My research focuses on refugees in South and Southeast Asia. At the moment, I specifically focus on the Rohingya community, which has experienced exclusion, persecution, and forced migration for decades. My dissertation examined Rohingya journeys to and experience of displacement (living in exile, mostly without legal recognition) in Nepal and Thailand. For my new project at CSEAS, I investigate family lives in the Thailand-Myanmar, Thailand-Malaysia, and Bangladesh-Myanmar borderlands to compare how experiences of displacement in specific places of (temporary) settlement influence norms of ‘doing’ family and gender.

At CSEAS, I mainly focus on the ‘re-doing’ of family among Rohingya refugees in South and Southeast Asian borderlands. If time allows, I will continue working on a book proposal based on my dissertation that focuses on journeys and the constitution of refugee diasporas.

As most people would acknowledge by now, we live in times of increasing migration and for decades, displaced populations have also been on the rise. It is important to recognize that these peoples’ lives have been marginalized and created as an exception. But refugees and their lives should not be ignored and written off as marginal issues that do not concern us.

Putting together research results is always a big challenge and a never-ending learning process. Writing a research paper and an academic book is in the best of cases not simply descriptive, but it is about conceptualizing and theorizing issues to understand them more fully. Yet, this process of abstraction should not lead to making your work and research completely inaccessible to people interested in and concerning your work.

First, obviously my short stint in the Mae La refugee camp, with the help of Dr. Naruemon Thapchumpon, was extremely important in triggering and directing my interest in refugee issues. Then, during my PhD research, everyone who helped me in the field was extremely important. I have an enormous amount of gratitude and respect for them. I was showered with so much hospitality and willingness to share their knowledge and experiences with me. As an example, once, I was so exhausted from my research travels that I fell asleep in the living room of a Rohingya family after interviewing them. While I was sleeping, they covered me with a blanket, darkened the room, left it, and spoke with muted voices, only to prepare some tea and snacks as soon as I woke up. This incident was exemplary of the care and protection I received by people who enjoy little safety or protection themselves; it was very impressive. Lastly, I must say that a supervisor can occupy an extremely influential position in shaping who you become as a researcher. Mine certainly did as he continuously offered me his support. It is also partly thanks to my former supervisor, Professor Itty Abraham, that I met Professor Decha Tangseefa and found out about the JSPS program so that I could come to CSEAS as a postdoctoral researcher.

I am very much intrigued by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing’s writing. She writes so beautifully and her books are immediately recognizable by her own, unique style. This is also true of bell hooks, who teaches us to write from pain and to be radical. I further enjoy being inspired by literature – such as Salman Rushdie’s works – to develop my writing style through paying attention to how they create a rhythm, flow, and imagery with their use of language.

I do not think that there is an ideal researcher. However, I admire researchers who have a genuine connection to but still maintain a critical and curious view of their research topic and those who can continuously and creatively re-engage with their work on a conceptual and theoretical level. In some sense, they must still be unsettled by their research topic and be able to unsettle their readers through their writing.

Must-gears in the field and for writing are not so much technical equipment, but matters of the mind. Time and patience are most necessary, as well as understanding and empathy for those we work with. For ourselves, we must continuously strive to learn, remain humble, and be persistent – especially when it comes to writing and experiencing rejection. Being an early career scholar, I am probably still quite idealistic, right?