On March 5, 2013, the Center for Southeast Asian Studies will celebrate 50 years of regional research, teaching and engagement in Southeast Asia. For the past year, a committee of Center staff and associates, led by honorary co-chairs Clark Neher, emeritus professor, and alumnus John Brandon of the Asia Foundation, have planned a weekend of special events March 1-3. Blocks of rooms have been reserved at the Holmes Student Center and area hotels for out-of-town visitors for that weekend. Join us for our celebration weekend and for special events the next week. See below for details:

• Friday, March 1: The 50th Anniversary Spring Lecture will be given by political scientist John Sidel of the London School of Economics and Political Science at 4 p.m. at Barsema Alumni and Visitors Center. Alumni, current students and faculty are invited to a two-hour casual-dress gathering at 5:30 p.m. following the lecture, also at Barsema.
• Saturday, March 2: Emeritus art history professor Richard Cooler will give a morning coffee talk at 10 a.m. at the Rarely Seen Southeast Asia: Art, Artifacts and Ephemera exhibit in the new NIU Anthropology Museum, featuring pieces from the museum's Southeast Asia collection and private donors. During the day, you are also encouraged to drop by the Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia Collection in its newly refurbished space on the fourth floor of Founders Memorial Library to view 50 Years of CSEAS and the Donn V. Hart Southeast Asia Collection, a historical exhibit created by Southeast Asia curator Hao Phan. In the evening, CSEAS will host a cocktail reception and gala dinner beginning at 5 p.m. in Altgeld Hall Auditorium (limited tickets are available for $50 each; email cseas@niu.edu to order), followed at 8 p.m. by A Celebration of Southeast Asian Performing Arts at Boutell Memorial Concert Hall. This event featuring traditional and contemporary artists is free and open to all. Dessert will follow the performance.
• Sunday, March 3: CSEAS will be open for visitors from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Pottenger House, 520 College View Court. 
• Monday, March 4: Opening reception for the Hart Collection exhibit at Founders Library will be held at 4 p.m. in the Rare Book Room of the library. Meet Malaysian world pop recording artist and NIU alumna Amirah Ali at Meet-the-Artist at 8 p.m. in the School of Music Recital Hall.
• Tuesday, March 5: The center will celebrate its official birthday date with an afternoon open house from 1 to 4 p.m.
• Wednesday, March 6: Southeast Asia Club's 50th Anniversary Film Series screening of The Lady (France, 2011), award-winning biopic of the life of Aung San Suu Kyi, 6 p.m., Room 100, Cole Hall Auditorium. Co-sponsored by the Burma Interest Group-NIU. 

Other anniversary-year activities going on this semester include the Southeast Asia Club's film series, an interactive online timeline recapping high points of center history on the CSEAS website, and the publication of Rise of the Sarimanok, Volume I, a look back at the Center's early years by Trude Jacobsen and Maria Hancock Nihei, which will be available for purchase beginning March 1. For more information, visit our 50th Anniversary Calendar page.