Anthropology PhD candidate Yi-Yu Lai won the 2023 Outstanding Graduate Paper Prize from the Society for East Asian Anthropology (SEAA). “Combining rich historical research with transnational ethnographic fieldwork, the paper offers rare insight into interactions between Indigenous movements and their impacts that go beyond national boundaries,” wrote the SEAA judging committee. “This paper demonstrates new directions in East Asian anthropology that engage with multilingual, multicultural and transnational possibilities.”
Lai said he was grateful to receive the prize, because—while there is much literature on Indigenous solitary activism that focuses on tensions and negotiations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples—his case study examines the factors contributing to the growth of activism between Taiwan and the Northern Philippines, ultimately providing insights into the transnational ties among Indigenous movements.
Born and raised in Taiwan, Lai has been studying Indigenous activism and the cross-border relationships between Indigenous Taiwanese and the Indigenous peoples in the Cordillera of the Philippines since 2014. His works center on Indigenous politics, political violence and conflict resolutions. Lai is particularly interested in how political violence and activism affect Indigenous peoples’ ways of life and their interactions with larger society.
