Mission Statement - Center for Khmer Studies

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SENIOR FELLOWS 2009-2010 Supported by the Florence Gould Foundation and the Council of American Overseas Research Centers/U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs Dr. Ann and Jane Allison, are an independent mother and daughter research team working on a project entitled: Lost- Wax bronze casting using clay of large statuary c. 1900-2009: Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand. As well as being unstudied, the process of lost-wax bronze casting is fast disappearing on mainland Southeast Asia. This research aims to record, archive and understand each detail and aspect of the casting process. Ann and Jane are especially interested in individual castors’ reasoning behind the production of each cast, thus adopting an ethnographic and comparative approach to the subject. This comparative ethnographic study will clarify what is specific in the bronze casting process in each of the three target countries. Having already developed a body of knowledge of early contemporary bronze casting, Ann and Jane will extend their existing research to encompass the whole of the twentieth century in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand. (CAORC/ECA) Lisa Arensen is a U.S. citizen studying for a Ph.D at the University of Edinburgh. Landmines and unexploded ordnance continue to be obstacles in the lives and livelihoods of many rural Cambodians. Lisa’s dissertation, ‘The War Will Go, the War will Stay: Landmines and Livelihoods in Northwest Cambodia’, explores how residents of a village attempt to recover from violent conflict while still constrained by its material consequences, and its impact on the very ground on which they live and work. Her research is grounded in anthropological literature on landscape, focusing on embodied or material engagement with physical environments, as well as the representation and conceptualization of place. Lisa will examine multiple modes of engagement with one such landscape in the district of Rattanak Mondul in Battambang, a key site of conflict between the Khmer Rouge and Cambodian government forces during the early 1990s. (CAORC/ECA) Siti Keo is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of History, University of California, Berkeley. Siti’s research project, Understanding Change: Modernity and Urban Life in Sangkum Reastr Niyum Phnom Penh, sets out to trace the development of Phnom Penh during the transitional moment in Cambodian history, when French colonial control ended and a new independent government, Sangkum Reastr Niyum, took shape. It examines the development of literary images and other means in which those living in Phnom Penh understood, imagined, and/or engaged their urban world. The research attempts to answer some fundamental historical questions related to conflicts and debates among urban dwellers that were particular to Phnom Penh. It does this through an examination of three distinct mediums, the burgeoning press, the modern novel and cinema. (CAORC/ECA) Viet Le is a Ph.D candidate at the University of Southern California, Department of American Studies and Ethnicity. His dissertation, is entitled, Trauma and Desire: Representation, Contemporary Art and AIDS in Cambodia and Vietnam. Viet is conducting eleven months of research on contemporary art in Phnom Penh. This research forms part of his larger project that addresses the intersections of trauma, desire, and cultural production in Cambodia and Viet Nam, two societies in transition and linked historically and regionally. The research adopts two approaches, visual culture analysis and participant observation. It focuses on two sites, contemporary visual art and HIV/AIDS. Viet thus examines how traumas, such as war, socio-economic transition, and national desire are constructed. (CAORC/ECA) Colleen McGinn is a Ph.D candidate in the Department of Social Work at Columbia University. Colleen’s project deals with the Pyschosocial Impact of Forced Evictions on Women in Phnom Penh. She asks the questions: How do forced evictions affect the current lives and future prospects of displaced women in Phnom Penh? What are their modalities of coping, and what are the sources of their risk and resilience? Colleen has utilized qualitative research methods to investigate the psychosocial and livelihood impact of women in Phnom Penh who have been displaced by clearances of several city neighborhoods in recent years. In addition to investigating a critical issue in Cambodia today, this study has far-reaching implications for the development of best practices, service programming and public policy in the rapidly expanding arena of global community-based mental health. Art Historian, Dr. Rachel Loizeau is conducting postdoctoral research into Narrative traditions in Asia and Southeast Asia. Her research focuses on the historical bas reliefs on Hindu Mine clearing in Cambodia IN FOCUS 21
monuments in Cambodia, Java, and India. From India to Cambodia, via Java, artists have shown a common interest in decorating temples with narrative bas-reliefs representing Hindu myths, especially the epics and legends of Krsna. This research project sets out to study the nature and function of historical decor. It reviews the architectural, historical, and cultural context of images, comparing in particular the structures and narrative processes as well as iconographic themes. The aim of this comparative approach is to determine the common traditions of the artists in these regions, and to emphasize their original characteristics by taking as study subjects two particularly popular themes: the legends of Rama and Krsna. (Florence Gould Foundation) Noëllie Bon is following a doctoral program at the University of Lyon (2). Her dissertation is entitled the Morphosyntaxic description of Stieng Language. The project is concerned with the minority language, Stieng, spoken in Snoul district in Cambodia’s southeastern province, Kraceh. Noëllie has established an initial sociolinguistic profile of this community, and has conducted a preliminary study of phonetic and phonological rules. The translation, transcription and analysis of the data will be done on the ground in Snoul district. The description of these activities will be made in typological perspective to underline their characteristics. One of the main aims of the project is an attempt to elaborate a grammar for this language. Another goal is to adopt an areal and genetic viewpoint, by comparing the Stieng with other Mon-Khmer languages. (Florence Gould Foundation) Dr. Dominique Soutif, Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III, is working on the preparation for publication of a collection of pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Khmer inscriptions (7th and 13th centuries). The corpus of studied work is comprised of approximately 40 unpublished inscriptions, which give detailed information about the functioning of sanctuaries in Ancient Cambodia. As well as Philologists, these inscriptions will be of great interest for scholars in a variety of disciplines such as archaeology and linguistics. Bas-Relief Angkor Wat Sanskrit Inscriptions from Cambodia, Photo Courtesy EFEO 22 IN FOCUS
Page 1 and 2: Mission Statement The Center for Kh
Page 3 and 4: Director’s Note By the end of 200
Page 5 and 6: Members and Benefactors Olivier Ber
Page 7 and 8: The CKS Library : A year of Renewal
Page 9 and 10: KDP 2008-2009 activities & projects
Page 11 and 12: Ancient Khmer Ceramics Conference:
Page 13 and 14: FEATURE ARTICLE Of Elephants and Me
Page 15 and 16: The worst village crisis would aris
Page 17 and 18: The Junior Faculty Training Program
Page 19: “When we finished our presentatio
Page 23 and 24: CKS Institutional Consortium Member

Mission Statement - Center for Khmer Studies

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