Chiang Mai University (CMU) is located in the center of upper mainland Southeast Asia, occupying a strategic position in connecting with higher-education institutions in Southwest China, Northeast India, Myanmar, Lao PDR., Vietnam, and Cambodia. CMU is an interdisciplinary university which supports research activities in science, social science and humanities.  It has also offered international programs to students from Southeast Asia and beyond. It aims to produce knowledge on social transformations in the region, and bring voices of local communities, which are impacted by global/regional structural changes, to policy platform.

Chiang Mai University has a multidisciplinary program on social engagement, which can be supportive of the HaB 2.0. It also has a plan to develop a credit transfer system, which will be further developed to accommodate the need of student exchange program under the HaB 2.0. The credit transfer-based activities will be facilitated by the Faculty of Social Sciences in collaborations with CMU Graduate School and two centers: the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD) – a center that is responsible for graduate program and research activities on ethnicity and development in the country, and the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD) – a center that has a mandate to work with regional partners and international students. RCSD has undertaken a project on capacity sharing with the University of Mandalay. In the next five years, RCSD plans to work closely with higher education institutions in the region.

For HaB 2.0, Chiang Mai University will:

• Facilitate dialogue and share experiences among local villagers from Asia and Africa, as well as indigenous people from Mexico and Thailand.
• Organize summer school(s) for students and lecturers from HaB partners on issues to be defined by partner institutions.
• Organize workshop/conference for graduate students and lecturers on: i) Inter-regional level: Southeast Asia Studies or other topics which parted in HaB 1.0 work on, i.e.  rice, food, indigo, and crafts and ii) Intra-regional level: Topics on rice, food, indigo, crafts in Thailand, Myanmar, and Northeast India.
• Since Chiang Mai University has Presidential Scholarships as well as some scholarships from Thailand International Cooperation Agency (TICA), we encourage our partner insitutions to recommend their students to come to study at Chiang Mai University, particular in the international programs at the Faculty of Social Sciences as well as co-design a new graduate program which based upon mutual interest.

Contact persons:

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Aranya Siriphon, Deputy Dean for Academic Affairs, Faculty of Social Sciences

Dr. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, Director of the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD) and the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University

Asst. Prof. Dr. Malee Sitthikriengkrai, Lecturer at Department of Social Science and Development, and researcher at the the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD), Faculty of Social Sciences