• Fresh-water justice is central to forging inclusive futures for everyone
• Flowing through five countries, the struggle for a vital Mekong is a global struggle
• 60+ million people in Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam depend on the Lower Mekong River
• The Mekong nurtures and feeds diverse cultures, communities, environments and economies
• Mekong livelihoods and ecologies are impacted by global warming, dams and industrialization
• Local and global food security are imperiled

• Conduct immersive field research in ecology, cultural studies and interdisciplinary environmental studies
• Study the impact of climate change, damming and industrialization on livelihoods and ecosystems
• Use multimedia storytelling to show changing life on the Mekong River
• Build water justice solidarities with students, environmental justice activists and artists in Michigan and Southeast Asia

Amanda Flaim
Mekong Culture WELL Director 
Associate Professor 
James Madison College and Department of Sociology
flaim@msu.edu

“The Mekong River sustains livelihoods and food production across Southeast Asia and, indeed, across the global food system. Therefore, political and ecological threats to the life of the Mekong constitute an issue of pressing global concern…. The need for truly collaborative, inclusive, and interdisciplinary research, education, and outreach is urgent…”

"Living in or visiting a landscape continuously defined by ecological destruction for the sake of capital gains makes it difficult to live well with one’s neighbors, be they human, tree or lake... I firmly believe I’ve started to grow closer to my home [in the UP] and contribute to its healing because I lived as a visitor in Northern Thailand.”

Solomon Kronberg
Comparative Cultures and Politics (CCP) ‘22

"Residing on houseboats on (Tonle Sap) Lake, we spent four days conducting interviews [in Khmer language] with area residents, both those who lived on the water and those who lived on land, in order to gain an understanding of how political, ecological and climate change was affecting their livelihoods... the conversations we had and the obstacles we encountered as we tried to understand peoples’ stories and impressions pushed us to learn in new and different ways..."