State minority relations in Southeast Asia study trip

From 18 July to 4 August 2011, six USP students and USP faculty Dr Peter Vail traveled to several remote destinations in Laos and Thailand to examine the lives of minority peoples struggling under the pressures of development and globalisation. As a pilot programme, the study trip aimed to expose students to ethnographic research, to let them experience the rigors of fieldwork and logistics planning, and to contribute towards constructing a university-level course.

Over their three weeks in the field, the group was exposed to the many challenges associated with projects aimed towards the production of knowledge – an experience that really drove them to deeply reflect on both the logistical and abstract subtleties of such processes. Through the programme, the students gained an appreciation for the kind of conceptualizing and planning that goes into shaping modules, which greatly benefitted their own efforts in building their own module based on their experiences in the field.


Dr Vail in discussion with students
Photo: Tan Weilie


The team with some residents from a local village Photo: Suthee Satrakom
One participant, Tan Weilie (Sociology + USP, Year 2), shared his thoughts on the programme …

My affinity for adventure has always been a tenuous one – a sense of excitement but at the same time apprehension for what the unknown holds. For this reason, when SMR2011 called for students to delve into the deep end and acquire knowledge to create a new module, I knew that the experience would be intellectually and physically fulfilling. It is certainly heartening to see our insights go into shaping a future course. USP students often discuss the course direction, rigour, and pedagogy of various modules, but we seldom have the opportunities to materialize these ideas. I believe that this motivation drove me and five other fellow USP students to sign up for this pilot programme.

Furthermore, the opportunity to meet with highland minority people, whom literature always deems marginalized but at the same time rarely understood, piqued my curiosity. It was in the context of questioning my fellow travelers, being questioned by them and, of course, constantly being challenged by Dr Vail on methodological grounds that our crew managed to unearth conceptual, intellectual, and experiential gems.

One such example is the wild boar sacrifice in the Lanten village of Namchang. It was certainly much of a spectacle, but subsequent questioning by our fellow crewmates probed each person to think further. What are the implications, say, should a villager ask us to consume the boar's entrails and blood? Where does participant observation start and end? Being in the field, such conundrums were very real, and we were forced to think and act within these contexts. It was certainly a grueling but rewarding exercise. To end off, I would remind potential participants that this experience is certainly not for the faint-hearted. But if one steps up to the challenge, intellectual and experiential horizons will be stretched. This is the point of confluence for knowledge, empathy, and experience, and seldom do such experiences occur over the course of one's education.

Read more ...
- Other student stories on this study trip
- Story on AsiaOne's Edvantage portal

1 December 2011