Program Overview

Southeast Asian Studies, Certificate

The Southeast Asian Studies certificate meets the needs of students choosing to focus on the Southeast Asia regionBrunei, Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnambut not wishing to commit to the more rigorous language and area studies courses required for the Asian Languages and Cultures major. Students select classes reflecting their interests offered through many university departments and can work toward a variety of undergraduate majors. The certificate is of value to students wishing to demonstrate their knowledge of the Southeast Asian region either to potential employers or to graduate schools.

How to Get in

Students interested in declaring the certificate in Southeast Asian studies should contact the program advisor.

• Students declared in the Asian Languages and Cultures: Southeast Asian Studies BA/BS/MAJ are not eligible to declare the Southeast Asian Studies certificate.

Requirements

Complete 15 credits, as follows:

Course List

• Language: Up to 6 credits of Language may count towards the certificate.
  • ASIALANG 223: Third Semester Filipino
  • ASIALANG 224: Fourth Semester Filipino
  • ASIALANG 225: Third Semester Hmong
  • ASIALANG 226: Fourth Semester Hmong
  • ASIALANG 227: Third Semester Indonesian
  • ASIALANG 228: Fourth Semester Indonesian
  • ASIALANG 229: Third Semester Thai
  • ASIALANG 230: Fourth Semester Thai
  • ASIALANG 231: Third Semester Vietnamese
  • ASIALANG 232: Fourth Semester Vietnamese
  • ASIALANG 323: Fifth Semester Filipino
  • ASIALANG 324: Sixth Semester Filipino
  • ASIALANG 325: Fifth Semester Hmong
  • ASIALANG 326: Sixth Semester Hmong
  • ASIALANG 328: Sixth Semester Indonesian
  • ASIALANG 329: Fifth Semester Thai
  • ASIALANG 330: Sixth Semester Thai
  • ASIALANG 331: Fifth Semester Vietnamese
  • ASIALANG 332: Sixth Semester Vietnamese
  • ASIALANG 348: Fifth Semester Indonesian
  • ASIALANG 407: Third Semester Southeast Asian Language
  • ASIALANG 408: Fourth Semester Southeast Asian Language
  • ASIALANG 507: Fifth Semester Southeast Asian Language
  • ASIALANG 508: Sixth Semester Southeast Asian Language
  • ASIALANG 607: Seventh Semester Southeast Asian Language
  • ASIALANG 608: Eighth Semester Southeast Asian Language
• Core courses: 9-15 credits
  • A A E/INTL ST 373: Globalization, Poverty and Development
  • ANTHRO 322: The Origins of Civilization
  • ANTHRO 339: Archaeology of Warfare and Human Nature
  • ART HIST/ASIAN 379: Cities of Asia
  • ASIAN AM 240: Topics in Asian American Studies
  • ASIALANG 475: Advanced Topics in Asian Translation
  • ASIAN/RELIG ST 206: The Qur'an: Religious Scripture & Literature
  • ASIAN 403: Southeast Asian Literature
  • COM ARTS 310: Topics in Rhetoric and Communication Science
  • COM ARTS 470: Contemporary Political Discourse
  • GEOG/ASIAN/HISTORY/POLI SCI/SOC 244: Introduction to Southeast Asia: Vietnam to the Philippines
  • GEOG 340: World Regions in Global Context
  • GEOG 358: Human Geography of Southeast Asia
  • GEOG/ENVIR ST 557: Development and Environment in Southeast Asia
  • HISTORY/ASIAN/ASIAN AM 246: Southeast Asian Refugees of the "Cold" War
  • HISTORY/ASIAN/RELIG ST 308: Introduction to Buddhism
  • HISTORY/ASIAN 319: The Vietnam Wars
  • HISTORY/INTL ST 375: The Cold War - From World War II to End of Soviet Empire
  • HISTORY/ASIAN 458: History of Southeast Asia Since 1800
  • HISTORY 600: Advanced Seminar in History
  • INTL BUS 200: International Business
  • RELIG ST/ENVIR ST 270: The Environment: Religion & Ethics
  • RELIG ST/AFRICAN/ASIAN 370: Islam: Religion and Culture

Residence and Quality of Work

• Minimum 2.000 GPA on all certificate courses
• At least 8 certificate credits must be completed in residence

Certificate Completion Requirement

This undergraduate certificate must be completed concurrently with the students undergraduate degree. Students cannot delay degree completion to complete the certificate.

Learning Outcomes

1. Historical and Cultural Grounding: understanding the historical political and cultural forces and conditions that have given rise to the unity and diversity in the region today.
2. Multi-disciplinarity: analyzing contemporary political, economic, and cultural realities in the region from at least two disciplinary perspectives, ideally including humanities, social sciences and sometimes natural science approaches.
3. Depth of Knowledge: mastering at the undergraduate generalist level a particular facet of life in the region by taking courses on a particular sub-region or country or by studying a regional language or by taking at least two courses on the region in one discipline.

Advising and Careers

All students interested in this certificate are encouraged to take HISTORY/ASIAN/GEOG/POLI SCI/SOC 244 Introduction to Southeast Asia: Vietnam to the Philippines.

• Southeast Asian language courses are taught in the academic yearFilipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese. These and Burmese, Khmer, and Lao can be taken at UWMadisons summer program, the Southeast Asian Studies Summer Institute.

Wisconsin Experience

As a regional center within the Institute for Regional and International Studies, we support and enhance international and global awareness in our student communities and inspire informed thinking about the complexities of our world. We encourage our students to connect to international networks and our regional communities through our programs lecture series, film screenings, and varied outreach events and activities. We encourage our students to study abroad, do international internships, learn foreign languages, and expect them to gain an interdisciplinary grounding in global and regional affairs. We provide resources and expertise on our world area to students and prospective students, and more broadly to K-12 teachers and students, postsecondary educators and graduate students, businesses, the media, the military, the community at large, and anyone else who wants it.