News and Events

CSEAS-affiliated graduate student and PhD Candidate in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies Dan Owen was recently awarded the 

The University of California at Berkeley is hiring a full-time, tenure-track Assistant Professor in Modern Southeast Asian Humanities in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies with an expected start date of July 1, 2026.

The final review date is Saturday, Oct 25, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

For more details about this posting, please visit:

https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04832

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, invites applications for a qualified, temporary non-tenure track lecturer position to teach courses in introductory, intermediate and advanced Thai.

*No longer accepting applications

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies invites applications for a lecturer in Sikh Studies for the Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 semesters.

*No longer accepting applications

Prytanean Alumnae board members and UC Berkeley faculty selected our very own Assistant Professor Vasugi Kailasam as the 2024 recipient of the Pyrtanean Faculty Enrichment Award in recognition exceptional scholarship and service to the campus community.

For more on this prestigious award and Professor Kaisalam, please visit here.

It was with great shock and sadness that we members of the SSEAS family learned of the sudden and unexpected loss of our former Ph.D. student and cherished colleague Dr. Luis González-Reimann, who passed away as a result of a heart attack while on a family visit to his hometown of Mexico City during the night of Saturday, March 26, 2022. It was exactly one week shy of  his 74^th birthday.

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, invites application of a pool of qualified temporary non-tenure track lecturer positions to teach language courses in Bengali and Sanskrit Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, should the need arise. Courses may be introductory, intermediate or advanced. For more information about the position, including required qualifications and applications materials, go to https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF03364.

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, invites application of a pool of qualified temporary non-tenure track lecturer positions to teach to teach Reading and Composition and other courses in South and Southeast Asian Studies for Summer 2022, Fall 2022, and Spring 2023. For more information about the position, including required qualifications and applications materials, go to https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF0325.

Dr. Abhijeet Paul Receives Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to India for Researching Kolkata’s Jute Culture and Technology and Teaching in West Bengal State University, India

The Department is proud to share this interview with Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, conducted by Professor Claudio.

UC Berkeley's South and Southeast Asia Library celebrates its 50th anniversary with a vibrant exhibit.

Cheryl Yin is joining the Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies as a 2021-2022 UC Berkeley Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow. Dr. Yin recently received her Ph.D. in Linguistic Anthropology from the University of Michigan, with a dissertation on Khmer honorifics. She is from Long Beach, California and received her undergraduate degree from Pitzer College.

Cheryl will be working with Penny Edwards as her faculty mentor.

The Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley seeks to appoint an Assistant Professor in Sanskrit Studies, tenure track.

Our revered colleague, teacher and friend, Professor Padmanabh Srivarma Jaini, master of Buddhist and Jain Studies, passed away on Tuesday May 25, just five months shy from what would have been his 98th birthday. His health had been failing over the last weeks, and he peacefully passed away on his own terms in his home in the Berkeley hills, with his son Arvind at his side, who as medical doctor oversaw his gentle departure. For most of the nearly fifty years that Prof.

We are thrilled to announce that Joi Barrios-LeBlanc has been duly recognized with the "Extraordinary Teaching in Extraordinary Times" award. The Awards Committee received more than 500 nominations. This is a tribute to the spirit of this campus, to be sure. But most of all, it is a tribute to Joi.

Please join us in congratulating her!

Here is the link to the Awards page, as well as the description of the nature of Joi's extraordinary contribution:

Graduate student Sohini Sarah Pillai's co-edited volume, Many Mahabharatas, appears with SUNY Press.

Manager Jan Johnson has just been awarded the campus-wide Excellence in Management Award, in recognition of her superior accomplishments in this year's category of "Leading in Difficult Times." Jan is being recognized for "showing resilience, adaptiveness, active and intentional engagement around diversity, inclusion, and belonging" as well as for demonstrating care for her staff's work-life balance, and for their overall well-being. Jan is the sole recipient of this award, selected from among 100 nominations, and was nominated by the entire CASMA/EALC staff.