It gives us great pleasure to present to you three public lectures given to commemorate ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute's 50th Anniversary. Much thought was invested in the decision to mark our anniversary with public lectures. Instead of celebrating the occasion with a grand gala dinner as is the norm, we decided on public lectures because they reflect more meaningfully our broader intellectual mission, namely, to provide expert knowledge on Southeast Asia to the informed public.

The first public lecture was delivered by Professor Leonard Y. Andaya entitled “Developments in the Scholarship of Southeast Asian Studies” on 21 February 2018 at the Institute. We invited Professor Andaya to speak on the state of Southeast Asian Studies because it is important for a research centre to continuously take stock of its core activity. Professor Andaya charted the ups and downs of Southeast Asian Studies from the 1960s to the present. He began with the early works of scholars like O.W. Wolters and Harry Benda (ISEAS's first Director) who wanted to bring to fore the stories of local communities. This was partly driven by the desire to give voice to these communities and partly by the need to understand the behaviour, practices and habits of local people as the Vietnam War raged on. Interest in Southeast Asian Studies declined in the United States after the end of the Vietnam War. Many universities saw budget cuts and fewer PhDs were churned out.

There was a slight upswing in interest in the 1980s as children of migrants from Southeast Asia to the United States wanted to learn about the cultures and languages of their parents. By the 1990s, Professor Andaya noted that there were intense debates over the usefulness of area studies and if they should give way to traditional disciplines like anthropology and sociology. The 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States was another pivotal moment which saw a deft diversion of funds towards the study of the Middle East and South Asia because of their large Muslim populations. Professor Andaya also brought up the perennial question of English as the language of publication. The dominance of English as the preferred language for publication and, subsequently, peer recognition, came at the expense of publications in the respective vernacular languages of the region.