Featured Presentations

Mr. Varapol Chensavasdijai

Deputy Consul-General
Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chicago

Thai-US Diplomatic Relations in Trump 2.0
Deputy Consul-General Varapol will present on his experiences and perspectives as a member of the Thai diplomatic corps in the age of Trump 2.0, including the impact the current economic, social, and political climate in the United States has on Thai diplomatic work and Thai-US relations. He will also lightly touch on the role Thai Studies scholars have or can have in informing diplomatic work. The presentation will be followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the audience.

Dr. Jane M. Ferguson

School of Culture, History & Language
Gender Institute
Australian National University

Dr. Jane will present on her upcoming book Planes of Existence: Airline Life in Southeast Asia (University of Hawaiʻi Press, January 2027). Coffee, tea, or anthropology? Buckle up. The cultural crossroads of Southeast Asia have taken to the air. In just over a century, aviation has transformed the world, both progressively and cataclysmically. While passengers might temporarily share the physical airplane, airline workers operate and anticipate multiple horizons and trajectories. From years of fine-grained ethnography with Burmese and Thai airline workers, including ground staff, customer service, tower communications, and flight crews, Jane M. Ferguson centers the experiences of Southeast Asian workers as creators of—and shepherds to—the ongoing cultural oscillation between the ground and the sky. Arm doors, cross check. It’s time to fly to new planes of existence!

Dr. Leslie Woodhouse-Castro

Founder and Principal at Origami Editorial; Co-editor of The Art of Academic Editing: A Guide for Authors and Editors; Author of Woman between Two Kingdoms: Dara Rasami and the Making of Modern Thailand

Limit: 12 students
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