Description

This project engages a wide range of units and faculty across MSU, principally the Asian Studies Center, the Center for Global Change and Earth Observations (CGCEO) and MSU’s residential college of public affairs. It builds on three NASA and NSF-funded projects of the CGCEO that use remote sensing, satellite imagery and climate data to map the impacts of dam construction on watersheds in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). Dams and other development activities are profoundly and unevenly affecting the 60+ million people in the region who largely depend on fish and rice for survival. Our grant would bring methods from the social sciences and humanities into conversation with the STEM data to integrate perspectives from indigenous and local communities on the cultural, social, economic and environmental transformations they are experiencing. Participatory documentation methods, such as household survey, oral history and community-generated photography and video, will produce multimedia storytelling that is combined with the CGCEO-generated maps to expand understanding of how development-induced change is affecting livelihoods and food security. The interactive maps and an open-access journal for related scholarly and public-facing publications will be showcased on a multilingual media platform.  MSU’s dedicated librarian for South and Southeast Asia will support a virtual library built in collaboration with SEA partners to feature joint research products, curriculum and pedagogical tools. The platform will be linked to the website of UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, based in Bangkok, for public engagement, advocacy and educational aims. In addition to UNESCO, SEA partners include the Mekong River Commission, Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact, Research Center for Sustainable Development at Chiang Mai University, and Royal University of Phnom Penh.  PI Amanda Flaim (sociology) writes that COVID-19 places questions of resilience, sustainability, and food/water sovereignty into stark relief, making the project more pressing than ever: “A multilingual website for public engagement, an online and publicly available repository for interdisciplinary learning tools, and a robust catalogue of interdisciplinary courses are not only doable, but in fact quite necessary undertakings, particularly in light of global stay-at-home orders and calls for inclusive, virtual education until the pandemic resolves. …As we gradually emerge from ‘the great pause’ and devise a new future together, it will be crucial to hear the voices of the most marginalized in the current system. And it is particularly important that their experiences, knowledge and ideas for the future are foregrounded and valued alongside the production of STEM knowledge, not as ‘colorful anecdotes,’ but as critical expertise.” The project both draws on and contributes to institutional momentum at MSU. Core project faculty with SEA expertise are based in sociology, engineering, and fisheries & wildlife. The research will enable enhanced content on SEA in undergraduate and graduate-level courses in areas including water security, food security and agriculture, development studies and environmental policy, as well as strengthened attention to SEA language training. These efforts will further the Asian Studies Center’s plans for a SEA studies minor.