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UNC System Faculty Awards for Southeast Asian Studies

Funded by Bringing Southeast Asia Home, an initiative sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation Initiative on Southeast Asia, these awards are intended to further Southeast Asia focused projects conducted by faculty at any UNC system institution or North Carolina community college outside of UNC-Chapel Hill. Funds may be used for research, course development, manuscript publication subvention, community-facing projects, or any other activity that intellectually engages with Southeast Asia. Applicants may request up to $3,000. UNC system faculty and community college faculty are also eligible to apply for Research Expansion to Southeast Asia Awards and Community-Faculty Southeast Asia Partnership Awards, and are encouraged to apply for those awards instead if they are more appropriate.  

These funds may be used for travel, accommodations, equipment and supplies, rental space, and visa costs, but unfortunately they cannot be used for participant incentives, including direct payments and gift cards, nor to hire research assistants. If you have any questions about whether a proposed expense is allowable, please ask.

This award is open to faculty members of any rank at any UNC system institution. For faculty at UNC system institutions outside of UNC-CH, the award will likely have to be processed as a subcontract. This means

  • The institution will be eligible to require up to 10% in indirect costs. Please account for this in your budget.
  • There may be up to a four-month delay in being selected and receiving the funds. For example, non-UNC-CH faculty who apply in November should not plan to use the funds before April. Please plan your research schedule accordingly.

The next deadline to apply for these funds is November 1, 2024. Applications can be submitted to the CAC’s Assistant Director for Southeast Asia Initiatives, Becky Butler.

To apply for a UNC System Faculty Award for Southeast Asian Studies, please submit:

  • One-page description of the project to be undertaken. If this project will engage with traditionally underserved communities or students within the state of North Carolina, please indicate that. 
  • CV
  • Detailed budget, justifying the requested amount
  • Timeline of the activities to be undertaken

Within two weeks of completion of activities funded by the award, you must submit a one-page report summarizing and evaluating the research activity with consideration of future directions. You are also required to present the work undertaken at the next annual Southeast Asia workshop, which is held in mid-May each year. Participation at the workshop should be cost neutral for you, so if you are outside of the Chapel Hill area, either travel funds will be provided or you may attend virtually. This can be determined on a case-by-case basis with the assistance of the Assistant Director for Southeast Asia Initiatives.

Proposals for funding should be 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 their diasporas.