Welcoming Royal Golden Jubilee Scholar

Bass, sitting in his apartment wearing his authentic uniform

For over two decades, our Center has been the major host for Royal Golden Jubilee Scholars from Thailand. The program was launched in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in the late 1990s and has been administered by the International Division since 2021. We are delighted to announce belatedly the residency of Chaiyaporn (Bass) Singdee, the current recipient of this award pictured here. Bass is, of course, very well known to us at the Center, since he was a graduate of our MA program, completing Southeast Asian Studies degree with distinction in December 2012. He has returned as a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at Chiang Mai University, where he is working with Professor Pinkaew Lungaramsri, as well as with our own Professor Katherine Bowie. Bass has set up his office at the Center, where he is writing the final parts of his dissertation on “Old Clothes, New Materiality: An Assemblage of Military Vintage Commodity Networks and Consumption in Thailand.” Many of you may, of course, already know Bass and are familiar with his work since presented one of the major lectures at the 2022 SEASSI. Please come by the Center to meet him and, if you are lucky, you may be able to enjoy one of the Thai curries he often prepares for us. His advisor, Professor Pinkaew, will also be a keynote speaker at the Center-sponsored conference of the Council on Thai Studies to be convened by the Center in Madison (October 21-23).