Dr Liana Chua

I have worked in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, since 2003. My PhD and early postdoctoral research centred on conversion to Christianity and ethnic and cultural politics among rural Bidayuh communities, while a second postdoctoral project entailed the study of landscape, morality and development in the context of a dam-construction and resettlement project in which four Bidayuh villages were entangled. My fieldwork in Sarawak drew me to my current research on the social, political, aesthetic and affective dimensions of the global nexus of orangutan conservation in the so-called 'age of the Anthropocene'. I explore these issues with a small team of doctoral students and postdocs via two projects:

1.  POKOK: an anthropology-conservation collaboration (2017-2022) that investigates the causes and contexts of orangutan killing and human/orangutan conflict in rural Borneo and seeks to devise conservation strategies for mitigating this problem and engaging more constructively and ethically with local communities.
2. Refiguring Conservation in/for 'the Anthropocene': the Global Lives of the Orangutan (GLO). A multi-sited ethnography of the global nexus of orangutan conservation in the context of emerging 'Anthropocenic' ontologies, politics, socialities and discourses. This European Research Council-funded project (2018-2023) has two key aims: to explore if and how global conservation is 'scaling up' to meet the challenges of 'the Anthropocene'; and to cut the Anthropocene concept down to size by examining how it is apprehended, fragmented and reworked in multiple ethnographic settings.

These ethnographic foci have evolved in tandem with my other long-running research interests in theories of visuality and materiality, more-than-human socialities, indigenous museology, and the histories and politics of anthropological knowledge practices.

Engagement beyond anthropology and the academy is an important part of my research programme. Currently, I work with conservationists and conservation scientists through my research projects and involvement with Oryx: International Journal of Conservation, Conservation and Society, and the Section for Human-Primate Interactions (IUCN Primate Specialist Group). I am also committed to making anthropology more accessible and interesting to the general public.

Research Projects

Refiguring Conservation in/for ‘the Anthropocene’: the Global Lives of the Orangutan (GLO)

Publications

Books

• Chua, L. and Mathur, N., 2018. Who are 'We'? Reimagining Alterity and Affinity in Anthropology
• Chua, L. and Elliott, M., 2013. Distributed Objects Meaning and Mattering after Alfred Gell
• Chua, L., 2012. Southeast Asian Perspectives on Power
• Chua, L., 2012. The Christianity of Culture Conversion, Ethnic Citizenship, and the Matter of Religion in Malaysian Borneo

Journal articles

• Chua, L., 2024. Introduction: Heroes and Villains in the Anthropocene, Special issue of Environmental Humanities, 16(3):697-708
  Doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-11327284
• Chua, L., 2022. “If God Is with Us, Who Can Be against Us?” Current Anthropology, v. 63. Doi: 10.1086/722300
• Chua, L. and Idrus, R., 2022. Introduction: Unpacking indigeneity in Southeast Asia Sojourn: journal of social issues in Southeast Asia, v. 37
• CHUA, L., FAIR, H., SCHREER, V., STĘPIEŃ, A. and THUNG, PH., 2021 (Accepted for publication). “Only the orangutans get a life jacket” American Ethnologist, Doi: 10.1111/amet.13045
• Chua, L., 2021. Witnessing the Unseen The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, v. 39. Doi: 10.3167/cja.2021.390108
• Chua, L. and Grinberg, O., 2021. Introduction The Cambridge Journal of Anthropology, v. 39. Doi: 10.3167/cja.2021.390102
• Chua, L., 2020. Viral Devotionality and Christian Solidarity in/beyond Borneo Oceania, v. 90. Doi: 10.1002/ocea.5258
• Chua, L., 2020. Durian diplomacies Terrain, Doi: 10.4000/terrain.20371
• Harrison, ME., Wijedasa, LS., Cole, LES., Cheyne, SM., Choiruzzad, SAB., Chua, L., Dargie, GC., Ewango, CEN., Honorio Coronado, EN., Ifo, SA., Imron, MA., Kopansky, D., Lestarisa, T., O'Reilly, PJ., Van Offelen, J., Refisch, J., Roucoux, K., Sugardjito, J., Thornton, SA., Upton, C. and Page, S., 2020. Tropical peatlands and their conservation are important in the context of COVID-19 and potential future (zoonotic) disease pandemics. PeerJ, v. 8. Doi: 10.7717/peerj.10283
• Chua, L., Harrison, ME., Fair, H., Milne, S., Palmer, A., Rubis, J., Thung, P., Wich, S., Büscher, B., Cheyne, SM., Puri, RK., Schreer, V., Stępień, A. and Meijaard, E., 2020. Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co‐optation. A case study from orangutan conservation People and Nature, v. 2. Doi: 10.1002/pan3.10072
• Chua, L. and Fair, H., 2018 (Accepted for publication). Anthropocene Cambridge Encyclopedia of Anthropology, Doi: 10.29164/19anthro
• CHUA, L., 2018. Small acts and personal politics: On helping to save the orangutan via social media Anthropology Today, v. 34. Doi: 10.1111/1467-8322.12432
• Chua, L., 2018. Too Cute to Cuddle? "Witnessing Publics" and Interspecies Relations on the Social Media-scape of Orangutan Conservation Anthropological Quarterly, v. 91. Doi: 10.1353/anq.2018.0043
• Chua, L., 2016. Gifting, Dam(n)ing and the Ambiguation of Development in Malaysian Borneo Ethnos, v. 81. Doi: 10.1080/00141844.2014.986152
• Chua, L., 2015. Horizontal and vertical relations HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, v. 5. Doi: 10.14318/hau5.1.016
• Chua, L., 2015. Troubled landscapes, troubling anthropology: co‐presence, necessity, and the making of ethnographic knowledge Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, v. 21. Doi: 10.1111/1467-9655.12254
• Chua, L., 2012. Conversion, continuity, and moral dilemmas among Christian Bidayuhs in Malaysian Borneo American Ethnologist, v. 39. Doi: 10.1111/j.1548-1425.2012.01378.x
• Chua, L., 2011. Soul Encounters: Emotions, Corporeality, and the Matter of Belief in a Bornean Village Social Analysis, v. 55. Doi: 10.3167/sa.2011.550301
• Chua, L., 2009. What's in a (Big) Name? The Art and Agency of a Bornean Photographic Collection ANTHROPOLOGICAL FORUM, v. 19. Doi: 10.1080/00664670802695608
• Chua, L., 2009. To know or not to know? Practices of knowledge and ignorance among Bidayuhs in an 'impurely' Christian world JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE, v. 15. Doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9655.2009.01556.x
• Chua, L., 2007. Fixity and flux: Bidayuh (dis)engagements with the Malaysian ethnic system ETHNOS, v. 72. Doi: 10.1080/00141840701387937

Chapters in edited volumes

• Chua, L., 2023. Edgy imaginaries: "Ghost" orangutans, extinction, and responsibility in a plantation landscape. In Anthropology and Responsibility. Ed. Demian M, Fumanti M, Lynteris C. Routledge. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003332077-2 

Internet publications

• Chua, L., 2022 (No publication date). Living in Harmony? It's Messy
• Chua, L., 2021. (E)valuations of more-than-human care
• Chua, L. and Thung, PH., 2020. Why COVID-era campaigns against wildmeat consumption aren't working

Other publications

• Chua, L., Schreer, V. and Thung, PH., 2022. Using Ethnographic Research for Social Engagement: A Toolkit for Orangutan (and Other) Conservationists. Doi: 10.17863/CAM.86774

• Chua, L. and Fair, H., 2019. Anthropocene. Doi: http://doi.org/10.29164/19anthro