Welcome to the application portal for the Multispecies Field School. This is our third year of offering a short field course in Thailand. Our instructors include Prof. Eben Kirksey of the University of Oxford who is best known for his work related to multispecies ethnography as well as Prof. Alice Hughes of the University of Hong Kong, who is an expert on cave ecology and bats. In country we will be hosted by Chiang Mai University.
This field school will offer methodological and theoretical training in multispecies ethnography and ecology--with a special focus on the cave ecosystems near Thai Buddhist temples. There is evidence of ongoing SARS-coronavirus spillover—from animals to people—at sites near caves in Southeast Asia. But, people don’t seem to be getting sick. We will conduct hands on training exercises to study this issue using perspectives from medical anthropology, history, Buddhist studies, the environmental humanities as well as ecology, conservation, and evolutionary biology.
Eligibility: This field school is open to any graduate student who is broadly interested in multispecies ethnography or bat ecology and evolution. Exceptional undergraduate students may also apply.
COURSE FEE AND COST: £1,500 (GBP). This will cover local ground transportation, food, and accommodation during the field course. Students will also be responsible for their own international travel to Bangkok as well as minor incidental expenses during the course.
COURSE DATES: 2-12 January, 2024
APPLICATION DEADLINE: Monday, 6 November, 2023
SCHOLARSHIPS: We may be in a position to offer scholarships to students who show high merit but who can otherwise not afford to attend this course. These scholarships will only cover course fees, and students will still be responsible for travel to Bangkok.
KEY BACKGROUND READING
Kirksey, Eben, Tivasuradej, Areeya, Palmer, Blake, Than, Myint, Changwong, Anne Atchara, Lo Casto, Pietro, and Kóvskaya, Maya. “Getting Lucky in Thailand: Or How to Coexist with Coronaviruses in Multispecies Contact Zones.” E-Flux Journal, no. 130 (October 5, 2022).
https://www.e-flux.com/
FURTHER BACKGROUND
Stefan Helmereich Eben Kirksey, “The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography.,” Cultural Anthropology 25 (2010): 545–76.
Astrid Oberborbeck Andersen, Nils Bubandt, and Rachel Cypher, eds., Rubber Boots Methods for the Anthropocene: Doing Fieldwork in Multispecies Worlds (Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2023).
Deborah Bird Rose, Shimmer: Flying Fox Exuberance in Worlds of Peril (Edinburgh University Press, 2022).
Chao, S., Bolender, K., Kirksey. The Promise of Multispecies Justice. (Duke University Press, 2022).
