CV (version anglaise) - L`Institut d`Asie Orientale

Vatthana PHOLSENA
Curriculum Vitae
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
2014‐
2011-2013
2007-2010
2004-2006
2002-2004
Associate Professor, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of
Singapore
Research Fellow (with tenure), Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)-Institut
de recherche sur l’Asie du sud-est contemporaine (IRASEC, Research Institute on
Contemporary Southeast Asia), Singapore (affiliated with the Department of Southeast
Asian Studies, NUS)
Research Fellow (with tenure), CNRS-Institut d’Asie Orientale (Institute of East Asian
Studies), Lyon, France
Assistant Professor, Southeast Asian Studies Programme, National University of Singapore
Postdoctoral Fellow, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
EDUCATION
PhD
BA and MA
Centre for South-East Asian Studies, Department of Politics and Asian Studies, University of
Hull, United Kingdom, 2002
Institut d’études politiques-Sciences Po (School of Political Studies), Grenoble, France,1997
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Topics: State formation and social change in frontier regions (Laos-Vietnam); social history of revolution
and the Vietnam Wars; politics of history and memory; ethnicity in Laos; socialism and post-socialism in
Asia.
CURRENT RESEARCH PROJECTS / COLLABORATIONS
2012 to date
o Research Member, “Integration in Southeast Asia: Dynamics of Inclusion, Dynamics of Exclusion”.
Collaborative research programme, funded by the European Union, coordinated by the École
française d’Extrême-Orient (Paris), and involving researchers from the University of Hamburg;
Centre for History and Economics, Magdalene College, University of Cambridge; University of
Tallinn; University of Milano-Bicocca; University Sains Malaysia; University of Gadjah Mada;
University
of
Chiang
Mai;
Vietnamese
Academy
of
Social
Sciences.
2008 to date
o Research Member, “Local Knowledge in Laos”. Collaborative research programme with the
Department of History and Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, National University of Laos
and the Institut de recherche et de développement (Institute of Research and Development,
France).
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2008 to date
o Co-researcher, “War Violence: Socio-Cultural Approaches to Understanding War in Contemporary
Asia”. Collaborative research programme with the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM),
Montreal, Canada, and the Institut d’Asie Orientale (Institute of East Asian Studies), France.
2007 to date
o Research Member, “TRANSITER: Dynamiques transnationales et recompositions territoriales,
approche comparative Amérique centrale et Asie du Sud-Est” (TRANSITER: Transnational Dynamics
and Territorial Reorganization. Comparative Approach Examining Central America and Southeast
Asia). Collaborative research programme, funded by the French National Research Agency, with
the Centre Asie du Sud-Est (CNRS, Paris) and Paris-Diderot University.
LANGUAGES
French (native speaker)
English (fluent)
Lao (spoken, read, written)
Thai (spoken)
Spanish (basic)
PUBLICATIONS

Single-authored books
LAOS. Un pays en mutation, Paris: Editions Belin-La documentation Française, 2011.
Post-war Laos: The Politics of Culture, History and Identity, Singapore, New York: Institute of Southeast
Asian Studies, Cornell University Press, 2006.

Co-authored books
Le Laos au XXI° siècle: Les défis de l’intégration régionale, Bangkok : IRASEC, 2004, co-authored with Ruth
Banomyong. Translated and updated edition: Laos. From buffer-state to crossroads?, Chiang Mai: Mekong
Press, 2006.

Edited volumes, Special issues
Interactions with a Violent Past. Reading Post-Conflict Landscapes in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, coedited with Oliver Tappe, Singapore: NUS Press, 2013, co-author of the introduction and author of a
chapter.
Laos. Sociétés et pouvoirs, co-edited with Vanina Bouté, Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2012, co-author of the
introduction and author of a chapter.
“The Experience of War: Four Sino-Indochinese Perspectives”, in European Journal of East Asian Studies,
co-edited with Christopher E. Goscha, Vol. 9(2), 2010, co-author of the introduction and author of an
article.
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“Politics of History and National Identity in Contemporary Laos”, in South-East Asia Research, co-edited
with Bruce M. Lockhart, Vol. 14(3), 2006, author of the introduction and an article.

Articles in peer-reviewed journals
“Une génération de patriotes. L'éducation révolutionnaire du Laos au Nord Viêt Nam”, Communisme 2013,
“Vietnam, de l'insurrection à la dictature 1930-2012”, Special Issue coordinated by Christopher Gocha,
Paris: Vendémiaire, 2013, pp. 230-258.
“The (Transformative) Impacts of War and Revolution in a border region in Southeastern Laos (19611975)”, War & Society, Vol. 31(2), 2012, pp. 163–83.
“Life under bombing in Southeastern Laos (1964-1973). Through the Accounts of Survivors in Sepon”,
European Journal of East Asian Studies, Vol. 9(2), 2010, pp. 267-290.
“Nommer pour contrôler au Laos, de l’Etat colonial au régime communiste”, Critique Internationale, 45,
2009, pp. 59-76.
“Highlanders on the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Representations and Narratives”, Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 40(3),
2008, pp. 445-474.
“The Early Years of the Lao Revolution (1945-49): Between History, Myth and Experience”, South-East Asia
Research, Vol. 14(3), November 2006, pp. 403-430.
« The Changing Historiographies of Laos: a Focus on the Early Period », Journal of Southeast Asian Studies,
Vol. 35 (2), 2004, pp. 235-259.
« Nation/Representation: Ethnic Classification and Mapping Nationhood in Contemporary Laos », Asian
Ethnicity, Vol.3 (2), 2002, pp.175-197.

Chapters in peer-reviewed books
“There is more to roads: Modernity, Memory and Roads in Hướng Hoá -Sepon area between Central
Vietnam and Southern Laos”, in Transnational Dynamics and Territorial Redefinitions in Southeast Asia: the
Greater Mekong Subregion and Malacca Strait Economic Corridors (provisional title), Nathalie Fau, Sirivanh
Khonthapane and Christian Taillard (eds.), Singapore: ISEAS, 2014, pp. 377-396.
“ 'Minority' Women and the Revolution in the Highlands of Laos : Two Narratives”, in Women in Southeast
Asian Nationalist Movements, Susan Blackburn and Helen Ting (eds.), Singapore: NUS Press, 2013, pp. 198225.
“A Social Reading of a Post-Conflict Landscape: Route 9 in Southern Laos”, in Interactions with a Violent
Past. Reading Post-Conflict Landscapes in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, co-edited with Oliver Tappe,
Singapore: NUS Press, 2013, pp. 157-185.
“La production d’hommes et de femmes socialistes nouveaux : Expériences de l’éducation communiste au
Laos révolutionnaire”, in Laos. Sociétés et pouvoirs, co-edited with Vanina Bouté, Paris: Les Indes Savantes,
2012, pp. 45-67.
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“Shifting Visions of the Past: Ethnic Minorities and the ‘Struggle for National Independence’ in Laos”, in
Contestations of Memory in Southeast Asia, Roxana Waterson and Kwok Kian-Woon (eds.), Singapore: NUS
Press, 2012, pp. 83-105.
“In the Line of Fire: The Revolution in the Hinterlands of Indo-China (1957-1961)”, in L’échec de la paix ?
L’Indochine entre les deux accords de Genève (1954-1962), Christopher Goscha and Karine Laplante (eds.),
Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2010, pp. 341-359.
“Entre passé vécu et passé réécrit : les débuts de la révolution au Sud-Laos (1945-1949)”, in Recherches
nouvelles sur le Laos, Yves Goudineau and Michel Lorrillard (eds.), Paris: Ecole française d’extrême-orient
(EFEO), Études thématiques n° 18, 2008, pp. 621-638.
“A Liberal Model of Minority Rights for an Illiberal Multi-Ethnic State? The Case of the Lao PDR”, Asian
Minorities and Western Liberalism, in Will Kymlicka and Baogang He (eds.), Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2005, pp. 80-109.

Other selected publications
“LAOS. Risques et gains d'une plus grande intégration régionale” (co-authored with Martin Rathie), L’Asie
du Sud-Est 2013, Jérémy Jammes and François Robinne (eds.), Bangkok: IRASEC (in press).
“LAOS. L’année du renouvellement (partiel) des élites politiques” (co-authored with Martin Rathie), L’Asie
du Sud-Est 2012, Jérémy Jammes and Benoît de Tréglodé (eds.), Bangkok: IRASEC, 2012, pp. 171-188.
“U.S. rapprochement with Laos and Cambodia: A Response”, in “Special Focus: America Re-engages
Southeast Asia”, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Vol. 32(3), 2010, pp 460-466.
“Laos in 2006”, Regional Outlook: Southeast Asia 2006-2007, Russell H. K. Heng and Rahul Sen (eds.),
Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2006.
“Laos. “Towards subregional integration”: 10 years on”, Southeast Asian Affairs 2005, Singapore: Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, 2005, pp. 173-188.
SELECTED CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
“War and Revolution in Sepon: Legitimation of a New Authority and Emergence of a 'New People' in the
Borderland”, International workshop: Authoritarian State, Weak State, Environmental State?
Contradictions of Power and Authority in Laos, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, 18-19
January 2013.
“Mobilités locales, vecteurs de transformation territoriale et de changement social en Asie du Sud-Est”,
International workshop: Dynamiques transnationales et recompositions territoriales. Perspectives croisées à
partir de l’Amérique centrale et de l’Asie du Sud-Est, SEDET – Université Paris Diderot, CASE – CNRS / EHESS,
Paris, 6-8 February 2012.
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“The Transformative Impacts of War and Revolution in south-eastern Laos”, International workshop: Civils
& Combattants à l’épreuve de la guerre en Chine et Indochine. Approches socio-culturelles, Université du
Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Canada, 25 February 2011.
“A cultural reading of a post-conflict landscape: Route 9 in the Lao PDR”, in Panel “Haunted landscapes
and ambiguous memories: Interactions with the past in Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia”, co-organized with
Oliver Tappe, 6th EUROSEAS Conference, Gothenburg, 26-28 August 2010.
“Les bombardements au sud Laos (1964-1973) à travers les sources orales”, Speaker and co-organizer,
International Workshop: Violences de guerre: Aspects socio-culturels de la guerre en Asie au XXème siècle,
Institut d’Asie Orientale, Lyon, France, 30 October 2009.
“State territorialization and local mobility in the Khe Sanh-Sepon border area between southern Laos and
central Vietnam”, speaker and co-organizer, International workshop: Revisiting the Frontier in the
Southeast Asian Massif, National University of Singapore, 12-13 December 2007.
“‘Minority Women’ and the Vietnam War. Personal Narratives and War Experience”, in Panel “Women
Warriors in Southeast Asia”, Fifth International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS 5), Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia, 2-5 August 2007.
“The Other Side of the Lao Revolution”, Keynote speaker, Second International Conference on Lao Studies,
Arizona State University, United States, 3-6 May 2007.
“In the Line of Fire: The Uninterrupted Revolution in the Highlands of Indo-China (1945-1961)”,
International workshop, The Failure of Peace? Indochina between the Two Geneva Accords (1954-1963),
Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Montreal, Canada, 6-7 October 2006.
“Historiographies in Contemporary Laos: In Search of Autonomy”, in Panel “Migration and Indigeneity.
Narratives on ‘origins and territories’ in Mainland Southeast Asia (historical and anthropological
perspectives)”, 4th EUROSEAS Conference, Paris, 1-4 September 2004.
“Rethinking Multiculturalism in Laos”, Third International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS3), Singapore,
19-20 August 2003.
“Rethinking majority and minority's culture and identity in Laos”, Asian Minority Question and Western
Liberalism. William Kymlicka's Theory of Minority Rights, International workshop, Asia Research Institute,
NUS, 14 January 2003.
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