The Human Sciences Encounters in Phnom Penh

EVENTS:

The Center for Khmer Studies is delighted to welcome William Brehm to our Public Lecture Series. His talk is entitled:

Challenging Commonplace Assumptions about Rean Kua :
An Investment in Human Capital, A Need for Good Governance, or a Manifestation of Educational Capitalism?

Date : Friday 28/12/2012
Time : 5.30 - 6.30 PM
Venue :
CKS Conference Hall
Wat Damnak
Siem Reap

Please Confirm attendance by 27/12/2012
Email : sreypich@khmerstudies.org or call 063 964 385

Abstract :
Within many developing countries, private tutoring is commonly understood as either an investment in the human capital of a child or an indication of deficient good governance practices resulting from educational corruption. Either a household is praised for its extra allocation of resources on education or teachers are blamed for corrupt practices of selling grades to the highest buyer. In Cambodia, this practice is called Rean Kua where students receive extra lessons from their formal schoolteachers after school hours for a fee.

Although there is evidence to support both human capital and good governance theories, upon closer examination, the phenomenon of private tutoring is far more complex. In some cases there is evidence to suggest teachers and students use the space of private tutoring to practice alternative pedagogies and innovate curricular content as compared to ministry standards. This complex terrain requires a robust theoretical perspective. This paper will detail Rean Kua through these different perspectives by drawing on a 2012 empirical study of achievement differentials and equity issues. It will end by introducing the idea of educational capitalism as a way to explain the commodification of education and its impact on the nation-state.

Bio:
William C. Brehm is a PhD student at the University of Hong Kong. His dissertation research focuses on the political economy of private tutoring in Cambodia. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in international relations in 2008 and completed his master’s degree in comparative and international education in 2010 from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA, USA). He has written numerous publications in peer-reviewed journals of education that focus on international education development and the history of education. He has worked in the Asian education sector since 2006 as a teacher, United Nations NGO representative, and researcher. Between 2010 and 2012, Brehm lived in Siem Reap, Cambodia, working for This Life Cambodia as the director of research. As the associate editor of European Education: Issues and Studies , he stays connected to comparative education research in Europe while living in Asia. He can be reached at wbrehm@hku.hk .

Please visit our website for further information.
http://khmerstudies.org/events/public-lecture-series/

Warm Regards,
Michael Parsons
Center for Khmer Studies
Siem Reap
Cambodia

-------------------------------

The 2nd Annual SEA Studies Symposium

9 – 10 March 2013
University of Oxford

http://projectsoutheastasia.com/academic-events/sea-symposium-2013

The 2nd Annual Southeast Asian Studies Symposium will be held on 9-10 March 2013 at the University of Oxford.

Southeast Asia is a vitally important region of the world, and its most urgent issues are transregional and multidisciplinary in nature. Project Southeast Asia seeks to contribute to solutions to these issues by providing the Symposium as a platform for the dissemination, discussion, and debate of ideas.

The Symposium has three core aims:

• To present solutions for contemporary Southeast Asian issues by bringing together the brightest minds from all fields and disciplines, and from around the world. Its core goal is to promote the integration of the humanities and social sciences with science, medicine, and business in order to create solutions which are effective, viable, and appropriate to culture and geography.
• To build networks and relationships between current and future decision-makers in Europe and Southeast Asia, as well as connections among academia, government, NGOs, and business. Integral to the Symposium will be opportunities for Southeast Asian and European politicians, corporate leaders, academics, and NGOs to interact and build relationships.
• To promote the research of the most talented scholars of Southeast Asia and offer a platform for young academics to present their work.

The selected Panels are listed on the website below. Please submit paper proposals to the Panel organisers.

http://projectsoutheastasia.com/academic-events/sea-symposium-2013/panels

----------------------------------

CALL FOR PAPERS:

The Cornell Southeast Asia Program invites submissions for its 15th Annual Southeast Asian Studies Graduate Conference. The conference will be held at the Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, on March 1-3, 2013. Professor Lindy Williams from the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell will deliver our keynote address.

We welcome submissions of abstracts from graduate students who have completed original research related to Southeast Asia. There is no specific theme for this conference, as we hope to attract a wide range of submissions. Our intention is to reflect the dynamic research currently undertaken by graduate students. The Cornell Southeast Asia Program’s Graduate Committee will review the abstracts, select presenters, and organize panels by theme. In order to aid this process of thematic organization, we ask that you please include a few keywords summarizing your presentation along with your abstract.

Selected contributors will present their work as part of a panel, and paper abstracts will be included in the conference program. All the panels will have discussants, so presenters should be prepared to submit full papers of 5000-8000 words by February 15. All accepted papers will be rigorously reviewed for potential submission to SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia . If selected, we will work with you to further prepare the paper for submission.

A very limited number of modest travel allowances may be available for those traveling longer distances. We encourage applicants to seek funding from their home institutions first. Please indicate along with your abstract whether you expect to receive travel funding from your home institution and if you would like to be considered for a travel allowance from the Cornell Southeast Asia Program Graduate Student Committee. We will be in touch in February to coordinate graduate student host lodging for confirmed presenters. In the spirit of collegiate engagement, all presenters are requested to attend the entire conference.

Please submit abstracts to the following email address: seapgradconference@gmail.com . All abstracts should be limited to 250 words and sent in MS Word format. Do not send a .pdf. Please name your abstract using your first and last name together (for example, johnsmith.doc for John Smith’s abstract). The subject of the message should specify “Abstract” and the body should include the following information:

· Author name(s), institutional affiliation(s), and a primary email address

· Title of paper

· Paper topic or keywords

· The abstract

· Expectations of Funding Needs

Abstract Submission Deadline: January 10, 2013

Notification of Acceptance: Late January 2013

Confirmation of Attendance Deadline: February 5, 2013

Full Papers Due: February 15, 2013

------------------------

NEWS:

Dr. Krisna UK Named Director of Center for Khmer Studies

The Center for Khmer Studies is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Krisna UK, a former research fellow of CKS, as its next Director, beginning in January 2012. Dr. Michael Sullivan, who has directed CKS for 5 years, will step down at the end of December to return to his scholarly research.

Dr. UK is a distinguished international scholar, who studied at the University of California-Berkeley and holds Masters degrees from the University of Paris-Sorbonne and Oxford University, as well as a PhD in social anthropology from Cambridge University. Her previous scholarly work focused on comparative literature and environmental sciences. Her PhD dissertation in social anthropology was on the Jarai, whose language she speaks. Here extensive experience in NGO management includes five years with the Cambodia Trust, as well as five years of development work in humanitarian demining, which includes research on the impact of landmines contamination on Southeast Asian communities living in high risk areas.

Dr. UK is the first scholar of Khmer descent to rise to an executive leadership position at CKS. On behalf of the CKS Board, Dr. Lois de Menil, President, says, “We are particularly pleased to welcome Dr. UK and her young family back to Cambodia. CKS looks forward to a period of dynamic new leadership and outreach.”

Since its founding in 1999, the Center for Khmer Studies, the American Overseas Research Center in Cambodia, located in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, has been dedicated to research and training in the humanities, arts and social sciences. It sponsors fellowships for American and international scholars to undertake research in Cambodia. It also supports a free 15,000 volume Library at Wat Damnak- Siem Reap and runs training programs and workshops for both students and academic staff of Cambodian universities. CKS sponsors international conferences and workshops for Khmer and international scholars and offers monthly free public lectures in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. In addition it runs a Publishing Program to translate major scholarly texts into Khmer and it sponsors their sale at prices beneath usual market rates to make them accessible to a wider public. It sponsors Khmer scholars’ travel to regional conferences.

A recently completed CKS project was the compilation, in collaboration with the Dance Division of the NY Public Library of the Performing Arts, of an archive dedicated to classical Cambodian dance, which includes photos and objects as well as extensive video interviews with artists who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide. Among CKS’s current programs is a major multi-year project to create a digital inventory of the Cambodian National Museum’s collection, including multiple digital photos of each object. The second phase of that project, now underway, is the creation of a multilingual interactive database accessible from the Web. The project is supported by the Leon Levy Foundation in New York, and is managed by Australian scholar, Daryl Collins.