Description

Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asia Studies (GETSEA) is a cross-institutional network established in 2019 by the faculty directors of the eight current and recent federally funded National Resource Centers for Southeast Asia (NRCs).* Its mission is to enhance graduate education in the study of Southeast Asia through the sharing of resources, expertise and connections. The Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) at Cornell was elected to serve as the consortium’s initial host. GETSEA will develop new mechanisms for bridging institutional divides to share expertise and maximize the reach of faculty. Proposed activities encompass data collection on existing models and programs, and assessment of needs and barriers to collaboration; the piloting of shared curricular activities, including online mini-courses and seminars hosted in rotation by the NRCs as well as shared language instruction; and creation of a mentoring and career development network for graduate students. Programming will be informed by a Graduate Student Advisory Council. GETSEA was envisioned prior to COVID-19 as an effort to transform the current model of Southeast Asian studies, in which the NRCs compete for a shrinking and unstable pot of federal funding, into one in which the network engages in mutually enhancing efforts to stimulate research and teaching. In her April 30 letter reconfirming Cornell’s support, Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford highlighted the importance and timeliness of this collaboration, and its use of online formats, in light of the pandemic-related challenges universities are facing. She continues, “SEAP will be able to implement GETSEA activities and network-building virtually, and in person when possible, and we are eager to see what parts of the project might serve as a model for other regionally focused area studies programs.” The GETSEA experiment thinks outside the box, our advisors noted, by cutting across the paradigm of siloed institutions. Further, they see its promise to help early career scholars, who often work on their own, to stretch and recast their research and teaching, and give them a sense of generational colleagues. While the initial core group consists of the NRCs, the founders envision expanding GETSEA over time to a wider range of institutions with a commitment to training, both graduate and eventually undergraduate, in Southeast Asian studies. Project director Abby Cohn (linguistics) observes, “What is required are repeated, consistent efforts and activities that build new habits, create ongoing and routinized channels of communication and concretely demonstrate the benefits of cooperation.” ________________ * Cornell; Northern Illinois University; the University of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles; the University of Hawaii at Manoa; the University of Michigan; the University of Washington; and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.