Courtney Work, PhD

I am an anthropologist, a mother, a grandmother, and a professor. Born in Minnesota, USA, my adventures took me around the US, to Mexico, to Southeast Asia, and to Taiwan.

As Associate Professor in the Department of Ethnology at National Chengchi University in Taiwan, my research in the Prey Lang Forest in north central Cambodia informs the courses I offer. At the university, we explore the political economy of religion and spirits, the cultural ecology of forests and green development, and expressions of sovereignty in Asia.

In the forests and mountains of Southeast Asia and Taiwan, I work with Indigenous collectives to co-produce knowledge about the intersections of traditional knowledge with the politics of climate change and global development. I bring the dynamics of long-term engaged field research into the classroom, and insights from the classroom come back with me into field research.

My PhD came late in life, halfway through my children's lives, after a degree in English Literature from the University of MN and a good run managing bookstores with Barnes & Noble, inc.

I completed my PhD at Cornell University, in Ithaca, NY in 2014, after which I spent 5 years on a research post-doc with the Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, and the Regional Center for Sustainable Development (RCSD) at Chiang Mai University. We researched the intersections of climate change policies and forest-based livelihoods in Cambodia and Myanmar.

2023 begins my sixtyth year as a human, my second year as a grandmother, and sixth year at National Chengchi University.

2021 – present, Associate Professor, Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University

2021 September – 2021 November- Research Fellow, East West Center, University of Hawai’i

2018- 2021 Assistant Professor, Department of Ethnology, National Chengchi University

2017- Senior Researcher, Council for American Overseas Researchers (CAORC)
Climate Change and Co-management in Prey Lang: Social experiments in conflict transformation
             Funded by the CAORC Senior Research Fellowship

2014-2018 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Regional Center for Sustainable Development, Institute for Social Studies;   June 2014- May 2018
MOSAIC project; Climate change mitigation policies, land grabbing and conflict in fragile states: Understanding  intersections, exploring transformations in Myanmar and Cambodia.  Funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) and the Netherlands Organization for  Scientific Research (NWO) under the Conflict and Cooperation in the Management of Climate Change  (CCMCC) initiative.

2014- PhD, Anthropology, Cornell University, August                                                                                       Thesis title: Tides of Empire: Merit, Morality, and Development in Rural Cambodia Funded by a National Science  Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant In preparation for review with Columbia University Press

2007- MA, Anthropology and Women’s & Gender Studies, Brandeis University, May                          Thesis title: Maybe the Girls Just like Us Better: Dancing, Brawling, and Buddhist Ritual in                           Cambodia

2005- MS (abd), Applied Anthropology, Minnesota State University, Mankato, May
             Thesis title: Anatomy of a Classroom: Khmer American youths encountering native language

1991- BA English Literature, Cum Laude, University of Minnesota, June

Assistant Professor, National Chengchi University
              Graduate courses for ethnographic theory and methods
              Graduate courses in Green Development, Religion, and Sovereignty
              Develop and execute independent research projects

Instructor Cornell University

               First-year Writing Seminar Aug 2011 – May 2014

C. S. Lewis