what’s on – Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University

The faculty’s activities

Thammasat University is a co-host for the international academic conference, AAS-in-Asia.

Thammasat University, in collaboration with Chulalongkorn University, Mahidol University, Kasetsart University and Chiang Mai University, will host the international academic conference, AAS-in-Asia, entitled “Asia on the Rise?” This event will be held from 1-3 July 2019 at Royal Orchid Sheraton. Those who are interested can send in abstracts from now until 22 October 2018.

For further details, please visit the following website. https://www.aas-in-asia2019.com/

Thammasat Museum of Anthropology was awarded the Museum Thailand Awards 2018

Thammasat Museum of Anthropology, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, was awarded the Thailand Museum Awards 2018 (Cultural Museum) by the National Discovery Museum Institute (NDMI) or Museum Siam, with ACM Prajin Jantong, Deputy Prime Minister, presiding as the chairman.

Thailand Museum Awards 2018, having run for two consecutive years, aim to elevate the standard of museums and learning centers in Thailand under the theme of Thai Museums of the 21^st Century. A total of 15 Thailand Museum Awards 2018 were divided into 5 categories as follows:

Museum of Culture

Museum of Society

Museum of Economy

Museum of Science

Museum of the Environment.

Award Presentation on the Commemoration of the University’s Establishment and Academic Speech

On 27 June 2018, Thammasat University organized an event commemorating 84 years since the University’s founding. On this occasion, the University presented the honorary award (plate) of Special Merit to Asst. Prof. Dr. Chaweewan Prachuabmoh and the 2017 Fellow of the University Award for Social Sciences to Prof. Dr. Samerchai Poolsuwan. On the same day, Prof. Dr. Samerchai Poolsuwan presented a lecture on “Theravada in Southeast Asia, the Second Millennium after Christianity: Aspects from New Evidence from Art History” from 10.30 – 12 noon at the Professor Sanya Thammasak Meeting Room, Thammasat, Tha Prachan.

The 1^st Academic Conference on Anthropology and Sociology

The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, in collaboration with the Sociology and Anthropology Study Network, the Siamese Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (SASA) and the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (Public Organization) with support from the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), organized the inaugural Academic Conference on Anthropology and Sociology from 24-25 August 2018 at Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre, visit this website at https://thacas.org

MOU Signing between the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology and Lahor Arts Council in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

On 23 May 2018, a team of lecturers from the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, led by Asst. Prof. Dr. Yukti Mukdawijitra, Deputy Dean for the Graduate Program, Research and Academic Service Affairs, traveled to sign a MOU with Lahor Arts Council in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. This MOU aims to expand collaboration between Thailand and Pakistan on arts and cultural activities and develop the potential for organizing students’ fieldwork in Pakistan.

For further details, please visit the following website [ Link https://dailytimes.com.pk/243501/alhamra-thammasat-university-sign-mou-to-build-cultural-exchange-links/ ]

A cordial invitation to an exhibition at the Thammasat Museum of Anthropology

The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, issued an open invitation to visit an exhibition, “Light, Objects and Perception: Photographs – Objects from Fieldwork and the Understanding of Others”, held between 29 March – 28 December 2018 at the Thammasat Museum of Anthropology Building, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus.

Fundamentally, humans perceive and interpret the world through their own eyes. “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak” (John Berger, Ways of Seeing, 1973). Anthropologists and sociologists are no exception. They all use their “eyes” to view and understand the world of Others (Ocularcentrism); integral to this is Participant Observation – a method of gathering knowledge through engaging in fieldwork to understand “Others.”

In order to see, know and remember, “light” is indispensable to humans.

Different cultures in the world also define light as a source of knowledge and wisdom. The metaphor of Socrates’ cave story tells of a slave who unbinds the chain that kept him in the cave and walks out to see sunlight through his own eyes. That action is an act of perceiving the real world. The importance of lightness was also echoed in the naming of the Age of Enlightenment in the 18^th Century; it was a time of light and reason (le Siècle des Lumières) replacing the Dark Ages.

In Buddhism, darkness is ignorance and lightness is wisdom. “Seeing” a corpse, if viewed with wisdom, can be “seeing with greatness” because the “eyes-see-Dhamma.” In Hinduism, besides placing importance on light, “watching-loyally” deities like Nandi ̶ a bull sculpture who watches Shiva from the gate of a holy place ̶ is an act that will be blessed by the gods.

In order to present evidence for understanding others, anthropologists and sociologists use “words” or “writing”, in other words, an “Ethnography” (from graphy – Greek for writing) about others (Ethno). However, one of the most important criticisms is that “this writing about others” only represents a partial truth.

With the popularity of cameras, anthropologists and sociologists started to use photography (Photo-graphy) to record information and expand their understanding. Etymologically, photography means writing (graphy) with light (photo – in Greek means light). So, in the same manner as writing, is photography only a record of a partial truth?

If human eyes only perceive part of the “truth,” with such limited sight, how much can we fully “understand”?

The exhibition of “Light, Objects and Perception: Photographs –Objects from Fieldwork and the Understanding of Others” is divided into three displays, interconnected by one concept, which is how does the “perception” of objects help us to understand others.

Writing with Light: displays objects from cameras from the storehouse of the museum and photographs from photographers and anthropologists.

The Commemoration of the 53^rd Year since the Establishment of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology

The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, issued an open invitation to join the commemoration of the 53^rd year since the establishment of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology of Thammasat University on Friday 16 February 2018, at Thammasat Museum of Anthropology at the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat Rangsit Campus.

08.30 – 09.00 am: Registration

09.00 – 10.00 am: Religious Ceremony

Poster by Dussadeeporn Chartboot

Special Lecture

10.00 – 10.20 am: Registration

10.20 – 10.30 am: Opening remarks by Asst. Prof. Dr. Anusorn Unno, Dean of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology

10.30 – 11.30 am: Special Lecture: “The Challenges of Sociology and Anthropology” by Assoc. Prof. Pornchai Tarkulwaranont, Acting Deputy Dean for General Management

11.30 – 12.30 pm: Lunch

Poster by Dussadeeporn Chartboot

Academic Lecture

12.30 – 1.00 pm: Registration

1.00 – 5.00 pm: Sanook Sanam (Fun Fieldwork), the Presentation of Undergraduates’ Degrees from the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, 2017

5.30 – 5.45 pm: Closing Remarks by the Dean of the Faculty

Poster by Saraj Sindhuprama

Academic Visit to the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia, Mahidol University

Administrative committees and the Academic Quality Assurance Unit from the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, visited the Research Institute for Languages and Cultures of Asia at Mahidol University on 28 November 2017 for the program entitled “Learn, Observe… the Quality Assurance of the Unit through EdPEx.”

MOU on Academic Collaboration

The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology and Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre signed an MOU for academic collaboration at the Princes Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre on 17 October 2017.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddipong: 2017 Merit Award, Honorary Award

2017 Merit Award, Honorary Award

On the commemoration of the 83^rd year since the establishment of Thammasat University

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddipong has been a long-time lecturer at Thammasat University. He was hired as a permanent lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Faculty of Social Administration in 1969 and, by governmental mandate, his retirement was due in 2004 but then extended for another 5 years. He officially retired from the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology in 2009, marking 40 years of working for Thammasat University. Despite his official retirement, he continues to work as a special lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology until now. It has been a total of 48 years.

While working as a lecturer at Thammasat University, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddipong made a tremendous contribution to the university both academically and administratively. His achievements in the field of Social Sciences were outstanding, consistently bringing significant fame and benefits to Thammasat University.

Academically, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddipong has been highly regarded for lectures on Social Order Organization and Psychological Sociology. The current lecturers in the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, who are now responsible for these subjects, are themselves the products of his teaching. It can be said that Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddipong was the founding father of those subjects, which are now core subjects in the Faculty. He also published important academic textbooks: “Social Order Organization: Fundamental Concepts of Sociology,” “Emile Durkheim and Sociology,” and the “Logic of Scientific Study in Sociology” (all three books are published by Thammasat University Press.) Many of his other articles continue to be used in lectures at Thammasat University and at other universities. These academic achievements have brought prodigious recognition to the University.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddiwat also excelled in the Faculty and University administration. From 1977 – 1987, he held the position of Vice Rector for Academic Affairs for Thammasat University, he was appointed several times as Deputy Dean of the Graduate Program, and Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs of the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology.

Among national academic circles in Social Sciences, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddiwat was also exceptional. He served three terms in the Committee of Bangkok Cultural Research at the National Cultural Office, Ministry of Education. He was in the committee for producing a Sociological Dictionary by the Office of Royal Society, the committee for creating a Demographic Dictionary by the Office of Royal Society, and served four terms (four years each term) in the Committee of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT). At present, he serves as an Academic Advisory Person in the Economics and Social Department for the Committee of the National Research Council of Thailand.

Albeit in official retirement, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Pongsawat Sawaddiwat still consistently works as a special lecturer in the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology. He is responsible for teaching core subjects for the graduate program in Sociology and Social Research: Sociological Theories, Qualitative Research Subjects and Psychological Sociology. During the second semester of 2016, he taught SO. 455 — The Analysis of Social Issues in Sociology — for the undergraduate degree, Social Research Program.

Student Activities

Atmosphere of the 10^th Sociology and Anthropology Bond

The Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, hosted the 10^th Sociology and Anthropology Bond (SuperSoc 2018) from 30 March – 1 April 2018 at Thammasat University, Rangsit Campus.

Students in the fields of Sociology and Anthropology from seven universities represented their institutions, which were:

Thammasat University

Kasetsart University

Chiang Mai University

Srinakharinwirot University

Prince of Songkla University

Silpakorn University

Khon Kaen University

This event is held annually and for the 10^th year, the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology of Thammasat University hosted this bonding event.

The Annual 10^th Sociology and Anthropology Bond consisted of many activities such as group-bonding events, volunteer activities, cheering & cheerleading performances, sports competitions (volleyball, chair ball, basketball, football, fun sports and eSports), Super SOC Night Party and the 2^nd SAUS – Sociology and Anthropology Undergrad Seminar.

Photographs by Photography Unit of the Annual 10th Sociology and Anthropology Bond

Academic Seminars in English

“Sustainable Development and the Start-up Initiatives of the Youth in Vietnam.”

Research and Academic Service Section, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, would like to invite audience for public lecture on “Sustainable Development and the Start-up Initiatives of the Youth in Vietnam” by Professor Dr. Nguyen Trong Tuan, Le Quy Don Technical University, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

Monday 12 November 2018

9.30 am – 1.30 pm

at Doctorate Program Meeting Room, the Building of Social Administration Faculty, 4^th Floor, the Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus

Interested audience can register in front of the seminar.

The 5^th Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues

Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology in collaboration with Institut de recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est contemporaine (Irasec) and Siamese Association of Sociologists and Anthropologists (SASA) would like to invite audience to join a seminar of the 5^th Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues.

Monday, 12 November 2018 | 1.30 – 5 pm.

PhD meeting room, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology,

4th floor, Faculty of Social Administration Building,

Thammasat University, Tha Prachan

Programme

1.30 pm| registration

2.00 – 3.30 pm

“The Feminization of Employment through Export-led Strategies: Evidence from Vietnam”

Dr. Tran Thi Anh Dao

Institut de Recherche sur l’Asie du Sud-Est Contemporaine (IRASEC) Vietnam

Abstract

The early successful experiences of the East Asian NICs confirmed the role of exports as an engine of growth. Surprisingly, most of the earlier studies omit one important empirical fact, namely that the feminization of work contributed significantly to their rapid industrialization. Feminist trade theories argue that export-oriented development strategies have so far been exploitative of cheap female labour in the South. As globalization gathers pace, an increasing number of women in Developing Countries (DCs) have been absorbed into labour-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing sectors. However, the the structural changes that go hand in hand with export promotion, as well as the international environment the South faces today, have dramatically modified the processes whereby macroeconomic shocks are transmitted. The question is whether export-led growth, which tends to be “female-intensive” in the early stages, has increased the vulnerability of DCs that have become embedded in complex subcontracting networks. By examining women’s labour force participation rate in Vietnam, we show how patterns of gender relations stemming from structural characteristics, as well as social and institutional practices, impact on the macroeconomic outcomes of an export- oriented strategy.

3.30 – 5.00 pm

“Redefining Thai Tradition: Thai Bhikkhuni (female Buddhist monks) and Women’s Empowerment”

Dr. Kakanang Yavaprabhas

Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University

Abstract

Traditionally in Thai society, where Theravada Buddhism is prevalent, only men can be fully ordained as bhikkhu (monks). Only in 2003 that the first Thai woman has controversially become ordained as a ‘Theravada’ bhikkhuni (fully ordained nun, female Buddhist monk). Currently, there are at least 270 bhikkhuni and novices across the country. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, this presentation looks at these Buddhist women and their impact on society. It proposes that while the bhikkhuni may not uphold a feminist agenda, they empower laywomen, particularly through offering them the new temporary ordination.

The 4^th Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues

The 4th Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues:

Connecting through ritual and social media.

Technologies of sociality in contemporary Cambodia.

Wednesday, 16 May 2018 | 2-5 pm.

PhD meeting room, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology,

4th floor, Faculty of Social Administration Building,

Thammasat University, Tha Prachan

Programme

1.30 pm | registration

2.00 – 5.00 pm

“Social Memory of the Khmer Rouge Regime: Ritual and Religious Aspects”

Anne Yvonne Guillou

(Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia) (IRASEC)

Abstract

Social memory has been studied for decades by social scientists and can be broadly defined as social constructions of past events collectively experienced and remembered (or alternatively forgotten) by social groups. It has been analyzed primarily by anthropologists in reference to local perceptions of time and space (M. Bloch, A. Gell, A. Iteanu). Other researches in sociology, anthropology and political science have studied its social background (M. Halbwachs, Maurice Bloch, M. Auge), its cognitive dimensions (J. Candau), the political and social stakes of official commemorations (P. Nora, P. Connerton, J. Gillis), the embodiement of past events (D. Fassin) and the transmission of painful memory (D. Graeber, P.Antze et M. Lambek). Using this theoretical literature, Anne Guillou’s research on social memory of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia is also based on ten years of ethnographic field work mainly in Western Cambodia. She has forged a specific methodology over time in order to better understand how the Khmer villagers collectively remember the times of the genocidal regime and copy with losses and painful remembrance. She comes to the conclusion that this memory is anchored in the Khmer religious system in which cults linked to the earth and the dead are crucial components.

And “Imagining Futures in Cambodia through Mobile Phones”

Daniel McFarlane (Thammasat University)

McFarlane’s talk will reflect on how futures are imagined, calculated and enacted through communication technologies and corporate marketing in Cambodia. His talk draws on ethnographic research he conducted in a period of rapid change in Cambodia. Mobile phone subscription rates were growing at nearly 50% per year, and nine mobile phone network operators dominated an emerging consumer market. At the forefront of the change were transnational corporations and Cambodian youth. McFarlane explores how the marketers of mobile network services in Cambodia constructed the youth as consumers and how young Cambodians turned mobile phones and networks into an infrastructure for imagining and exploring the future. From this vantage point, he constructs a critique of the representation of new mobile technologies as a reconciliation between neoliberal capitalism and the global poor by detailing the collisions and disjunctures between the imaginings of corporate marketers and Cambodian youth.

The 3^rd Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues

The 3^rd Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues

Guardian Spirits of Principalities and Borders of Nation State,

Strategic Fields of “Burmisation” of Myanmar

Monday, 23 April 2018 | 2-5pm

PhD meeting room, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology,

4th floor, Faculty of Social Administration Building,

Thammasat University, Tha Prachan

Programme

1.30 pm | registration

2.00 – 3.30 pm

The Rakhine Crisis in the Mirror of the Spirit Cults

Dr. Alexandra de Mersan

Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

3.30 – 5.00 pm

Rohingya Movement: Illegal Migration v. Human Trafficking

Pol.Maj.Gen. Tatchai Pitaneelabutr,

Deputy Commissioner of Provincial Police Region 2

Hosted by Arjan. Juthaporn Elizabeth Kateratorn

The 1^st Social Sciences and Humanities Dialogues

Monday, 5 March 2018 | 2-5pm

PhD meeting room, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology,

4th floor, Faculty of Social Administration Building,

Thammasat University, Tha Prachan

Programme

1.30 pm | registration

2.00 – 3.00 pm

A Religious World order? Indonesian applications and appropriations

Professor Delphine Allès

University of Paris East (Créteil) / Irasec

Author of Transnational Islamic Actors and Indonesia’s Foreign Policy

(Routledge 2015)

Secularism, long (and wrongly) considered a feature of modern international relations, has fallen into disuse. It has become outmoded not to take “religion” or “religious actors” into account in the formulation or implementation of international public policies, which increasingly aim at “integrating” or “involving” religious actors. In addition to conventional religious diplomacies, a growing number of initiatives aim to foster “intercivilizational dialogue” or “interfaith dialogue”. New interstate alliances based on religious criteria have emerged. And religious interpretations of human rights are legion. These evolutions, however, refer to a restrictive conception of “religion”, subject to a political filter that addresses religious categories as homogeneous, effectively representative of the adherents they claim, and necessarily distinct from the secular sphere. By selecting actors to represent much broader communities, by offering resources to religious entrepreneurs who succeed in streamlining their own agendas with the expectations of states and international organizations, or even by creating dynamics of rejection, these initiatives tend to transform the social and religious contexts in which they are deployed. It is the case in Indonesia, where one can observe the conjunction between the narratives conveyed by the main actors on the international scene, the official definition of “religion”, and initiatives implemented by co-opted religious organizations. Meanwhile, new religious movements emerge that are characterized by the assertion of their autonomy from politics and institutionalized religions. This presentation analyses the religious dimensions of contemporary world politics, to explore the ways in which official religious categories have transformed local religious representations and practices, while being transformed in return by their local appropriations.

3.15 – 4.15 pm

“We love Mr.King”: Crafting Malay Muslim Subjectivity through the Sovereign Thai Monarch

Dr. Anusorn Unno

Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University

The talk is about how Malay Muslims of southern Thailand dealt with a question of subjectivity in relation to sovereignty in the wake of the recent unrest. It focuses on how they crafted their subjectivity through the sentence “เรารักนายหลวง” (Rao Rak Nay Luang, or We love Mr. King) inscribed with cooked sticky rice on a ceremonial platter they made for the participation in a state ceremony. Drawing on anthropological discussion of subjectivity and agency in relation to sovereignty, it argued that, as the Thai state in a “state of exception,” the Thai monarch is a sovereign through whom Malay Muslims can craft their subjectivity and enact their agency when engaging with state authorities. It also argues that being put into an exceptional state via the title “นายหลวง” (Nay Luang or Mr. King), the king is rendered human, enabling Malay Muslims to have an intimate relationship with him without compromising their religious principles.

However, while enabling Malay Muslims to engage state authorities with authority, to craft subjectivity and to enact agency through the monarch in a state of exception this way is self-contradictory, as the subjectivity was crafted by stripping the king of his god-like features, whilst agency was enacted by treating the king as sovereign. Moreover, the central feature of the king’s sovereignty, which resides in his ability to suspend the application of law, implies privilege, whereas what Malay Muslims have been demanding is equality and justice. Rather than the exceptional king in an exceptional state, it should be the Thai state with fragmented and flexible sovereignty that is a means through which Malay Muslims of Southern Thailand can realize their ethno-religious concerns and political aspirations.

4.15 pm

Discussion

Public Lecture on “Science and Technology Studies Across the Region”

Research and Academic Service Section, Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, would like to invite audience for public lecture from three anthropologists on Southeast Asia.

“Science and Technology Studies across the Region”

Thursday 18 January 2018, 1.30 – 4.00 pm

at Doctorate Program Meeting Room, 4^th Floor, Faculty of Social Administration Building, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus

Programme

1.30 – 4.00 pm

Fixing the Machine : Humans Caring with and for Technologies

Jenna Grant

Assistant Professor of Anthropology

University of Washington

New Attitudes: Young Indonesians Viewing Wildlife

Suraya Afiff

Professor of Anthropology

University of Indonesia

Viral Ethnography: Metaphors for Writing Life

Celia Lowe

Professor of Anthropology and International Studies

University of Washington

Faculty of Sociology and Anthropology, Thammasat University, would like to invite audience for seminar on Publication in International Journal: the Issues and Problems

by Professor Dr. Andrea Molnar

Department of Anthropology, Northern Illinois University

Wednesday 8 November 2017, 1.30 – 4.00 pm

at Doctorate Program Meeting Room, 4^th Floor,

Faculty of Social Administration Building, Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus