Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences - Institute of Asian and African Studies

The Department of Societies and Cultures of Southeast Asia has a sociological orientation and is dedicated to studying the reproduction and transformation of social inequalities in Southeast Asian societies. A particular focus of both research and teaching lies in the analysis of hard-to-access social structures, especially within armed groups and among power elites. In these fields, the Department also offers valuable perspectives for students interested in related issues in other world regions.

Societies and cultures – in Southeast Asia and beyond – are approached within the framework of a global sociology, understood both as contexts that can advance sociotheoretical debates and as spaces situated locally, regionally, and globally. Power elites, armed groups, and other social fields transcend national and regional boundaries, encompassing, for example, diaspora communities as well as international institutions and actors.

Since 2025, the Department has been engaged in a comparative research project on the “Global Sociology of Elite Conflicts”, funded by the DFG Heisenberg Program, with case studies on power elites in Cambodia, Ghana, Argentina, and Spain.

The Department also hosts the Global Studies Programme – a Master’s program focusing on global social inequalities and alternative futures. Students begin their studies in Berlin before spending one semester each at two of the partner universities: in India (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Thailand (Chulalongkorn University), South Africa (University of Pretoria), or Argentina (FLACSO).

Lecture Series

HU Southeast Asian Societies and Cultures Lecture Series

11/11/2025 at 6PM: "Dreh's um" von Đức Ngô Ngọc. (In German).

Invalidenstr. 118, Room 315

17/11/2025 at 5:30PM: Panel Discussion. Milk Tea Alliance: Regional Activist Networks in Asia.

Invalidenstr. 118, Room 117

HU Global Sociology of Elite Conflict Lecture Series

More information will follow. In the meantime, you can join our mailing list by sending an e-mail with an empty body with the subject "subscribe globalelites-iaaw First name Last name" to sympa@lists.hu-berlin.de.

More Information