If you have questions, please contact our Graduate Student Affairs Assistant (GSAA), Deisy Escobedo at deisy.escobedo@ucr.edu (951 827-1821) or our Graduate Faculty Advisor, David Biggs at david.biggs@ucr.edu.
Graduate Program in Southeast Asian Studies
The Master’s Program in Southeast Asian Studies is an interdepartmental program centered on the study of the arts and cultural life in Southeast Asia and the diasporas. To understand Southeast Asia as a region, students need to make sense of and engage with its diverse expressive forms of culture (including visual arts, literature, and performance) which are crucial in building and maintaining individual as well as group identity both within and across national or ethnic boundaries. Additionally, the region will be studied with an emphasis on historical, religious, and ethnographical perspectives.
Requirements for Admission
All applicants must comply with the standard admission requirements as established by the Graduate Division. In addition, applicants must indicate a distinct interest in a region by way of their Statement of Purpose and submit a writing sample (preferably a past term paper or course essay) to demonstrate basic skills of scholarship.
Foreign Language
Students must acquire (or increase) a distinct level of proficiency in at least one language relevant to Southeast Asian Studies prior to beginning research for the thesis and no later than the fifth quarter in the program. The required proficiency can be demonstrated by way of an exam or by completing one year of course work with a “B” or better.
Core Course work
All students are required to pass the Proseminar in Southeast Asian Studies (SEAS 200) with a “B” or better. Additionally, students must pass (with a “B” or better) four of the following six seminar courses:
- SEAS 201 Southeast Asian performance
- SEAS 202 Southeast Asian religions
- SEAS 203 Southeast Asian cultures
- SEAS 204 History of Southeast Asia
- SEAS 205 Literatures of Southeast Asia
- SEAS 206 Media in Southeast Asia
In addition, they select four other seminars (at graduate and upper division level) in accordance with their main field of interest and pending approval by the Graduate Advisor and the student’s Thesis Committee.
Thesis
Students are to conduct original research that should form the basis for a thesis, to be written under the supervision of a member of the program who also functions as the chair of their Thesis Committee. At the beginning of the second year students should write a research proposal outlining their research project. Approximately ten pages in length this proposal should describe the aims of the research and provide a broader theoretical framework. After this is approved students begin to conduct individual research in the field or in the library. Before filing the thesis with the Graduate Division students must pass a formal oral examination.
University Requirements
All master’s students must be enrolled for at least three quarters to fulfill the University residency requirement and must hold at least a 3.00 GPA in all upper division and graduate level course work related to the degree. A minimum of 36 units must be completed of which 24 must be graduate level (200 level).
Normative Time for the degree is two years.
