The NIU Libraries have selected Dr. Visisya Pinthongvijayakul as the recipient of the first Pick/Laudati Southeast Asia Fellowship. This award uses funds from the Pick/Laudati library endowment for the recipient to visit the NIU Libraries for two weeks, conducting research using our unique Southeast Asia collections. Dr. Pinthongvijayakul is a faculty member at Chandrakasem Rajabhat University in Bangkok, Thailand, and holds a PhD in Anthropology from the Australian National University. He is also a Georg Forster Research Fellow at Heidelberg University in Germany. His research project for the fellowship is “Human-Fish Relations: Interspecies Environment and Health around a Hydropower Project in Northeast Thailand” and focuses on dam and water management projects in the Khon Kaen province, specifically Ubonrat Dam and the Nam Pong Project. He has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in this area. While at NIU, he will use many of our rare materials related to water management in Thailand published by agencies like USAID and UNESCO for historical research. He will also present a talk as part of the NIU Center for Southeast Asian Studies lecture series. Dr. Pinthongvijayakul will be at NIU in October 2023 and hopes to also participate in the Council on Thai Studies Annual meeting while he is here.
