Changing Nature in Southeast Asia Primary and Secondary Source Collection Development

Description:

This project supports enhanced acquisition of primary and secondary sources in both English and local languages on the topic of environmental changes in Southeast Asia. This will include books, booklets, archives, periodicals, reports, documentaries, posters and a range of ephemeral materials.

As the third largest and most biodiverse ecosystem on Earth after the Amazon and the Congo basin, Southeast Asia offers a fascinating site for research/scholarship and pedagogy on climate change and sustainability. Located in a tropical zone with vulnerable ecosystems due to their location in the Ring of Fire and a long history of natural and un-natural disasters, Southeast Asian societies have witnessed the expansion of industrial agriculture and other extractive activities that greatly impact the relationship between humans and nature.

This project responds to the call for mitigation and adaptation to climate change at the global and regional levels, and will comprise three categories:

1) material related to forests and people in Southeast Asia, including books, booklets, reports, documentaries, posters, and ephemera produced by Indigenous Peoples living in and surrounding the forests, e.g., by the AMAN (the Indigenous Peoples’ Alliance of Nusantara, established in 1999);

2) material related to coastal regions and small islands, including coastal ecology, disasters (e.g., tsunami), and environmental movements in the coastal-small islands; and

3) material on corporations engaged in environmental issues in Southeast Asia, such as publications(shareholders’ reports, corporate magazines, annual reports, CSR reports), maps of concessions, posters, and films. A provisional list of companies includes Wilmar International (palm oil), Korindo (palm oil), and ExxonMobil (mining).

Principal Investigator:

Veronika Kusumaryati, Assistant Professor of Anthropology

Co-Principal Investigator:

Larry Ashmun, Southeast Asian and Hmong Studies Librarian, Memorial Library