The Department of Anthropology and Center for Asian Studies present

"Questions from 'The Grey Zone' in an Upland Cambodian Village"
with Eve Zucker, UC San Diego

April 21, 2011
3:30-5:00 p.m.
Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway, Room 3323

Between 1999 and 2002 the residents of the village “O’Thmaa”, a small mountain village in Cambodia, began returning to the land that was their home thirty years beforehand. The impacts of the Khmer Rouge regime, two civil wars and repeated forced evacuations made the return ‘home’ (in all its meanings) ambiguous and extraordinarily challenging. Many of the moral pillars of society were compromised or had vanished altogether, deep scars from the Khmer Rouge revolution and genocide remained fresh, and extreme poverty added additional hardships. Despite these obstacles, however, changes started occurring within the village during Zucker's time there that could be seen as small steps toward returning to a sense of normalcy, security and belonging. Zucker's talk will focus on the role of the local collaborator within the healing process. How are living collaborators situated within the healing process? How might they obfuscate this process? What are some of the responses by their community to their continued presence in their lives? Zucker's talk will be based on participant-observation fieldwork from 2002-2003 and again in 2010.

For further information, please contact Keith Drover, kdrover@uci.edu.