Dominique Dillabough-Lefebvre
I am a researcher & Anthropologist who also works with data & mixed-media methods. I am primarily based in London, UK, & Thailand at times. Currently a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at the LSE and a Leverhulme Trust Scholar at the International Inequalities Institute (LSE), I am also open to consulting/research work.
My current PhD research investigates the politics of agrarian change in Myanmar, in particular the role of state building aspirations among minority ethnic groups, and the impact of war and displacement on how people relate to land and territory. In doing so, I am critically interested in how authority functions, how people view and experience power and how hierarchies emerge and persist. My broader interests lie in environmental/resource politics, animism, development, conservation, infrastructure and cultures of militarism, and how these intersect with processes of state formation and nationalism. These interests have led to an interest in systems thinking, research design and implementation and finding ways of combining grounded insights with practical solutions.
My current work has been primarily alongside Karen speaking peoples in highland areas of Southeastern Myanmar, an area home to one of the worlds longest civil wars. I conducted ethnographic fieldwork both prior to and after the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, both in Myanmar and in Northern Thailand.
My research interests have led to a number of academic talks, papers, articles and two ongoing film projects. I have experience in consulting work on broad range of issues including: conflict, border politics, ethnicity, migration, conservation, resource conflicts and development.