University Professor Tania Li (photo by Diana Tyszko)
Tania Li awarded 2024 Killam Prize in Social Sciences
Published: March 19, 2024
Tania Li, a University Professor in the department of anthropology in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been awarded the 2024 Killam Prize in Social Sciences.
Killam Prizes are awarded to Canadian scholars who have distinguished themselves through sustained research excellence, making a significant impact in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, health sciences and engineering.
Li’s research concerns land, labour, capitalism, development, politics and Indigeneity, with a particular focus on Indonesia. She collaborates with scholars in fields such as geography, planning, law and environmental studies, as well as with activists and policy makers.
The author of many books, Li has written about the rise of Indonesia’s Indigenous peoples’ movement, land reform, rural class formation, conservation struggles, community resource management and state-organized resettlement.
“Anthropologists examine changing lifeworlds by conducting long-term field research in particular places. My focus has been rural Asia — home to more than two billion people, a third of the global population,” Li says. “City dwellers in Asia and here in Canada generally know little about rural areas, but in an inter-connected world, this needs to change.
“I’m thrilled that the decades I have spent conducting research in muddy places and communicating my findings in multiple formats has been recognized with the Killam Prize.”
