Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme at SOAS

The official page of the Alphawood Foundation funded Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme at SOAS, Virtually everyone in the field passes through London.

The Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme at SOAS supports new academic posts, scholarships, events and outreach activities that will build and support a network of organisations in the Southeast Asia region, with the overall aim of enhancing the understanding and preservation of Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture in Southeast Asia. SAAAP is designed to strengthen SOAS’ research expertise an

d existing institutional links to create a vibrant network of organisations and individuals in the Southeast Asian region who share and support this vision. The SAAAP will award over 80 scholarships to students in the countries of Brunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam where Buddhist and Hindu art is prevalent. SOAS will be strengthened with the addition of three fully endowed academic posts in the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology. It will also fund a programme of conferences and seminars, publications, and academic exchanges to foster long-term sustainability in the region. The SAAAP was made possible by a £20 million donation to SOAS from the Alphawood Foundation, Chicago. This is Alphawood Foundation’s largest endowment and is one of the largest recorded to a UK institute of higher education. Fred Eychaner, Alphawood Foundation’s President, spoke about the choice of SOAS in an interview with The Art Newspaper. ‘First of all, outside Asia, London is the virtual crossroads of the Asian art world, with the magnificent British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, SOAS, and Oxford and Cambridge in close proximity. SOAS is small, but for 100 years it has maintained an exceptional and intense focus on the cultures, languages, art, politics and history of Asia and Africa. It builds bridges to the universities, museums and galleries of Asia, including areas where the arts have been held back by strife and politics in the 20th century.’

The donation includes a £5 million contribution to expanding the SOAS campus into the adjacent North Wing of the Senate House with an impressive, glass-covered central atrium. New Academic Staff

Three new fully endowed academic posts will boost the expertise of SOAS in Asian art and archaeology; the Hiram W. Woodward Chair in Southeast Asian art, the David L. Snellgrove Senior Lectureship in Tibetan and Buddhist art, and the Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lectureship in Curating and Museology of Asian Art. These new posts will strengthen the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology and its Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art within SOAS’ recently launched School of Arts. The Alphawood Scholarships

The Alphawood Scholarships are key to the spirit of the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme and will bring outstanding students to SOAS, especially from countries whose educational systems have been damaged by politics and war. These scholarships are targeted at scholars who will return to the region to contribute to the institutions responsible for the understanding and preservation of art in heritage organisations, museums, universities and government departments in the South Asia region. Over the five years of the SAAAP, scholarship students and alumni will make a significant and positive impact on the understanding and preservation of art and architecture in the region. The scholarships will be open to students wishing to study a range of courses from Postgraduate Diploma to Doctorate level, with English language tuition and pre-course training also available. Please visit the Alphawood Scholarships web page for more information. The Academic Support Fund

The Academic Support Fund is used to fund academic resources, conferences, symposia, and other activities in Southeast Asia and the UK which further the aims of the SAAAP. The Academic Support Fund is Open to all SOAS staff and students. Applications to the fund will be assessed on an individual basis and approved by the Project Board. For more information about the application process please contact the SAAAP management team at [email protected]

14/09/2023

– Volume 2 (2023)

We are excited to announce that Pratu - Journal of Buddhist and Hindu Art, Architecture and Archaeology of Ancient to Premodern Southeast Asia has now launched Volume 2 which includes several bilingual papers:

Article 1
Miriam Yeo Sze En, Recursion, Remembering and Re-telling Time in the Stupas of Pagan[ပုဂံဘုရားပုထိုးများအကြောင်း ထပ်တလဲလဲ အဓိပ္ပါယ်ဖွင့်ဆိုခြင်း၊ အမှတ်ရခြင်းနှင့် အချိန်အား ပြန်ပြောင်းပြောဆို ခြင်း]. PDF

Article 2
Wieske Sapardan, Pemulangan Benda C***r Budaya dan Identitas Nasional pada Era Pascakolonial di Indonesia [The Return of Cultural Property and National Identity in Postcolonial Indonesia]. PDF

For the English version published in Returning Southeast Asia’s Past: Objects, Museums, and Restitution, 2021: 213–234, see: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv1r4xctd.14

Article 3
Nguyễn Văn Quảng, Thành lũy Champa ở Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Thừa Thiên Huế trong tổng thể thành lũy Champa ở miền Trung Việt Nam [Champa Citadels and Ramparts in Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Huế, within the General System of Champa Citadels and Ramparts in Central Việt Nam]. PDF

Report 1
Saw Tun Lin, Expecting the Unexpected: New Archaeological Finds at the Shwedagon Pagoda [မျှော်မှန်းမထားသည်များအတွက်ကြိုတင်ပြင်ဆင်ထားပါ – ရွှေတိဂုံစေတီတော်မှ အသစ်တွေ့ရှေးဟောင်းသုတေသနအထောက်အထားများ]. PDF

Report 2
Theerasak Thanusilp, รายงานการสำรวจและขุดค้นทางโบราณคดีแหล่งโลหกรรม ในเขตลุ่มน้ำยมตอนบน กับการวิเคราะห์ตีความเกี่ยวกับกระบวนการผลิตโลหะสมัยสุโขทัย [Survey and Excavation Report on Metallurgical Sites in the Upper Yom River Basin, and an Initial Analysis of Metallurgical Production in the Sukhothai Period]. PDF

Pratu was set up in 2017 and managed by doctoral students from the Department of History of Art and Archaeology, with support from the Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme (SAAAP). This open-access peer-reviewed journal offers valuable exposure for early career scholars and new research in the region. We encourage submissions in Southeast Asian languages and endeavour to provide translation and editing services. For more information, please visit: http://www.pratujournal.org or email the editorial team: [email protected]

(no title) 🇮🇩 Beranda 🇰🇭 ទំព័រដើម 🇲🇲 အဖွင့်စာမျက်နှ 🇹🇭 หน้าหลัก 🇻🇳 Trang chủ Pratu: Journal of Buddhist and Hindu Art, Architecture and Archaeology of Ancient to Premodern Southeast Asia is the initiative of a group of...

Photos from Southeast Asian Art Academic Programme at SOAS's post

23/07/2023

Alphawood Alumni Myanmar in Indonesia for the SOAS-UGM. Yogyakarta Summer School - congratulations!!!

25/06/2023

Hi all!
The new volume, VOLUME II, of Pratu: Journal of Buddhist and Hindu Art, Architecture and Archaeology of Ancient to Premodern Southeast Asia has been released.

This volume consists of 2 articles and 1 report:
Article 1: Recursion, Remembering and Re-telling Time in the Stupas of Pagan, written by Miriam Yeo Sze En. This article also has the abstract in Burmese.

Article 2: Pemulangan Benda C***r Budaya dan Identitas Nasional pada Era Pascakolonial di Indonesia [The Return of Cultural Property and National Identity in Postcolonial Indonesia], written by Wieske Sapardan

Report 1: Expecting the Unexpected: New Archaeological Finds at the Shwedagon Pagoda, written by Saw Tun Lin. This report also has the full report in Burmese.

Moreover, the next report will be released soon. This report is written by Theerasak Thanusilp, an archaeologist of the Fine Arts Department, Thailand.

Current Volume 🇮🇩 Volume Terkini 🇰🇭 លេខបច្ចុប្បន្ន 🇲🇲 နောင်ထွက်ရှိမည့်ဂျာနယ်အတွဲ 🇹🇭 วารสารฉบับต่อไป 🇻🇳 Tập Mới Phát Hành The articles listed below are included in this ...

Alphawood Alumni at Big Archaeology Conference at Chaing Mai, Thailand

08/12/2022

https://www.soas.ac.uk/about/news/alphawood-alumni-big-archaeology-conference-chaing-mai-thailand

Alphawood Alumni at Big Archaeology Conference at Chaing Mai, Thailand 6-13 November 2022 Alphawood Alumni at IPPA – Myanmar panel Chiang Mai, Thailand Author: Elizabeth Moore

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The ‘Soul of Our Nation’: Restitution of Khmer Antiquities. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar.

06/10/2022

Zoom link for The ‘Soul of Our Nation’: Restitution of Khmer Antiquities:

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: The ‘Soul of Our Nation’: Restitution of Khmer Antiquities. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. What does it mean to stake a claim for the ‘soul of a nation’? How does a statue embody a nation’s soul? If such claims underpin Cambodian restitution campaigns today, how do restitution processes themselves inform such claims? How does the equation of ancient statuary with the soul of the nat...

05/10/2022

01/10/2022

Please join
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The ‘Soul of Our Nation’: Restitution of Khmer Antiquities
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Date: 6 October 2022
Time: 3:00-4:45 PM (Zoom)
Venue: Room B104, Brunei Gallery.
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Programme:
3.00 – 3.15 pm Screening of How Looted Statues ended up in Museums. Henry Baker and Adrianne Jeffries,15 September 2022. Online viewers please watch here:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-15/video-how-cambodia-s-statues-ended-up-in-the-biggest-museums

3.15 – 3.30 pm Opening: Prof. Ashley Thompson
3.15-4.45 pm Online event
3.00-7.00 pm In person event:

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Abstract
The statues are not coffee table décor to us, they are not doorstops. These are our kings, our ancestors, our spirits. They are the soul of our nation. Pen Moni Makara, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia What does it mean to stake a claim for the ‘soul of a nation’? How does a statue embody a nation’s soul? If such claims underpin Cambodian restitution campaigns today, how do restitution processes themselves inform such claims? How does the equation of ancient statuary with the soul of the nation on politicized public fronts intersect with practices on the ground? If a sculpted stone is experienced as living, is there a point at which it can be said to die? Can it be brought back to life? What relations maintain between the emotive and the rational in restitution work? Does the reality and rhetoric of restitution divide the national from the international, or does it promise to unite them in some decolonial future? The work of restitution is arduous, integrating political, legal, archaeological, art historical, ethnographic and museological expertise on national, regional, and international registers. As restitution campaigns have accelerated, a Cambodian governmental Restitution Team has been consolidated, going from strength to strength. SOAS is honoured to host this Team for an afternoon of discussion around these questions.

Zoom registration at: https://soas-ac-uk.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_w-5rwtNsS8iQp-k6gnncdA

From the Periphery to the Centre: Reassessing the Buddhist and Hindu Art and Architecture of Medieval Maritime Asia - ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute

01/09/2022

Registration is now open for the webinar 'From the Periphery to the Centre: Reassessing the Buddhist and Hindu Art and Architecture of Medieval Maritime Asia' at Temasek History Research Centre on 5 September 2022.

From the Periphery to the Centre: Reassessing the Buddhist and Hindu Art and Architecture of Medieval Maritime Asia - ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute TEMASEK HISTORY RESEARCH CENTRE About the Webinar The webinar, inspired by the intellectual agenda of the recently published 2-volume http://www.soas.ac.uk/saaap/, SAAAP Outreach and Communications Manager, and Senior Teaching Fellow in History of Art & Archaeology, School of Oriental & African Stud...

17/07/2022

Yesterday talk at the Siam Society. Two volumes regarding Theravada Buddhism: 1) Early Theravadin Cambodia: Perspectives from Art and Archaeology; 2) Routledge Handbook of Theravada Buddhism.

17/07/2022

Today, Prof.Ashley Thompson, Prof.Smerchai Poonsuwan, and Prof Katherine Bowie are talking Early Theravada Cambodia: Perspectives from Art and Archaeology, and Routledge Handbook of Theravada Buddhism at Suan Mokkh Bangkok.

10/07/2022

Please join
https://www.ippasecretariat.org/22nd-ippa-congress/workshop?fbclid=IwAR1dyByDmCGtYgw3pRhoH9sQ2Gd7AWqasN07qWgIE3oDUV1kpDRaEwD_HgI&fs=e&s=cl

IPPA SECRETARIAT - Workshop The IPPA 2022 Organising Committee offers a full-day workshop designed for research students and early career researchers. Participants of this workshop will be required to attend all three courses and meet requirements set by the organisers.

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