Contact details +6469516851
Associate Professor Alice Beban PhD
Associate Professor
Doctoral Supervisor School of People, Environment and PlanningAlice Beban holds a PhD in Development Sociology from Cornell University (New York), and a Masters in Development Studies from Massey. Her research examines nature–society relations through a feminist political ecology lens, focused on how power, inequality, and emotion shape people’s relationships with land, water, and other resources. Much of her work is grounded in Southeast Asia, where she researches land reform, agrarian change, environmental activism, and rural livelihoods, often in collaboration with community-based organisations. In Aotearoa New Zealand, her research explores public perceptions of farming and food systems. She also conducts research on equity and lived experiences in healthcare.
Professional
Contact details
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Ph: +64 069516851
Location: SST 2.03, Social Sciences Tower
Campus: Manawatū
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy - Cornell University (2017)
Research Expertise
Research Interests
Agrarian studies
Political Ecology
Feminist theory
International development
Cambodia
Southeast Asia
Rural sociology
Land reform
Natural resource conflict
Thematics
21st Century Citizenship, Resource Development and Management, Future Food Systems
Area of Expertise
Field of research codes
Environmental Politics (160605):
Environmental Sociology (160802):
Gender Specific Studies (169901):
Human Geography (160400):
Other Studies in Human Society (169900):
Political Science (160600):
Rural Sociology (160804):
Social Change (160805):
Sociological Methodology and Research Methods (160807):
Sociology (160800):
Studies In Human Society (160000)
Keywords
Agrarian studies
Feminist Political Ecology
Cambodia
Southeast Asia
Rural sociology
Land reform
Resource conflict
Research Projects
Current Projects
Project Title: Resisting resource grabs: Understanding emotions in environmental conflict in the Mekong River Basin
Resource grabs are threatening people and ecologies across the Mekong region, yet deepening authoritarianism is stoking fear amongst civil society groups about the dangers of resistance. Political ecology’s traditional focus on the material dimensions of environmental conflict cannot fully explain how power operates and why people resist. This project breaks new ground by examining the centrality of emotions to projects of state making and resistance across scale. The research will explore how emotions emerge in and inform place-based resource struggles and how they translate across scales in regional collective responses. It will illuminate how emotions facilitate social and ecological change.
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Date Range: 2023 - 2026
Funding Bodies: Marsden Fund - Full; Royal Society of New Zealand
Project Team:
- A/Pro Alice Beban - Project Leader
Research Outputs
Journal
Khoo, E., Beban, A., Mouat, C., & Kennedy, K. (2026). Hope and its Applications: A Scoping Review. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. 23(1)
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
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Walker, C., Riley, S., Stephens, C., & Beban, A. (2026). How (In)Visibility Shapes Women's Experience of Inequity in Prison Work: A Cooperative Inquiry With Women Working in Australian Men's Prisons. Gender Work and Organization. 33(2), 429-439
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Riley, S., Stephens, C.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Riley, S., Stephens, C.
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Chann, S., Beban, A., & Wisesjindawat-Fink, W. (2025). Grasping onto land: the emotional political ecology of land on the Tonle Sap Lake Wetlands. Journal of Peasant Studies.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Walters, VM., Beban, A., Ashley, N., & Cain, T. (2025). Methodological reflections on ethics, relations of care and reciprocity in feminist research praxis. Qualitative Research.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Walters, V.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A., Walters, V.
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1
Palatchie, B., Beban, A., & Nicholls, T. (2025). Prefigurative politics in the platform economy: online sex workers restaging collective mobilisation through informal communities of care. Journal of Political Power. 18(3), 456-482
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Journal article]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Book
Beban, A., & Hak, S. (2023). The role of emotions in resistance movements against land and resource grabs: New evidence from Cambodia. In Routledge Handbook of Global Land and Resource Grabbing. (pp. 444 - 458).
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
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1
Beban, A., & Martignoni, JB. (2022). Social security in the extractive state: Gender, land inheritance, and agrarian change in Ratanakiri, Cambodia. In Agricultural Commercialization Gender Equality and the Right to Food Insights from Ghana and Cambodia. (pp. 204 - 222).
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
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3
Beban, A.(2021). Unwritten Rule: State-Making through Land Reform in Cambodia. Ithaca, United States of America: Cornell University Press
[Authored Book]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Authored Book]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Beban, A., & Gorman, T. (2018). From land grab to agrarian transition? Hybrid trajectories of accumulation and environmental change on the Cambodia–Vietnam border. In P. Vandergeest, & L. Schoenberger (Eds.) De-centring Land Grabbing: Southeast Asia Perspectives on Agrarian-Environmental Transformations. London, United Kingdom: Routledge
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Pou, S., & Beban, A. (2018). Human Security Problems in Cambodia: Far from Over. In Y. Mine, OA. Gómez, & A. Muto (Eds.) Human Security Norms in East Asia. (pp. 23 - 44). Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Chapter]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Thesis
Beban, AB. (2017). Unwritten rule(s): Uncertain statemaking on Cambodia's land frontier. (Doctoral Thesis, Cornell University) Beban, AB. (2017). Unwritten rule(s): Uncertain statemaking on Cambodia's land frontier. (Doctoral Thesis)
[Doctoral Thesis]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Doctoral Thesis]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Report
Beban, AB., & Pou, S. (2015). Human security and land rights in Cambodia. Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace.
[Commissioned Report]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Commissioned Report]Authored by: Beban, A.
Beban, AB., & Pou, S. (2015). Human security in Cambodia: Far from over. JICA.
[Commissioned Report]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Commissioned Report]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Conference
Khoo, E., Mouat, C., & Beban, A.(2025). Conceiving and Promoting Hope in Distance Education: A Workshop for Transformative Pedagogical Practice. . Wellington, New Zealand
[Conference Other]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
[Conference Other]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
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Khoo, E., Beban, A., & Mouat, C. (2025, October). Cultivating hope in post-pandemic online learning environments. Presented at eLearn2025. Bangkok, Thailand.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
[Conference Oral Presentation]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
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Khoo, E., Beban, A., & Mouat, C. (2025). Cultivating hope in post-pandemic online learning environments. Proceedings of eLearn 2025. (pp. 651 - 653). : eLearn2025
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
[Conference Paper in Published Proceedings]Authored by: Beban, A., Khoo, E., Mouat, C.
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Schoenberger, L., Beban, A., & Lamb, V.(2018). Authoritarian Rule Shedding its Populist Skin: How loss of independent media in the 2017 crackdown shapes rural politics in Cambodia. Paper presented at the meeting of https://www.tni.org/en/publication/authoritarian-rule-shedding-its-populist-skin-how-loss-of-independent-media-in-the-2017. The Hague, The Netherlands
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Beban, AB.They come with vegetables and leave with black gold: Making markets in Cambodia. . Bandung, Indonesia
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Conference Paper]Authored by: Beban, A.
Other
Nguyen, P., & Beban, A. (2020). Inclusive business: A critique. : Development Policy Centre, Australian National University
[Internet publication]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Internet publication]Authored by: Beban, A.
Beban, A. (2019). Land Emotions and the Durability of Power in Cambodia. : Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs in the College of Asia and the Pacific, Australian National University
[Internet publication]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Internet publication]Authored by: Beban, A.
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Beban, AB. (2015). Time to sow the seeds of land reform in Cambodia. (pp. 1 - 4). Australian National University
[Other]Authored by: Beban, A.
[Other]Authored by: Beban, A.
Consultancy and Languages
Languages
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Khmer
Last used: Current
Spoken ability: Excellent
Written ability: Average -
English
Last used: Today
Spoken ability: Excellent
Written ability: Excellent
Teaching and Supervision
Summary of Doctoral Supervision
| Position | Current | Completed |
|---|---|---|
| Main Supervisor | 3 | 1 |
| Co-supervisor | 3 | 2 |
Current Doctoral Supervision
Main Supervisor of:
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Gayathri Welaha Mudiyanselage
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Doctor of Philosophy
Apekama: beyond the cultural homogeneity: towards common culture in community-based climate change adaptation and mitigation actions among youth communities in Sri Lanka. -
Bunny Yorth
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Doctor of Philosophy
Sustaining an Indigenous environmental movement in a contested forest: A case study of the Prey Lang Community Network in Cambodia -
Malathi Rambodagedara
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Doctor of Philosophy
Collective Responses to Climate Challenges: A Case of Water-Dependent Agrarian Communities in Sri Lanka
Co-supervisor of:
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Eliana Crooks
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Doctor of Philosophy
Epistem-Ontologies of Impasse: Inhabitating Knowledge in Unimaginable Futures -
Emma Brownless
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Doctor of Philosophy
Vaccine Attitudes and Misinformation in Aotearoa New Zealand -
Claudia Walker
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Doctor of Philosophy
Cooperative inquiry with female corrections officers- experiences of gender and bodies at work.
Completed Doctoral Supervision
Main Supervisor of:
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2025
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Brittany Palatchie
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Doctor of Philosophy
The precarity of platform capitalism: How collective mobilisation changes as the sex work industry shifts to online marketplaces.
Co-supervisor of:
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2025
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Kalym Lipsey
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Doctor of Philosophy
It’s (not) Just Time: The Lasting Effects of Incarceration on Identity -
2023
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Lan Phuong Nguyen
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Doctor of Philosophy
Engaging with the private sector for development: A critical analysis of attempts to partner with business for women’s economic empowerment in Vietnam
Media and Links
Other Links
- Inclusive business: a critique - In the era of COVID-19, development organisations from the International Institute for Environment and Development to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) are pushing for a 'new normal'
- Toilet talk and a plea for better health for International Women’s Day - Dr Beban - who researched how those who've recently given birth fare, when they find their pelvic floor no longer works as well as it should (hence the pee and poo).
- Authoritarian rule shedding its populist skin in rural Cambodia - We won’t know until the July 2018 elections whether this radical redrawing of the Cambodian political landscape is a ‘new normal’ of naked authoritarianism. What is happening is truly bad.