THE RESEARCH TEAM
Philippe Messier
[Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. University of Prince Edward Island]
Philippe Messier is a sociocultural and visual anthropologist who primarily researches the relationship between economic and technological transformations in South Asia. He is currently preparing a book manuscript that questions superficial contrasts made between high- and low-skill workers and their contribution to South India’s growing technology economies. The monograph builds on ethnographic research and collaborative video production with both computer engineers and Vaddera caste stonecutters in Hyderabad, in the newly formed state of Telangana.
Philippe Messier’s research has been published in Anthropologie et Sociétés, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, Visual Anthropology, and Verge: Studies in Global Asias, among others
Visit Philippe’s UPEI link here.
Karine Gagné
[Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology. University of Guelph]
Karine Gagné’s ethnographic work builds on various methods from anthropology in order to bring a multidisciplinary perspective to issues related to the convoluted notions of nature and culture. Her research is based primarily in the regions of Ladakh and Zanskar in the Indian Himalayas where she examines the political and cultural dimensions of human interactions with the environment.
In particular, she is interested in how citizens develop technical expertise to address the consequences of climate change and abandonment by the state. More recently, she started to examine how climate knowledge is constituted in the Indian Himalayas. In particular, she focuses on insights regarding climate change, it’s human dimensions, and how it affects bodies of ice; these insights emerge from a study of mobility over time in the region.
Karine Gagné’s research has been published in Anthropologica, Disasters, WIREs Climate Change (Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews) and South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, among others.
Visit Karine’s UofG link here.
Sarah Turner
[Professor, Department of Geography. McGill University]
Sarah Turner’s research covers livelihoods of ethnic minorities in Sino-Vietnamese borderlands, and informal economy work in Southeast Asian cities. Her research interests include upland ethnic minorities in peninsula Southeast Asia and southwest China; Hanoi small-scale traders and street vendors; Eastern Indonesia entrepreneurs; livelihood studies; everyday politics and resistance; commodity chain approaches; and agrarian change.
Sarah Turner’s research has been published in the International Development and Planning Review, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, The Journal of Peasant Studies, Annals of Tourism Research, Area and Geoforum, among others.
Visit Sarah’s McGill link here.
Jean Michaud
[Professor, Department of Anthropology. Université Laval]
Jean Michaud is pursuing two lines of thought. The first questions the fabrication of normality and consent and the obstacles posed by neoliberal ideology to the construction of critical and citizen thinking here and elsewhere. The second is based on his research that has spanned three decades among the societies of the South-East Asian Massif, among the marginal populations of the mountains of North India, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Yunnan in southern China. On this horizon, his publications explore the themes of the impact of cultural and economic modernization, of the vernacularization of modernity among dominated rural populations.
Michaud’s research has been published in The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, Current Anthropology and Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, among others.
Visit Jean’s Université Laval link here.
