Instructions:Please write an essay based on original library research on a specific topic of your interest within the general area of Southeast Asian cultures and societies. The essay can be either comparative or descriptive-analytical in nature. The essay should examine a specific issue in detail using evidence from a range of different sources and integrate them into a coherent and plausible analysis. The topic is subject to approval by the course instructor.

Examples of topics:
1. The consequences of environmental destruction for ethnic minority communities
2. Gender roles and ideologies in Malay/Filipino/Thai/etc. society
3. Comparison of changing gender relations in Arab and Malay society
4. Understandings of Islam in Southeast Asia
5. The organization of Hinduism or Buddhism in a Southeast Asian country
6. Arab communities in Southeast Asia
7. Hadharmi migration to Southeast Asia
8. Patterns of labour migration in Southeast Asia
9. Chinese business communities in Southeast Asia
10. Ethnic and national identities in one Southeast Asian country