The Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin is a formal interdisciplinary and intercollege program which has existed for several decades. Students interested in Southeast Asia have a continually expanding curriculum available to them in nearly all disciplines of study. In addition, the Southeast Asian Studies Program offers language study in Indonesian, Thai, and Tagalog. Students choosing to study these Southeast Asian languages can do so on campus, or in one of the language abroad programs.
Financial aid is available to students who wish to compete for several types of fellowships.
Title VI Fellowships for the study of Southeast Asian languages are available to both U.S. and international students. There are also a limited number of teaching assistantships and nonresident scholarships both in the Center program and in the departments. Because the Southeast Asian Studies Program is interdisciplinary, students have a unique opportunity to choose from a wide range of fields of concentration related to research and teaching. For example, research interests of the Southeast Asian Studies core faculty include democratization of the Philippines, regional music traditions of Indonesia, Islam and politics in Indonesia, Social forestry and grassroots education in Thailand, the Philippines, and Indonesia, origins and variation in Malay and Indonesian languages, the Thai body politic, Southeast Asian cities and the cultural geography of Southeast Asia, peasant societies in Thailand, primary health care in Laos and Vietnam, Thai poetics, conservation policy and economics in Thailand and the Philippines, and Javanese dances and related performing arts in Indonesia. The Center continues to provide various resources and facilities to students interested in Southeast Asian studies.