In 1984 the University of Passau was the first University in what was then West Germany to establish a Chair in Southeast Asian Studies. Other universities (in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Bonn) soon followed suit. The first Chair to be appointed was the historian Bernhard Dahm, who held the title until his retirement in 1997. Professor Dahm’s personal research interests were centred on Indonesia and the Philippines, as well as wider topics of relevance to the entire region. The focus of interest of the Chair was subsequently widened to include Vietnam and this led to many new connections being established. An important focus of Professor Dahm’s teaching was the legacy of pre-colonial cultural traditions and its effect on countries in the post-colonial era. Professor Dahm was especially known for his biography of the first Indonesian President, Sukarno, and his studies of the Jose Rizal, national hero of the Philippines.

In 1993, Professor Dahm’s department was strengthened through the establishment of a Professorship in Language and Culture of Thailand and Laos, which was held by Professor Harald Hundius until his retirement in 2005. Courses on a range of new topics, such as modern history, languages and literature, could now be offered. These were of interest above all to students of International Cultural and Business Studies, a new study program established in 1989, which included the possibility of specialist studies on Southeast Asia. From the start, the syllabus of the Chair in Southeast Asian Studies included language courses, initially in Indonesian and Thai and, since 2005, also in Vietnamese.

In 1997 Professor Dahm was succeeded by the Dutch historian, Professor Vincent Houben (1997–2001). Professor Houban’s research explored the colonial and imperial history of Southeast Asia, especially Indonesia. He also worked intensively on the use of intra-regional comparison as a method for carrying out studies of Southeast Asia. When Professor Houben left to take up a post at Humboldt University Berlin, the Department of Southeast Asian studies entered a transition phase with different Interim Professors, firstly the political scientist Mary Somers Heidhues and the ethnologist Stefan Dietrich and then, from 2003 to 2004, the political scientist Professor Mark Thompson.

In 2004, with the aim of strengthening Southeast Asian studies at the University of Passau, the existing C-3 Professorship was upgraded to a Chair. The work of the department under two Chairs was divided between mainland and insular Southeast Asia, a division that was maintained until 2013. Professor Susanne Schröter was appointed Chair of Southeast Asian Studies I - Insular Southeast Asia and Professor Rüdiger Korff was appointed Chair of Southeast Asian Studies II - Mainland Southeast Asia. At the same time the focus of the Department shifted from history towards social sciences and cultural studies. The sociologist Rüdiger Korff’s work dealt mainly with urbanity and state formation, while the anthropologist Susanne Schröter’s specialized in topics related to religion and gender. In 2008 she left to take up a position at the Goethe University Frankfurt and the sociologist Professor Emeritus Tilman Schiel assumed the Chair in an interim capacity until 2013. Tilman Schiel’s teaching dealt above all with societal changes in Southeast Asia and development theory.

In 2005 diploma-based study programs of the University of Passau were converted to the new system of bachelor and master’s degrees. This provided the opportunity to attract new students, in addition to those taking bachelor and master’s courses in International Cultural and Business Studies, with a specific interest in Southeast Asian Studies. A new master’s course in Southeast Asian Studies was launched in the winter semester 2007–2008, which aimed to attract international students to Passau, in particular from Southeast Asia. In 2013, the Chairs in Southeast Asian Studies underwent a further change of name. The Chair in Insular Southeast Asian Studies was renamed and the agrarian sociologist Professor Martina Padmanaban was appointed as the first Chair in Comparative Development and Cultural Studies with a focus on Southeast Asia. Professor Korff continued in post, now as Chair of Southeast Asian Studies, which thereby reverted back to the title of the first Chair of the University of Passau. In 2015, the focal area Southeast Asia became part of the newly established master’s program in Development Studies, which succeeded the Master of Southeast Asian Studies.

Professor Rüdiger Korff retired in 2020. The Chair of Southeast Asian Studies was transformed to become the Chair of Development Policy with Professor Schaffar as the new Chair. The main research interests are on international development, social media and (de)democratization as well as state and statehood and the regional focus is on Thailand, Myanmar as well as on the Chinese presence in Southeast Asia.

After a process of internal discussions, Professor Padmanabhan obtained the renaming of her Chair as Critical Development Studies Southeast Asia in 2022. The intent was to keep the chair’s origin in Southeast Asian Studies and yet work with critical academic perspectives in different social science disciplines to transform it into meaningful university research and teaching in the 21st century. New topics of the Chair include critical theory and perspectives from fields such as feminist political ecology (FPE), post-development, decolonial theory and new area studies.

In 2023, both chairs were integrated into the newly formed Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences.