Description
The New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN), a collaborative scholarly community dedicated to enhancing the visibility of Southeast Asia and fostering the study of the region in Greater New York, was launched in 2015 with seed funding from the Foundation. It was co-founded by four professors concerned about the longstanding gap in coverage: few courses have been offered in Southeast Asian studies anywhere in the New York area. Their emphasis on collaboration across institutions and disciplines received significant backing on their respective campuses and resonated with recommendations from the Asia Program’s external review.
The four scholars are Duncan McCargo (political science, Columbia), John Gershman (clinical professor of public service, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University ), former Luce Scholar Margaret Scott (journalist and adjunct associate professor, Wagner School) and Ann Marie Murphy (political science, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, Seton Hall University in New Jersey ). Today, in addition to the three universities where the co-founders are based, the Network comprises 11 partner organizations, including the Asian American Writers Workshop, Asia Society, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs (all Luce grantees), and several universities such as Cornell, Rutgers and Yale. In addition, it has attracted about 500 individual affiliates with an interest in Southeast Asia whose fields range from policy, journalism, and art to business, development, public health, and urban and environmental studies. In each of the last two years, NYSEAN initiated or co-sponsored around 50 events, a level of programming comparable to that of many Title VI National Resource Centers for Southeast Asia. It also has played an important role in institutionalizing the study of Southeast Asia on New York campuses. Since 2015, two new Vietnam experts, one in history and one in languages and cultures, have been hired at Columbia. NYU has added an anthropologist who is a specialist on Southeast Asian Islam. These hires represent major institutional investments in the field.
Columbia University, in partnership with NYU and Seton Hall, requests the Luce Foundation’s support to grow NYSEAN. The Network will again be housed at Columbia’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute . Besides continuing to curate events, sponsor research collaboration, and develop curriculum resources, the Network aims to increase the number of institutional partners. A 10-15 member Partners Committee will be created to formalize a governance structure. Partner organizations will for the first time be eligible to compete for modest funding, to be allocated twice a year, for workshops or conferences on specific themes, such as domestic and comparative politics, the environment, and the salience of religion and culture. With our support, NYSEAN will also be able to offer more internships, capstone projects, and travel opportunities for students and scholars.
Toward the expansion of NYSEAN, Columbia, NYU and Seton Hall are expected to contribute a combined $325,000, including funding for seminars, conferences, student travel and internship stipends as well as in-kind support for office space, technical services and administrative assistance. McCargo, one of the co-founders, says, “NYSEAN offers a hub and spokes model that links the resources of our partner institutions to new audiences. In an era of scarce resources, the field of Southeast Asian studies will increasingly concentrate language, library, and scholarly resources at a small number of institutions, and will need to find ways to share those resources more broadly. NYSEAN is at the forefront of the search for new and innovative ways to produce and promote the scholarly resources.”
That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a three-year grant of $475,000 to Columbia University for renewed support of the New York Southeast Asia Network.
