Unveiling Cambodia’s Unknown Intellectual Past

Theara Thun talks about his recent publication “Epistemology of the Past: Texts, History, and Intellectuals of Cambodia, 1855–1970”（University of Hawai’i Press, 2024）

THE CAST: Theara Thun
Born and raised in Cambodia, Dr. Theara Thun is currently a research fellow at the University of Hong Kong through the Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme. He is also a recipient of the 2024–25 Lee Kong Chian NUS-Stanford Distinguished Fellowship on Southeast Asia. Before moving to Hong Kong, Dr. Thun was a Program-specific Assistant Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University.

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Visitor’s Voice

Emplacing East Timor: Regime Change and Knowledge Production, 1860-2010

Kisho Tsuchiya talks about his recent publication Emplacing East Timor: Regime Change and Knowledge Production, 1860-2010 (University of Hawai’i Press, 2024).

THE CAST: Kisho Tsuchiya
Assistant Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. He served on the United Nations’ Electoral Support Team from 2009–2010. He won the 2017 Patana Kitiarsa Prize from the American Association for Asian Studies for “Converting Tetun: The Early Missionary Texts in a Timorese Language and the Timorese Absent Presence 1875–1937.”

CSEAS Staff Page
CSEAS Newsletter
TANKEN Video: Welcome to Area Studies
In Their Own Words: The Recent History of a Mindanawan Port Town Through the Experience of Female Ex-smugglers

Packaged Food, Packaged Life

Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya talks about his recent publication Packaged Food, Packaged Life: Corporate Food in Metro Manila Slums (Kyoto CSEAS Series on Philippine Studies, Ateneo de Manila University Press and Kyoto University Press, 2023).

THE CAST: Ruiz Tafoya, Heriberto
Born in Mexico City, Heriberto Ruiz Tafoya received his Doctoral degree in Economics from Kyoto University. He is a research fellow at the Institute of Social Theory and Dynamics in Hiroshima, a research affiliate of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, and an adjunct professor at Doshisha Business School in Kyoto.

Newsletter No.81 Notes from the Field
Interview
Corona Chronicles: Voices from the Field

Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS)

This interview video gives an overview of the digital documentation work of the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey (MAHS) in multiple countries, including the Maldives, Indonesia, and Thailand. The main part of the video highlights some of the most interesting sites and objects recorded by the MAHS to date. Viewers can get a glimpse of diverse sites in the coastal and riverine areas of the region that are currently threatened by climate change and other factors. The various technologies and method used by the project are introduced, including LiDAR scanning, drone imagery, and GIS, as are some of the digital assets created by the MAHS, including orthophotomaps and 3D visualizations. The video also discusses the challenges faced in the course of the project’s work and the measures taken both to conduct field survey work in remote areas, a collaboration with diverse stakeholders including ministries of several national governments.

THE CAST: R. Michael Feener
Professor of Cross-regional Studies at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University, and an Associate Member of the History Faculty at the University of Oxford. He is currently Director of the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey: https://maritimeasiaheritage.cseas.ky…
The main focus of Professor Feener’s work is in Islamic Studies, with a particular emphasis on the history of Muslim societies of Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean World. https://kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/… https://maritimeasiaheritage.cseas.ky…

Fukuoka Prize 2023 Award Commemorative Interview: Message to young people from a historian

Fukuoka Prize 2023 Award Commemorative Interview: Message to young people from a historian

THE CAST: Thongchai WINICHAKUL
Thongchai WINICHAKUL, Thai historian, is Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also Research Fellow Emeritus at the Institute of Developing Economies, JETRO. His major works include Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of a Nation (1997), Moments of Silence: the Unforgetting of the October 6, 1976, Massacre in Bangkok (2020).
He stayed at Center for Southeast Asian Studies for six months from January 2015, as Visiting Research Scholar.

Landscapes and Livelihoods in Rural Southeast Asia

Tania Li’s research focuses on rural Southeast Asia. Here she explains how rural landscapes and livelihoods are changing. She notes that many familiar products we consume come from Southeast Asia (e.g. palm oil, coffee, cacao, timber), connecting us in important ways.

THE CAST: LI, Tania
Professor of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and Visiting Research Scholar at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University from February – July 2023. Her research focuses on land, labour, class, capitalism, development, resources and indigeneity with a particular focus on Indonesia. Her latest book Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation of Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone (Duke University Press, 2021) is co-authored with Pujo Semedi (Universitas Gadjah Mada).