LinDa Saphan

LinDa Saphan (b. 1975, Phnom Penh) is a Cambodian artist, urban anthropologist and researcher who grew up in Canada and graduated in France, a co-organizer of the first Visual Arts Open festival celebrating Cambodian artists in 2005, and the lead researcher on John Pirozzi’s celebrated movie, Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten (2014) about Phnom Penh’s music scene in the ‘Golden Age’ of Cambodia.

Growing up in Montréal (Canada) after her mother managed to escape the Khmer Rouge régime, LinDa Saphan later moved to Paris, completing her studies in sociology and anthropology at Nanterre University Paris‑X in 2007, with a PhD thesis titled “Renaissance des espaces publics à Phnom Pénh : processus d’appropriations urbaines et dynamiques de la citadinité des nouveaux habitants de la capitale cambodgienne” [Rebirth of public spaces in Phnom Penh: urban appropriations processes, dynamics of the new inhabitants of the Cambodian capital]. She also held a diploma of advanced studies from ENS/EHESS and a master in sociology at Sorbonne Paris‑X.

Two years earlier, in 2005, she co-organized with Pich Sopheap and Erin Gleeson the Phnom Penh Visual Arts Open Festival and Art Exhibition involving 19 Cambodian contemporary artists from Van Nath and Svay Ken, two famous modernist artists who had survived the Khmer Rouge, to the younger generation represented by Leang Seckon and other promising talents. LinDa Saphan exhibited her own artwork reflecting her country’s recent past and traumas. In 2006, she set up the Selapak Neari programme in order to encourage new Cambodian artists, in particular women. In 2011, she had another artshow at Phnom Penh Bophana Center, “Black is Black”.

While teaching as a professor of social sciences and the Assistant Dean of the School Social Sciences, University of Mount Saint Vincent, Riverdale, NY (USA), Dr. Saphan, a Fulbright Scholar 2024 and a member of the American Sociological Association, pursues her research in the field of Cambodian cultural studies, in particular on Cambodian popular music and cinema during the pre-civil war era. She is the author of Faded Reels: The Art of Four Cambodian Filmmakers 1960 – 1975 (2022).

Publications

[with Hun, N.] “Popular and Political Songwriting in Cambodia: From Sihanouk’s Prewar Golden Age to Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge” in The Golden Age of Cambodian Popular Music, Kim, M. et al. eds., Seoul: Hyunsilbook, 2021: 41 – 81.
“What’s in a Name”, in Dreams for Our Children: Immigrant Letters to the Future, Banjo, O. ed., Minneapolis: Wise Ink Creative Publishing, 2022: 3 – 10.
Faded Reels: The Art of Four Cambodian Filmmakers 1960 – 1975, Phnom Penh, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media and Communication Press, 2022 [ENG and KH editions].
[ed. with Pipitone, J. M.] New York, City in Transformation, New York, Streetnotes 29, 2022, 169 p.
[with Hun, N.] Remnants of the Past: Early Cambodian Filmography, Phnom Penh, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Department of Media and Communication Press, 2024.

Conferences and Talks

Presentation of Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll (dir. John Pirozzi, 2014), outdoors screening at The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C., May 2021.
“Diasporic Performances: Cambodian American Soundscapes from Long Beach to Lowell”, moderator/panelist, 2022 Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Denver, CO.
“Cambodian Golden Voices Legacies”, paper presentation at 2023 joint conference by Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), New York Southeast Asia Network (NYSEAN), and Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (NIAS).
“The Films of Uong Citta: Early Cambodia Filmmaker”, paper presentation at Center for Khmer Studies (CKS), Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2023.
“Cambodia Reel History”, talk at Katmandu Model College, Katmandu, Nepal, 2004.
“Author meets Critic: Dr. LinDa Saphan’s Faded Reels: The Art of Four Cambodian Filmmakers: 1960−1975”, roundtable panelist at 2024 AAS Annual Conference, Seattle, WA, USA [panel included specialist in Cambodian modern history Penny Edwards].