This course introduces students to the historical debates on religion and society in the eleven states that now constitute "Southeast Asia." Readings will address how religious practices in the region — animism, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, and Christianity — have served as forces for social and political change in the modern period. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role of "religion" in the region's political transitions in the twentieth century, including the ways in which Southeast Asia's approach toward "modernity" directly relies upon religious authority.