Southeast Asia is said to be on the rise. As the World Economic Forum projects, the “ASEAN economy,” or the “Association of Southeast Asian Nations economy,” will be the world’s fourth largest economy by 2030. Meanwhile, observers of global geopolitics have increasingly stressed the important role that Southeast Asia plays, calling the region “the hub of the emerging regional security architecture of the Asia-Pacific.” But from where has Southeast Asia “risen”? And what are the social consequences of this so-called “rise”? Taking these questions as our points of departure, members of ANTHROPOLOGY/ASIA STUDIES/GLOBAL STUDIES 187: Contemporary Southeast Asia at Lehigh University have created this blog, Southeast Asia in the Media, to showcase the region’s extraordinary diversity and reflect upon its ongoing sociocultural and political transformations. With hopes to broaden public awareness of current issues pertaining to Southeast Asia and encourage critical consumption of media representation of the region, contributors of this blog share important current events in the region alongside our critical reflections and commentaries.

Information about our current contributors can be found here.