The Ninth International Conference on Thai Studies will embrace a broad definition of Thai Studies to include studies of all ethnic groups within the Kingdom of Thailand, as well as Thai/Tai peoples of Southeast Asia, India and China. Proposals for papers and presentations from all disciplines and intellectual perspectives are welcome as are considerations of all themes and topics from previous international Thai studies conferences.
From the following list two themes are being lifted up for special focus and consideration: the Thaksin government and Southern Thailand.
ENVIRONMENT politics of the environment, natural resources,
privatization, “the commons”
• Sustainable DEVELOPMENT differing regional and ethnic
values
• POLITICAL ECONOMY post 1997 recovery
• CULTURAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES globalization,
tourism
• MEDIA, POPULAR CULTURE, MUSIC the Thai press, film
• THAKSIN governance, economics, populism, politics,
nationalism
• CONSTITUTION of 1997
• REGIONAL ISSUES boundaries and local autonomy, Isan
studies, shifting rural-urban frontiers, historical communities such as Lanna,
political and social change in Southern Thailand
• THAI/T’AI peoples, languages, communities in
Vietnam, India, China, Burma, Laos
• THAI LITERATURES AND LANGUAGES
• MINORITY PEOPLES of THAILAND integration, assimilation,
disappearance, diaspora (eg. Hmong in America)
• RELIGION AND SOCIETY resurgent Islam; Buddhist-Muslim
interactions; Buddhist art, poetry, education, contemporary preaching and practices
• THAILAND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (historical and current)
ASEAN; Thailand’s relations with Cambodia, with Laos, with Burma/Myanmar;
illegal immigration; migration; refugees; regional economic issues; post 9/11
issues
• GENDER legal rights of women; women in governance;
labor issues; prostitution
• HEALTH medicine, nutrition, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS
• EDUCATION higher education, private and state institutions,
Buddhist education
• THAI HISTORY new studies, new evidence, unconventional
methods and new interpretations of Thai history; counter memory against the
Master Narrative including the history of marginalized events. places or people,
the history of borders and border crossings and the history of the forgotten,
subversive or silenced.
• COMPARATIVE KINGSHIP legacy of Rama VII, historical
Thai kings and regional princes
• CIVIL SOCIETY dissent, revival of left-wing politics,
past, present and future of the Thai Left, democracy