new fall, the collection, half of which is transporting oversized objects out grants for the museum. from Southeast Asian cultures, will be of Cole (under “careful supervision,” Renovation of Cole Hall, including moved back to its permanent storage she added). With yet more help from construction of the museum’s new space where it can be easily accessed for NIU carpenters, movers, building location, began in mid-January. It is display in the museum’s new home on services, anthropology department scheduled to be completed in the fall. Cole’s main floor. office staff, and various faculty members from across After working over the summer on campus, the last pieces in the university’s planning committee the museum’s collection for the multimillion-dollar Cole Hall were officially moved out renovation, retiring museum director of Cole Hall by 3:40 p.m. and center associate Ann Wright- Oct. 15, an hour and Parsons (see Kudos, page 12) turned twenty minutes before her attention to preparing grants for the deadline. the new museum space in the fall. Sara Pfannkuche of Beloit College’s Logan Since the move, students Museum of Anthropology was hired in are still working in September to help coordinate the move the temporary storage with the aid of three teaching assistants, space in Stevens Hall, fourteen work-study students, and one unpacking items and volunteer. Pfannkuche, whose area of beginning the job of study is North American archeology, creating a complete Students work with textiles in preparation for hanging is working on her dissertation at the inventory. Pfannkuche them on special racks in the South Room of the University of Illinois-Chicago. has agreed to stay on as Anthropology Museum’s former Stevens Hall space.

26

CAPTIONS:

Heartfelt farewells The Baressi family of Sycamore says goodbye to their home-stay students Manica Soun of Cambodia and Wang Ying Sng of Singapore, third and fourth from left, at the Nov. 12 farewell reception for fall 2010 SEAYLP. (CSEAS photo)

What’s coming up Around the center this spring

Study abroad this summer Thailand and Malaysia / Brunei

NIU students have the opportunity to spend a few weeks this summer in Malaysia / Brunei and Thailand with two center faculty associates What'sleading two separate Coming study abroad programs. Up Historian Eric Jones reprises his annual three- Studyweek trip abroad to Malaysia this and summerBrunei to study the history and culture of those two countries from NIU students have the opportunity to spend a few weeks this summer in May 15 to June 3. Anthropologist Andrea Malaysia / Brunei or Thailand with two center faculty associates ech leading aMolnar separate will study explore abroad cultural programs. diversity Historian in Eric Jones reprises his annual three-weekThailand, focusingtrip to Malaysia on the andrelationship Brunei to between study the history and culture of thosethe dominant two countries majority from and May minority 15 to June groups, 3. Anthropologist Andrea Molnar willfrom explore May 30 cultural to June diversity 25. Both in Thailand, programs focusing are on the relationship between theopen dominant to graduate majority and undergraduateand minority groups, students; from May 30 to June 25. Both programssome financial are open aid to is graduateavailable. and For undergraduate details on students; some financial aid isthese available. programs, For details see pageon these XX. programs, see page 15.

2011 Southeast Asia Club Walking the walk in Malaysia, summer 2010. Spring Student Conference 2011 Southeast Asia Club SpringChanging Student political realitiesConference in SEA

University of ChicagoChicago historian historian Mark Mark Bradley Bradley will will be be the the keynote keynote speaker speaker at atthe the Southeast Asia Club’s Southeaststudent academic Asia Club’s conference spring onstudent April academic 23 in Altgeld conference Hall. The on theme April 23of the in Altgeldconference, Hall. which is open to Thegraduate theme and of undergraduate the conference, students, which is is open “Resistance to graduate Movements and undergraduate and Democratization students, in is Southeast Asia.” “ResistanceBradley, a specialist Movements in postcolonial and Democratization Southeast Asia, in Southeast is the author Asia.” of Imagining Bradley, aVietnam specialist and America: The inMaking postcolonial of Postcolonial Southeast Vietnam Asia, (University is the author of ofNorth Imagining Carolina Vietnam Press, and2000), America: which wonThe the prestigious Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. The conference begins at 9 a.m., with the keynote speech Making of Postcolonial Vietnam (University of North Carolina Press, 2000), which won scheduled to lead off the afternoon session. Students submitting papers for the conference (due March 23) will Mark Bradley the prestigious Harry J. Benda Prize from the Association for Asian Studies. The Mark Bradley give 15-minute presentations in the morning and afternoon sessions. A cash prize will be awarded to the best undergraduate and graduateconference papers. begins The at 9conference a.m., with is the open keynote to all studentsspeech scheduled (at NIU and to leadelsewhere), off the faculty, staff, and interested community members. Admission is free.

Be a host family - SEAYLP and PYLP opportunities A new semester means another chance for area households to open their homes to young people and their adult leaders from all over Southeast Asia who are coming to NIU to participate in this spring’s Southeast Asia Youth Leadership Program (SEAYLP), led by CSEAS Director Jim Collins, and the Philippine Youth Leadership Program (PYLP), directed by center associates Susan Russell (anthropology) and Lina Davide- Ong (International Training Office). The SEAYLP group will include participants from Burma, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand; they will arrive on campus April 6. Home-stay dates are April 10–22. PYLP participants, who come from the Mindanao province of the Philippines, arrive April 16; home-stay dates are May 1–14. For home- Heartfelt farewells stay details, contact Leslie Shive at the The Baressi family of Sycamore says goodbye to their home-stay students Manica International Training Office at 815-753-9546 Soun of Cambodia and Wang Ying Sng of Singapore, third and fourth from left, at (e-mail [email protected]). the Nov. 12 farewell reception for fall 2010 SEAYLP. (CSEAS photo)

27 Center for Southeast Asian Studies Council 2010–11 Center for Mace Bentley Chalermsee Olson Geography Founders Memorial Library Southeast Michael Buehler Grant Olson Asian Studies Political Science Foreign Languages and Literatures 520 College View Court Kenton Clymer Lina Ong Northern Illinois University History International Training Office DeKalb, IL 60115 James Collins Hao Phan 815-753-1981 CSEAS/Foreign Languages and Founders Memorial Library FAX: 815-753-1776 Literatures Deborah Pierce Rhodalyne Crail Division of International Programs James T. Collins, Director Foreign Languages and Literatures 815-753-1771 Barbara Posadas [email protected] Kikue Hamayotsu History Political Science Alan Potkin Kheang Un, Assistant Director John Hartmann CSEAS/NIU Adjunct 815-753-8832 Foreign Languages and Literatures [email protected] Catherine Raymond George (Jim) Henry Center for Burma Studies/School of Art Julia Lamb, Outreach Coordinator Computer Science Susan Russell 815-753-1595 Patricia Henry Anthropology [email protected] Foreign Languages and Literatures Kurt Thurmaier Nancy Schuneman, Office Manager Trude Jacobsen Public Administration 815-753-1771 History Kheang Un [email protected] Eric Jones CSEAS/Political Science History Daniel Unger Liz Poppens Denius, Mandala Editor Julia Lamb Political Science 815-753-1901 CSEAS [email protected] Jui-Ching Wang Kheang Leang School of Music Foreign Languages and Literatures Katharine Wiegele Websites Judy Ledgerwood Anthropology Anthropology Center for Southeast Asian Studies: Curtis Wood www.cseas.niu.edu Wei Luo Public Administration Geography Robert Zerwekh SEAsite: Language and Culture Andrea Molnar Computer Science Resources on Southeast Asia: Anthropology www.seasite.niu.edu Center Office Manager:Nancy Schuneman

Front cover photo credits: Field school stories: Photo courtesy of Emily Dow SEAYLP one year later: Photo courtesy of SEAYLP / Philippines Director’s Chair: CSEAS photo

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