Coupled Systems of Migration, Digital Mediation, and Political Economy in South and Southeast Asia

Funded by: Explorer Seed Fund
Principal Investigators: Tabea Bork-Hüffer, Eugene Richardson
Project Participants Heidelberg University: Tabea Bork-Hüffer (Department of Geography), Julia Poerting (Department of Geography), Huqiao Yuan (Department of Geography), Yaxin Wu (Department of Geography), Till Bärnighausen (HIGH), Shannon McMahon (HIGH), Marcus Nüsser (SAI), Pablo Porten-Cheé (HCIAS), Yaatsil Guevara (HCIAS), Ulrike Gerhard (HCA, Department of Geography)
Project Participants Harvard University: Eugene Richardson (Harvard Medical School, Paul Farmer Planetary Health Lab) , Raphael Frankfurter (Harvard Medical School, Paul Farmer Planetary Health Lab)
Project Period: 2026–2027

This project develops an original pilot study on the coupled dynamics of migration, digital mediation, and political economy in South and Southeast Asia. Focusing on Nepal and Malaysia, it examines how mass labour migration, remittance dependence, and the digitisation of everyday life have become deeply entangled, reshaping social reproduction, livelihoods, and well-being. The pilot lays the empirical, conceptual, and methodological groundwork for a larger comparative research programme and supports the preparation of joint peer-reviewed publications and a competitive multi-year grant application.

The collaboration brings together Eugene Richardson (Paul Farmer Planetary Health Lab, Harvard Medical School) and Tabea Bork-Hüffer (Institute for Geography, Heidelberg University), integrating expertise in planetary health, political economy, migration, and digital geography. The interdisciplinary team – including five postdoctoral and doctoral researchers at both institutions – will jointly design and implement the research while foregrounding early-career researcher (ECR) capacity building through mentoring, mobility, and targeted ECR measures (including a roundtable and thematic Exchange workshop).

Through targeted research stays and networking activities, an international grant application workshop, publications, and collaborative outputs, the project strengthens a sustainable Harvard–Heidelberg partnership, while integrating its activities with further collaboration partners at the SAI, HCIAS, HCA, the 4EU+ Flagship 1 and the Jellinek Ethics Centre. It thereby establishes the foundation for a broader comparative research Agenda extending to additional regions, including Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

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