Helen Lansdowne

CAPI Associate Director (2008 to 2011 until 2024)

CAPI Interim Director (2011 to 2014)

CAPI Assistant Director (1998 to 2008)

Helen Lansdowne speaking at a conference in Bhutan, 2019 — Helen presents at a 2019 conference in Thimphu, Bhutan

Helen Lansdowne has a BA and an MA in Pacific and Asian Studies from UVic and has been with CAPI since late 1998.

Helen specializes in issues of development and gender in Southeast Asia and rural China state-society relations. She was instrumental in helping to administer seminal justice system development work in the emerging economies of Vietnam and Cambodia in the early 2000s, and, in addition to overseeing CAPI's overall operations and administration, helped to establish and run the centre's highly regarded international student internship program for outgoing Canadian students as well as the centre's incoming cultural exchange and training programs, undertaken by thousands of visiting students and hundreds of cross-sector professionals from across Asia.

Helen is co-editor of numerous academic volumes, many derived from international CAPI conferences and helped found CAPI's online, open access journal Migration, Mobility, & Displacement.

**Description:** Helen debriefs with presenters at the 2019 "Public Law, Legal Orders & Governance: Regulating Globalization in Asia" conference in Bhutan, hosted by CAPI/UVic Law and the Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law.

**Description:** Helen at the 2019 "Public Law, Legal Orders & Governance: Regulating Globalization in Asia" conference in Bhutan with Jigme Singye Wangchuck School of Law Vice-Dean Michael Peil and CAPI Director Victor V. Ramraj.

**Description:** A mini-reunion in 2019 with two of CAPI's first international student interns: Helen, who helped establish CAPI's internship program, with Kate Vallance and Shane Barter, both of whom undertook CAPI internship placements in Thailand in 2003.

**Description:** Helen with Qian Liu, former CAPI staff member and UVic Law PhD grad, after Qian's convocation, 2022

**Description:** A meeting of Helens: Helen Lansdowne with Helen Clark, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, and UVic Gender Studies prof Laura Parisi. The Right Honourable Helen Clark was in Victoria for a June 2018 screening of the documentary film "My Year with Helen" (photo: Neil Rimmer).

**Description:** Helen with UVic Pacific and Asian Studies prof Angie Chau and visiting speaker Nury Turkel, a prominent Uyghur American attorney and human rights advocate, January 2020.

**Description:** Helen chairing a 2019 CAPI talk on the Huawei affair, with CAPI Senior Research Fellow and former Canadian diplomat Phil Calvert and UVic law prof Asad Kiyani.

**Description:** Helen in at a workshop in Hanoi on "Sustainable Livelihoods and Climate Change Regulation: Asian Approaches" in June 2019. The workshop was sponsored by CAPI in collaboration with Hanoi Law University and Vietnam's Institute of Legal Science and as part of CAPI's Regulating globalization in South & Southeast Asia project.

Current Major Projects

Migration & Mobility

CAPI hosts a dedicated migration and mobility program, which brings together experts in the field from all over the world to share expertise and knowledge of migration and mobility issues related to Asia.

CAPI Training Programs

CAPI hosts a multitude of short and long-term cultural exchange and professional development training sessions for overseas students, scholars, and practitioners.

Edited volumes

Gender Dynamics, Feminist Activism and Social Transformation in China (Routledge, 2019).