Liana Chua

Liana Chua is Associate Professor in Malay World Studies at the University of Cambridge's Department of Social Anthropology within the Faculty of Human, Social and Political Science. She serves as Tunku Fund Director, Postgraduate Tutor (Welfare), and Equalities Fellow at St Catharine's College. Her academic journey includes prior positions as Research Fellow at Gonville and Caius College and Reader in Anthropology at Brunel University London.

Dr Chua holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History from Oxford and an MPhil/PhD in Social Anthropology from Cambridge. Her research spans ethnic politics, Christianity, environmental transformations, and more-than-human landscapes in Borneo, with current focus on the global orangutan conservation nexus. She pioneers cross-disciplinary collaborations through projects like POKOK (anthropology-conservation partnership) and the European Research Council-funded The Global Lives of the Orangutan, examining conservation in the Anthropocene. Her methodological innovations include digital ethnography and visual/material culture analysis.

Chua's scholarly output reveals consistent engagement with Southeast Asian contexts, particularly Malaysian Borneo, while expanding to global conservation networks. Her work bridges religious studies, environmental anthropology, and digital media analysis, demonstrating how local practices connect to transnational flows. The recurring themes of witnessing, responsibility, and interspecies relations reflect her commitment to anthropological engagement with contemporary crises.

Scientific Recognition:

• 2013 Curl Lecture, Royal Anthropological Institute

As Tunku Abdul Rahman Lecturer, Chua actively cultivates academic connections between Cambridge and maritime Southeast Asia. Her ERC-funded research demonstrates significant grant acquisition capacity, while her editorial work (including co-editing Who are 'We'?) shows leadership in reshaping anthropological theory. She maintains strong public engagement through cross-disciplinary collaborations and knowledge mobilization beyond academia.

Chua's laboratory of practice centers on collaborative fieldwork through the POKOK initiative and ERC consortium, bringing together anthropologists, conservationists, and local communities across national boundaries to investigate orangutan conservation's social, political and aesthetic dimensions.