RCSD : The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development

Be an Entrepreneur or Stay a Farmer? The Anxiety of Specialty Coffee Value Chain Upgrading for Indigenous Smallholders in Northern Thailand
2025-07-07 13:30 - 15:00 (Asia/Bangkok) | Subaltern Meeting Room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
Public lecture (and coffee tasting) with Po-Tao Chang, Phd student in the Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
This presentation is designed for people who are interested in topics related to sustainable agriculture, indigenous peoples, coffee commodity chains, and industry in Thailand. Po-Tao Chang will present his latest research findings about the transformation of highland Arabica coffee production with (mostly) Akha people, and the revolution of the Thai (specialty) coffee industry. Briefly speaking, the Akha people have played a crucial role in expanding and upgrading both the quantity and quality of Arabica coffee production over the past two decades. There has been a dramatic number of Akha coffee producers elevating the quality and value of their coffee parchments and green beans. While some of them are becoming entrepreneurs, the uneven development of coffee production is also happening among different ethnic groups and villages. In addition, the anxiety of massive investment and the uncertainty of market transformation have also been emerging challenges for indigenous coffee smallholders in northern Thailand.

Public Seminar: "Ek Khaale" Once Upon a Time - The Rohingya, a Visual Restoration; Memory, Identity and Shared Histories
2025-07-14 10:00 - 12:00 | Subaltern Meeting Room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
For people in Myanmar (Burma), the Rohingya community’s history has been, at best, questioned, and at worst —and in reality—rejected outright. Much of the Rohingya’s visual history has been lost, confiscated or destroyed during waves of violence, forced displacement and genocide over the past 60 years. This destruction continues today. This has severely undermined ways in which the Rohingya preserve and share their collective memory, identity and history with others.

Ek Khaale is the Rohingya expression for ‘Once Upon A Time’. The project Ek Khaale was launched by award winning documentary photojournalist Greg Constantine. It is a collaborative storytelling and visual restoration project with Rohingya all over the world.

This project brings together rare and never before seen old photographs, family collections, documents, letters, illustrations and other historical materials from the past and activates them in the present. By exposing this unseen past, this project aims to share a visual portrait of the Rohingya most people have never seen before. It also challenges historical narratives and reconstructs what Burmese regimes and other communities have spent decades trying to destroy.

In this special lecture, Greg will talk about the history of this groundbreaking project, the use of research-based archival work, and the significance of the project for the Rohingya community and other communities from Burma. He will share several of the most important discoveries over the past four years as well as the stories behind them.

View the Ek Khaale project online here.

Ek Khaale will also be on exhibit at the Chiang Mai Alliance Francaise Gallery from July 9-19th.

Greg Constantine is an award winning documentary photojournalist and author. He has dedicated his career to long-term, independent projects that explore the intersection of human rights, inequality, injustice, citizenship, identity, belonging and the power of the state. His long term projects include: Nowhere People, Exiled To Nowhere and Seven Doors. He is the author of three award winning photography books and his work has been exhibited in over 40 cities around the world. Constantine has been documenting the persecution of the Rohingya community for the past 19 years. In 2020, he began working with Rohingya on the project Ek Khaale. In early 2017, he received his PhD from Middlesex University in the UK and has since received Independent Scholar as well as Early Career Fellowships from the Independent Social Research Foundation and Queen Mary University in London. Most recently, he was a Hearst Visiting Fellow at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication.

Decolonizing SEA Studies Conference
2025-07-17 - 2025-07-19 | Uniserv, 239 Nimmanahaeminda Road, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
Supported by the Luce Foundation, Chiang Mai University Faculty of Social Science, and the University of Wisconsin – Madison Center for Southeast Asian Studies, the Decolonizing Southeast Asia Studies Conference will be held 17-19 July at Chiang Mai University’s Uniserv. Organized by RCSD, over 200 presenters and observers from throughout the region will come together for a diverse range of panels, roundtables, and keynote presentations. They will examining the challenges of decolonization from different vantage points: from within Southeast Asian nation states, from the viewpoint of Western academia with its baggage of direct colonization, and the position of indigenous peoples living under the shadow of both of these contexts.
For full description of the conference themes and goals please visit the Decolonizing SEA Studies website, and for observers who have not yet registered to participate, please register here.

Seminar: Rethinking Ethnic Studies in SEA
2025-07-20 08:00 - 2025-07-22 17:00 | First Floor Meeting Room (4107), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
RCSD invites all to attend a public seminar: Rethinking Ethnic Studies in Southeast Asia, from July 20-22, 2025 at the Faculty of Social Sciences First Floor Meeting Room (4107), Chiang Mai University,
This seminar is jointly organized by the School of Ethnology and Sociology, Yunnan University (YNU), and the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), with the participation of the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University and hosted by the Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University.
Key participants include Wasan Panyagaew, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at CMU; He Ming, Dean of the School of Ethnology and Sociology at YNU; and Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, Director of RCSD. Other participants include Gam A. Shimray from the Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact (AIPP), Suchart Setthamalinee from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRC), and Catherine Baron from Toulouse University, France. Several scholars from Yunnan University, Chiang Mai University (including its Center for Ethnic Studies and Development – CESD, and Department of Sociology and Anthropology), Minzu University of China, Thammasat University, Dali University, Xiamen University, and Sorbonne Paris 1 University will also present.
The seminar will explore a range of topics within ethnic studies in Southeast Asia. Discussions will cover the Culture and Memory of Ethnic Lue in Thailand and Vietnam, the dynamics of Chinese Communities outside China focusing on Yunnan Studies in Thailand and Sino-Thai family businesses in Northern Thailand, and the Study of Lahu in both Thailand and China with case studies in Chiang Mai. Further sessions will delve into State and Ethnicity, examining historical exclusion of minorities in Cambodia and Thai state policies toward highlanders. The relationship between Ethnicity and Coffee in Doi Chang, Thailand will be explored, including comparative studies with Qingkou Village in China and the concept of “Ethnic Coffee Capitalism.” The seminar will also address Ethnicity and Society in Myanmar, touching upon anthropological research on rural society, the formation of plural societies in Colonial Burma, and the role of ethnic civil society. Finally, Cultural Sharing will be examined through a case study of Malaysia, focusing on heritage politics and the construction of shared cultural identity.

"Thabyay" Film Screening & Panel Discussion: Future Election in Myanmar
2025-10-07 17:00 - 20:00 | Dhani Bhaholyodin Conference Room, Faculty of Social Sciences, A. Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200
The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, invites students, scholars, civil society, media, and the public to a special screening of the documentary “Thabyay: Creative Resistance in Myanmar,” followed by a panel discussion on the future of elections in Myanmar.
This event is hosted by RCSD and supported by partners in the Myanmar studies and human rights community. The program aims to foster informed, respectful dialogue on democracy, human rights, and creative forms of civic resistance.
About the film
Thabyay (approx. 60 min) follows artists, writers, and community organizers who harness creativity—music, poetry, visual arts, and communication—as tools of resistance and public memory amidst conflict. The film offers a human-centered lens on ethical choices, fear, courage, and the struggle for a freer future.
Program schedule
5:00 pm Registration
5:30 pm Welcome remarks — Ajarn Chayan Vaddhanaphuti
5:40 pm Brief introduction to the film
5:45 pm Film screening (60 min)
6:45 pm Panel discussion “Future Election in Myanmar” (30 min) + Q&A (15 min)
7:30 pm Closing remarks
7:45 pm Tea & samosa (networking)
Venue: Dhani Bholyodhin Conference Room, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University.

Report Launch: Mental health, gender, and conflict in Myanmar’s Chin State
2025-11-14 15:00 - 17:00 | Subaltern Meeting Room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
Organized by: TheHILLS Myanmar (THM) & Chin State Academic Research Network (CSARN), with support from Chin Human Rights Organisation (CHRO)
Friday, 14 November 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Subaltern Room, Chiang Mai University
This report launch event presents the first study to examine how conflict, gender, and cultural expectations intersect to shape mental health in Myanmar’s Chin State. Conducted during an active civil war through trauma-informed and participatory methods, the research draws on focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and body-mapping exercises across four townships. The findings reveal widespread distress, gendered silences, and faith-based understandings of suffering that both sustain and constrain healing. They also show how women, LGBTQIA+ people, displaced families, and persons with disabilities experience layered forms of exclusion amid political violence and poverty. The Chin State Academic Research Network (CSARN), an initiative of TheHILLS Myanmar, embodies a model of community-rooted research built on trust, local languages, and mentorship. Working through embedded local-global networks and partnerships, CSARN connects emerging Chin researchers with experienced mentors and institutions, acting as an interdisciplinary platform that supports and connects researchers engaged in the region, and promotes the exchange of high-quality, context-relevant knowledge. This study offers not only an urgent call for localized mental health interventions, but also a reflection on what it means to build knowledge, solidarity, and care from within conflict-affected communities.
Speakers
1. THM CSARN Senior Adviser – Sena Galazzi
2. Dr. Lian Report co-author, formerly Technical Consultant, TheHILLS Myanmar
3. Lily Report co-author, formerly Technical Consultant, TheHILLS Myanmar
4. Thawn N. Lian, Executive Director, TheHILLS Myanmar
5. Dr. Sang, MHPSS Specialist, Chin Human Rights Organisation
6. Dr. Matthew Yoxall, Board of Directors, TheHILLS Myanmar
7. Dr. Mary, Research Manager, TheHILLS Myanmar

Stitches of Strength: A Quilt Exhibition
2025-12-11 09:00 - 2025-12-19 17:00 | Chiang Mai
The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), in partnership with Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), presents an exhibition that brings forward narratives of resilience, memory, and hope articulated by Rohingya women. Through visual and material expressions, the exhibition seeks to illuminate lived experiences of displacement and survival, while encouraging visitors to critically reflect on the social boundaries that shape perceptions of “self” and “other.”
The exhibition will take place from 11 to 19 December 2025 at the Entrance Hall of Chiang Mai University Library. Guided tours will be conducted in English, Thai, and Burmese on the following dates:

11 December 2025 at 13:30
17 December 2025 at 13:30

Light refreshments will be provided.
The event is open to the public

Online Seminar: Researching Forced Displacement Issues In Southeast Asia
2025-12-15 10:00 - 12:00 | online, Thailand
Researching Forced Displacement Issues in Southeast Asia
December 15, 2025, 10 AM – 12 PM (Thailand Time)
Register online here
This seminar series explores displacement issues in Southeast Asia, investigating various forms of displacement, enhancing understanding of the legal frameworks that govern displacement, and examining community responses to displacement. This seminar series is hosted by the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, with support from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), under the Research Chair on Forced Displacement in Southeast Asia program.
Speakers:
10:00-10:15 Welcoming remarks from Dr. Sirada Khemanitthathai
Research Chair on Forced Displacement in Southeast Asia; Lecturer, Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration, Chiang Mai University
10:15-12:00 Panel on ‘Researching Forced Displacement Issues in Southeast Asia’

“The Permanent in the Temporary: Reflecting on the Pedagogy of the Displaced in the Context of Marawi, Lanao del Sur, Philippines” with Kristine Mari T. Miranda
Researcher-Writer (Initiatives for International Dialogue); Research, Documentation, and Learning Consultant (Humanity & Inclusion Philippines)
“Out-of-Camp Refugees in Southeast Asia: History, Legal Frameworks, and the Case of Tonlé Sap” with Nguyen Dang Dao
National University of Singapore]
“Between Protection and Security: The Securitization of Refugees in Malaysia” with Afifi Nordin
School of Business and Social Sciences, Albukhary International University, Alor Setar, Malaysia
“Paradox of Sesan 2 Dam: Analyzing Its Impact on Indigenous Communities’ Future Resources in Cambodia” with Chea Sameng
University of Delhi in India

Moderated by Dr. Andrew Wai Phyo Kyaw
Research Associate, Forced Displacement in Southeast Asia, the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University

Book Launch and Panel Discussion: Reproducing Revolution with Jenny Hedström
2025-12-16 10:00 - 12:00 | 4th floor meeting room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
Please join us at the 4th floor meeting room of the Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University on 16 Dec from 10 am to noon for the book launch with author Jenny Hedstrom and a Kachin panel discussion.
In Reproducing Revolution, Jenny Hedström explores the Kachin revolution in Myanmar from the perspective of female soldiers, female activists, and women displaced by the violence in northern Myanmar. Hedström argues that the household is an inherently gendered, militarized, and political space that impacts, and is in turn impacted by, the external conflict with which it coexists. In this context, women’s everyday labor—the gendered work of childcare, farming, fighting, and forging connections both across households and between the household and the army and the nation—is key to revolutionary survival. Hedström calls this labor militarized social reproduction, and in Reproducing Revolution she demonstrates that such labor is critical to the military effort, and that warfare itself is shaped through everyday domestic action.
We ask that interested participants please register online here so we can ensure we have enough space for the event

Book Launch: "Worldly Engagements" with Roger Casas
2025-12-23 10:00 - 12:00 | Subaltern Meeting Room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
RCSD is pleased to host a public book launch and author’s talk for Roger Casas’ new book, “Worldly Engagements: Buddhist Monasticism and Masculinity among the Tai Lue of
Southwest China” on Tuesday, 23 December from 10 am to noon at the Subaltern Meeting Room.
The Tai Lue of Sipsong Panna, located in China’s southern Yunnan province, is the largest community of Theravada Buddhists in a country where the Mahayana tradition is dominant. In recent decades, and in light of ever-increasing global connectivity and visibility online, the public participation of Tai Lue novices and monks in practices such as eating in the afternoon, drinking alcohol, having girlfriends, and competing in sports—all considered unfitting, even unacceptable, behavior for Buddhist monastics in China and Southeast Asia—has been evidenced as proof of the backwardness of this minority religious community.
Worldly Engagements places such alleged misconduct at the center of its enquiry to demonstrate that, far from characterizing a corrupt form of practice, it represents an essential part of the monasticism traditionally prevalent in the region, an all-encompassing and amphibious technology of self-mastery inextricably embedded in the mundane and the non-religious—that is, a vernacular discipline concerned mainly with making boys into men. It is a rich portrayal of the temple experience as a site for Lue youths to negotiate demands from families, religious superiors, and peers, as well as navigate the challenges presented by national models of masculinity and the powerful influence of Thai Buddhism.
Roger Casas has lived and conducted research among the Tai Lue in Sipsong Panna since 2004. He has held researcher and lecturer posts in academic institutions in Austria, China, Thailand, and Japan.

Seminar: Fishing for Knowledges: Karen Riverine Livelihoods in Northern Thailand
2026-02-02 14:00 - 15:30 | Subaltern Meeting Room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
RCSD invites all to join a public seminar, “Fishing for Knowledges: Insights for Environmental Governance from Karen Communities’ Riverine Livelihoods in Northern Thailand” presented by Peter Duker, Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Guelph, Canada on Monday, 2 February from 2 to 3:30 pm at the Subaltern Room, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University.
The uplands of Northern Thailand have long been the subject of environmental governance conflicts. Competing discourses of upland communities, including the Karen, tend to focus on agricultural and forest-based livelihoods, often with attention to the impacts on water that in turn effect communities further along the watershed. And yet, why has there been comparatively so little attention on how communities like the Karen manage the rivers that run through their communities? And rivers are not simply channels for water—why is there also comparatively so little attention on the aquatic life that call these rivers home? Addressing this gap, doctoral researcher Peter Duker will present preliminary findings after more than a year of studying riverine practices and knowledges with four Karen communities across Northern Thailand. He will demonstrate the role of these practices and knowledges for community wellbeing and how they enable engagement with traditional knowledges that are otherwise diminishing. He will then discuss how these insights help inform an environmental governance that is more open to multiple ways of being and knowing and subsequently better positioned to lead to improved social and environmental outcomes.

Seminar: Climate Change and Conflict in Myanmar
2026-02-12 15:30 - 18:00 | 4th floor meeting room, Operations Building, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, 50200, Thailand
How do violent conflict and climate change shape each other on the ground? This seminar presents new research on the politics and lived experiences of climate change in Myanmar’s post-coup rupture. It offers rare insights into how conflict-affected communities experience and interpret extreme weather and environmental disruption. The seminar also explores how climate and environmental issues are deeply entangled in struggles over power, territory, and legitimacy, involving the military, resistance movements, and civil society activists. The seminar is part of the MyCClimate project and draws on contributions to a new special issue of the Independent Journal of Burmese Scholarship.
