Dr. Joseba Estevez is a social anthropologist and Research Assistant Professor at the “Asian Religious Connections (ASIAR)” cluster within the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (HKIHSS), The University of Hong Kong. Estevez’s award-winning research, “Conquering Demons, Taming the Forest: The Ritual Roles of the Lanten Yao Priests and Masters”, was recognized with the 2024 Frobenius Research Award—top honour for anthropological scholarship in the German-speaking countries (namely, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland). His work unravels the intricate roles of Daoist ritual experts among the Lanten Yao (Mun) communities, with whom he lived and worked for over a decade in northern Laos’s Luang Namtha Province. Since 2023, he has expanded his fieldwork to illuminate new dimensions of social transformation and cultural resilience.

Estevez’s academic curiosity spans rituals, cosmology, exchange, social morphology, animism, Buddhism, Chinese popular religion, and Daoism. His regional focus is mainland Southeast Asia, especially the borderlands of China, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos. Beyond the field, he is a pioneer in digital heritage preservation, leading projects like the “Digital Library of the Lanten Textual Heritage” (Endangered Archives Programme, British Library, 2015–2020), “The Lanten Oral Stories” (BEQUAL, EU, Australian Aid, 2017–2020), and the “Lanten Digital Archive”—a rich multimedia collection developed with Creative Seven Arts (EU, HKU, 2018-present).

Today, Dr. Estevez spearheads the international YAO DAO Project, establishing a reference centre for Yao Daoist studies. As Deputy Director of the Global Society and Sustainability Lab (GSSL) and a key member of the Global China Local Cultures initiative, he explores the local impacts of the Laos-China Railway, smart cities, SEZs, and megaprojects, offering fresh insights into the interplay of tradition and modernity in Southeast Asia. His work continues to shape conversations about heritage, community, infrastructure, and sustainable development.

In addition, in cooperation with the University of Hamburg, he participates in the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” (2019-2025) with the mapping of the Daoist manuscripts exchange networks in the Southeast Asian Massif during the 19^th century and the role of German sinology in the development of the Yao Studies during the late Qing dynasty and the Republican Era in China (framework 1850-1949). Together with the Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies (CATS), Heidelberg University, he is completing the digitization of the Yao Manuscript Collections in Heidelberg (Germany) and Leiden (The Netherlands), funded by the project Chinese Folklore Resources Overseas, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. In cooperation with the National University of Singapore, within the framework “Singapore Smart City and ASEAN Smart City Network” (2023-2025), he is studying the Smart Cities in Nateuy and Namor in North Laos, promoted by the Thai-Japanese AMATA Group, and the Songkhla-Chana Smart City project in South Thailand.