Hermin Indah Wahyuni, Universitas Gadjah Mada
The Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) is a research institute at Gadjah Mada University that focuses on social issues in the Southeast Asian region. The Center was established in 1986 under the name, Inter-University Center for Social Sciences (Pusat Antar Universitas Bidang Sosial). Fifteen years later, the name was changed to CESASS to emphasize the commitment of the university to regional studies. In 2016, the CESASS was designated by the Indonesian Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education as a Center of Excellence for Science and Technology, enabling it to carry out more research and support activities in the last five years than previously. The Center’s researches are varied, as the list below indicates.
| Title | Completed |
|---|---|
| A Quest for Agency in the Anthropocene: Law and Environmental Movements in Southeast Asia | 2022 |
| Labor Migration from Southeast Asia to Taiwan: Issues, Public Responses and Future Development | 2020 |
| Social Science in the Age of Transformation and Disruption: Its Relevance, Role, and Challenge | 2021 |
| The State of Responsibility to Protect Inception in ASEAN Regionalism | 2020 |
| Sultanates and the Making of Nationhood in Indonesia and Malaysia | 2020 |
| Adaptive Organizational Communication of ASEAN from an Autopoietic System Perspective | 2017 |
| Brexit, European Integration, and ASEAN Regionalism | 2017 |
| Maritime Southeast Asia and Regional Integration: Potential and Challenges | 2016 |
| The Case of Regional Disaster Management Cooperation in ASEAN: A Constructivist Approach to Understanding How International Norms Travel | 2016 |
Table 1. CESASS Publications, 2016-2021
Among the challenges the Center faces, funding is the first concern. University research grants tend to favor science, medicine, and engineering. The perception that social sciences are not “product-oriented” does not help the Center either. While it has its own staff, most of the Center’s researchers are faculty who come from disciplinal departments in the social sciences. The roster of faculty researchers shows a healthy mix of disciplines such as political science and international relations, history, sociology, environmental law, and communication. But these faculty members are saddled with teaching obligations in their own departments (and additional tasks like committee work, etc.), which might explain why their research commitments to the Center cannot be full-time. The remedy would be for the Center to strengthen its in-house core of researchers to take charge of the research functions, with faculty serving as consultants or, when time permits, as functioning members of a research project. But here again the problem would be funding for additional research personnel.
The Center also publishes the journal, IKAT: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, a biannual, open access, double-blind reviewed journal in English about Southeast Asian societies and cultures. The journal invites “empirical, methodological, theoretical, or conceptual articles about Southeast Asia through the eye of social sciences” and “strives to provide new, rigorous and comprehensive knowledge and understanding of Southeast Asia through inter-disciplinary perspectives” (<https://jurnal.ugm.ac.id/ikat/issue/archive>). Contributors may focus on an individual country in the region or compare several applying a particular theme or perspective. The first issue appeared in 2017 and the journal has appeared consistently since. The number of articles published in a year has ranged from eight to 22, as shown below.
Figure 1. Number of Articles published in IKAT, 2017-2021
Source: Researcher.Life by Editage. N.d. IKAT: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies: Impact Factor & More <https://researcher.life/journal/ikat-the-indonesian-journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/26146> Accessed 15 November 2022.
Fewer than one-fifth of the articles are about the ASEAN, while the bulk speak to different aspects of Southeast Asia. A handful examine Southeast Asia within the larger region of Asia-Pacific or East Asia. Indonesian authors account for more than 60 percent of the total number of contributors (11 issues from 2017 to 2022), with the rest coming from other countries in and outside the region.
| Place / Country | No. of Articles |
|---|---|
| Indonesia | 39 |
| Other Southeast Asia | 11 |
| East Asia | 1 |
| South Asia | 2 |
| Australia/New Zealand | 2 |
| Europe | 6 |
| Middle East | 1 |
| TOTAL | 62 |
Table 2. IKAT Contributors by Place of Origin, 2017-2022
Source: Compiled from the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies data <https://humaniora.journal.ugm.ac.id/ikat/issue/archive>. Accessed 20 November 2022.
Aside from publications, CESASS runs an annual non-degree summer training program called “Teaching and Researching Southeast Asia Program” (Mengajar dan Meneliti Asia Tenggara, MMAT). The program was initiated to address the gap in knowledge production about Southeast Asia in Indonesia and more generally in the region, compared to works produced by Southeast Asianists in Europe and the U.S. The MMAT aims to:
The program generally discusses methodology and issues in Southeast Asian studies and consists of lectures and workshops on specific topics that vary from year to year. The first training was carried out in 2016. Initially the program’s lecturers came from the Center and the audience was local. But in recent years, lecturers from various countries and disciplines joined the program roster and the audience also expanded internationally starting in 2019. Out of 23 participants that year, one came from the U.S., another from Australia, one from far-away Brazil, and one from neighboring Singapore. The switch to online lectures in 2021 prompted by the pandemic caused an upsurge not only in the number of participants but also in their countries of origin. In 2021, the first year of online classes, participants from 11 countries took part in the program. Majority (38.3%) still came from Indonesia (down from more than 90% in previous years), but Thai participants accounted for a third of the participants, followed by Taiwanese (8.3%). The program also had one participant from East Timor and (surprisingly) one from Europe (Belgium). The next year, participants from seven countries took part in the program. This time more than half of the participants were Indonesian, while Thais comprised 29.3% of the total number. Four participants from Russia took part in the program, plus one from Bulgaria and another from Palestine.
| Year | No. of Participants | Modality | Audience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 15 | Face-to-face | Local |
| 2017 | 15 | Face-to-face | Local |
| 2019 | 23 | Face-to-face | Local |
| 2021 | 60 | Online | International |
| 2022 | 58 | Online | International |
| Total | 171 |
Table 3. Profile of MMAT Participants and Program, 2016-2022
In 2019 the Center introduced an innovation in the program: one-day field trips by groups to different locations in Jogjakarta (eg., market, museum) to expose participants to local problems and help them think about these problems in the broader context of Southeast Asia.
For a time, funding for the MMAT summer program was the Center’s largest challenge. Fees are collected from participants; some request a waiver while others assert that the program ought to be offered without charge. This might explain the rather low level of participation in the program’s initial years. In the past two years, however, MMAT has been sponsored by the university. This support coupled with the switch to online lectures explain the rise in the number of participants and the participation of more countries in the program.
Another concern is that participants have made little effort to get their paper published or presented in some academic venue—a condition of acceptance into the program. The lack of initiative could be because the course is not credited. At the same time, there is no question that interest in the region is high, as evidenced by the growing number of participants and not just from the region. This development certainly has great potential for the sustainability of the summer MMAT program. In 2023, CESASS will hold two special summer programs for university partners from Taiwan’s Tamkang University and National Chengchi University. Both universities will send students and staff to Gadjah Mada to study Southeast Asia. In addition, partnerships with several other universities, such as Thammasat University and the National University of Singapore, will continue through the MMAT program. To accommodate face-to-face participants and as well as those from outside the region, CESASS is considering a hybrid summer course.
In addition to the yearly training program, the Center holds conferences and training workshops.
| Title | Target Audience | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Training on Increasing Insights and Management of Information in the ASEAN for Regional Governments | Local government officials | 9–11 May 2016 |
| Symposium on ASEAN Community 2016: Persisting Hope and Anxiety | Students from Southeast Asia, business, government, and society | 16–17 Nov 2016 |
| NPRU Summer Program: “Not only Language, but also Tradition” | Students from Nakhon Pathom Rajabhat University, Thailand | 27 May – 20 June 2017 |
| Conference on Social Science in the Age of Transformation and Disruption: Its Role, Relevance, and Challenge | International | 4–5 Sept 2018 |
| Conference on Rethinking the Social World in the 21st Century | International | 24–25 Aug 2020 |
| Conference on Media, Cinema, and Art: Rediscovering Southeast Asia Amidst its Multi-layered Burdens | International | 4–5 Oct 2021 |
Table 4. CESASS Conferences and Workshops, 2016-2021
Participation in the conferences varies and usually attracts local scholars and from the region. CESASS seeks to attract Southeast Asianists from outside Southeast Asia but has yet to make progress in this matter. Funding is admittedly a concern.