Disha Bhagwat was strolling through Pub Street, home to noisy bars and clubs frequented by wealthy tourists, in Siem Reap, Cambodia, last year when she was caught off guard by lonely children dancing and people with disabilities performing music on the street for money.
Bhagwat, a fourth-year economics student, said that moment inspired a research idea that motivated her to join the Lemelson Anthropological Honors Program last fall.
“I was struck by the contrast between the wealthy tourists coming in to spend money and the poor people who spend their day trying to make their living off those tourists, and I realized I wanted to research this,” she said.
The program allows third-year students majoring or minoring in anthropology to conduct and present original research, with an emphasis on fieldwork and faculty mentoring, said Aomar Boum, current coordinator of the program.
Robert Lemelson, adjunct professor of anthropology and research anthropologist at UCLA, founded the program in 2013 and funds it through the Lemelson Foundation, Boum said.
“We look for research ideas that have real-world applications and that matter to the people being studied … that have the potential to benefit them in some way,” Boum said.
Before applying, students must find a UCLA anthropology professor who is knowledgeable about the topic to act as a mentor, Boum said.
Bhagwat said she had not taken a class with Hannah Appel, and assistant professor in the anthropology department, before asking her to become Bhagwat’s research mentor. Appel said they met once a week to talk about Bhagwat’s emerging ideas and questions.
“Mentoring (Bhagwat) meant mostly listening to her ideas, nodding enthusiastically and encouraging her on her way,” Appel said. “She is an active and creative thinker.”
Bhagwat said her research focusses on how interactions with tourists in Cambodia impact the lives of local community members working in the tourism industry, both socially and economically. She said her initial assumption was that foreign investors caused this wealth disparity, financing businesses in these areas whose profits were not being returned to the local population.
Bhagwat said she spent most mornings in Siem Reap taking a class in Cambodian history and her afternoons talking to truck drivers, taxi drivers, tour guides, shop owners and other workers.
“I asked them about their job satisfaction, how they started their businesses and how they cope with the instability that the short tourist season brings,” Bhagwat said.
One of the people she said she interviewed was a taxi driver, known as a “tuk tuk” driver, who teaches English to underserved children. Bhagwat said the driver put most of his profits toward his students’ English education, because he said he has benefitted from knowing the language and wanted to pass it on to the next generation.
“It’s unique because in a country that is dependent on foreign aid, his reinvesting into the young people’s future is an example of Cambodians working to improve their country,” Bhagwat said.
She added speaking with native Cambodians interviews helped her realize her initial assumption was not entirely correct.
“People told me they feel the wealth disparity, but tourism did generate needed revenue,” she said.
When she was not working on her research, Bhagwat said she took cooking classes, biked through the temples of Angkor Wat and explored other cities such as Phnom Penh.
Clinton Humphrey, a teaching assistant in the program and a UCLA doctoral student in the department of anthropology, said hands-on practice work is rare, but crucial for anthropology students.
In May, graduating seniors will present their research before the entire anthropology department faculty, as well as family and friends, Boum said.
After last spring quarter, all 13 students in the program had been accepted into graduate school, secured an internship or been offered a teaching position, he said.
Bhagwat said she was thankful the opportunity helped her realize she could find many similarities with people who didn’t share her language or culture.
“If you have a project idea you are passionate about, you should follow through with it,” she said. “The idea guided me to the honors program, and I’m glad it did.”