Summer Junior Fellowship Program

 

In June 2004, CKS began its very first in-residence summer program at its headquarters in Wat Damnak, a living Buddhist Monastery.  Students from Cambodia, France and the US gathered in Siem Reap to spend the summer learning about Cambodia through lectures, language classes, field trips, a short personal research project and discussions with each other.  Every summer since then, students from these three countries have come to live together and learn from each other. 

 

With support from the Henry Luce Foundation, the Florence Gould Foundation and the Cogut Family Foundation, this unique program provides students with an opportunity to expand their regional knowledge about Cambodia and Southeast Asia and build ties with students from other backgrounds and nationalities, while experiencing day-to-day life in Cambodia through all their senses.  The long- term ambition is to encourage the next generation of scholars in Khmer and Southeast Asian studies through a mixed curriculum:

• Classes in history, contemporary Cambodia and the Khmer Language to ensure a solid academic background

• Field trips to experience Cambodian life through its cultural, economic, political and civil life

• An individual research project, where each student explores a question of his/her own

• The growth of a community where 15 students from very different backgrounds become friends and colleagues

Courses and Language Classes

 

In 2007, CKS also began partnering with the Council for International Education Exchange (CIEE) to offer two international university-level courses on the History and Civilization of Cambodia and Post-Conflict Cambodia, taught by international scholars specialized in Southeast Asian studies.  Instructors include: Dr. Khatharya Um (UC-Berkeley), Dr. Jérémy Jammes, Dr. Trudy Jacobsen (SOAS Fellow) and Brian Zottoli. 

 

Students also take daily Khmer Language courses, which are taught by an instructor from a local university.  Both speaking/listening and reading/writing are taught.  Cambodian students attend advanced English classes in which they cover academic reading and writing.  

 

 

Field trips

 

Field trips offering a wide variety of perspectives on Cambodian culture and society provide learning through direct experience that complements the academic courses.  A two-week field trip to Phnom Penh includes visits to significant sites around Phnom Penh, such as the National Museum, the Royal Palace, Choeung Ek (the Killing Fields), Tuol Sleng (the Genocide Museum) and NGOs involved in a variety of activities. 

 

Field trips in and around Siem Reap have included visits to:

            • the temples in Angkor Historical Park  

            • the Master Musician project at Wat Bo which is reviving traditional arts

            • Stueng Siem Reap (Muslim Cham community)

 

Research

 

While seminars and language classes provide one academic component of the program, the students are in charge of another: their own research projects. The course instructors provide guidance and advice on research methodologies and help the students to plan their data collection and analysis. The students have access to the CKS academic library and wireless internet, but they are encouraged to go out into the community to conduct the bulk of their research. For this component of the program, the Cambodian students are valuable interpreters of both language and culture.

 

Presentations are held at the end of the program attended by the students, instructors, CKS staff and affiliated scholars. Research topics have covered contemporary and historical art and culture, history, tourism, education, religion, anthropology, linguistics, and political science. 

 

Community

 

While giving students an introduction to Cambodia and its culture, the summer Resident Junior Fellowship Program also encourages students from Cambodia, France and the US to interact with one another, to learn from each other and to become friends.  Students come from extremely diverse backgrounds.  Some have never been to Cambodia - or Asia - before, while some students are of Cambodian descent and are strengthening ties to their homeland.  While all the Cambodian students have grown up in Cambodia, they may have had little exposure to their international counterparts, and they play the role of cultural ambassador.  Soon enough, the students are bicycling together on daytrips to villages, trying out different types of Cambodian fare and getting into heated discussions on cultural issues, politics and identity.  It is this interaction which sets the CKS Summer Junior Fellowship Program apart from other fellowship and study abroad programs.