Puangchon Unchanam is a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Naresuan University, author of Royal Capitalism: Wealth, Class, and Monarchy in Thailand, published by University of Wisconsin Press, and recipient of the Honorable Mention for the 2022 Harry J. Benda Prize. To begin with, please tell us what your book is about. My […]
Download PDF of statement in Thai Issued by the AAS Board of DirectorsApril 7, 2021 The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) is deeply concerned by growing intellectual repression in Thailand. Since the 2014 military coup d’etat, the country has seen an increasing number of attacks on academic freedom. Defamation lawsuits and the selective interpretation and […]
AAS-in-Asia presents an opportunity for scholars of Asia based in Asia and around the globe to share their research with one another and, in the process, to learn about the constraints under which scholars operate in various countries. The next AAS-in-Asia conference will be held in Bangkok, Thailand, July 1-4, 2019. Accordingly, the AAS officers […]
Lisu (identified by patchwork bags, and man wearing blue shirt) wait in line for the bank to open on a very chilly morning in Fugong, China. Photo: Mark Goldschmidt By Michele Zack In the mid-1980s, I was a budget tourist on a hill tribe trek far from roads or electricity in Northern Thailand. There, I […]
AAS President Katherine Bowie, with the approval of the AAS executive board, has co-signed a statement with a number of academic bodies (including the International Institute for Asian Studies, European Association for Southeast Asian Studies, and others) in support of Dr. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti of Chiang Mai University. Dr. Chayan and four of his colleagues have […]
This summer, I’ve been learning more about what it means to be an area studies librarian. Among the most interesting of my experiences so far was searching for new books in Khon Kaen, Thailand (along with a little sightseeing on the side!). —Zoë McLaughlinUniversity of Michigan
By Brooke Schedneck “In deeply religious Thailand, monks have long been revered. But badly behaved clergy, corruption scandals, and the vast wealth amassed by some temples has many asking if something is rotten at the heart of Thai Buddhism. From selfies on private jets to multimillion dollar donations from allegedly crooked businessmen, Thailand’s monks are […]
By Tyrell Haberkorn In an essay for the May 2017 issue of the Journal of Asian Studies (“The Anniversary of a Massacre and the Death of a Monarch,” currently free to download), I reflect on the fortieth anniversary of the 6 October 1976 massacre, when state and para-state forces brutally murdered unarmed students at Thammasat […]
