Minh Son To | 2026 SEAI Travel Grant Update
Hot, Humid, Hectic: Scoping in Southeast Asia
Minh Son To | 2026 SEAI Travel Grant Recipient
Across Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Kuala Lumpur, Minh Son used the 2026 ANU Southeast Asia Institute Travel Grant to ground his doctoral research in the region—connecting with local academics and institutions, locating potential data sources, and presenting his research to diverse audiences across Southeast Asia. The trip ultimately provided an opportunity to both challenge and affirm the direction of his research.
The first stop was Singapore, where Minh Son presented at the 6th SEASIA Biennial Conference at Nanyang Technological University. Discussions with academics at the conference helped him clarify the structure of an intended empirical chapter and provided new ideas to incorporate into his research.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Minh Son visited Fulbright University Vietnam and met with researchers to better understand academic life and potential avenues for archival research. A visit to Vietnam National Archives II also confirmed that relevant materials had been digitised and could potentially be accessed remotely, an important practical finding for his future research.
Phnom Penh provided another form of engagement. Minh Son presented his research on Vietnam’s foreign policy and national identity at the Royal University of Phnom Penh and Future Forum, while conversations with locally based researchers also connected him with the Documentation Center of Cambodia and its archival collections.
The trip concluded in Kuala Lumpur, where Minh Son presented his doctoral project at the ASEAS International PhD Workshop. By this stage, the project had already gone through several rounds of comments and different audiences across the region, providing both constructive feedback and greater confidence in the research.
Grant attribution
Minh Son To is a recipient of the 2026 ANU Southeast Asia Institute Travel Grant. His research engagements across Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia were supported by the ANU Southeast Asia Institute.
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