Introduction | Our Team | Field Schools
Each iteration of our joint field schools culminated in a webinar series where students and mentors from all four participating institutions, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Hasanuddin University, Khon Kaen University and Chiang Mai University, reflected on their field school experiences. Themes include collaboration and collaborative field schools, cross-cultural research and methodologies, relearning Southeast Asia and political ecology in the field.
Fall 2023
This first presentation of the Southeast Asia Field School webinar series focuses on the UHM/EWC joint field school initiative with Khon Kaen University (Thailand) and Hasanuddin University (Indonesia), funded by the LuceSEA Transitions: Environment, Society and Change grant. The seminar describes the context of the joint field school, and reflects on the summer 2023 experience of the LuceSEA team.
The second presentation of the Southeast Asia Field School webinar series brings together researchers and faculty members from Hawai‘i, Indonesia, and Thailand for a discussion on how meaningful and intentional engagements with universities in Southeast Asia increase parity in international collaborative research.
The third webinar in this series spotlights graduate student perspectives and methodological strategies from the Summer 2023 field schools, as they learned to work in cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, multigenerational teams focusing on agrarian change.
Spring 2024
This fourth presentation in the LuceSea Transitions: Field Schools webinar series sees panelists, all graduate students from Southeast Asia, discuss how attending field school in Southeast Asia has reshaped their perspectives of the region. They also share personal experiences with Southeast Asia, including how they came to be interested in the region and how did attending the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa change their perspectives.
Fall 2025
The final webinar of the 2025 Fall LuceSEA series features faculty and student researchers from the LuceSEA Field School, sharing insights from fieldwork conducted in Thailand and Indonesia. This session explores applied research approaches in political ecology and critical environmental studies, highlighting how ecological systems, political structures, and local communities interact in complex and often contested ways. Drawing from firsthand field experiences, the speakers will discuss how grounded, context-sensitive research contributes to a deeper understanding of environmental challenges and supports more equitable and sustainable approaches to environmental knowledge production.