[Tlc] TLC-AAS conference

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Dear All,

I have exciting news and a reminder. 

First, the executive committee of the TLC is very excited to
announce our TLC Distinguished Guest Speaker for 2008: Dr.
Duncan McCargo.

As you all know this past year has witnessed siginificant
dramatic events in Thai politics. Professor McCargo is one of
the world's leading experts on Thai politics. He will help us
make sense of what is going on and more specifically offer a
talk which he describes as:

"Compared with the study of, say, Burmese or Cambodian
politics, Thai political studies has long been a relatively
amicable field of academic enquiry, characterized by an
overarching collegiality, and fairly modest degrees of public
disagreement between scholars. However, a number of
inter-related developments in the new millennium have
challenged this comfortable status quo, including: the rise
(and fall) of Thaksin Shinawatra, renewed political violence
in the Southern border provinces that challenges the
configuration of the Thai nation-state, a growing debate about
the political role of the monarchy (triggered partly by Paul
Handley’s controversial book, The King Never Smiles), and the
military coup d’?tat of September 19, 2006. These spiky
developments have made fence-sitting much more difficult:
those who study and write about Thai politics have
increasingly been forced to decide, and then to state clearly,
exactly where they stand on these divisive questions.

This presentation will review some of the debates which are
currently exciting (and sometimes dividing) scholars of Thai
politics, many of whom struggle to balance multiple roles as
academics, as public intellectuals, and as direct or indirect
participants in rapidly unfolding political events."

Indeed this will be a unique opportunity to reflect upon the
volite state of the Thai state and engage in an open debate as
to the scholar's role in writing, researching, and even
participating in these events.

Duncan McCargo is professor of Southeast Asian politics at the
University of Leeds, UK. Apart from coining the term ‘network
monarchy’ (in an article in Pacific Review, 2005), he has
published several books on Thai politics: Chamlong Srimuang
and the new Thai politics (1997), Politics and the press in
Thailand (2000), Reforming Thai politics (ed., 2002), The
Thaksinization of Thailand (with Ukrist Pathmanand, 2005), and
Rethinking Thailand’s Southern Violence (ed., 2007). 

We hope to see many members at this talk and at the
Association for Asian Studies Annual Meeting, Atlanta GA,
April 3-6, 2008.

The official time, date, and location of the talk will be
announced in early 2008.

Second, just a reminder, if you would like your panel at the
2008 AAS conference to be considered for TLC sponsorship,
please send the proposal to me (I will forward it to the
executive committee) by June 30th.

Thank you for your time,
justin

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu