This lecture examines how the study of Thai culture can enter meaningful dialogue with cultures beyond its national borders. Challenging the long-standing narrative of Thai exceptionalism—rooted in the claim that Siam/Thailand uniquely avoided Western colonial rule—it argues for the importance of comparison in making Thailand matter within Southeast Asian and global academia. Drawing on the short stories of Sidaoruang, the horror film Nang Nak, and early twentieth-century photography, the lecture explores how Thai cultural texts complicate notions of uniqueness and generate inter-Asian theoretical models beyond Eurocentric frameworks.
Rachel Harrison is Professor of Thai Cultural Studies and Head of the Doctoral School at SOAS University of London. Her research focuses on modern Thai literature and cinema, gender and sexuality, popular culture, and the cultural legacies of Siam/Thailand’s postcolonial positioning in relation to the West. She is currently developing an interdisciplinary project linking culture, well-being, and public health in Northeast Thailand. Her teaching emphasises the production of cultural theory from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She is also editor of the journal South East Asia Research.