Papers presented at the March 2017 York Centre for Asian Research (YCAR) workshop, Research at the Interface of Activism and Academia in Southeast Asia, were published as a special section in the July 2017 issue of Critical Asian Studies.

The section was edited by YCAR Associates Philip Kelly, Ethel Tungohan, and Chaya Ocampo Go in collaboration with Elisabeth Kramer (Unviersity of Sydney), Jason Morris Jung (Singapore University of Social Sciences) and Dominique Caouette (Université de Montréal).

The collection of papers present reflections by authors who have conducted field-based research in Southeast Asia on their experiences in navigating their roles as researchers who are engaged in producing works that are informed by or committed to various types of activism.

Expertise, embodiment, and the dilemmas of activist research in Southeast Asia
Philip F. Kelly, Elisabeth Kramer, Ethel Tungohan, Chaya Ocampo Go, Jason Morris-Jung & Dominique Caouette

What is academic research on the Cambodian frontier?
Laura Schoenberger & Alice Beban

Reflections on governable spaces of activism and expertise in Vietnam
Jason Morris-Jung

Reflecting on the role of academics–activists in shifting hydropower narratives in Vietnam
Nga Dao

I go home to do the work: A Filipina’s practice of activist scholarship in the wake of super typhoon Yolanda
Chaya Ocampo Go

Reflections on academic activism against the death penalty for drug traffickers in Indonesia
Elisabeth Kramer

Engaged scholars in socio-political reform: The case of Aliran
Johan Saravanamuttu

Reflections on activists and scholars in Indonesia
Arianto Sangadji

Modern day slavery in Thai fisheries: Academic critique, practical action
Peter Vandergeest, Olivia Tran & Melissa Marschke