 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to SOAS and welcome to the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, which is the department that I am from. I would like to also introduce my colleague, Naresh Sharma. You want to say hello, Naresh quickly? Hi there, yes. I'm Naresh Sharma and I'm senior lecturer in Hindi and Urdu and I'm here on behalf of the South Asia section. And yeah, apologies again to everyone. There were some technical problems with logging on this morning, I believe. And yeah, good to see you. Thank you. So, my name is Danahile and I am going to be introducing to you two programs that are based in the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. And that's MA Southeast Asian and Pacific Asian Studies program. And I will also briefly introduce MA South Asian Studies and then my colleague Naresh Sharma can obviously give you more specific information. And I'm also going to be introducing two versions of these programs. And that's a version with an intensive language. So MA Southeast Asian Studies and intensive language and MA South Asian Studies and intensive language. This may be actually quite useful for me to know how many of you are interested in the Southeast Asia part and who is interested in the South Asia part. So if you can use the chat function and just simply note which program you are interested in, then that may actually be helpful so that we know how many people are here for each program. But I will talk slightly more generally first of all. So, these two programs I am talking about, they are what we call area studies programs. So there are programs that focus on a study of a specific region. And you combine this study with a disciplinary focus. All area studies programs at SOAS are also linked to the study of language. So you have to study a language. Because the whole sort of foundation of SOAS is based on the belief that obviously nothing can match the engagement with a particular region than that done through the language of that region. This is obviously very important, especially in recent times when SOAS and other universities are trying to decolonize its curriculum. We have been doing that for years. We have been really going into the region taking regional sources and these regional sources then inform what we do. Now, if you select South Asia or Southeast Asia, then obviously you then have to sort of decide which will be your disciplinary focus. And I have listed some of the disciplines that are available at SOAS. In these cases, you know, the combinations are really possible. There may be some sort of specific exceptions, but you can combine or focus these area studies programs on anthropology, art and archaeology, media and cinema studies, economics, politics, development studies, history law, study of religion. So essentially if you look at the list of all the departments around SOAS, in most cases all these disciplines represented by each department can be combined with the area studies program. The basic structure of our area studies programs is that you do 60 credits of a dissertation. So that's the sort of ultimate goal of your MA program, you write 10,000-word dissertation. But before you start writing it, you are attending thought modules and you have to pass 120 credits of thought modules. What normally happens is in term one and in term two, you obviously focus on your, on attending the thought modules, passing all assessments, exams, etc. And then once you finish, you then start really writing up your dissertation. So really in term three and then during the summer and the submission date for the dissertations is always early September. If you are interested in the version with an intensive language, then you will need to take 315 credits in total. The dissertation remains the same, so again 60 credits and then you would have to do 255 credits of thought modules. So these credits would be actually done abroad, because the intensive language version of these programs obviously incorporates a period of study abroad, summer abroad. It's a program which has to be done over two years and in the summer between the two years you go abroad and you have a very intensive immersion in the study of the language in different countries. So that that is the basic structure and then obviously when you apply on when you join these programs you will then have to actually specify which of these modules available you are going to take and how you are going to put together the credits. What we have done in recent years is we are gradually introducing what we call a guided curriculum. Which means that all of our programs undergraduate and postgraduate are slightly more structured. And so you usually start with some core compulsory modules, and only then you have the sort of you know options to choose your modules that interest you. If you are going to apply for these programs, you will be asked to create a personal statement, and that really is a very important piece of information you provide us, because in your personal statement you will introduce to us what are your interests what is the focus of your study you intend to do it so us. And that leads me to the point which you can see at the bottom of the screen, you will really need to identify one of the sort of disciplines. You will need to identify the thought modules as your major, the design, the designation of a major module is slightly sort of Floyd but essentially what it means that you should be done doing your dissertation research linked to that particular major module. There is a certain stone because obviously many of our students who come, they have certain intention certain plans, and then they start attending thought modules, maybe their interest shift slightly or the more general research they were proposing later obviously slightly and change so they can modify it so it doesn't mean that if you actually you know designate something at the beginning as your main major module that you cannot expand it or somehow modify it. But broadly speaking, you know if you are coming through area studies program in South and Southeast Asian studies then you probably already know that you want to focus more on the art and archaeology or on politics and development study so that's the sort of decision you have to probably take already when you are applying to source. So here I have sort of listed the sort of basic structure of a Southeast and Pacific Asian studies but the structure is very similar for the South Asian studies option. So you have the dissertation, and then you have this sort of component so you take a language. So you have the dates of language in year one. And then you make up the rest with the sort of specialized disciplinary modules and from next year so that's presumably when you would be joining us. We have introduced a new core module that is going to be taught to all area studies programs taught in our department. This is called remapping area studies in Asia Africa and the Middle East. I think I have some information on it. Just jump slightly so, so this is this module and, and this is essentially a sort of theoretical introduction to the study of Asia Africa and the Middle East, the area studies approach. So it's sort of module which considers issues of what it means to do, you know, to study a particular region. How does the region relate to the global, how does the region relate to the Western. How has the area studies evolved and changed as a result of the sort of globalizing developments all over the world, etc. So, so it simply forces you to somehow engage with the region in a slightly theoretical, philosophical way you are sort of made to consider the sort of global issues, general issues that you will then really face when you study a specific particular region. If you don't study the region in complete isolation. Of course, you will need to consider the sort of the globe as well. So I go just back to the presentation so this is a sample of a of the year one year program and my Southeast and Pacific Asian studies. And sample structure I have here, as you can see this is sample structure of version with the intensive language so a two year full time study. So as you can see you sort of really divide all the credits between two years. Here you have the compulsory core module I just introduced remarking area studies. Then you have the language options, and then you have the other options from the sort of disciplinary themes. So obviously go for your summer abroad. You come back you continue with the study of a language, you then also have credits available to focus on the disciplinary subjects, and obviously you then complete your dissertation. So this is the sort of basic structure. This information is online so please you know if you are interested, then look at it in more detail. The disciplinary options the modules that you can actually select to make up the sort of 60 credits and etc. So our online section for these programs, you have actually list of the various modules that are linked to Southeast Asia taught around source and in the various discipline departments. And just to say that obviously, you know we are constantly sort of updating updating our syllabus, which means that, you know, new modules are being created in around source. Obviously always try to make sure that the list of options is updated amended certain modules obviously cease to exist. So, you know, the list of options is something you would have to have a look at before you know taking a decision. I should probably at this stage also say that you can study all of these programs either full time or you can obviously study them part time. The one year MA Southeast Asia South Eastern Pacific Asian Studies program and MA South Asian Studies programs, you can study them over two years if you want. We also allow you to study them over three years. This is obviously a particularly beneficial to those of you who want to study while working. And the question I often get asked is, you know how how is it divided you know is the division between the three years done arbitrarily you use sort of told what to do. It's entirely up to you. So if, for example, you know that one year you are more busy you can just take fewer modules, fewer credits, you can then make it up next year so what we obviously are concerned with is that at the end of the study you obviously have completed all the credits necessary. Another question I get often asked is about, you know the timetabling for these programs and whether it is possible to, for example, commit to just one day of study or one day of coming to us. And this is something which obviously I cannot really guarantee I cannot give you any precise answer. It really depends on how the modules you select are actually timetabled. Normally we publish a timetable or at least a draft timetable for the following year around, let's say early May, late April early May. If you were to apply from September 2022. And if these issues of how many times a week you would have to come to us are significant significant for your decision, then please get back in touch with us email me or my colleagues. And once we have the draft timetable, we can, you know, see how the modules you would have wanted to study how how the timetable would work for you or not. So for that, please, I cannot really give you a more specific advice now. Okay. So I have already mentioned that the our area studies programs are based the require that you take a language as one of your options. We have a huge expertise. So as is really the main university in the UK which offers the largest and selection of modules on in languages of Asia Africa and the Middle East. We have additional expertise. There are many other languages that we actually don't teach but we obviously have experts so we research them or they can be actually incorporated into your dissertation if you need it to. So our colleagues wrote textbooks and and linguistic studies so we really have a very long history of engaging with languages. And some of the languages that we currently offer. So for Southeast Asia we offer Indonesia and Vietnamese Burmese and Thai, but for next year we will only run Indonesia and Vietnamese for South Asia. We have Hindi Sanskrit or Bengali. I can definitely confirm that we will teach Hindi and Sanskrit. But the moment cannot confirm if we will teach Bengali or do. Prakrit is usually offered every year because we have external funding and language program in Prakrit is sponsored by donors. I obviously ask my colleague, Nareesh Sharma to tell you a little bit more. If you opted for the MA Southeast and Pacific Asian Studies program, then for the Pacific Asian Studies part, you would be able to study Chinese Japanese or Korean. So if you were to take the intensive language version with MA South Asian Studies, then that can also be combined with Persian, Turkish, and Swahili. So we really have a wide choice. Obviously, we often get students who are not complete beginners in these languages. So it is possible to start from a level to, for example, language module, but we would normally do is we would sort of test you and determine if you can actually join the upper level of a language class. So it is possible to join with an existing knowledge of a language. So some abroad, so the period of study abroad, we cooperate obviously with regional universities and I have listed some of the places where our students go. So, as you can see, you have for Hindi, we usually send our students to Jaipur or Indonesia and Bandung or Georgia Karta, Pune is Sanskrit, Lucknow, Urdu, Vietnamese, we can send our students either to Ho Chi Minh City or to Hanoi depending on their preferences. So speaking, it would be also possible to somehow divide your period of study abroad between two places that would have to be obviously discussed and agreed on an individual basis. In the last two years, our study abroad programs have been disrupted by COVID. So some of our students were not able to go. Some period of study abroad happened actually through distance learning online. We are very hopeful that our students will be able to go abroad this summer and that the following academic year will not be disrupted. What else do I need to tell you? I think I have said all the main sort of formal aspects. Yes, I wanted to also slightly introduce, you know, so us. We, as I said, we are an institution that specializes in the study of Asia Africa and the Middle East. We have a very long history of engaging with these regions, and we have also enormous resources to support the study of these regions. We have a beautiful, incredibly richly stocked library, which is one of the national research libraries of Great Britain. We cooperate with libraries in the region, so we obviously collect resources. We work very closely with the British Library, which basically those of you who know London, you know that we are relatively close to each other. So the cooperation is very, very useful. We also obviously are very close to the British Museum. We have many other sort of institutions that are linked to the region such as the Royal Asiatic Society and similar institutions. For these institutions, you know, we work with, we organize a series of seminars, talks, various corporations and exchanges. So, all that would be available to you should you decide to come to SOAS. Inside SOAS we also have regional centers. So we have a Center for Southeast Asian Studies and we actually have South Asia Institute. So these sort of centers are really focusing on sort of, you know, facilitating exchanges on the particular region. So we organize talks, we have seminars, series, our students are obviously asked and encouraged to attend. Usually weekly seminars. Obviously this is just the regional centers which are sort of linked to the School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics, but each disciplinary department has also its own disciplinary center and they also have a range of seminars. So on a typical day when you are at SOAS in the late afternoon, you would have enormous number of opportunities to network, go to lectures, workshops, etc. So we obviously always encourage our students to get involved as much as possible. Another issue that perhaps you are interested in, it's the career destinations of our graduates, postgraduate students. We have a really very, very varied profile of students who come to us and their careers. So it's very difficult for me to give you a very typical example. Some students who come to us, they already come with different experiences. Some come straight from finishing their first degree. Others have traveled or lived in the region, maybe they worked for a charity or some NGO. They are involved in some projects and after spending a period of time in the region, they want to somehow gain more formal education in that region. So certainly we have students who want to teach, we have many students who go to the foreign office and civil service in general. We have journalism or publishing editors. We have students who set up their own publishing house, for example, just to give you an example. Of course the NGO sector is a very popular destination for our graduates. Those who do art archaeology or religious studies very often work in the area broadly linked to the sort of heritage and various museums and similar institutions. But also we have students who simply go to somewhere which is not obviously linked to the modules they talk but they actually go and work in businesses. They may be accountants or they may be regional experts for a particular business. We obviously have many students who then continue and join various graduate training schemes. And also there is a group of students who obviously are keen to explore the knowledge of the region further and then they would go further to do further studies and ultimately to enroll in MPL and PhD programs. So it really is sort of a varied range of careers. I think it is very important to realize that the skills our students learn are really the sort of typical transferable skills that you gain from being at doing a master's programme. And the fact that they specialize in something which is more niche, more unique, more unusual is usually a very useful qualification for them. It opens up more doors because potential employers are actually quite impressed by the fact that you did something slightly different that you engaged with a region which is not so sort of mainstream and so broadly studied. I always give an example of one of my students who was very much interested in Vietnam and my expertise is in Vietnamese studies and he actually was interested in the cultural studies of Vietnam so taking modules in Vietnamese cinema or Vietnamese literature. And then he actually went to work for a very famous global business company and he used to tell me how the very long interviewing process for the job actually involved a lot of talking about Vietnamese literature or culture that he was able to actually use this knowledge to impress his interview, the interviewing panel and actually show that you know he possessed a very unique skill set. So, I think I will stop and what I will do is I will ask my colleague Noreshama to perhaps you know at what I might have forgotten and talk a little bit about South Asian studies, and I will check the chat in the meantime, and see if I can answer any questions. So, thank you. Thank you, Dana. And welcome again everyone. Yes, as Dana mentioned, if there are any questions, please do add them in the chat. And yes, thanks. Thanks for the talk, Dana. I think Dana has actually covered everything in, you know, there isn't really anything for me to add. The idea of the structure of the degree and the types of modules that we cover, the languages that are taught, the locations where the summer abroad might take place, and also a little bit about the dissertation, Dana has mentioned, and then, you know, ultimately career studies of students that take our MA programs. So, if anything, I can just mention something again about the languages because that's my expertise I teach Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. So, if you are taking the one year degree, you might take one of those languages if you're taking the South Asian studies degree, or alternatively we have Bengali students also take Arabic or Persian or even Swahili. And then if you take the two year option, again, students would normally take Hindi, Urdu or Sanskrit with the summer abroad taking place at one of the locations in India with our partner institution over there. And yeah, so there isn't really anything for me to add because your talk, Dana, was pretty comprehensive. And so if there are any specific questions, then please do let us know. And also do just add in the chat if you're specifically interested in South Asia studies or Southeast Asia and the Pacific region, that would be good for us to know. And also, yeah, any questions, please let us know. Yes, please, if you have questions, I hope that you can actually speak to us that you have access to activate your mic and just ask or obviously you can put the question in the chat. So please. Any questions, anything we have not covered. I may can have a question because I do have students ask me because they're interested about the South Asian study and intensive language. So they, they're interested to study Hindi and Sanskrit, so whether they can choose like both language in this program. Okay. Yeah. Dana, maybe you could just confirm the structure, whether two languages are allowed. Yes, they are allowed, but obviously, you know, we have to be sort of satisfied that you can cope with, because what on the intensive language you obviously have to have one of your languages as your main language. It's not really the main one but you can then add in the second year another language module. And yes, we do get students who are real linguists who really are very passionate about the study of languages that's the only thing they want to do. So, yes, formally it's allowed, but obviously this has to be sort of approved or discussed on a one to one basis and by judging the specific sort of knowledge you have. Okay, so one day submit the application on their personal statement they need to mention which language they want to study as a main language in the program. So they need to decide when they submit application right. Yes, because you yes you need to sort of in on your application you have to designate the language which is going to be the intensive language you are coming to study. And then you can obviously use some of your open credits to take another language. But usually we don't recommend that a student starts to languages at the same time from scratch. Yeah, so as Dana mentioned you might start one in your first year and then take one in your second year. Or if you already have knowledge of say for example Hindi, you might go into Hindi at level two and start a Sanskrit at level one so you're not at the beginners level of both at the same time. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And, and the other questions, perhaps there's one thing which I forgot to ask and that's when when you need to apply or what is the deadline, etc. I think officially we say that the deadline is the 30th of June of each academic year, but we consider applications even throughout the summer. So, if some late application comes in we certainly consider the application. Another question which I get asked is if you have to have some. If your first degree had has to be sort of linked to the area you are proposing to study which obviously it doesn't have to, you can come to us and select these programs with essentially any background. There's also the entrance requirements. We obviously require that you have a first degree. Ideally to one, but we look at applications that are to tool. Essentially we really consider every application because we from our experience we have such a variety of applicants, people who are maybe mature students people who have very unique. Existences, having lived in the region, etc. So, we look at all applicants, and we, you know, make our decision on each specific application. So, even if you are not sure whether you know you have good enough credentials. I would encourage you to, you know, either apply or to get in touch with us and ask and check. Okay, so nobody is volunteering and nobody's saying in the chat, which of the programs you are interested in. I suspect that, you know, there will be more of you interested in salvation studies. Yes, please. Thanks. You know, so not for a linguist linguistic student, but anyone who's interested in South Asia, and would like to pick up one of the language modules. Is it kind of mandatory to travel to India Pune, wherever you listed, or they could still be in London and study. That's my question. You mean for the for the summer abroad if you wanted to do that. Well, presumably, yes, I mean at the moment our program is, you know, the summer abroad is the summer abroad period so what are you thinking you would not want to go to India or Is it kind of mandatory or like is an optional I think the MAs South Asian and intensive language version it is compulsory to go to the period of study abroad. I don't know of course you know we this year as I said we had to deal with many special circumstances so you know we consider some mitigating circumstances if somebody really did not want to do go, but we would then have to make some alternative programs. I guess it would have to be some distance learning or online learning so that would have to be very serious reasons. You know, when that we would obviously somehow consider that otherwise, the study abroad is compulsory within that program, not on the MAs South Asian studies on the one year one. And you know what's your interest in particular then in terms of the language study that you're keen to. Yeah, thanks. I was, I'm kind of planning to enroll for history of architecture, but then I saw one of the modules was also like I could pick up one language, which could be relevant. And this is for a one year degree. So if it's just the one year MA that you're taking the study abroad is not part of that. It's only if you're taking the two year intensive program, which has the summer abroad. So if you're taking a one year degree, then you take one language module and there's no requirement to go abroad. Okay, thank you. And also some students actually take their one year MA part time over two years. And so they might take language level one in the first year of their degree, and then language level two in the second year, as long as they get permission from their learners, if it's allowed within the structure. You know, that that can happen as well. Yep. Yeah, any other questions. I'm Hussein I see, do you have your mic on did you have a question. I'm not sure. Or maybe you're not connected to the audio. Yes. So your sound is not coming through put your question in the chat. If you have a question we can try and answer that. And anyone else have any questions, please do, you know, raise your hand or put your mic on and please ask us, or put something in the chat with, you know, try our best to help to answer. In any case, you know, I want to encourage you to simply get in touch with us in the future, because you know you've got some basic information from us today but you may have think of more specific, you know, questions later. Our email addresses are online, you know, on the website. We really very much encourage you to get in touch with us because then we can obviously answer any specific queries from you. I've just added my email address in the chat as well so if there are any questions about South Asian languages or the South Asia programs then please let me know if I can answer your question directly I will do if I don't know the answer I'll find out and get back to you or put you in in touch with someone who can help if there's a specific question about a particular module. Then, yeah, you know, I can always direct you to the right person. Yeah, that's a very good point because sometimes students obviously see the type of a module. It sounds interesting but then they actually want to know more. So we can certainly help you, you know, dig deeper beyond the website and find out more information about particular modules. I guess today's session is recorded so you can find us this session on YouTube as well after several days we'll upload to YouTube. Thanks everyone in case we need to finish the session like soon because we have other sessions coming up. And I'm happy to meet everyone today and thanks for Dan and Narish for your answer and questions. Thank you. Okay, well, thank you all for coming, listening to us and allowing us to introduce our programs to you. So I hope to see you at source at some time in the future. Thank you. Thanks everyone. Bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye.