CHSS Research Grantee Lili Chen Presents at “Decolonizing Southeast Asian Studies” Conference in Chiang Mai

Date:               17-19 July 2025
Venue:            RCSD, Chiang Mai University, Thailand

CHSS Research Grantee Lili Chen, lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences,
Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e of Timor-Leste, presented her research paper at the international
conference Decolonizing Southeast Asian Studies, held from 17–19 July 2025 by the Regional Center for Social
Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, one of the CHSS regional hubs. The conference brought together more than 145 participants, including scholars and graduate students from across Southeast Asia, as well as international researchers from Europe, the United States, and Australia with a shared interest in Southeast Asian studies.

In her presentation, “Indigenous Understandings of Gender and Sexuality in Timor-Leste: Resistance and
Resurgence in a Postcolonial Context,” Chen challenged the claim—often used by anti-LGBT groups—that sexual diversity is a colonial import. Drawing on interviews with LGBT individuals and community elders across 14 municipalities, she highlighted how Indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality continue to persist and act as forms of resistance to both colonial and nationalist narratives.

Chen shared the session with other scholars whose work critically engaged with questions of gender, history, and representation in Southeast Asia:

  • Sara Niner, on feminist research methodologies in decolonial contexts;
  • Fionnuala Hughes, on gender perspectives in anti-colonial narratives in interwar Vietnam (1918–1939);
  • Jay Mok, who examined silences in Myanmar archaeology through a gender-conscious lens.

Chen also had the opportunity to exchange ideas with faculty and researchers at the Women’s Studies Center,
Chiang Mai University, further strengthening academic ties and regional collaboration.

Her participation reflects CHSS’s ongoing commitment to supporting emerging scholars conducting inclusive,
locally grounded, and transformative research across Southeast Asia.

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