The Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies record group documents the administrative and academic activities of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies between 1961 and 1999. It also documents the activities of the two proceeding centers, the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS). Because the Centers had their own budgets and administrative needs well before they split in 1999, and because the Centers share office space, staff, and executive committees as of 2023, the records remain combined in this collection, despite being administratively distinct in the University hierarchy.
The collection is divided into five series: Administrative Records, Funding, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Programs and Conferences, and Publications. The Administrative Records series covers staffing and Center topical files complied by CSSEAS related to the administrative activities of the Centers. The Funding series includes information about budgets, grants and grant proposals, and financial gifts for the academic programs run by the Centers. The Center for Southeast Asian Studies series covers the administrative and funding records for the newly established center starting in 1999. The collection currently does not contain administrative materials from the Center from South Asian Studies; information about that center post-1999 can be found in Programs and Conferences, and Publications.
Programs and Conferences covers the academic and community events, as well as conference proceedings, sponsorships, and participation by CSSEAS, and later, CSAS and CSEAS. The bulk of this material dates from 1972 until the 2000s. The Publications series encompasses all publications created by the Centers or its faculty and students for promotional, professional, or educational purposes. It includes directories, course listings, newsletters, book chapters, and manuscripts from CSSEAS, CSAS, and CSEAS.
The Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies (CSSEAS) was founded in 1961 (preceded by the Committee for Southern Asian Studies, formed in 1958). Originally called the Center for Southern Asian Studies, CSSEAS was funded by a grant from the Ford Foundation as part of a new American effort following World War II to study Asian languages, history, and cultures. In 1959 the College of Literature, Science and the Arts had proposed the expansion of "area studies" at the University of Michigan. This proposal included the establishment of four "area centers": the Center for Chinese Studies, the Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies, the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as CSSEAS, using the Center for Japanese Studies as a model. Special emphasis was placed on the mastery of foreign languages and field research abroad. CSSEAS soon became a distinguished "area center," an institution within the American university system supporting interdisciplinary study on a specific cultural and geographic region of the world.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, CSSEAS sponsored and hosted many conferences and summer programs, bringing together scholars, students and South and Southeast Asians from around the world. Associates are drawn from the faculty and students of existing University of Michigan departments and programs, especially history, political science, anthropology and linguistics, to work together and share ideas about South and Southeast Asian topics. Many students do dual concentrations in South and Southeast Asian studies and other subjects, especially business and linguistics. In 1993, CSSEAS became part of the International Institute, which administers the university's area centers.
In 1999, the Center split into two separate administrative bodies: the Center for South Asian Studies and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies. The South Asian and Southeast Asian programs operated with separate budgets since 1961, and the split allowed both centers to raise funds and recruit faculty more effectively, as well as support the diversity of sociocultural and historical study on both regions. While the centers are split intellectually, retaining their own directors and budgets, they share office space and administrative staff; in addition, their executive committees meet jointly, and both centers continue the programmatic support CSSEAS provided the local and national academic communities.
Directors of the Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies
| Date |
Event |
| 1960-1962 | Richard Park |
| 1962-1965 | L.A. Peter Gosling |
| 1965 | Russell Fitfield (Acting) |
| 1966-1968 | Gayl D. Ness |
| 1969-1971 | John H. Broomfield |
| 1971-1972 | L.A. Peter Gosling |
| 1972-1975 | Alton Lewis Becker |
| 1975-1977 | Thomas R. Trautmann |
| 1977-1980 | L.A. Peter Gosling |
| 1980-1983 | Madhav Deshpande |
| 1983-1987 | Karl L. Hutterer |
| 1987-1989 | Rhoads Murphey |
| 1989-1992 | Victor B. Lieberman |
| 1992-1995 | Nicholas B. Dirks |
| 1995-1998 | Hemalata Dandekar |
Directors of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies
| Date |
Event |
| 1998-2005 | Judith Omans Becker |
| 2006-2008 | Linda Lim |
| 2008-2009 | Allen Hicken (Interim) |
| 2009 | Linda Lim |
| 2010-2013 | Allen Hicken |
| 2013-2019 | Christi-Anne Castro |
| 2019-2022 | Laura M. Rozek |
| 2022-2023 | Mike McGovern |
| 2023- | Allen Hicken |
Directors of the Center for South Asian Studies
| Date |
Event |
| 1998-2000 | Pradeep Chhibber |
| 2000-2003 | Sumathi Ramaswamy (Interim) |
| 2003-2007 | Sumathi Ramaswamy |
| 2007-2009 | William Glover |
| 2010-2011 | Juan Cole |
| 2012-2018 | Farina Mir |
| 2018-2019 | Will Glover |
| 2019-2020 | Leela Fernandes |
| 2020-2021 | Jatin Dua |
| 2021- | Matthew Hull |
The record group was originally processed by Christopher Frey in 1998. In 2023, two additional accessions were processed by processing archivist, Gideon Goodrich, with assistance from Mostafa Salama and Aubrey Lockwood. The new materials were processed and described at the box level, with physical rehousing and minimal rearrangement.
The name of the collection was changed from "Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies" to "Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies" in 2023. This was done to better reflect the administrative operation of both Centers.
This finding aid was revised in 2023 to address outdated descriptive language. During that revision, subject terms related to the study of South and Southeast Asian languages, literature, and culture was updated. The subject terms in use previously - "Orientalists--Michigan" - were updated to "Asianists-- Michigan" and "Southeast Asianists--Michigan". These subject headings are the current LC subject headings and reflect accepted language as of 2023. Previous versions of this finding aid may be available. Please contact the Bentley Historical Library for details.
