Helen Lansdowne
Biography
Helen Lansdowne, Assistant Dean, Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Law
For the past year, Helen has fulfilled the role of Assistant Dean at the new Centre for Climate Change and Environmental Law at JSW Law. Responsibilities have included designing and promoting the new LLM/MLS Graduate Program in Climate Change and International Environmental Law. In addition, Helen took the lead in organizing the 2025 Paro Forum, which brought to the campus more than 250 participants to discusss the challenges facing both Bhutan and world regarding climate change and water.
During the past twenty-five years, Helen has specialized in issues of development with a particular gendered focus in Southeast Asia. Her graduate work explored rural China state-society relations during the 20th Century. As a faculty member in the Department of Social Sciences at Camosun College, Helen has taught post-secondary courses in Asian Studies, Gender Studies and Sociology for more than twenty years.
While working at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives (CAPI) at the University of Victoria, Helen was instrumental in administering seminal justice system development work in the emerging economies of Vietnam and Cambodia in the early 2000s. As Associate Director, Helen has overseen CAPI’s overall operations and administration, helped 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 visitng 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 and is an editor of CAPI’s online, open access journal Migration, Mobility, & Displacement.
Areas of Interest
Political Economy of Asia, particularly mainland Southeast Asia and China
Environmental repercussions of development in China and mainland Southeast Asia
Gendered implications of globalization
Global economy pertaining to Asia
Mass migration in Southeast Asia and the environment
Anti-domestic violence legislation in Cambodia, Vietnam and China
Chinese migration to Europe
Indigenous forest use in highland Vietnam
Indigenous connections in Asia and Canada
Environmental impacts of development in southern India
Environmental and social impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Gendered labour in Southeast Asia and China
Feminist activism in China
Post-war development in Asia
Communist agrarian society in China
Environmental impacts of war in Vietnam
Gendered violence across Asia
Theoretical and material implications of gendered inequalities
Publications
Helen Lansdowne and James Lawson, “Southeast Asian workers in a just-in-time pandemic”, Victor V. Ramraj (ed.) COVID-19 in Asia: law and policy contexts (2021) New York: Oxford University Press.
Wu, Guoguang, Feng Yuan, and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) Gender Dynamics, Feminist Activism and Social Transformation in China (2018) London: Routledge, submitted for publication.
Wu, Guoguang and Lansdowne, Helen (eds.) China’s Transition from Communism – New Perspectives (2016) New York: Routledge.
Dai Qing, Helen Lansdowne and Patricia Adams, “The exploding balloon: environmental costs of China’s participation in global capitalism”, Wu Guoguang (ed.) China’s Challenges to Human Security Foreign relations and global implications (2012) London:Routledge.
Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) Socialist China Capitalist China: Social Tension and Political Transition Under Economic Globalization (2009) London: Routledge.
Lansdowne, Helen and Guoguang Wu, “Introduction,” Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) Socialist China Capitalist China: Social Tension and Political Transition Under Economic Globalization (2009) London: Routledge.
Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) Zhao Ziyang and China’s Political Future (2008) London: Routledge.
Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne, “International multilateralism with Chinese characteristics: attitude changes, policy imperatives, and regional impacts,” Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) China Turns to Multilateralism (2008) London: Routledge.
Wu Guoguang and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) China Turns to Multilateralism (2008) London: Routledge.
Kess, Joseph and Helen Lansdowne (eds.) Why Japan Matters! Vols. One and Two (2005) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Kess, Joseph, Noro, Hiroko, Ayukawa, Midge and Lansdowne, Helen (eds.) Changing Japanese Identities in Multicultural Canada (2003) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Lansdowne, Helen, Dearden, Philip and Neilson, William (eds.) Communities in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Responses (2002) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Lansdowne, Helen, Dearden, Philip and Neilson, William, “Introduction,” Lansdowne, Helen, Dearden, Philip and Neilson, William (eds.) Communities in Southeast Asia: Challenges and Responses (2002) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Bedeski, Robert and Lansdowne, Helen (eds.) Information Technology New Dimensions of Government and Citizen Interaction, and Human Security in Mainland China, and the Taiwan Experience (2002) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Lansdowne, Helen and Dobell, Michael (eds.) Women, Culture and Development in the Pacific (2001) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria.
Lansdowne, Helen (ed.) Successful Practices in Human Resources Development in the Workplace: Contributions from Labour, Management and Government (1999) Victoria, British Columbia: University of Victoria, Victoria.
Lansdowne, Helen Nature Walks Around Victoria (1999) Vancouver, British Columbia:
Courses
Education History
Masters of Arts (1998). Chinese Studies University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada Thesis: “State-Peasant Relations In 20th Century China”
Bachelor of Arts (1995) Pacific and Asian Studies University of Victoria, Victoria, B.C., Canada