
Karin Dean
Associate Professor
School of Humanities
Introduction
Karin Dean (PhD) lived and worked in China, Thailand and in Vietnam. Since 2007 she has been teaching and conducting research at Tallinn University. The entire body of her research, starting from her doctoral dissertation, is underpinned by ethnographic field work, mainly among cross-border ethnic minorities of Myanmar (Burma), in Myanmar, China, Thailand and Northeast India. In 2002–2006 she acted as a mediator between Myanmar’s armed ethnic opposition groups and the Geneva-based organisation The Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue. As a political geographer she is interested in and is continuously monitoring political developments in Southeast Asia, i.a. relations with China. Her interest lies in interrelations between states and societies of Southeast Asia--in various social or political developments and processes such as mobilities, urbanization, globalization, various networks and connections, State discourses.
Main tasks
Teaching courses on Southeast Asian societies and politics
Supervising BA, MA and PhD dissertations on issues related to Southeast Asian societies and politics, in the fields of political geography or Asian urban studies
Research on issues related to Southeast Asia
Project leader in 'Advancing Trans-Regional Border Studies': https://borderlab.eu/
Areas of research
Political geography (relations between state, society and space; borders; power); mobilities; Southeast Asia; Burma/Myanmar; Kachin; urbanization in Asia; political anthropology (nationalism, identity politics, ethnic minorities); critical and popular geopolitics