Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

Lorna Macmillan and Francisco Nanclares Humanities

Tourism and Ethnic Identity: Creating the Long-Neck Karen of Northwest Thailand

Lorna Macmillan and Francisco Nanclares propose to undertake ethnographic research that examines the shift in gender power relations among Padaung Karen refugees resulting from the influx of tourism to the Mae Hong Son province in northwestern Thailand. Their goal is to build on previous research to explore the ways in which the economic power that tourism has provided the so-called long neck women affects their familial and communal roles. They will do ethnographic field research in Thailand, resulting in a senior honors thesis in anthropology. Macmillan and Nanclares anticipate that their findings could have implications for designing refugee policies.