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Newsletter of the Canadian Council of Southeast Asian Studies
An Electronic Forum for Southeast Asian Studies in CanadaWelcome to our much anticipated Winter 2005 CCSEAS Bulletin! Starting from 2002, the CCSEAS Bulletin has highlighted current news, events and people of interest to a growing and dynamic Southeast Asia studies community in Canada . The Bulletin is sent out via email to members of the Canadian Council of Southeast Asian Studies (CCSEAS). Current and past issues are accessible online through the CCSEAS website at http://canadianasianstudies.concordia.ca/case/htm/seac.htm . If you would like to have your name removed from our mailing list, please contact the editor at ccseas@hotmail.com . The executive committee is very pleased to bring you a fourth volume outlining current Southeast Asia studies activities in Canada . In this edition, we begin with an announcement and call for abstracts for the upcoming CCSEAS biennial conference, to be held October 14-16, 2005 , hosted by the York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) at York University , Toronto . U nder the broad theme: Re-visioning Southeast Asia: Conflicts, Connections and Vulnerabilities, CCSEAS and YCAR invite scholars and graduate students from across Canada to submit individual abstracts and potential panel themes reflecting your current research interests on Southeast Asia and its diasporas. This year’s meeting already boasts a set of panels being organized by a number of highly esteemed Canadian scholars, reflecting well the diversity and quality of research activities ongoing in Canadian universities on Southeast Asian issues, from a 30 year retrospective of the Vietnam War to contemporary Southeast Asian transnational communities. Those interested in participating in the panels already being organized are encouraged to also contact the relevant persons (listed below). The biennial CCSEAS conference represents an excellent opportunity to get reacquainted with current Canadian research activities in Southeast Asian studies, and is a chance to meet and discuss your ideas directly with other Canadian scholars and research-practioners. Please note that for cash-strapped graduate students, there will be limited financial support available for travel/accommodation expenses. York University and the York Centre for Asian Research look forward to welcoming you to CCSEAS, 2005! Please contact CCSEAS with your ideas for additional panel themes, or your individual abstracts. Visit our website at: http://canadianasianstudies.concordia.ca/case/htm/seac.htm (click on ‘Conferences’) for more information regarding submitting your abstract or panel proposal, funding opportunities, and venue and accommodation information in Toronto . PRE-PLANNED PANELS:
The Indochina War: Memories and Meanings after Thirty Years Under this broad theme there are planned two back-to-back panels. The first will be an academic panel with formal paper presentations. The second panel will be a round table discussion that will include members of the community as well as academics, coming from a number of different perspectives. If you are interested in participating please contact Dr. Van directly. April 30th, 2005 marks the thirtieth anniversary of the end of the Second Indochina War. Despite the passage of three decades, emotions and polemics are still heated. For many who lived through the war, the wounds of war have not healed. For all the sides that fought, reconciliation has not been achieved. For academics, a consensus about the war's meaning has not been reached. The war, even after thirty years, remains for many contemporary and contentious. The conference organizers would like to commemorate this important anniversary with a panel and roundtable organized around the theme: The Indochina War: Memories and Meanings after Thirty Years. We invite academics and community participants to reflect on where we are with regard to understanding the war. What are the legacies and lessons of the war? And more importantly, where do we go from here? What needs to be done to address the human and environmental devastation of the war? How can reconciliation proceed? Southeast Asia : Refashioning the Cold War and the Islamic World Managing Conflict Social Movements and Democratic Governance Urban Life and Urban Conflicts in Southeast Asian Cities
Courting Disaster: Environmental Vulnerability in Historical Perspective Environmental Conservation and Livelihoods: Controversies of Nature Protection in Southeast Asia Food, Agriculture, Standards, and Agrarian Transformations Conceptualizing Class in Southeast Asia The concept of class in Southeast Asian social science has seen many incarnations, from classic studies of agrarian political economy, to a more recent fascination with the consumption patterns and identities of a ‘new middle class’, and the multiple class identities of migrant workers. These various interpretations reflect shifting concepts of class in Western social science from the classical social theories of Marx and Weber, to more culturally-inflected interpretations drawing on the work of writers such as Pierre Bourdieu. This session seeks to address the concept of class in Southeast in its various theoretical formulations and across different contexts in the region. Possible topics include: class formation and mobilization/resistance; intersections of class with other axes of difference such as gender and ethnic identity; the changing class structures resulting from urbanization and industrialization; the implications of migration and transnationalism for class identities and mobility; the cultural markers of class identity/distinction. Anyone interested should contact Philip Kelly.
Popular Culture, Art and the Political in Southeast Asia In the past few decades, identity projects have increasingly taken on a peculiar degree of intensity as globalization has charged tensions between modernity and tradition, nationality and ethnicity, center and margin and the politics incumbent in each of these spheres. The papers in this session probe these cultural processes by analyzing how art and popular culture fashion local identities while simultaneously crossing borders to manifest transnational identity projects. Analyzing the shifting roles of cultural production in Southeast Asia offers a particularly special lens to access issues of identity politics. With the end of colonialism, imperial rule and U.S. occupation, Southeast Asian states are actively negotiating new and multiple national identities. The session papers will thus situate discourses on, and production of, Southeast Asian art and popular culture within wider negotiations of politics, meaning and power. Southeast Asian Migration and Transnationalism Over the last decade or so, the boundaries between ‘area studies’ and ‘immigration studies’ has blurred as immigrants are increasingly understood to live transnational lives beyond their place of settlement. These lives comprise multiple strands of cultural, economic, political and social linkage between migrants and their places of origin. Under such circumstance the separation of area studies from ‘diaspora’ or immigration studies is increasingly untenable, and where ‘Asian Studies’ should take place is no longer so clear. This series of sessions seeks to explore the transnational ties sustained by Southeast Asian migrants around the world and the implications of such ties for a wide range of social issues/processes, including: Southeast Asian development; labour and housing market trajectories in ‘gateway’ cities of the Global North; as well as class mobility, gender identities, racialization, political mobilization, entrepreneurship, religious movements, and citizenship in both sources and destinations. Please contact Philip Kelly if you are interested in participating. The Interface between Activism and Scholarship: NGO Contributions to Southeast Asian Studies Southeast Asia and Southeast Asian Diasporas Through Video 2. Call for Papers: First International Lao Studies Conference : T he Center for Southeast Asian Studies of Northern Illinois University is pleased to announce the First International Conference on Lao Studies (ICLS) to be held on Friday-Sunday, May 20-22, 2005 in DeKalb , Illinois , USA . The main objective of this conference is to provide an international forum for scholars to present and discuss various aspects of Lao studies. Topics are provisionally divided into the following broad categories: languages and linguistics; folk wisdom and literature; belief, ritual, and religions; history; politics; economics; environment; ethno-cultural contact and exchange; architecture, arts, music, and handicrafts; archaeology; science and medicine; information technology; the media and popular culture; health, medicine and HIV/AIDS; agriculture; education; community development and others. Abstracts are invited for the conference, with a deadline of March 15, 2005. For more information, please contact: Center for Southeast Asian Studies Outreach Coordinator: Or, check out their website, and pre-register your interest at: 3. A Special Note on the Asian Tsunami Disaster, The recent disaster in Asia has reminded us all again of why it is important for Canada to have a vibrant academic community producing and disseminating knowledge about Southeast Asia and other world regions. Once the immediate response to the horrors of loss of life and livelihood has passed, there will be many questions about the reasons why this event took the course that it did. Already within a few days of the catastrophe, environmentalists were arguing that the sheer scale of the loss of life was due to rapid coastal development, especially tourist development and shrimp farming. According to these arguments, shrimp farming and other developments have destroyed natural buffers, especially mangroves, which might have broken the force of the tsunami, and drawn large populations to coastal areas. While these sorts of arguments may strike rural researchers as somewhat exaggerated, they do raise questions about how coastal zones have been transformed in the past 20 or 30 years, and how these transformations have affected vulnerabilities to socio-natural events like tsunamis. How have the economies of coastal zones been transformed by integration into new commodity networks based in tourism, fishing, and aquaculture, among other activities, and how have these developments affected the distribution of people and coastal ecologies? What is the role of migration: has there been substantial migration to coastal areas, and if so, why? How have these processes created not only new economic opportunities, but also new vulnerabilities, including vulnerability to socio-natural events? How are these risks distributed in relation to class, ethnicity, age, gender, and so on? Although the world’s attention has been captured by the sheer scale of the December 26 tsunami, it was not an isolated event. Earlier the same month, an estimated 2000 coastal villagers were killed by flooding and landslides due to a typhoon. In 1991, some 135,000 people were killed when a tsunami hit Bangladesh . The 1989 ban on logging in Thailand was imposed after hundreds of villagers were killed by landslides in logged-over hillsides caused by El Niño-associated rains. All of these events point to the importance of understanding how changes in the landscape and social and economic transformations may have produced new socio-environmental vulnerabilities. What has been happening in coastal zones, moreover, is one expression of a larger process that has been happening throughout Southeast Asia . Similar questions can be posed in relation to upland areas, and even core agricultural areas and Southeast Asia ’s expanding urban zones. How is economic development in these areas transforming landscapes and integrating people into local, regional, and global migration and commodity networks? How does this affect livelihoods, equity, and vulnerability to socio-natural events? In addition to explaining current processes of social and environmental change in Southeast Asia , a further series of difficult questions can be asked that are more normative and policy-oriented. These turn around what should have been done, and what should be done in the future. Strong environmental arguments criticizing all coastal development are not likely to receive a very receptive audience in Southeast Asia . A more useful approach might be to ask how development might be shaped so as to minimize these new vulnerabilities. Who is best situated to assess these risks, and how might these risk assessments be translated into appropriate policy? A network of Canadian researchers, working with researchers in five Southeast Asian countries as well as France , Australia , and the United Kingdom , is embarking on a large-scale research project to investigate precisely these sorts of questions. The Canadian network is led by Rodolphe de Koninck, and is based in good part on the CCSEAS network. Other Canadian universities involved in the research include York University , Laval , McGill, the University of Toronto , Waterloo , Trent , and the University of British Columbia . The project has been funded by SSHRCC as part of its MCRI program, and promises to make Canada a centre for the creation of knowledge on these important issues. The grant points to our ability to build on the networks that we have built through CCSEAS, to do scholarly work and enhance the profile of Southeast Asian Studies in Canada . The conferences that we hold every two years are the most important form of participating in CCSEAS; we hope to see you at York University next October. 4. Successful Fellowships and Awards! This year, Julie HDT Nguyen received a two-year SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at the Asian Institute, University of Toronto . Her current research is on the impacts of multinational corporate advertising and school texts on gender equity in Vietnam in the context of globalization. She successfully defended her doctoral thesis, titled “Exploring Indigenous Approaches to Women’s Well-Being in Vietnam : Negotiating Gender” in 2003, as part of a PhD program in Interdisciplinary Studies and Asian Research at the University of British Columbia . The thesis examines how Vietnam can negotiate and adapt to the gender and development approach to suit its historical, political and cultural contexts. The thesis is based on her research for the first Human Development Report in Vietnam “Expanding Choices for the Rural Poor” (United Nations 1998), and its conceptual framework focuses on three dimensions of women’s circumstances: education and livelihood security, social and family relations, and legal protection. Julie can be contacted directly at: Julie HDT Nguyen, Ph.D. 5. Current Canadian Research and Activities in Southeast Asia In this section we highlight the ongoing research work in Southeast Asia by Karston von Hoesslin of the University of Calgary . Why Canada Should Open its Wallet Again
Another year, another workshop. Unlike the early 1990’s though, participants involved in the informal (Track II) event are keener than ever to make the most of their annual get-together. What happened to the Workshop since CIDA’s withdrawal in 2001 is a mystery to many; in fact, some senior Canadian academics did not even know that the Workshop continued after Canada ’s unfortunate disappearing act. This was its 14th year, held in Batam , Indonesia , and on behalf of Professor Hasjim Djalal’s Centre for South East Asian Studies (Jakarta); I was invited to attend as a Special Observer. It has been a while since a Canadian joined the ranks of the ten participating delegations and my presence (in my private capacity) was very well received. The last one to do so was Professor Ian Townsend-Gualt, the man responsible for building Canada ’s reputation among Workshop participants to an unprecedented level. While touring the claimant countries in earlier this fall, I had met many of the senior delegates present in Batam. My questions to the individual claimant representatives were; how they viewed CIDA’s original decade of funding (1990-2001); how they felt about its withdrawal; their thoughts on the progress of the Workshop itself; and what their reaction would be should CIDA and/or Foreign Affairs Canada return. Their answers to the questions made it clear: Canada can and should continue funding this initiative. Named the Workshop on Managing Potential Conflicts in the South China Sea upon its inception, the thought of actual conflict in the present day is a distant memory because the Workshop continues to fulfil its mandate. This is thanks to Canada ’s original contribution and the region’s ever-increasing willingness to talk. The transparency and stability-building nature of the Workshop paralleled Canada ’s foreign policy beliefs (dialogue, confidence building, and conflict prevention), and has calmed the waters of South China Sea by bridging relations between the claimants. This year, the Workshop was in the crucial stage of redefining itself as it addressed non-military issues threatening the entire region regardless of who claims what. Environmental degradation, ecological sustainability, and search and rescue are issues, which must now be tackled. Fortunately Expert and Technical Working Groups (EWG/TWG) exist to address the issues; however, the funding does not. Currently, a Special Fund totalling $35,000USD (including the generous contributions by host but cash-strapped Indonesia ) will barely cover the annual cost of running the 14 th Workshop let alone the research and meetings of the EWG/TWG’s. The Track II nature of the Workshop opens doors for all claimants, regardless of their stately status because it is the only channel where Taiwan and China can sit across another and address common maritime issues. In fact, it is the only channel where this issue can be addressed multilaterally involving all the claimants.
Sure, China and Taiwan went on for hours at times dissecting the wording of one paragraph while moderator, Hasjim Djalal, though a patient man, pulled his hair out in frustration. But we must remember that the Workshop is the only venue where issues concerning Taiwan ’s maritime and environmental affairs can be discussed multilaterally with states, specifically China and ASEAN. This can be equated to a steam valve releasing pressure slowly, something that both China and Taiwan appreciate. It would not be such a drama if delegates had more time to address the Workshop agenda, however, a puny budget can only go so far when it comes to funding the venue and delegate accommodation expenses. This was the term I heard most while in Batam: funding, or sadly, the lack thereof. Canada must consider the Workshop like a good brand of toothpaste. It is understandable to occasionally test another brand when the current tube runs empty, but if the usual brand gives you cleaner, whiter, healthier teeth, then it makes sense to switch back. The Workshop is Canada ’s brand of toothpaste: it made what was thought impossible, possible, through the cornerstone of Canadian Foreign Policy (dialogue, confidence building, peace and stability building, and human and environmental security). Furthermore, only Canada has the ability to come back and invest into a process that it originally helped develop which many other countries, after its withdrawal, have tried to participate in. Finally, Canada should consider reengagement as a business opportunity as well. After all, how many chances are there for a country to give a mere $115,000US annually to a process interlinked to its foreign policy and be respected as well as it was in the 1990’s? It is time to show our colours in the region and open the wallet again! 6. Canadian Graduate Student Reports from the Field In our recent call for contributions for this edition we included a note for Canadian graduate students currently undertaking fieldwork in the region to report back on an area of topical interest to Southeast Asian studies. In this edition we are pleased to publish a report from Trevor W. Preston from the University of Toronto Department of Political Science, on his recent fieldwork in southern Thailand . Trevor’s piece, on what has become the ‘other’ tragedy for southern Thailand in 2004, extends the analysis in our last newsletter, which situated the Bali bombing and ‘Islamic radicalism’ into national and regional context. Keith Barney (your CCSEAS Bulletin editor) also provides an update from his ongoing fieldwork in Lao PDR. We hope to include field reports in each newsletter, so if you are a Canadian graduate student undertaking field work in Asia, and are feeling the need to place your ideas into initial (or polished) form, send one our way! Trevor W. Preston, Report from Vientiane , Lao PDR The world, accustomed to Thailand's tourist soaked images of beautiful beaches, and Bangkok's alluring nightlife was suddenly confronted by a crisis in Southern Thailand where since earlier 2004, a low level insurgency has broken wide open to claim some 500 lives. This crisis is a complex tale of old history and old grudges, touching on the delicate issues of ethnicity in the Thai polity, while also drawing renewed attention to the place of Islam in a Southeast Asian post 9/11, post Bali 2002 climate, but now in a particularly Thai context. Thailand, of course, is a predominately majority Buddhist nation, but some 4% of its population are Muslim, largely geographically concentrated in Thailand's 3 southern provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat. Culturally and ethnically Malay, these three provinces share much more in common with their Malay kin across the border in Malaysia than with their fellow Thais, but the forces of history and colonialism have intervened to draw international boundaries. The South has always had a strained relationship with Bangkok, but since the end of Communist insurgent activity in the 1970s, it has been largely peaceful and stable as Thailand was lauded around the region as a model of how to integrated disaffected minorities. However, two striking incidents frame the picture of Southern Thailand in 2004. In April, in the bloodiest day in Thai political history, some 100 alleged Muslim militants were killed by Thai security forces, outside the noted Kru Seh mosque in Pattani province. In October, over 80 Thai Muslims suffocated to death in military trucks after being detained following a particular heated demonstration near Tak Bai. This new sudden outbreak of violence raises a number of questions. Was the 'Thai success story' simply a mirage? Or is it, as the Thai government claims, that the violence is largely the result of outside radical, Muslim militant terrorists? The Thai government has now embarked on a strenuous effort to lock down the region and hunt down the insurgents, but who exactly are these insurgents? That was the question on the tip of my tongue throughout my stay, but I never did get any satisfactory answers. During my conversations with locals, I could hear the odd hints, rumours of radicals, students of the Wahhabi Islam of Saudi Arabia penetrating local mosques, calling for Jihad, independence for Southern Thailand - but it still remained all conjecture. Random violence in Southern Thailand is a daily reality, the odd soldier shot, the odd bomb going off, but no one can point to any centrally organized insurgency operating in the region. The local Thai Muslim population remains on the sidelines, caught in the middle between an overzealous Bangkok and its shadowy insurgent antagonists. But resentment on the part of locals towards Bangkok over their perceived second class status are very real and have been building towards this crisis for some time. During my travels, I was struck by the socio-economic stagnation, and grinding poverty of the South which is readily apparent after crossing the border from Malaysia . Jobs, development are hard to come by these days in the South as during my stay, I could literally feel the palpable frustration, anger, hopelessness, and boredom that hangs over the region, serving as fertile recruiting ground for any force that wants to challenge the depressing status quo, namely these new Islamist fused militant movements now gaining strength daily. My last impression of South was of its fluidity, its 'Wild West' quality where criminality meets capitalism and intersects with official authority. Southern Thailand is a land of wide open spaces and empty highways, as one of my fondest memories of my journey were the several days spent off the 'beaten track' with my good friends, exploring the various kampungs of Narathiwat province. Southern Thailand has always been infamous for its porous boundaries between officialdom and impropriety, as the smuggling and black marketing of narcotics, guns, and other illicit commodities is common. This fluidity of the region should not go unnoticed, because it gives some colour to the often monolithic reports of hard core militants and their hard edged adversaries in the Thai security forces. Are the insurgents committed fanatics or simply criminals? The answer may be a bit of both. So, ultimately what lies in the future for the South and for all of Thailand ? Unfortunately, and almost inevitably, there will be more violence, more escalation, and more deaths. The time for moderates, on both sides is close to being eclipsed, as confrontation seems assured for the foreseeable future. The domestic implications for Thailand are also grave as Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s increasingly authoritarian tactics puts in danger Thailand 's nascent democracy. However, the regional implications of the crisis are also very worrying. Already, both Malaysia , and Indonesia have expressed their concerns over Thailand 's treatment of its Muslim minority. Thailand has bristled over the criticism, fuelling a rift that could upset intra-ASEAN harmony. Southern Thailand in the end may just be the tip of the iceberg of a greater regional crisis to come in Southeast Asia . Keith Barney For most Canadian graduate students undertaking funded research in Southeast Asia , the necessity to link up with a partner or host institution is often written into funding arrangements. However, it seems that often these institutional arrangements are left largely on paper: once ‘institutional affiliation’ with a Southern institution is granted, the faxes received and the awards disbursed, the actual interaction between Canadian graduate students on field work and developing country universities can tend towards the minimal. There are of course constraints for both sides: graduate students are under stress to ‘get out to the field’ and begin answering that daunting list of research questions. Researchers and faculty from Southern institutions are often overworked and underpaid, with heavy undergraduate teaching loads. The opportunities for interactions between Canadian researchers and host-university undergraduate students, through for example teaching-assistant arrangements, are most often not part of the programme, or the timeframe. And the interpersonal relationships between Canadian graduate students and host faculty and students, which are crucial for establishing learning networks and knowledge sharing, can only build up over time and through proximity. This can be difficult when one faces cultural and linguistic barriers and when one’s field site is not within the geographic proximity of the host institution. As a result, I suggest that while Canadian graduate students are usually officially hosted by a developing country university for their graduate fieldwork, the opportunities for Southern institutions to gain understanding, techniques and ideas from research taking place in their own backyards by students from developed countries, are often missed. Similarly, the opportunities for Canadian graduate students to combine and supplement their overseas field research with the invaluable insights from scholars and students at their Southern university partners, can be neglected. While these problems and power relations can be overstated, for example the quality of training and research ongoing at many Southeast Asian universities such certainly approach those in Canada, what nevertheless often happens is one aspect of an ongoing re-enforcement of the divisions between the value of knowledge production generated by dominant, well-funded Western universities and their ‘poorer academic cousins’ in the global South. In the context of a developing country such as Laos , where the nations’ first university - the National University of Laos (NUOL) - was only established in 1996, these questions of the manner in which foreign scholars arrive and leave take on particular importance. Thus, when an opportunity arose to combine my Ph.D. fieldwork with an ongoing IDRC project at the National University of Laos, building Lao faculty capacity in undertaking independent research on community-based natural resource management, it was the ideal choice. While this will mean a longer PhD research time frame than for most (2 years), this arrangement has already provided a number of invaluable learning opportunities. These have included assisting the Lao faculty researchers on their projects and research strategies, and accompanying them to the field, to getting to know personally our Lao staff in the IDRC office, and presenting my research proposal and questions to a number of upper level undergraduate classes at the forestry faculty. In the next months I look forward to hiring a research assistant from a final year undergraduate class, as one way in which to encourage motivated Lao students into the broader sphere of the IDRC-CBNRM project, and to share my own learning and research insights with forestry students from Laos . Finally, I will be aiming to work on building learning relations not only with the Lao faculty participating in this particular IDRC project, but finding ways to link up with Lao faculty (while being aware of the formal and informal protocols with respect to senior lecturers) whom I see walking around the building every day, but have not had the opportunity to meet. While my actual progress in terms of getting ‘out to the field’ and fully tackling my rather daunting list of research questions has perhaps not gone as quickly as anticipated, I am realizing that the opportunities for a fuller and sustained involvement with the faculty, staff and students from the National University have already been invaluable - not only in terms of an understanding of my particular research area in forestry and rural development, but of the broader context of the Lao education system, the political economy of knowledge production, and the present and potential role for development agencies and training partnerships here in Laos. I would certainly encourage other current and future Canadian student researchers in Southeast Asia to continue to look for small, everyday, but still innovative ways to develop and share your research experiences and ideas with your host institutions, and in particular, the students. 7. Graduate Student Profiles
Continuing on our efforts to highlight and promote graduate student research in Southeast Asian studies in Canada, in this edition we introduce Michael Tosto from HEC Montréal, and Romain Vanhooren and Martin Tremblay from Université Laval . If you are a graduate student registered at a Canadian university, and would like your upcoming efforts to be broadcasted ‘ Canada wide’ in the next Bulletin, do contact the editor. Michel Tosto Candidate for the Masters degree in International Business, HEC Montréal Title : “Information in the network: the role and importance of social networks to the management of western firms in Vietnam ”. Research focus : The aim of this master’s thesis is to shed some light on the role and importance of relational networks for the successful management of western firms established in Vietnam . Many studies underscore there importance in this context, but lack to say how and why. A framework based on « social network analysis » has been developed, and following the data collection in Vietnam , important conclusions have been drawn. First, it appears that the importance of relational networks is largely due to its informational role. In Vietnam , hard economic and business information, knowing that information is at the core of any successful business, is deficient and often inaccurate when it exist. As such, relational networks role is to provide the necessary information to these businesses. The thesis underlines how networks provide this. Secondly, it appears that several groups and individual are in positions that enable information to travel between groups otherwise isolated. The role of these groups and individual is also emphasized in the thesis. A full copy, in French, is available on www.irec.net. Romain Vanhooren Candidate to a M.A. degree in geography, Laval University Project title : Protected Areas in Mainland Southeast Asia Fieldwork : summer 2005 in Vietnam and Thailand Martin Tremblay Recent graduate, B.A. in geography, Laval University Undergraduate dissertation title (January 2005): Contribution to a typology of protected areas implantation sites in Vietnam ) Abstract : Using nine national parks and two natural reserves as case study, this research aims, firstly, to establish a general sketch of these protected areas. Secondly, their specific characteristics are analyzed in order to underline discrepancies and similarities. This short contribution constitutes a draft typology of protected areas implantation sites in Vietnam . Objective: in the wake of this research, to start a graduate program (M.A.) in geography next fall. 8. Membership Enquiries
Some of you may not be sure if you are currently active members of the CCSEAS. While you are not required to be a current member to receive our Bulletin, membership fees for CCSEAS help support our development and allow you participation in a range of SEAS opportunities including our semi-annual conferences. The Canadian Asian Studies Association (CASA) handles membership administration for us. You can check our website at http://www.casa.umontreal.ca/case/htm/seac.htm for a list of current members, or contact us directly. Your dues are paid to CASA but half of the money goes directly to supporting the CCSEAS. The CCSEAS Bulletin is intended to develop a cohesive network of Canadian scholars, institutions, and citizens, involved in the broad area of Southeast Asian studies, encouraging new approaches and collaborations, and building a critical mass of accessible Canadian research on Southeast Asian issues. We welcome contributions, critiques and suggestions, so if you have any news, ideas, or comments, do send them our way, so they may be included in the next CCSEAS Bulletin. Please keep contributions concise, and if possible copies in both English and French are most appreciated. With Regards for 2005, Keith Barney The Canadian Council for Southeast Asian Studies Visit Our Website At: http://canadianasianstudies.concordia.ca/case/htm/seac.htm Do you have students, friends or colleagues, on campus or in the community, who might be interested in receiving the CCSEAS Bulletin? If so, encourage them to contact us, to become a member of the |
