Following a year of escalating tensions along the Cambodia–Thailand border, WICID PhD candidate Raymond Hyma and a cross-border team of 24 community co-researchers have released a new book, Between Likes and Loathing: A Cross-Border Inquiry into the Online Conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, presenting findings from a collaborative 2024 study on rising digital antagonism surrounding the conflict.

Using a participatory and action-oriented methodology, the team conducted 101 conversations with people engaged in or exposed to online hostility. The research identifies 20 themes from perspectives of people on both sides, and reveals complex patterns and perceptions of how each side views the other and how they distinctly experience online conflict. The findings highlight education, media literacy, and cross-border dialogue as pathways for rebuilding understanding, and even the research process itself as it kept dialogue going among the team despite entrenched divisions.

Raymond Hyma and community research partners Phasiree Thanasin and Suyheang Kry,A published a new article, ‘New trenches of battle: Cambodian–Thai culture clashes in the digital age of nationalism’, in Media, War & Conflict.

They examine how historical grievances, cultural disputes, and competing national identity claims intensify in online environments, and how individuals behind their screens experience these encounters. The study suggests that online conflict does not merely mirror geopolitical tensions but can evolve into a conflict in its own right, as narratives are reshaped and recirculated through digital spaces.