Stephen Acabado to Direct PEMSEA, Established by a Luce Grant of $740,000

via UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, 30 June 2021: Announcement of the establishment of the Program for Early Modern Southeast Asia, headed by Stephen Acabado at the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

The Henry Luce Foundation awarded a grant of $740,000 to the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies to support the project Early Modern Period Transitions in Southeast Asia: Environmental Dynamics, Social Change, and Globalization, which was described as “an exciting project” by Helena Kolenda, the Program Director for Asia at the Luce Foundation. The grant was awarded through the Luce Initiative on Southeast Asia and will establish the Program for Early Modern Southeast Asia (PEMSEA), directed by Stephen Acabado, associate professor of anthropology and core faculty member of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Acabado will also serve as director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies effective July 1, 2021, the official beginning date of the project, which will run through June 30, 2027. Various UCLA units will also contribute approximately $1.4 million to the program, including the International Institute, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, the Dean of Humanities, and the Dean of Social Sciences, according to Acabado.

Ifugao terracesWith the University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa and the University of Washington as collaborators, PEMSEA is designed to be an interdisciplinary research program to expand and revitalize Southeast Asian studies by offering new directions for integrated scholarship through undergraduate and graduate student training, annual interdisciplinary workshops and field schools, community engagement, and logistical support for studies on Early Modern Period Southeast Asia. The research program intends to provide baseline environmental histories from different locations in Southeast Asia using multidisciplinary approaches.

Source: Stephen Acabado to Direct PEMSEA, Established by a Luce Grant of $740,000 | UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

See also:

• UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies receives $740,000 grant from Luce Foundation | UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies, 04 July 2021
• UCLA appoints Filipino professor as head of Southeast Asian studies center | The Manila Times, 04 July 2021