Academics’ participation in initiation ceremonies: charting contested meanings and mixed possibilities for orienting Thai freshmen

ABSTRACT

University initiation rituals have long been a source of international concern. However, few English language accounts about such rituals in Southeast Asia are available, and fewer still consider the roles that teaching staff might play. This article investigates a rab nong ceremony in Thailand, arguing that initiation rituals have multiple and contradictory possibilities. While they can enable humiliation and other harm, they can also generate a sense of belonging among freshmen. The authors apply a collaborative autoethnographic methodology, analysing their experiences of leading a rab nong ritual at a newly established faculty of education in Thailand. Given the absence of senior students to initiate freshmen, faculty members took up this role instead. This interruption of the normal reproduction of the ritual enabled academics to creatively re-work ritual practices. The article outlines possible adaptations to Thai initiation rituals to make them more religiously inclusive and to destabilise conventional university power hierarchies.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For further accounts of this early history see: Lao and Hill 2017 and Rhein 2016.

2 SOTUS is an acronym for Seniority, Order, Tradition, Unity, and Spirit.

3 Kwan refers to a life force in Thai animistic belief. Many life events involve kwan rituals. They are usually performed at significant life milestones such as birth, ordination, and marriage in order to maintain a person’s well-being.