Part I: Sakon Nakhon stirs: Students and academics continue a decades-old struggle (11))

By David Streckfuss

Geography and a history of murdered freedom fighters set Sakon Nakhon off from the rest of Isaan. Though youth protests have been slow to start and lack some of the frequency and vigor seen in other Isaan provinces, Sakon Nakhon, and particularly Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University, has played an important role in linking the province’s past with a new generation that’s beginning to stir.

A number of lecturers in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences have over the last five or six years connected students to local social justice issues while others have worked to revive the rich (and tragic) history of its residents who had been pioneers in Thailand’s fight for democracy.

Kittima Khunthong, a sociology lecturer at the university, has sponsored frequent forums on natural resource management and human rights. As part of her courses, she has taken…