Dr Zucker specialises in the anthropology of Cambodia and the topics of social change, post-conflict recovery, memory and morality. She conducted ethnographic fieldwork on these topics in Cambodia on two occasions from 2001-2003 and again in 2010. In the first instance her primary fieldsite was among upland Cambodian villagers in the Southwest who were in the process of remaking their village community after years of war and dislocation. Her forthcoming book is based on this research. In 2010 Dr Zucker returned to this village area to follow up on her previous research in addition to studying the processes of social change within the urban setting of Phnom Penh. Beyond this, Dr Zucker's newly emerging research interests relates to social change - a topic she studied in depth in post-war Cambodia - in the US and Britain. More precisely, Dr Zucker is interested in popular perceptions, interpretations and understandings of the events and vast social changes that have taken place over the past decade - recessions, wars, revolutions etc. How do these affect people's sense of being and their vision of the future? How do people respond to the changes around them and go about preparing for the future? In particular, she is interested in how these changes intersect with education and schooling, an area that is not only also in flux but is also intricately related to the production of the future.
Dr Zucker holds a PhD from the LSE and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Wisconsin both in Anthropology.. She was a Visiting Scholar at UC San Diego's Department of Anthropology, and taught courses in the US, Britain and Cambodia. She is a fellow of the Blakemore Freeman Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and the Council of American Overseas Research Center (the latter two through the Center for Khmer Studies).
Selected Publications:
(In preparation) Moralities of Remembrance in Upland Cambodia, University of Hawai'i Press.
(In Press – 2012) Figures of Modernity – The Village Police Chief, Book Chapter in Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity. Editors: Erik Harms, Johann Lindquist and Joshua Barker.
2011 The Question of Collaborators: moral order and community in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge. Bookchapter in Everyday Life in Southeast Asia|, edited by Kathleen Adams and Kate Gillogly, Indiana University Press.
2011 Distrust and Trust in a Highland Khmer Community after 30 Years of War. Book Chapter in Anthropology and Community in Cambodia: Reflections on the work of May Ebihara|, John Marston, editor, Monash Asia Institute.
2011 Confianza y desconfianza en una comunidad Khmer de los altos después de 30 años de guerra. Book chapter in Antropologia y comunidad en Camboya y Tailandia: Reflexiones sobre la obra de May Ebihara, John Marston, editor. El Colegio de Mexico.
2009 Matters of Morality: the case of a former Khmer Rouge Village Chief, Anthropology and Humanism|, Special issue on violence, volume 34, issue 1, pp 31-40, American Anthropology Association,
2008 In the Absence of Elders: chaos and moral order in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge. Book chapter in People of Virtue: reconfiguring religion, power and moral order in Cambodia|, Alexandra Kent and David Chandler (eds), Nordic Institute of Asian Studies.
2006 Transcending Time and Terror: the Re-Emergence of Bon Dalien after Pol Pot and 30 Years of Civil War|, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|, October 2006, Volume 37, No. 3, pp 527 – 546.
Invited Book Reviews:
2012 Review: Dancing in Shadows: Sihanouk, The Khmer Rouge, and the United Nations in Cambodia, by Benny Widyono, USA and UK, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2008, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies| February 2012, Volume 43, No. 1, pp 189-191.
2008 Review: A History of Cambodia. Fourth Edition, by David P. Chandler, Boulder (Colorado): Westview Press, Pacific Affairs| October 2008, Volume 81 No.3, Fall.