Professor emerita Barbara Leigh and the 1st South-East Asia Major cohort

“The Combined Degree was such an exciting initiative, and the first (1998) cohort were fantastic. The six students in the [subsequently phased out] South East Asia Major went to both Indonesia and Malaysia on In Country Studies. They were in Indonesia in the first half of 1998 and experienced the Asian financial crisis [and its political and social effects at first hand.] One student recalled how he asked a question in an economics class about the crisis. He was told not to ask questions like that!  It was a lesson in the controlled nature of knowledge — even at university level. The South East Asia Major had students who were out of the ordinary — self reliant and wonderfully resilient.“

Professor emerita Barbara Leigh is currently an associate of the School of International Studies.  She was responsible for the South-East Asia and Indonesian Majors, which were an important part of the In Country Studies programme until they were phased out.