Yi Li

I joined the HAB network later than many, first participating in a 2023 storytelling workshop as a facilitator for displaced Myanmar youth in Chiang Mai. That week in Thailand was an intense collaboration with experienced colleagues, some active since HAB’s inception. A year later, at ICAS 13 in Surabaya, our team reconvened to share findings and exchange ideas with more HAB and IIAS colleagues, who were all keen to apply our academic knowledge in communities in the Global South and make real and tangible changes.

As a historian specialising in migrant communities of Southeast Asia, I am familiar with oral history as primary sources, and its various methodologies and critiques. Yet, the workshop and its follow-up publication revealed how a historian’s craft can have immediate, practical impact. By supporting young Myanmar people collect and share their stories, we encouraged them to reclaim their histories amid ongoing crises. These narratives weren’t just for limited and (mostly) English academic audiences, but for their own communities and many more. The storytelling process also brings confidence and pride, proving their past and present were worth sharing, and that people were eager to listen. Indeed, witnessing this fulfilling transformation also reaffirmed us, as facilitators, that our research has meaning beyond academia.

During and after the Thailand workshop and Surabaya conference, I often reflected on the power of HAB’s seemingly simple yet transformative methodologies. What makes IIAS distinct from so many other academic and regional collaborations in the Western world, many of which are better funded, more publicised, and include celebratory names within certain circles? Like in the Netherlands, my home institutions in the UK have faced constant financial strain, a recurring theme throughout my time there over the past two decades—first as a postgraduate student, then as faculty. Each crisis seems only to deepen, from the Tory government's tuition fee restructuring that monetised higher education in 2012, to Brexit in 2016, to name just a few. At the same time, universities are increasingly pressured to move beyond their academic niche circles, engage with and contribute to communities, and create broader societal impact despite shrinking resources. This is a vital parameter in the country’s Research Excellence Framework (REF), which determines research funding allocations and assesses the impact of academic work for every higher educational institution in the UK. As academics, we certainly recognised the importance of community engagement, yet have struggled to maintain this fine balance. Occasionally, in darker moments, we tended to seek courage and reassurance from our European counterparts, who could still benefit from supportive platform not entirely dictated by financial pressures or the short-sighted ambitions of politicians. The existence of initiatives like IIAS offers a glimmer of hope or a sign of relief, an oasis that is fresh, lively and promising.

HAB has connected me with like-minded colleagues worldwide, provided a space for equitable and sustainable collaboration with communities beyond Europe, and allowed our often-niche research to reach the people who need it most. For me, this is real impact that reckons yet extends far beyond institutional metrics like REF.