CENTER NEWS
Dispatches: On the ground in SEA

Center students, faculty and associates are working throughout Southeast Asia - teaching, performing research, and getting involved. Here are some of their stories:

Letters from the Field

UM students on self-designed research trips throughout the region report back with what they have found and what they are trying to do. Descriptions of their projects, and links to their reports, follow.

Summer 2006

Lara Finkbeiner, Emma Nolan-Abrahamian (Cambodia)
LSA sophmores Lara and Emma propose to travel to Cambodia where they will work with the Documentation Center of Cambodia and with professional photographer John Vink. They will study the social effects of genocide on Cambodia, and to use their time there to produce an exhibition of photographs and text aimed at educating US college students about the Cambodian genocide under the Khmer Rouge.

Max Kardon (Thailand)
Max is an LSA junior and his research project takes him to the poor, agricultural region of Isaan in northeast Thailand, where he is examining the contrasts and intertwined origins of two life paths common to young men in the region: competing in Thai kickboxing (the national sport) and joining the Buddhist monkhood.

Diana Parker (Malaysia/Indonesia)
Rising LSA Senior Diana Parker is spending the summer in Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, she is visiting Kuala Lumpur and Penang, hoping to meet and interview Indonesian guest workers in Malaysia about their experiences. In Indonesia, she will be studying at the Advanced Indonesian Abroad program in Manado.

Abigail Smith (Thailand)
Abigail, a junior in LSA, will travel to Bangkok to study Thailand’s approach to using openness and economic liberalization as a tool for economic development. In particular, she will look both at how Thailand has negotiated free trade agreements with the United States and China, and how Thailand has responded to the crash of the baht in the 1997 Asian economic crisis.

Summer 2005

Letters from Vietnam: John Leahy and David Duong, assessing health facilities: On the road to Hanoi; and on Neonatal health care in Vietnam

Wanderlust: Rachael Hudak, an LSA Junior in the Creative Writing program, is in Thailand examining the role of Buddhist nuns in Thai society. You can visit her blog page here.

Jakarta Journies: Jenny Epley is a graduate student in Political Science. She is in Jakarta this summer conducting focus group research on religious belief and political participation in Indonesia. Visit her blog, which includes some pictures, here.

Letter from Aceh

Margaret Sullivan, of the US Indonesia Society, reflects on conditions in Aceh two months after the December tsunami and their efforts to rebuild a school there. More...