Mike Hurley

writer, researcher, artist

I’ve done extensive ethnographic research in Southeast Asia, primarily Thailand, with an emphasis on memory and landscape. I studied and taught anthropology at UC Irvine (PhD 2015), during which time I often escaped to the coast by bicycle. Since then, my activities have included data collection, book indexing, and running, as well as several years as a teacher in Japan. Born in California, I also speak (and read, etc.) Thai, Indonesian, and Japanese. Here you can find examples of my artwork, photographs, short pieces of writing, translation, music, etc.

Work: I went back to teaching in 2022. See below. I like to hear from past clients, but I’m currently too overwhelmed to take new indexing projects.

Here & There

I’ve been working in Japan as a high-school teacher for nearly two years, which has been a big change after years of wandering and scraping by as a freelancer. In other news, my manuscript Waterways of Bangkok received strong reviews and appears to be approaching publication.

Site Updates

Ethnography: this page has been refined, including updated excerpts from the manuscript. Artwork: added two pieces. Passages: now divided into sections on writing, translation, photographs, music, etc.

Lastly, here’s another clip of my guitar playing: