asya

Not quite. Evidently some members doubt your credibility. It will really help if you'd mention:

- Name and location of your University.

- Name of your supervising professor.

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I go to the University of California at Irvine. I just finished my first year in a 7 year PhD program, so my reseach is really preliminary at this point. My advisors are Bill Maurer and Tom Boellstorff.

http://www.anthro.uci.edu/html/People/Faculty.html

If anyone who speaks to me asks I am absolutely willing to sign something saying that I won't ever publish my work in the popular media. (I'm not a fan of popular media in general.)

This summer is meant as really preliminary research; it is meant to be informal, as I haven't submitted my work to an institutional review board (IRB) which handles any research involving human subjects. Any work conducted before an IRB proposal cannot be published; no academic journal would accept it. Once I'm sure I will use Bangkok as a field sight, I will submit an IRB and, if I specifically use any of the information gathered this summer (which honestly is unlikely), I must contact and receive permission from whoever gave me that information. If I can't get in contact with that person, I can't use the information he/she gave me. If I do contact and receive permission to use it, names and identifying details are changed to protect anonymity. For example, say you are a english guy who works in accounting, if neither your specific nationality or your occupation is relevant to the information you give me, i would probably say you were an australian guy who works in finance, just so no one could trace a quote back to you.

Academia is really strict about this stuff and I take it seriously.

But again, I stress that this work is really preliminary. I just need to get enough information to convince myself and whoever will fund me that I am on to something theoretically valuable. I'm not recording interviews, or taking exact quotes. I just want to get a general picture of expat life. And i'd like to meet some cool people along the way!

BTW, I do like to get out quite a lot; that is half the reason i'm in Bangkok! I just also happen to be a phd student. I know it is dorky, but it is my job.

-Asya

I'm sure asya is pretty up and up.  but you never know....

not too long ago, I remember some guys got crucified on some television broadcast that started out as an "interview".

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Nick,

I understand your hesitation. At the same time I find it sort of sad that people can't trust and be up front about their work. My interest is in what it means to be "cosmopolitan" and to be able to live in a culture other then the one in which you were raised. I'm trying to fit expats into an emerging theory of translocal identity politics and flexible citizenship commensurate with a global economy. I'm not after anything racy or sensational (if you are interested in more info email me I'll send you my research proposal) All of my work is completely anonomous, of course, and only for academia, NOT the media. Actually at this stage in my fieldwork (which is preliminary) I'm not even allowed to publish anything; that won't come until a few years down the road, and wouldn't happen without the permission of all of those I talk to.

I hope that helps to mitigate any qualms you might have! It is actually quite interesting stuff.

Still hoping to hear from any or all who might be interested!

-Asya

[email protected]

Thank you all for such helpful information!!

For the most part I'm looking for long term, career expats; those who either were brought here by their companies or those who chose to move here and work. (Although I want to get a broader idea of the expat community). My interest in general is in the ability to be mobile and live comfortably outside one's own home culture.

If any of you expats out there are interested and have 20 mins to have a cup of coffee with me, drop me an email! (Or if you just want to know more about my work, I can send you a more detailed description)

Thanks again, this has been really really helpful!

-Asya

[email protected]

Hi!

I'm a young anthropology PhD student in Bangkok for the summer. I'm doing research on expatriates who live in Bangkok, looking for their perspective on life and living abroad.

The only problem is that I need to meet some expats!

Anybody have any suggestions for friendly expat hangouts around town where a farang girl won't be looked at funny? Or any organizations that would be good to contact?

I'd love to hear from you!

-Asya