The intimacies of cultural studies and area studies: The case of Southeast Asia

Abstract

References to area studies occasionally appear in cultural studies discourses, and vice versa, but most of them consist of terse comments made in passing. This article attempts a more substantive enquiry into a possible convergence of cultural and area studies, with specific reference to Southeast Asia. It argues that one promising scenario for studies of the region will take the form of a cultural studies, with the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies project as one model. The issue will be examined in the contexts of two related developments: the initial attempts to build locally based studies about the region, and the internationalisation of cultural studies.