Admission Requirements
The following categories of students may register for this course:
Students enrolled for the bachelor’s programme CADS of Leiden University
Students enrolled for bachelor’s programmes of Leiden University
Erasmus exchange students and Study Abroad students who have been expressly admitted to this course
Course Description
The idea of Southeast Asia has been called many things, from a colonial construction to a relic of the Cold War; it has been seen as embodying an economic miracle without precedent and as nothing more than the backyard of its more successful neighbours to the East and North. This course will focus on the Southeast Asian region in its own right dealing with how its constituent nations and Southeast Asia as a whole have been imagined and shaped by various actors in present times, from powerful capital to its often porous borders, from dominant ethnicities to those living at the margins; and from local nationalist histories to pan-regional initiatives such as ASEAN. We shall scrutinize the articulation of global and local processes through diverse ideas of nationhood, citizenship and cultures. We shall also examine how poverty and wealth have been shaped and transformed through various development processes and understandings of modernity. We will explore these topics by comparing case studies from various Southeast Asian countries, including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines.
Topics dealt with in this 12 week course will include nationhood and multiculturalism, labour regimes and social inequalities, the new Asian middle class and their patterns of consumption, gender, migration, popular religion, cultural heritage tourism, environmental change and the fate of Southeast Asia’s indigenous people in the 21st century.
What is Southeast Asia’s place in today’s world, and in the minds of the colourful and widely divergent range of its own communities, people and citizens? While constantly questioning the merits of a comparative approach this course will strongly emphasize how Southeast Asians (based on their diverse social and cultural backgrounds) perceive their own region, as our weekly sessions will include discussion of essays, poetry and newspaper cuttings dealing with current affairs, as well as scholarly analyses of regional experts.
Students should note that besides classes we are planning an evening programme in which we shall screen relevant feature films, documentary films and short films by and about Southeast Asian people and nations. The films will be shown with brief introductions and the hope is that they will be followed by group discussions. The evening film programme will be voluntary.
Course Objectives
By the end of the course, students will have learned to:
Apply a historical and comparative perspective to understand the contemporary cultural, social and political diversity and inequality of modern-day Southeast Asia
Critically evaluate the merits and limitations of studying Southeast Asia through the lenses of the nation-state and area studies
Effectively convey ideas and synthesize information in written assignments and reports
Develop their skills for critical reading, thinking and analysis
Schedule
Dates can be found on our website.
Methods of Instruction
10 ECTS = 280 study hours (sbu):
Lectures 12 × 3 = 36 hours * 1,5 = 54 sbu
Additional literature study circa 1,000 pages = 136 sbu
Written assignments totalling 4,500 words = 60 sbu
Review essay 2,000-2,250 words = 30 sbu
Assessment Method
In-class assignments for the e-portfolio, 12 hrs * 2,5 = 30 sbu
Four assignments totalling circa 3,500 words = 47 sbu
Project paper (3,500-3,750 words) + presentation at final (online) seminar = 60 sbu
Additional study of literature (ca. 1,000 pages) = 143 sbu
Registration
Registration in uSis is required. Once registered for the course, students need not register for an exam because this course has no final classroom exam.
Brightspace
Brightspace is the digital learning environment of Leiden University. Brightspace gives access to course announcements and electronic study material. Assignments will also be submitted in Brightspace. Announcements about and changes to courses are given via Brightspace. Students are advised to check Brightspace daily to keep informed about rooms, schedules, deadlines, and all details of assignments. Lecturers assume that all students read information posted on Brightspace.
- How to login
The homepage for Brightspace is: Brightspace
Please log in with your ULCN-account and personal password. On the left you will see an overview of My Courses.
For access to courses in Brightspace students must be registered for those courses in uSis.
Course Literature
Articles from electronic journals and encyclopaedias are available through the digital university library (to be announced).
A monograph to be chosen from:
Basarudin, Azza 2016 Humanizing the Sacred: Sisters in Islam and the Struggle for Gender Justice in Malaysia. Washington DC: University of Washington Press.
Hau, Caroline S. 2014 The Chinese Question: Ethnicity, Nation, and Region in and beyond the Philippines. Singapore: NUS Press.
Kloos, David 2018 Becoming Better Muslims: Religious Authority and Ethical Improvement in Aceh, Indonesia. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Li, Tania M. 2014 Land’s End: Capitalist Relations on an Indigenous Frontier. Durham and London: Duke University Press.
Nguyen, Minh T.N. 2018 Waste and Wealth: An Ethnography of Labor, Value and Morality in a Vietnamese Recycling Economy. London and New York: Oxford University Press.
Sopranzetti, Claudio 2017 Owners of the Map: Motorcycle Taxi Drivers, Mobility, and Politics in Bangkok. Oakland: University of California Press.