Researchers from the social anthropology working group attended the 12th International Convention of Asia Scholars convened (virtually) in Kyoto, Japan. Dr Jake Lin convened a panel entitled 'Migrant labour and Welfare Restructuring in China and Vietnam'. Dr Phill Wilcox co-convened a panel entitled 'Aspiring to the "Chinese dream": Local Perceptions of Chinese Globalisation and Development in Asia'. Both researchers also presented papers in their respective panels.

Social anthropology staff will also attend (online) the European Association of Southeast Asian Studies Conference in September 2021. Professor Minh Nguyen is an invited discussant for a panel entitled 'Between Perils and Promises of Mobility: Aspiration, Possibility and the "Good Life" in Southeast Asia'. Dr Phill Wilcox is convening a panel entitled: 'The Power of Gastronomy: Changing Urban Foodscapes in Southeast Asia' and is presenting her recently published article entitled 'Doing Coffee in Luang Prabang: Fusion and the Making of a World Heritage Space'.

The colloqium series is a joint cooperation of four working groups (WG Missbach; WG Nguyen; WG Pfaff and WG Vasilache) of the Faculty of Sociology, Bielefeld University. Lecture coordinators are Dr. Phill Wilcox (phill.wilcox@uni-bielefeld.de) and Dr. Éva-Rozália Hölzle (eva_rozalia.hoelzle@uni-bielefeld.de).

To register for the zoom events, please click on the "Register here" displayed next to each individual lecture below. The link will lead you to the site where you will be able to sign up for the respective lecture. Thank you in advance for your participation!

Phill Wilcox, from AG Social Anthropology, Bielefeld University, has co-convened a roundtable on digital methodologies for the EASA 2020 conference on 22. July 2020.

The roundtable “Methodologies on and offline: doing ethnography ethically in the digital age” examines how digital technologies impact the anthropological methodology by discussing issues related to the ethics of digital research, the contemporary understanding of the field site, public intimacy, data management, the notion of public/private, and online/offline identities.

• Professor Dr. Minh Nguyen has published the paper Portfolios of Social Protection, Labour Mobility and the Rise of Life Insurance in Rural Central Vietnam in Development and Change.
• Dr. Jake Lin has published the paper Psyche Matters: Resistance from the Chinese Sweatshop of the World in Perspectives on Global Development and Technology.
• Dr. Phill Wilcox has published a paper “Don't ever change”? Cultural heritage and social development in “timeless” Luang Prabang in Journal of Cultural Heritage Management and Sustainable Development.

Phill Wilcox receives Bielefeld Young Researcher's Fund for her Projekt "One World: One Dream? The rise of China in Laos".

This project investigates perceptions of China and Chinese influence in Laos. Currently, a major railway is under construction from China that will cover approximately half the territory of Laos. My aim is to use the Lao-China railway as a means to investigate Laos at a time of change, and implications for Laos, Southeast Asia and ASEAN.