Nuttavikhom (Kay) Phanthuwongpakdee
PhD Student, Department of Geography, King's College London and National University of Singapore
Kay loves traveling and trying new things. He has lived in many countries, including Thailand, Singapore, the United States and the United Kingdom. Academically, Kay was initially trained to be a chemist and an environmental engineer. He is now a Geography convert. His current research originated from his personal experiences encountering floods and inequalities in his own country and realisation of the harsh reality that science cannot solve everything.
Talk summary:
From September to December 2011, Thailand was faced with one of the most disastrous floods in its modern history – I was victim, sufferer but also, fortunately, a survivor..
This talk will begin with Kay’s personal survival account, as an urban Bangkok dweller. Kay will then talk about the tales behind his fieldwork in Central Thailand on flood perception and adaptation of those who live with the constant risk of environmental hazards. The areas the talk will cover are Ayutthaya, Suphanburi, Pichit, Nakhon Sawan, Samut Sakorn, Bangkok and the whole Bangkok Metropolitan area. Kay will share with us his knowledge, developed during his field research, of wet-rice farming and Thai ‘very messy’ flood-politics.
The second part of this talk will feature Kay’s experience in Singapore as a joint PhD student, where he had to learn their history and become familiar with the island, its politics, and culture, in addition to how its society operates.
Presentation on Kay's research: Living with flood, the political ecology of flood-hazards in central thailand