20 Years of Southeast Asian Studies, 7 May 2011 at NUS Kent Ridge Staff Club

The Department held its 20th anniversary celebration with a dinner held at the NUS Staff Club on 7 May 2011. Southeast Asian food and entertainment were provided consisting of Thai and Indonesian dances. Short talks were delivered by FASS Dean Professor Brenda Yeoh, A/P Goh Beng Lan (Head), A/P John Miksic and A/P Teofilo Daquila (Assistant Heads and Graduate Coordinators). Their talks highlighted some of the Department's achievements since 1991 including the offering and recognition of four SEA languages (Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Thai and Malay which are now housed in the Centre for Language Studies) and various programs of study such as graduate degrees by coursework and research, the joint MA degree in SEA Studies with the Australian National University, the FASS Summer School with Yale University titled “Southeast Asia in Context” and its expansion to include other universities, the Semester-in-Southeast Asia exchange program with the University of Gadjah Mada, Thammasat University, Vietnam National University, Khon Kaen University, and Ateneo de Manila University, and the minor and second major programs in SEA Studies. After two decades of existence, we have now become a Department.  The anniversary celebration dinner was a success as the 120 alumni and their families, students, former heads, staff and friends enjoyed renewing their ties and forming new ones. It was indeed a night to remember!

Alumni Dinner, 24 March 2007 at NUS Kent Ridge Guild House

A series of events, jointly organised by the Department staff and the SEA Students Society, were held to celebrate the Department’s 15th Anniversary. The ‘Southeast Asia Week’, comprising talks, tours, movie screenings, Southeast Asian classical music performance, was held from 19 – 23 March 2007. As a final event, an alumni dinner, attended by about 180 alumni and staff, was organised on 24 March 2007 at the Kent Ridge Guild House. It was an enjoyable evening with a Southeast Asian buffet and entertainment consisting of a Thai musical ensemble, a classical guitar performance, a solo musical rendition, and a 20-minute video clip about the Department. The evening proved to be a memorable one with the launching of the ‘Southeast Asian Studies Endowment Fund’. The Fund was established to support a variety of student activities including the ‘Semester-in-Southeast Asia exchange programme, fieldwork for Honours research projects, language immersion, and study trips in Southeast Asia. The fund also acts as a bursary for needy but deserving students. The Department received favourable feedback regarding the dinner. In the words of one alumnus: “The dinner was a phenomenal success as the alumni enjoyed catching up with one another immensely and they are really thankful for the opportunity to meet up with their former lecturers.” It was indeed a night to remember!