Southeast Asian Lives and Histories (SEALIVES) Small Grants Program

Southeast Asian Lives and Histories (SEALIVES) Small Grants Program is sponsored by UC Berkeley Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS). Funds projects that showcase the lives and histories of Southeast Asians, fostering understanding and appreciation of the region.

Southeast Asian Lives and Histories | Institute of East Asian Studies Southeast Asian Lives and Histories Southeast Asia topic page Multiple generations of silkworm raisers and weavers at work in Surin, Thailand.

The UC Berkeley Center for Southeast Asia Studies (CSEAS) is thrilled to announce that it is the recipient of a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Southeast Asia for the project Southeast Asian Lives and Histories (SEALIVES). The Luce grant provides $400,000 to support SEALIVES, a thematic umbrella for projects conducted about Southeast Asians in Southeast Asia and the diaspora.

The heart of this project focuses on biographical interviews that highlight the life histories of Southeast Asians from different backgrounds and experiences.

Linked activities, to take place over three years (2023-2026), ground this work: 1) an annual small grants program to support the gathering of interviews; 2) annual workshops on oral history methods and writing Southeast Asian lives, including training in media/methods/ethics for long format interviews and storytelling forms including text, film, recordings, and podcasts; and 3) a publication and archiving project.

These components link UC Berkeley with other campuses in the California public university system, and with Southeast Asia-based institutions. Three additional activities engage with different publics: colloquia in which Life History grantees report on their projects, an annual panel discussion with a Southeast Asian literary or artistic figure, and a final capstone conference.

Foregrounding the lives of Southeast Asians across multiple sites and through the lenses of diverse disciplines is a valuable end unto itself, and will also generate new research, methods, and collections on Southeast Asia and the diaspora.

Life history/biographical interviews undertaken by grantees will give voice to the lives of both prominent and ordinary Southeast Asians in their homelands, as well as feature often under-the-radar diaspora community members in the US.

For example, such interviews could capture the voices and memories of often-silent elders in California diaspora communities or within Southeast Asia, whose lives are linked to post-independence neo/colonial politics in the US, Indonesia, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and to historical Cold War strategies and relationships.

Looking at the expression and experiences of these changing times and places through people’s life stories demonstrates, in moving and insightful ways, the events, contexts, and global forces that have led to regional and global movements and diasporas as well as to the transformations of places and identities.

We anticipate that SEALIVES will have immediate and long-term impacts on scholars, students, and other publics at Berkeley and beyond. A key premise of our project is that Southeast Asia must be defined by lives lived, and not by national or regional borders. Intellectually, our project will initiate a long overdue but critical conversation between Southeast Asian studies and Southeast Asian diaspora studies at UCB, other UCs, and CSUs.

Showcasing the extraordinary lives of ordinary and prominent people of Southeast Asian heritage will broaden the attention to Southeast Asian Studies and deepen knowledge about Southeast Asia and Southeast Asians living in the United States. Read about the first year and second year cohorts of grantees and their projects!

Call for Proposals: Southeast Asian Lives and Histories Small Grants Program, 2025-2026 We invite applications for the third year of the annual UC Berkeley CSEAS Southeast Asian Lives and Histories small grants program. Examples of projects undertaken by grantees in the first year of the program can be found here , and project abstracts for grantees in the second year who are currently undertaking their projects are here .

Applicants must be enrolled at or affiliated with UCB, other UCs, CSUs, or institutions located in Southeast Asia. Please click below for downloadable application forms and detailed instructions. Should you have any questions, don't hesitate to email cseas@berkeley.

edu . Apply to the Small Grants Program