In July 2016, a 5-day land research summer school was held at Chiang Mai University, bringing together young academic professionals and researchers from Thailand and Lao PDR. The intensive academic writing and research training workshop focused on issues on and related to land: land rights and ownership, land use, tourism, Special Economic Zones, resource management, urbanization, labor, and climate change. This has resulted in the formation of different research clusters (such as ‘cash/boom crops’ and ‘urban/peri-urban’) within which certain proposals will receive further funding. The Mekong Land Research Forum pulls together research on key themes around land governance in the Mekong Region, seeking to bring research and policy closer together. It does this by making research more accessible and distilling key messages and points of debate. The workshop, organized by Dr. Philip Hirsch and Tubtim, consisted of facilitator-led seminars on key land-related questions and literature in the Mekong Region, lectures by invited speakers on key issues in researching on land, practical exercises (on searching and selecting key land-relevant literature, individual reading-based assignments: annotating key articles, group literature review exercises), topic sharing and development by participants, and conceptual and practical issues in planning an article or structuring a research proposal.
