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The Carolina Asia Center is proud to hold a grant for “Bringing Southeast Asia Home,” funded by the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Southeast Asia. This project provides a number of funding opportunities for students. To see funding opportunities for faculty, please click here.

Candidates for funding should be UNC students focused on one or more of the eleven countries of Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam) or a Southeast Asian diaspora community.


A crowd of motorcyclists on a Vietnamese streetSoutheast Asia Graduate Student Workshop Facilitator

Each Spring semester 2023-2027, a graduate student working group will convene weekly to consider various themes in Southeast Asian studies. Funded by Bringing Southeast Asia Home, an initiative sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Southeast Asia, one graduate student will receive $1,000 to organize the activities of the group each Spring semester, with the help of the Assistant Director for Southeast Asia Initiatives. 

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A photograph by G.R. Lambert of a Thai village on water, late 19th centurySoutheast Asia Research Awards for Graduate Students

These awards are intended to facilitate graduate students whose work is focused on Southeast Asia to undertake research that will ultimately inform their dissertation or Master’s level project. These funds may be used to undertake pre-dissertation research in order to enhance major research proposals that might be funded by other sources. They can be used to conduct research in Southeast Asia or at institutions or archives with relevant Southeast Asian materials.

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A document presented to UNC president Frank Porter Graham in 1947 when he worked on the UN Committee of Good Offices for Indonesia

Southeast Asia Dissertation Completion Awards

These awards are meant to provide one semester of funding for students near the end of their graduate career. To receive the funds, students must have completed all their coursework requirements and qualifying exams and must have already completed writing a substantial part of their dissertation. These funds are awarded in the Spring semester for students intending to graduate either in the same Spring semester or the following Fall.

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An orange dragon mask

Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for Southeast Asia

Bringing Southeast Asia Home is proud to sponsor one SURF award for research on Southeast Asia or Southeast Asian diaspora communities. Applications are accepted via the SURF website and are subject to the same conditions as all other SURF awards. To be considered for this award, be sure to check the appropriate Special Topics box when you apply. Applications are accepted between 11/15/23 and 02/01/24.

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A plant

BSEAH Language Learning Scholarship

This award provides $2,000 for students wishing to learn a Southeast Asian language not offered at UNC-CH. Students may enroll in synchronous online courses at accredited institutions or use the funds to augment a Study Abroad experience. Undergraduate students are given preference for this award. Applications are due August 11, 2023.

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A motorcyclist drives into a mountain village in frontier VietnamCritical Ethnic Studies Collective Fellowships

Interested students are encouraged to apply to participate in the Critical Ethnic Studies Collective’s Graduate Student Working Group. Students selected for participation and whose research engages with Southeast Asia in the US South are eligible to receive a stipend subsidized by Bringing Southeast Asia Home. Please apply directly to the Critical Ethnic Studies Collective if interested. Applications are due annually in the Fall semester for the following Spring.


A bas relief from Shwedagon Pagoda in YangonSoutheast Asia Outreach to K-12 Schools

As part of the Carolina Asia Center’s outreach work to increase teaching about Asia across the state of North Carolina, Graduate Students have the opportunity to apply for funding to engage in an outreach project targeting K-12 schools. Students with a proposal can directly contact the CAC’s Associate Director, Dr. Kevin Fogg.