In 2010, the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. The inaugural issue appeared in 1960 under the title of the Journal of Southeast Asian History, which was in use during its first decade. The change to the journal's current name in 1970 reflected the institutionalisation of area studies programmes in US universities as the framework for the study of non-Western societies, and the increasing prominence in it of the social sciences. As an outlet for scholarship about Southeast Asia from within Southeast Asia itself, JSEAS has paralleled in its development the region's momentous, and ongoing, transformation from decolonisation to globalisation. Needless to say, both 'Southeast Asia studies' and its object of enquiry are today significantly different from what they were 50 years ago. Two shifts in particular deserve attention. The first is the decreasing appeal of area studies vis-a-vis newer disciplines such as cultural, postcolonial and women's studies, which may appear better equipped to deal with the complexities of contemporary Asia and have since established their own journals. The second is the advent of the Internet and electronic publishing, which have vastly expanded the circulation of knowledge by overcoming material and spatial constraints. The new research opportunities afforded by the digitisation of rare books, out-of-print monographs and the back issues of journals (including those of JSEAS which are now available on line) are obvious to all academics.
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