Journals on the Region
A
Akademika: Journal of Southeast Asia Social Sciences and Humanities
Published by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (The National University of Malaysia), this journal focuses on implications of knowledges to communities, society and humanities. It does so through social sciences and humanities, including sociology, governance, history, anthropology, the environment, Malay Studies, literature and religion.
Art and Architecture Journal Naresuan University
This journal with Naresuan University in Thailand, covers arts and architecture knowledges related to community participation. This scope includes art and design, fine arts and applied arts, architectural histories, theories and designs, urban planning, technology and innovation, as well as vernacular Thai architecture. It publishes mostly in Thai language, but also accepts publications in English.
Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia
Under the auspices of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Asian Center, this journal looks to offer refreshing and alternative perspectives of Asian regional experiences, from the lens of the Philippines in relation to the rest of Asia. This includes critical research which covers theories from the social sciences, humanities and/or cultural studies, in forms of research articles, commentaries, reviews, literary works and travel narratives.
C
Contemporary Southeast Asia (CSEA)
With a primary focus on domestic politics in Southeast Asian countries, ranging from regional architecture and community building to military and security affairs, CSEA seeks to give critical in-depth analyses of critical issues in Southeast Asia and the larger Asia-Pacific region. It does so through areas such as politics and political economy and international relations of Southeast Asia, and welcomes original contributions from scholars, think-tank analysts, journalists and policy makers.
This journal takes an interest in domestic social changes within Asian societies, including scholars and activists in Asia. It does so through a diversity of intellectual approaches, including cultural analyses, political economy, studies of feminism, race and ethnicity, as well as rights of indigenous peoples. Some of the journals’ volumes spotlight Southeast Asia, such as Bandung and the ‘global south’ (Vol. 51, Issue 2), politics of urban infrastructure (Vol. 52, Issue 3), Southeast Asia during the Cold War (Vol. 53, Issue 1), and Thailand’s youth protests (Vol. 53, Issue 2).
H
Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Studies (HASSS)
Published by the Silpakorn University, Thailand, this journal aims to be a forum for fields of the humanities, arts and social sciences for scholars. It also seeks to provide awareness of the dynamics between various fields of study and new knowledges in relation to the arts, culture, society and humans. Some such areas include literature, language and linguistics, architecture, media, the arts, political science, social science and Thai studies.
Humanities Diliman: A Philippine Journal of Humanities
This bilingual journal (in Tagalog and English) focuses on multidisciplinary scholarship in the arts and humanities in the Philippines, in relation to Southeast Asian studies and welcomes both original research articles and reviews.
I
Indonesia commits itself to scholarly works focusing on Indonesia’s cultures, traditions, history, politics, governance, economy, and society by examining multidisciplinary topics. Housing contemporary analyses of Indonesia, it is also an extensive archive pertaining to contemporary issues on the archipelago and the greater Southeast Asian region. The journal explores topics which are grounded on the arts, political history, languages, cultural studies, economics, international relations, migration, sexuality, women’s movements, religion, philosophy, and popular culture to name a few.
Indonesia is published by Cornell University’s Southeast Asia Program (SEAP).
Indonesia and the Malay World is devoted to scholarly works that discuss contemporary issues and themes focusing on maritime or archipelagic Southeast Asia. Focusing on interdisciplinary perspectives and comparative methodologies, the journal seeks to publish articles which are anchored on literary and performing arts, language and linguistics, archaeology, political economy, history, cinema studies, religion, culture, tourism, anthropology and sexual politics.
Institute of Culture and the Arts journal, Srinakharinwirot University
Under the auspices of Srinakharinwirot University’s Institute of Culture and Arts in Bangkok, Thailand, this journal publishes works focusing on a range of disciplines, including history-archaeology, fashion, literature, fine arts and architecture, performing arts, as well as ethnicity and religion. Published in Thai language, with occasional focus on relations between Thailand and Vietnam.
This journal focuses on the notion of ‘Inter-Asia’ alongside cultural studies, in relation to communications and exchanges between Inter-Asia. It seeks to be a forum for scholars interested in engaging with ‘critical inter-Asia subjectivity’, problematising ‘Asia’, as well as linking cultural studies to recent cultural and social movements. While it largely focuses on the wider region of Asia, there is also ongoing spotlight and contributions on and from Southeast Asia.
J
JATI-Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
With a focus on Southeast Asian social sciences and humanities, this journal with the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, seeks to engage with critical research in relation to economic, political, social, art, religious and cultural issues. This broadly includes connecting gaps between the global and multidisciplinary studies in Southeast Asia.
Journal of Arts and Thai Studies
This is a journal with Silpakorn University in Thailand, which engages widely with the humanities, social sciences and fine arts disciplines, ranging from topics concerning Thai studies. These include literature, culture, history, religion and geography to visual arts, performing arts and communications. While most publications are in Thai, it also accepts publications in English.
The Journal of Burma Studies aims to publish innovative scholarly pieces that highlight Burma/Myanmar and its minority, diasporic and stateless cultures from multiple perspectives and disciplines such as the arts, history, identity politics, nationhood, religion, economy, and the law. It interrogates the country’s ethnicity and nationality from various perspectives and produces original research to advance critical reflection on Burma/Myanmar from researchers worldwide.
This journal focuses on academic work related to, and supportive of conservation, development and revitalization of language and culture. It welcomes original manuscripts in relation (but not limited) to anthropology, applied research, community development, cultural studies, linguistics, translation and theoretically focused analysis.
Journal of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University
This journal focuses on promoting new research findings, theories and methodologies, in the social sciences and humanities. This includes studies in language, literature, history, geography, anthropology and sociology, as well as art criticism, cinema studies and gender studies. It accepts publications in Thai and English, as well as other foreign languages.
This journal, under the auspices of Khon Kaen University, Thailand, focuses on regions around the Mekongriver-basin, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and China. The scope of research covers both humanities and social sciences, including art, architecture, culture, history, ethnicity, religion, literature, the environment and development.
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies
The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies consists of scholarly and action-research articles, book reviews, and manuscripts that examine Southeast Asia from various perspectives in the humanities and the social sciences. The journal aims to publish pieces which cater to both academic experts and non-specialists working on Southeast Asian architecture, art history, historiography, economy, culture, migration, technology, race, gender and sexuality, films, geography, religious studies, tourism, and identity politics. It publishes manuscripts in English and other Southeast Asian languages.
Published by Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, this humanities journal seeks to promote knowledge about Thai and Tai studies, while not necessarily confined to Thailand as a location. Some of these disciplines include religion, music, literature, linguistic and language, as well as gender studies.
The Journal of Vietnamese Studies promotes research on Vietnamese culture, history, society, and politics through scholarly commentaries, reviews, and translations of Vietnamese texts and documents. It also broadens Vietnamese-related scholarship by examining its diaspora and their history, identity, morality and religion, law, as well as other contemporary socio-political issues. It also occasionally includes translations of important Vietnamese documents and texts.
On a broader level, it hopes to contribute to both new work and analyse significant intellectual trends within the field of Vietnamese studies.
K
Kasarinlan: Philippine Journal of Third World Studies
This journal focuses on critical and interdisciplinary perspectives of political economy, in relation to Philippines and the Third World. Some of these perspectives include food sovereignty, culture, identity and politics, as well as the environment and migration.
Kritika Kultura seeks to challenge traditional canons, interrogate conventional and traditional perspectives and methodologies while linking research works from various disciplines and fields such as literature, language, culture, and society in the lines of work in the Philippine, Southeast Asia, Asian and Filipino-American studies. It advocates for relevant contemporary/21st-century issues such as cultural politics, political economy, pedagogy, gender and sexuality, diaspora, the nation, identity politics, women’s movement, and postcolonialism. Publications consist of academic works and literary pieces.
M
This e-journal provides a literary space for anglophone South Asian writers and readers in Singapore. It looks to the South Asian diaspora in its local and global contexts, through both fiction and non-fiction writings, including poetry.
Manusya: Journal of Humanities
This journal, published by Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, spotlights on intellectual enquiries related to humanities issues in Southeast Asia. These include arenas of history, religion, language, culture, literature, media and the arts.
P
Pelikula: A Journal of Philippine Cinema and Moving Image
This journal focuses on Philippines cinema in relation to national and regional perspectives. It is an annual publication by the University of the Philippines Film Institute and publications range from academic articles to opinion pieces, visual essays, interviews and opinion pieces.
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints
Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints highlights scholarly articles on Philippine history and its people, both in the homeland and overseas, welcoming works by historians and academic scholars from other disciplines from the humanities and the social sciences. The journal features theoretically- and empirically-grounded research that utilizes comparative, transnational, and multidisciplinary frameworks that explores fields such as migration, archaeology, political histories, religion, cultural studies, linguistics, literature, and gender to name a few.
Plaridel – A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society
Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media, and Society encourages scholarly research in various areas of media and communication studies in the Philippines and the greater Asian region. The journal promotes qualitative and quantitative research methods that tackle media effects, industry, political economy, subcultural practices, and journalism studies to discuss the dynamic nature of communication, media, culture, and society at large. Publications comprise of scholarly articles, critical commentaries, and monographs written in English and/or Filipino.
PR&TA: Practice, Research and Tangential Activities
This journal serves as a platform for theory to meet praxis, so as to engage in the question of how artistic and critical knowledge is being realised in creative practice. It hence welcomes works of ‘creative praxis’, including creative literary works, visual art and critical articles. In so doing, it aims to engage deeper with notions of both theory and practice, from sites of multi-hyphenated and complex urban and regional cultural relationships across Asia.
R
Rian Thai: International Journal of Thai Studies
Under the care of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, this journal focuses on Thai-Tai Studies across a diverse range of disciplines, including humanities, social sciences, education, public health, politics, anthropology, ethnology and religious studies. It also serves as a space for young and new scholars in Thai Studies pursuing an advanced degree thesis or dissertation, with at least fifty percent of the journal reserved for them.
S
This is a multidisciplinary journal with a focus on historical and contemporary Singapore, seeking for critical research that rethinks the status quo in Singapore. It is interested in critical ideas from the multiple and non-elite, for a more variegated Singapore.
This journal is interested in the discipline of sociology, including new theories and methodologies, and research which aids in understanding the postmodern world. Its focus and scope include digital culture, media and society, popular/mass culture, gender, race and ethnicity, civil society and development. It is published by Universitas Trunojoyo Madura, Indonesia.
Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography
The Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography offers a scholarly forum for issues and topics about the tropical world, particularly on tropical environments, localities, and their contiguous linkages from disciplines such as the humanities, social sciences, and environmental sciences that focus on tropical research. It publishes theoretical and empirical articles that tackle human, physical, and cultural terrains and landscapes in the tropics, including developmental issues from geographic perspectives and other related disciplines.
Situations: Cultural Studies in the Asian Context
While the journal has a focus on East Asia, it also looks to examine important issues and wider Asian contexts which include Southeast Asia. Published twice yearly, Situations covers a wide range and approaches within cultural studies, which include literature, drama and poetry, as well as film, television and fashion. It holds interest in issues of nation, race, ethnicity, sexuality and gender, feminist and queer theory, technology, as well as ideology, class, science, media studies, as well as museum and art history. It welcomes full-length essays, translations of significant documents as well as book reviews.
Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia
Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia publishes social and cultural topics that deal with ethnicity, religion, urbanism, tourism, migration, popular culture, and development studies in Southeast Asia. The journal welcomes theoretical and empirical works in anthropology, sociology, and history that expand scholarship about the region. Publications consist of research articles, book reviews, and commentaries.
Southeast Asia Research explores scholarly articles on aspects of Southeast Asia within the fields of archaeology, art history, economics, geography, history, language and literature, law, music, political science, anthropology, and religion. The journal publishes relevant issues in contemporary South East Asia while revisiting established thoughts and traditions in the region. Publications comprise of scholarly articles, book reviews, and commentaries.
Southeast Asian Studies publishes theoretically- and empirically- grounded research articles that engage multidisciplinary perspectives to discuss contemporary issues, debates, and imperatives in Southeast Asia. It aims to bridge the ongoing divide within area studies between the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences, by promoting ideas on a transnational, global, and historical scale. It advocates for comparative studies in architecture, migration, political economy, history, religion, language and literature, gender and sexual politics, geography, culture, identity, nationhood, the arts, and environmental issues.
Southeast Asian Media Studies Journal
This journal focuses on Southeast Asian media frameworks, perspectives, theories, and practices, some of which include audience studies, film studies, journalism, mass media and communications as well as media theories. It also looks to media and its relations with the wider society, such as politics, the environment, religions, business and technology. It welcomes scholarly articles, as well as reviews of books, exhibitions, film festivals and media events.
Southeast of Now: Directions in Contemporary and Modern Art in Asia
With a focus on contemporary and modern art in Southeast Asia, this journal engages with discursive spaces of art so as to probe ‘Southeast Asia’ as a conceptual category, as well as its identity, borders, strengths and limitations. The journal publishes research articles, as well as exhibitions and book reviews.
T
This journal is published under Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. It focuses on the humanities related to Thai studies, including literature and language, folklore, anthropology and education. It accepts research articles, non-research academic articles, as well as book reviews in Thai and English languages.
A journal of art and literature focusing on the environment and ecology as well as culture, Tiger Moth Review aims to be a space for the minority and underrepresented voices in society. It welcomes English and non-English works, as well as translated English counterparts from Singapore and overseas, engaging with entanglements and its politics between humans and more-than-human kin.
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia
TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia advances comparative perspectives tackling the dynamic and diverse nature of Southeast Asia by publishing manuscripts that go beyond traditional viewpoints and conventional notions of ‘borders and boundedness’. The journal publishes scholarly articles that consider the fast-paced development and progress happening in the region through disciplines such as architecture, political history, migration studies, religion, economics, identity politics, education and pedagogy, mobility, development studies, urbanism, geography, colonial narratives, and the humanities.
U
UDAYA Journal of Khmer Studies
This journal engages with Cambodia’s culture, including its political, social and economic transformations. Some of these research include history, religion, contemporary art, performing arts and architecture.
Unitas explores methodologies and frameworks that tackle new perspectives while revisiting old traditions and canonical works via an expansive collection of scholarship from disciplines within the humanities and the arts from various parts of the globe. It promotes cross-disciplinary approaches in publishing topics that include modernities, philosophies, political histories, cultural geographies, architecture, sexualities, popular culture, musical types, language and literature, pedagogies, and comparative studies. Publications comprise of scholarly articles, book reviews, critical commentaries, and monographs written in English and/or Filipino.
Unitas is published by the University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines.
W
Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia
Wacana: Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia publishes articles primarily on issues within the humanities, such as art studies, literature, language and translation studies, history, philosophy, culture and society, religion, and interdisciplinary studies concerning Indonesia and the rest of the world. The journal also balances its focus by also seeking to publish theoretical and empirical manuscripts such as research articles, case studies, book reviews, and commentaries that promote scholarly discussions.
Written by Juan Miguel Leandro Lim Quizon, Postgraduate Student (PhD in Cultural Studies), Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong