Co-organized by the Shoklo Malaria Research Unit (SMRU), the 47th Southeast Asia Seminar was held along the Thai-Myanmar border region, in the districts of Tha Song Yang, Mae Ramat, Mae Sot, and Phop Phra, Tak Province of Thailand, during December 7-14, 2023. This year’s theme was “Health, Border, and Marginality: Toward Transdisciplinarity?”

Two sets of issues guided the seminar. One was a question, the other was a proposal. First, what kind of engagement should a researcher have toward a border that is situated next to a country raged by protracted armed conflict? And because this 47th Southeast Asia Seminar was the second chapter following the 45th Southeast Asia Seminar, we proposed that transdisciplinarity is one of a few most appropriate inquiries for this kind of terrain. The seminar, thus, sought to provide a space for reflection on an intertwining relation of five key notions: health, border, marginality, protracted armed conflict, and transdisciplinarity. It did so by learning from varieties of stakeholders along the border: marginalized peoples, community-based organizations (CBOs), faith-based organization (FBOs), health workers, educators, students, an intergovernmental organization (IGO), government officials, businesspeople, and researchers.

A total of 10 core participants from 9 countries took part in this year’s seminar, they were:

• 1) Dr. Warathida Chaiyapa, Chiang Mai University, Assistant Professor (Sustainability Science)
• 2) Dr. Tomas Cole, Stockholm University, Postdoctoral Fellow (Anthropology)
• 3) Dr. Ryuji Hattori, Professor, Chuo University (Political Science)
• 4) Dr. Miriam Jaehn, Kyoto University, Postdoctoral Researcher (Asian Studies and Refugee Studies)
• 5) Dr. Jeonghyeon Kim, Sungkyunkwan University, Research Fellow (Political Science/Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs)
• 6) Dr. Siu Hei Lai, Nanyang Technological University, Research Fellow (Anthropology)
• 7) Dr. Busarin Lertchvalitsakul, Naresuan University, Lecturer (Anthropology)
• 8) Dr. Tual Sawn Khai, United Nations University International Institute for Global Health (UNU-IIGH), Ph.D. Fellow (Global Health Sociology and Social Policy)
• 9) Dr. Yi-Chin Wu, National Chengchi University, Research Consultant/Research Assistant (Development Studies)
• 10) Vincen Gregory Yu, MD., Ateneo de Manila University, Research Associate (Medicine & Health); University of Sydney, MA (Research) student (Anthropology)

The lectures by the SMRU and CSEAS researchers were:

• 1) “Shoklo Malaria Research Unit: Between Research & Humanitarian,” Francois Nosten, SMRU, Oxford University
• 2) “Adapting Strategies for Malaria Control & Elimination,” Aung Pyae Phyo, SMRU
• 3) “Heath, Border and Marginality: ‘Where Will You Birth Your Baby?,’” Rose McGready, SMRU, Oxford University
• 4) “Myanmar’s Political Crisis and Its Impacts on the Thai-Myanmar Border Region,” Yoshihiro Nakanishi
• 5) “Opium, Casinos, Conflicts, and Poverty in the Myanmar-China Border: A Household-level Quantitative Approach,” Yalei Zhai
• 6) “The United Nations and Protracted Armed Conflicts,” Tomoko Takahashi
• 7) “Ethnographic Approaches to Care and Marginality,” Yoko Hayami
• 8) “Saving Lives, Losing Voices: A Critique on Public Health through the Case of Indonesian Activism of People Who Use Drugs,” Chika Yamada
• 9) “Health, Border, and Marginality: Toward Transdisciplinarity,” Decha Tangseefa

Apart from a series of lectures by the SMRU and CSEAS researchers, there were excursion trips to visit nine stakeholders:

• 1) Mae La “temporary shelter area” (or “refugee camp”)
  a. Kawthoolei Karen Baptist Bible School & College
  b. Htee Ger Nee Church
• 2) SMRU’s TB Clinic
• 3) Marginalized Muslim Community
• 4) Karen Refugee Committee
• 5) Mae Tao Clinic
• 6) Thoo Mweh Khee Migrant Learning Center
• 7) Mae Sot General Hospital
• 8) UNHCR Field Office, Mae Sot
• 9) Tak Chamber of Commerce

These nine stakeholders were visited with the hope that the seminar would have done adequate justice to the complexity of the Thai-Myanmar border region where: a) transnational forces – of people, culture, capital, and disease – entwine and tremendously complicate these spaces in-between the two nation-states; b) many marginalized peoples have had to endure manifold sickness due to their marginal positionalities either as displaced peoples or voluntary migrants, and many of whom have become unskilled or low-skilled cheap labour in Thailand; c) varieties of peoples with different cultural lifeworlds shaping their (economic) lives along the border vis-à-vis the two nation-states’ political, socio-economic, and public health policies.

Toward the end of the seminar, the core participants presented the results of their interweaving of insights from assigned readings, the presentations, the excursion trips, and their own research journeys. The discussions covered multiple strands of ideas, some keys of which were:

• • Space, infrastructure, and (im)mobility
• • Health, border, and connectivity
• • Border, care, undocumentedness, and family
• • Place, Pests, and Pestilence
• • Climate change, marginalization, and border
• • Crime & “caring”
• • Land and indigenous peoples
• • Comparative analysis of marginalization: upland highlanders vis-à-vis border refugees
• • Diplomacy after the coup: Japan & Myanmar

With such strands of ideas and through varieties of objects of study within each core participant’s research endeavor – e.g., border, infrastructure, land, pandemic, mosquito, refugee and/or voluntary migrants, family, youths, indigenous peoples or highlanders, climate change, government policy, diplomacy, among others – the core participants’ methods, approaches or analytical frameworks were, likewise, diverse: ethnographic research; medicine & health; development studies; sociology; policy studies; human rights/humanitarian affairs; sustainability science; political science, among others. Throughout the seminar, discussions were rich, often exciting, and some were impressively deep. After the seminar, each core participant submitted a 600-800 word reflection paper, which has been revised and expanded to a 2000-word reflection paper, to be submitted by January 31, 2024 – all of which will, in turn, be published in a special issue of CSEAS’s Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, forthcoming in June 2024.

The 47th Southeast Asia Seminar was co-organized by CSEAS and SMRU. Eight persons – consisting of Hayami Yoko, Nakanishi Yoshihiro, Yamada Chika, Takahashi Tomoko, Yunxi Wu, Akedo Masako, Kondo Motoko and Decha Tangseefa – form an organizing committee on CSEAS’s side, whereas the following persons represented SMRU in helping organize the seminar: Sureerat Kritsanarangsan, Wannee Ritwongsakul, Primprapaporn Thongdee, Ladda Kajeechiwa, Suphak Nosten, Bulakorn Tinoi, Phee Do, Jindaporn Wirachonphaophong, Htee K Paung, Hai Ti Ti, and Nay Kaw Htoo, and Thae Thae Naing. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to: firstly, all the stakeholders for providing us their time and knowledge; secondly, Dr. Francois Nosten, Dr. Cynthia Maung and Ms. Narumoon Maungjamrad who had provided valuable support long before the seminar was conceived; thirdly, Dr. Rose McGready, Dr. Aung Pyae Phyo, Dr. Mieno Fumiharu and Dr. Yalei Zhai for their wonderful contributions during the seminar as well as Mr. Aihara Hiroshi for joining the seminar as an observer; fourthly, all friends throughout the world who had helped disseminate the call for applications; and, fifthly, the CSEAS staff of the Research Liaison Office who supported the seminar activities along the way. Lastly, we are very grateful for some financial support from: the Center for Global Collaborative Research Center (GCR); the Daikin Industries, Ltd., as part of an academic consultation for the company to understand a nexus between air conditioner and the quotidian life of a variety of people along the Thai-Myanmar border region.

Decha Tangseefa
On Behalf of the 47th SEA Seminar Committee
January 9th, 2024

The Center for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS), Kyoto University, welcomes applications from early-career researchers (who received their PhDs within the last five years), with fields of specialization relating to the seminar topic, to participate in the 47th Southeast Asia Seminar on “Health, Border, and Marginality: Toward Transdisciplinarity?” The seminar will be held along the Thai-Myanmar border, during December 7-14, 2023. Participats are required to attend the whole seminar.

Important Dates

August 31, 2023: Application Deadline
By September 30, 2023: Result Announcement
December 7 - 14, 2023: Seminar Dates

Seminar Fee

• • There is no registration fee.
• • Airfares:

Successful applicants will be required to cover their travel costs from their respective countries to and from Bangkok (and, where necessary, visa cost). Round-trip flight tickets between Bangkok and Mae Sot will be (partially) covered by the organizer.

• • Accommodation, along the Thai-Myanmar border, will be covered by the organizer.

Application Requirements

Application should be submitted online by filling out the online form. The application must include:

• • A statement of research background and interests:

Maximum 450 words, explaining how their research background and interests relate to the Southeast Asia Seminar topic, “Health, Border, and Marginality: Toward Transdisciplinarity?”. Please note that the statement will be circulated among the core seminar participants.

• • Curriculum Vitae
• • One writing or publication sample (the topic of which need not be directly related to the seminar topic).

Note: any applicant who does not submit a writing sample will not be qualified to apply.

Application deadline: August 31, 2023

Selection

The seminar committee will select participants based on the application forms, and ONLY accepted applicants will be informed by the end of September, 2023.

Participation Requirements

The format is an on-site seminar with a series of lectures and excursion trips to visit various stakeholders along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Selected participants are expected to read a set of assigned readings before the seminar and actively take part in discussions during the full eight-day seminar.

In relation to their research, participants will also be expected to:

• • Give a presentation reflecting on the whole trip on Dec. 13, 2023.
• • Submit a reflection paper (600-800 words) on the whole trip before leaving the Thai-Myanmar border.
• • Submit a 2,000-word reflection paper on the whole trip – to be submitted by January 31, 2024.

Participants are required to book a round-trip flight ticket and send a copy of their e-ticket upon consultation with the secretariat office.

For more information, please see FAQ.

For inquiries, please email <seaseminar47[at]cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp>.
Please indicate your inquiry and name in the subject line of your e-mail; e.g., SEA Seminar_change request_your name

DISCLAIMER: The organizer reserve the right to conduct the seminar online, postpone, or cancel if any exceptionally unforeseen circumstance arises.

A border is a “contact zone” of people, culture, and capital. In area like the Thai-Myanmar border region, disease must also be included, as tuberculosis, drug-resistant malaria, and a few others, have been prevalent therein – long before COVID-19 has raged the world. These transnational forces entwine and tremendously complicate these spaces in-between the two nation-states. Situated next to Burma/Myanmar – a country that has witnessed more protracted armed conflicts than unarmed negotiations since its independence in 1948 – this border region has become a space where many marginalized peoples have had to endure manifold sickness due to their marginal positionalities either as displaced peoples or voluntary migrants; and many of whom have become unskilled or low-skilled cheap labour in Thailand. The Thai-Myanmar border zones are, therefore, mosaic spaces with a variety of peoples with different cultural lifeworlds shaping their (economic) lives along the border vis-à-vis the two nation-states’ political and socio-economic policies. However, the Thai-Myanmar border is not an exception. Globally, at least nine other countries have also been rampaged by protracted armed conflicts: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, and Yemen. These countries have consequently produced not only unique but bleak border zones next to them, but also many ailing or dying migrants displaced or roaming along those border zones.

With such border realities resulting from protracted armed conflicts, two sets of issues guide this year’s seminar. One is a question, the other is a proposal. First, what kind of engagement should a researcher have toward this kind of space? And because this 47th Southeast Asia Seminar is the second chapter following the 45th Southeast Asia Seminar, we propose that transdisciplinarity is one of a few most appropriate inquiries for this kind of terrain.

Since the end of the 1990s, transdisciplinarity has gained more currency as a research approach based on collaborative endeavor, aiming not only to foster meaningful knowledge co-production, but also to solve complex societal and planetary challenges, while also endeavoring to narrow the gap between the academic and the non-academic spheres. Transdisciplinary inquiry, thus, not only requires innovative research methods, but also challenges researchers – many of whom work in relative isolation in so-called “ivory towers” – as well as professional experts – many of whom are disconnected from the broader civil society. The following are some key issues that will be explored during the trip to the Thai-Myanmar border:

• • Toward “problem-solving”: Bridging the academic and the non-academic worlds?
• • Knowledge co-production vis-à-vis the locations of “stakeholders.”
• • Acknowledging dilemma, tension, friction, conflict: Transdisciplinarity’s unavoidable textures?
• • Critical stances on the scientific discourse vis-à-vis knowledge of the marginalized.
• • From epistemological engagements to ethical conundrums.
• • Decolonizing transdisciplinarity: Creating spaces for marginalized voices/knowledge/worldviews.
• • What is the role/responsibility of the “donor community” in the strategies adopted towards these border regions?