SEACoast – Center for Southeast Asian Coastal Interactions

Southeast Asian land-and-waterscapes are among the most biologically and culturally rich in the world. If we understand “coast” in a regionally relevant way—as a meeting point of exchanges between mountains and seas—Southeast Asian coasts boast some of the most exciting coastal interactions in the world, from the biological differences across deep-water gaps, such as Wallace’s Line, to the ethnic complexity of littoral-delta-upriver trading and governance. Southeast Asia’s coastal interactions are often spectacular—but also both threatening and threatened. The SEACoast Center draws a cluster of scholars to develop a more-than-human historical approach, in which collaborations across history, anthropology, biology, and ecology are central. The Center offers a program in which students and scholars have the chance to do the patient and creative work of field building for understanding the role of coastal interactions within social and environmental formations.

The SEACoast Center works to build a “slow science” in which scholars and students across disciplinary divides will have the opportunity to bring area studies insights to urgent ecological dilemmas. Our activities include monthly seminars to build a basis for transdisciplinary intellectual development through common readings and field exercises through which empirical curiosity might be built across disciplinary divides.  Collaborative research clusters, as well as individual research, inform our emerging research program.

The SEACoast Center welcomes scholars, students, and the public to join an emerging variety of events, including lectures, working seminars, performances, and film screenings. We offer an annual research fund competition for graduate students and junior faculty working in Southeast Asian studies at UC Santa Cruz, across disciplines.