INTRODUCTION

Singapore has been identified as an ideal place for those who study the Southeast Asian region, as they are able to benefit from the world-class library facilities of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) and the National University of Singapore (NUS). Various types of academic gatherings take place all year around, including international conferences, seminars and talks, and these provide valuable opportunities for researchers to disseminate their findings and to develop social relationships with their fellow scholars. The number of prestigious scholarly journals published in Singapore, such as Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia and Contemporary Southeast Asia, Asian Journal of Social Science and Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, and the proliferation of books published on the diverse issues that face the region, provide further evidence of the depth and breadth of Southeast Asian Studies practised in Singapore. Once one is located in Singapore, even with a short period of stay, one becomes widely exposed to lively exchanges of ideas and discussions as well as the state of the art of Southeast Asian Studies. It is truly a hot spot for this area of study.

However, one easily realizes that the constitution of Southeast Asian scholarship in Singapore is to a great degree different from that in other countries. Expatriate components are the substantial and inherent parts of scholarship in the country in comparison to other countries. This leads us to the following questions: Does Southeast Asian Studies conducted in Singapore really reflect Singaporean scholarship? To what extent can we say that it is Singaporean Southeast Asian Studies? How can we differentiate between foreign scholarship and local scholarship in Singapore? All of these questions converge on how to define Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. The difficulties in coming up with a precise definition reflect the reality of scholarship that has developed not specifically in the realm of Southeast Asian Studies but also in academia in general in Singapore. This problem reflects the historical and geographical conditions within which Singapore is located.