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. Starting in April 2026, an additional DFG project titled “Invisible Connections: Transdomesticity of Households in Global Comparison” will be launched, with research conducted in Cambodia, Pakistan, and Kenya.

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

May 5th, 6 PM: Thomas Köcks Theaterstück „THE GEM“ – zum Übersetzungsprozess ins Vietnamesische und zur Uraufführung am Youth Theater Vietnam (Hanoi 2025)  - (Dr. Truong Hong Quang)

HU Global Sociology of Elite Conflict Lecture Series

May 18, 6PM: Tech Elites in Germany (Lion Hubrich)

May 20, 6PM: The ‘African’ University’s Innovative Self-renewal (Michael Okyerefo)

May 26, 6PM: Transnational Capital, Networks, and Evangelical Elite Formation in Ghana (Michael Augustus Akagbor & Michael Okyerefo)

Announcements

The T(h)ai Studies Network Germany has announced a new series of events! You can find out more here.

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Another success at Thai Day!

In 2025, students learning Thai from the IAAW once again won first and third prizes at the Germany-wide Thai Student Competition in Hamburg.

On June 14, 2025, IAAW students won first and third prizes at the annual Thai Day event hosted by the Asia-Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg. Our students had already won first and third prizes for the IAAW at Thai Day 2024. 

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