2011-2012 - Center for Khmer Studies

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cKs sEnioR fELLoWs 2011-2012French Fellows receive support through a grant from the Florence GouldFoundation. U.S. Fellows are supported by a grant from the U.S. Department ofState, Bureau of Economic and Cultural Affairs, through the Council of AmericanOverseas Research CentersMatthew Jagel is conducting Ph.D. research in theDepartment of History at Northern Illinois University. Hisproject, entitled Son Ngoc Thanh, The United States, and theTransformation of Cambodia, seeks to address the comparativelyless explored period leading up to DemocraticKampuchea, and the key players of that era. In particular,Matthew is researching U.S. – Khmer relations with one ofCambodia’s modern heroes, Son Ngoc Thanh, as the centerpiece.The research will attempt to answer how SonNgoc Thanh influenced the creation of an independentCambodian state, and what his role was in the years leadingup to the Communist Revolution. By analyzing thisman, this period in time, and America’s role with respect tothis newly autonomous nation, a better understanding ofthe geopolitical considerations that influenced Americanforeign policy can be sought. To achieve this, both extensivearchival research and interviews will be employed.Kosal Path is a lecturer in the Department of InternationalRelations and Political Science at the University ofSouthern California. His research project is entitledSurvival after Genocide in Cambodia: A study of SocialAdaptation in a Fragmented Society. This research aims toprovide insights into how the identity orientations of formerKhmer Rouge cadres and survivors reflect and impactreconciliation efforts currently pursued alongside theongoing trials of five surviving Khmer Rouge leaders inCambodia. Both qualitative and quantitative methods willbe employed, including in-depth interviews with formerKhmer Rouge personnel as well as survivors, to contributeto a better understanding in the field of transitional justicein a post-genocidal society. In addition, it will expose thesocial adaptation of survivors and perpetrators who coexistin conditions of social alienation. Ultimately, thisresearch will also provide the basis for policy recommendationsas to how to put a broken society back togetherafter genocide.classical dance at a Phnom Penh restaurantCelia Rosta is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department ofAnthropology at the University of California, Riverside.Her project is entitled, Survival of an Art: The Revitalizationof Classical Dance in Cambodia. This research examines howand why the interaction between tourism and globalization,preservation and development has led to this particularform of classical dance becoming the symbol ofCambodian culture. Furthermore, it illuminates how classicaldance helps Cambodians cope with the painful experienceof the Khmer Rouge. Celia uses a variety of researchmethods, including ethnographic fieldwork, long-termparticipant observation, interviews and archival researchacross multiple sites in Cambodia. She explores the importanceof classical dance for Cambodian cultural reconciliation,as well as economic growth through embodied experience.This research also addresses the importance ofinternational support for Cambodian dance, the realities oflife for dancers, and how the transmission of this culturalknowledge creates embodied memories that allow for certainkinds of reconciliation.Pamela Corey is conducting doctoral research in theDepartment of History of Art, Archaeology and VisualStudies at Cornell University. Her research project title isThe Art of Place: Visuality and Urbanism in ContemporaryVietnam and Cambodia. Her research will investigate howsouth Vietnamese and Cambodian contemporary artistsperceive and represent their rapidly changing cityscape. Itwill also investigate how they resource spaces of the city,and in turn play a role in communal discourses and understandingsof locational identity. Using a comparativeframework, Pamela will draw on the contemporary effectsof key events and cultural turning points in the histories ofHo Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Phnom Penh in24 in focus
Cambodia. In particular, she is focusing on how acceleratedprocesses of urbanization and globalization have catalyzedcontemporary art development in late- and post-Socialist societies, producing new urban artistic subjectivities.On-site interviews with artists, curators and culturalorganizations will inform a large part of this research.Neal Keating is Assistant Professor in the Department ofAnthropology at The College at Brockport, StateUniversity of New York. His research project, entitled AnEthnographic Study of Indigenous Peoples’ Human RightsImplementation in Cambodia is a comparative ethnographicstudy of two indigenous groups in Cambodia. Neal’sresearch team is engaged in extensive interviews, participantobservation, co-design and conduct of a human rightssurvey in a Kui commune in southern Preah Vihearprovince, and a Bunong commune in southern Mondulkiriprovince. This research aims to empirically determinewhat the variable factors are that impact local understandingsand conditions of human rights in indigenous communitiesand territories. The research specifically focuseson the human rights of these communities to self-determination,and rights to traditional lands, territories andresources. The research team, drawn from the CambodiaIndigenous Youth Association and the Organization toPromote Kui Culture, will spend three months residingwith these communities.Christina Firpo, Assistant Professor in the Department ofHistory at California Polytechnic State University, is conductingresearch spanning Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam,in her project entitled “Abandoned” Children: The Crises inRacial Patriarchy and Eurasian Children in Colonial Indochina1890-1956. This project, forming part of Christina’sresearch for her book, will explore the social, political andEurasian charges of the federation des ouvres pour les enfants francoindochinois(foEfi) 1946-1954cultural reasons behind the French colonial, governmentledsearches of the remote countryside for fatherless, biracialchildren. Christina investigates why the colonialgovernment removed, often forcibly, these children fromtheir Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian mothers. Sheargues that the removals of abandoned Eurasian childrenwere a colonial attempt at managing both the racial andgender order, by integrating them into the colony’s white-French population. This research will use primary sourcedocuments from Cambodian, Lao and Vietnamese nationalarchives to provide a broader understanding of theEurasian protection movement of abandoned Eurasianchildren in colonial Indochina.Karen Greene is Visiting Professor in the Department ofHumanities and Social Science at Pannasastra University,Phnom Penh. Her research, entitled The Gift ofAbandonment, Good Governance and the Ethical Architecture ofChild Rights in Cambodia, forms part of an ethnographicbook project about care in urban and rural Cambodia.Founded on three years of intensive fieldwork, it followsthe teaching and implementation of child rights by expatriatemembers of the international community and byKhmer involved in the democratization process in the1990s. It examines the ongoing productivity of that interventionas seen from a current perspective. Karen isexploring the Cambodian notion of personhood and theethics of the ‘gift’, especially that of a child in multi-ethicalCambodia. This research will expand the anthropologicalliterature of daily life in rural and urban Cambodia, whilstalso expanding the anthropological understanding of theeffects of both humanitarian intervention and the creativityof Khmer in the process.James Kirby is conducting postdoctoral research in theDepartment of Linguistics at the University of Chicago.Unlike languages such as Vietnamese or Thai, Khmer is nota tonal language. However, since the 1960s, linguists havedescribed some changes in speech patterns in certainKhmer dialects. This project, Sound change in Khmer: Anacoustic, auditory, and aerodynamic study explores the suggestedemergence of a pitch-based contrast between certainwords in the colloquial speech of a number of Khmerdialects, including some spoken in neighboring Vietnam.The manner by which this change is taking place – as aresult of changes in the pronunciation of /r/ - has not beenreported for any other language. In this project, James isgathering audio recordings and collecting perceptualresponse data from native speakers of particular dialects ofthe Khmer language in both Cambodia and Vietnam, tobetter document and understand this unique process.Julia Estève is a postdoctoral researcher from theUniversity of Sydney conducting fieldwork for her projectTowards a Religious Geography of Angkorian Cambodia: AStudy of the History of Buddhism in the Area of Kompong Chamin focus 25
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2011-2012 - Center for Khmer Studies

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