The mid-term evaluation is organized in two parts and starts with a 2-hour public seminar, followed by a closed meeting.
The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the progress of the PhD project at a point when it is still possible to make small or substantial changes. In general, we want to know how the candidate is doing, how much work is done, and what is left.
About the PhD candidate and her research
My project with the title “Traditional Ecological Knowledge, Buddhist Practices and Environmental Change in the Mekong Delta” studies Buddhist practices that aim to reduce the human impact on the environment in Vietnam. The Mekong Delta is one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the country, inhabited not only by Vietnamese but also by Khmer, Cham, and ethnic Chinese minorities. These communities recently face severe environmental challenges: water scarcity, salinification, acidity, waste problem (plastics, agricultural substances, and aquaculture chemicals), and excessive and unregulated flooding induced by climate change.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork at several sites in the region, the project examines several Buddhist communities and leaders, looking at their responses to climate change and the ways in which they mobilize followers to tackle environmental problems and climate emergencies. The project also studies traditional ecological knowledge in the region, in order to answer the question if this ecological knowledge can contribute to sustainable water management today.
The research is connected to the larger research project Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise