معرفی
Holly High is an Associate Professor at Deakin University's Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation (ADI), within the Faculty of Arts and Education. As an anthropologist specializing in Laos, she employs ethnographic methods to analyze human experience through lenses of policy implementation, power dynamics, and cultural transformation. Her research spans anthropological theory, development studies, and Southeast Asian politics, with current focus on reproductive health transformations in Laos.
Education & Career:
- Trained at Australian National University (ANU)
- Postdoctoral positions at Yale University, University of Cambridge, and University of Sydney
- Research affiliate at ADI specializing in citizenship and globalization studies
Research Focus: High's work intersects political anthropology, medical anthropology, and development studies, with consistent focus on:
- Lao policy implementation and everyday politics
- Debt, power, and desire in anthropological theory
- Emerging infectious diseases as intercultural phenomena
- Transformations in pregnancy, birth, and childhood in Laos
- Anarchist anthropology and activist scholarship
Publications: Her 65+ publications demonstrate consistent focus on critical development studies, political anthropology, and Lao ethnography. Recent works (2021-2025) show increased engagement with reproductive justice, anarchist theory, and interdisciplinary health research. Key themes include decolonizing methodologies, socialist governance, and the anthropology of crisis.
Supervision & Grants:
- Current PhD Students:
- Rebecca Hutton: Mutual aid economies post-COVID
- Amelie Fuller: Lao nursing training ethnography
- Completed: Natasha Rooney (2024): Ayurveda and epigenetics
- Major Grants:
- ARC Future Fellowship: 'Cultural values, birth and parenting in Lao socialism' (2021-2025, $922,400)
- ACIAR Grant: 'Policy impact in Lao PDR' (2022, $32,550)
Affiliations: Leads research initiatives within ADI's Citizenship and Globalization program, collaborating with international partners on projects related to health equity, post-socialist transitions, and decolonial methodologies in Southeast Asia.
