Po-Tao Chang (Laerceguq)

Po-Tao Chang, who adopted his Akha grandmother’s clan group name “Laerceguq” in honor of her great importance in his early life, has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with the Akha since 2017 when he first returned to his relatives’ village in Northern Thailand. His ongoing Ph.D. research project is looking at the intersection of cultural identity, agricultural production, and coffee value chain dynamics.

Education

Ph.D., 2021-now
Department of Geography, The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Master of Science, 2018/2-2020/7
Forestry and Natural Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University – Thesis: “A Case Study for the Puer Tea Production at Akha settlements in Huai Nam River, Northern Thailand”
Exchange student program, 2019/7-2020/1
School of Sustainability, Arizona State University
Bachelor of Science, 2013/9-2018/1
Forestry and Natural Resource Conservation, National Taiwan University

Research Interest

Political Ecology, Economic Geography, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, Agricultural Commodity Chains, Value-added Agricultural Production, Ethnic Akha, Southeast Asia

Language

Mandarin, English, Akha, and Thai

Publication and Conference

Chang, P. T. (2026). Vitalizing Indigenous cultural practices through the Akha ‘Farm Ritual’ and ‘Coffee Festival’ in Mae Jan Tai village in the highlands of Northern Thailand. Asian Ethnicity, 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2026.2737980

The 2026 Annual Conference of the American Association of Geographers (AAG) Presentation, Research Paper, San Francisco (March, 2026) “Growing High Prices, but the Rollback of Quality? Value Chain Downgrading, Re-centralized Commercial Coffee Production, and the Anxiety of Property Security for Arabica Coffee in Northern Thailand”

The 2024 Annual Conference Presentation, Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Seattle. “Beyond Being Coffee Producers: Branding Indigeneity and Sustainability through Building Akha Entrepreneurship in Northern Thailand.”

The 27th International Geographical Conference of Taiwan, conference paper “Ethno-Organic” Agrarian Change: Challenges and Opportunities for Ethnic Minorities Adopting Organic Agriculture in Northern Thailand. 2023
Conference of Thai Studies, presentation, 2022
Po-Tao Chang (2022) “Puer Tea Production and Cross-Border Social Networks of Akha in Huai Nam River, Northern Thailand” Geographical Society of R.O.C. (69) 1-25
Conference of Thai Studies, conference paper “A case study for the Puer Tea production at Akha settlements in Huai Nam River, Northern Thailand”, UW-Madison, 2019