A Collaboration with the Royal Thai Embassy in London

Application Deadline: 1st of July 2011

H.E. the Thai Ambassador Kitti Wasinondh presents the Lanna Award of 2010 to Lucy Vachell for her outstanding academic achievements during her year abroad in Thailand.

Ever since the introduction of Thai Studies at the University of Leeds in 2004, the Department of East Asian Studies has been working closely with the Royal Thai Embassy in London and our Department has been in receipt of considerable support from the Royal Thai Embassy. In this way, the Royal Thai Embassy has repeatedly offered internships to our students. Thus, our students have been completing internships of up to three months at the Office of Educational Affairs of the Royal Thai Embassy or helping in the Taste of Thailand Festival, which was organised by the Thai Embassy at the Regent's Park in 2009. In addition to this, since 2009 the Royal Thai Embassy has annually given awards to our students for outstanding academic achievements. Each of these prizes - the 'Saranrom Award' awarded to the best graduate student(s) of the Thai Studies programme and the 'Lanna Award' awarded to the best student of the Thai year abroad - consists of £500, a certificate and a shield.   

In addition to this, the Royal Thai Embassy supports Thai Studies at Leeds by offering scholarships and providing substantial funds to build up our library collection of books on Thailand.

The Royal Thai Embassy will offer four scholarships of 250,000 Baht (approximately £5000) each to British or foreign postgraduate students intending to continue their career in the UK to undertake fieldwork research in Thailand for up to 6 months, as part of a postgraduate degree (MA or PhD). Each scholarship will cover a return air ticket, accommodation, living expenses, research documents and related costs of conducting research in Thailand. 


The deadline for applications is the 1st of July 2011.

The field research for an MA degree will be part of our 'MA by Research' programme: a 1-year (full time) or 2-year (part time) programme of supervised research into a subject of your choice, supported by research training.

Visit the application pages to apply online. Further guidance on applications is also available.

Please, indicate on your application form that you are applying for this scholarship. For any queries regarding the application process, please send an email to smlcpgr@leeds.ac.uk.

For information on further funding and scholarships you can apply for, go to http://www.leeds.ac.uk/smlc/pgfunding.htm

At the Royal Thai Embassy in London in 2009, Charlotte Drury (Khun Chailai) received the Saranrom Award for her outstanding academic achievements as graduate student of the Thai Studies programme at the University of Leeds.

The delegation also met with Professor Duncan McCargo (POLIS), Professor Joern Dosch, Professor Michael Parnwell, Professor Christopher Dent and Dr Martin Seeger (all from East Asian Studies) to discuss current issues in Thailand. Professor Andrew Thompson, PVC (Research), Mr Alan Taylor, Honorary Consul at the Thai Consulate in Hull, Professor Mark Williams, Head of School of Modern Languages and Cultures, and Mrs Adcharawan Seeger, Teaching Fellow in Thai Language and Culture, also attended this very successful event.   Professor Thompson remarked, ‘Following the transfer to Leeds of colleagues from the Centre for South East Studies at the University of Hull, and the establishment of the White Rose East Asia Centre - a Centre of Excellence shared between Leeds and Sheffield - I am delighted to celebrate the achievements of our under and postgraduate students taking Thai Studies.  It is clear that this development would not have been possible without the generous support, both practical and financial, that we have received from the Thai Embassy in London and their consulate in Hull.  I am pleased to have had this opportunity to thank the Foreign Minister and Ambassador in person and grateful for their continued support.'

A report on the visit was broadcast on Television of Thailand on 19 Dec 2010.

Born in 1910, Cao Yu lived through many of the great upheavals experienced in 20th century China and the exhibition presents his life and works as a way of giving audiences a more profound understanding of China's recent history and its culture.

As part of the exhibition when it arrives in Leeds, on the 21st to the 23rd of March a devised stage work based on the female characters from Cao Yu's plays will be featured at stage@leeds. For further information on the play and to purchase tickets, please visit the stage@leeds website.

For further information on the exhibition, please visit the WREAC website.

Dr Martin Seeger has received a 'Friends of Thailand' award for his outstanding contributions to Thai studies. This prestigious Thai government award recognises individuals, groups of individuals, organisations, and agencies worldwide who have played a significant role in promoting Thailand abroad and contributed to the wider publicity of the destination in the international community. The award was presented by H.E. CHUMPOL SILAPA-ARCHA, Minister of Tourism and Sports, at a reception organised by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) on 27 September 2010 in Bangkok.

Dr Seeger is highly respected for his academic contributions to creating awareness of Thailand. Having lived in Thailand from 1997 to 2000 in the Buddhist monkhood, he has maintained a deep relationship with the kingdom. Dr Seeger established the Thai studies programme at the Department of East Asian Studies in 2004. The programme, with scholarships supported by the Royal Thai Embassy in London, has taught students in the UK a more profound understanding of Thai language, culture, history and Buddhism.

Related Links

Dr Heather Xiaoquan Zhang was invited by Professor Karen Shire to participate in the 'Women Crossing Borders' International Workshop held at the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, 19 November 2009, where Dr Zhang talked about her experience in conducting research on China applying a gendered lens and collaborating with Chinese academics in research activities, and advised PhD candidates on researching East Asia and career development 'across borders'.

Professor Victor T. King has been invited to join an international research team coordinated by Professor Lee Ocksoon, Research Director, Institute for East Asian Studies, Seoul, Korea, on the general theme of 'Southeast Asia as an Open Regional System' and will be contributing to the reseach cluster headed by Professor Park Seong Woo, Yeungnam University, on 'The Historical Construction of Southeast Asian Studies'. He will participate in the Sogang International Conference on Southeast Asia to be held in Seoul on 19-20 March 2010.

Professor Victor T. King's keynote address on Borneo Studies at the 6th International Conference of the Malaysian Social Science Association in August 2008 will be published soon in the Malaysian journal Akademika.