Organization
Center for Khmer Studies
The Center for Khmer Studies (CKS; មជ្ឈមណ្ឌលខេមរសិក្សា) is a research center and library at Wat Damnak in Siem Reap, Cambodia.[1] It is an independent American Overseas Research Center that promotes research, teaching and public service in the social sciences, arts and humanities in Cambodia and the Mekong region.[2] A consortium of educational institutions, scholars and individuals supports it.[2]
History
Universities, organizations, scholars and individuals came together to found CKS as an international NGO in 1999. The idea began when its first chairperson visited Cambodia and saw the country's need for education.[3] The Cooperation Committee for Cambodia gives its founding year as 1998.[1] CKS is incorporated in the state of Delaware. It was the first member institution in Southeast Asia of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).[2] By 2014 it was registered with Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and held U.S. tax-exempt status.[3]
Its library opened in 2001, and a large new library building for academic study followed in 2010.[4] Since 2011 CKS has worked with curators at the National Museum to translate descriptions of the museum's artworks from French into Khmer and English and to gather new information about the collection.[3] By 2014 it had also opened a children's library for readers aged 8 to 12.[3]
In 2014 CKS kept offices in Phnom Penh, New York and Paris as well as its headquarters at Wat Damnak.[3] As of 2025 it ran its programs from the Siem Reap headquarters and an office in Phnom Penh, with a U.S. mailing address in Washington, D.C.[5][4] The U.S. government gives partial support for its overhead and for American fellowships, and its programs are privately funded.[2] Its supporters include international foundations, educational institutions, scholars, the U.S. Department of Education, and individuals and philanthropists from the United States, France and Cambodia.[4]
Library
The library stands in Wat Damnak, a living Buddhist monastery in the center of Siem Reap, beside the Siem Reap River.[4][3] It is split between two buildings, and its reading room is open to everyone. Most of the collection covers Southeast Asia and Indochina, with special collections on Cambodia, Indochina and Southeast Asia. A number of publications and articles can be read in full through the online catalog.[4] CKS calls it the largest public academic library in Cambodia outside Phnom Penh.[4]
In 2014 the library held more than 11,000 papers, books and magazines given by donors in Western countries, and many students used its reading room. CKS had translated some of the books into Khmer, English and French.[3] The Cooperation Committee for Cambodia puts the research library at 20,000 titles.[1]
Programs
CKS runs a Research Fellowship Program open to American, Cambodian and French scholars, and it translates scholarly books into Khmer. Its work has centered on building capacity in Cambodian higher education and on promoting the study of Cambodia at American universities. It works closely with Cambodian institutions through training programs, conferences, workshops and lectures.[1] It partners with all of Cambodia's major public universities, and with universities and research centers in the United States, Europe and Southeast Asia.[4]
As of 2014, CKS brought students from the United States and France to Cambodia each year for six-week workshops with Cambodian students of their own age, on a different theme each year. It also recruited overseas and doctoral students and supported their research on the culture and history of the region. A separate building in the library courtyard was lent to new NGOs as a place to present their work, and the courtyard hosted meetings for university and high school students.[3]
The center welcomed its 2026 Junior Resident Fellows and announced a new book collection, Bibliotactics.[6] Its 2026 talks included one by Dr. Stephen Berquist on February 26 about the Angkor Vihara Project's excavations at site ATV027, on the East Gate Road of Angkor Thom, and what they show of craft production, material reuse and economic change in the late and possibly post-Angkorian periods.[7] On June 26, 2026, Dr. Elena Lesley spoke on the growth of digital mental health services in Cambodia.[8]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Cooperation Committee for Cambodia, NGO database: Center for Khmer Studies
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Center for Khmer Studies, Mission
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 Krorma Magazine, Center for Khmer Studies (in Japanese, January 2014)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 Center for Khmer Studies Library, online catalog
- ↑ Center for Khmer Studies, Contact
- ↑ Center for Khmer Studies, Facebook page
- ↑ Center for Khmer Studies, events (February 2026)
- ↑ Center for Khmer Studies, events (June 2026)