For many Cambodians, the People’s Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) period of the 1980s is seen as a time of intense civil war, international isolation, and Vietnamese occupation: a dark period. In this presentation, which is based on his new book, Rise of the Brao: Ethnic Minorities in Northeastern Cambodia during Vietnamese Occupation, Ian Baird, Professor of Geography and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, explains the circumstances that led many ethnic Brao Amba people to join the Khmer Rouge in the 1960s. This research demonstrates the need to decenter Cambodian history and focus on what Baird calls “marginal histories”, histories that are not marginal due to being unimportant, but rather because they are not centrally focused.

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