5th October, 2023 at 7 PM (Myanmar Time).

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𝐀𝐛𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭: It is widely acknowledged that the armed struggle against the Myanmar military regime is shaped by societal dynamics, including forms of oppression and violence that date back decades. But the reverse is less well-understood: to what extent have experiences of armed conflict shaped Myanmar society? And, acknowledging both the existence of generations-long self-determination struggles and the dramatic rise in armed conflict since the coup, how can Myanmar’s history and future be understood in the light of its diverse geographies of war? Building on ethnographic and geographical approaches to conflict studies, and reflecting on research done with civil society organisations in Karen State before the coup, this talk will discuss the importance of understanding spaces of conflict as diverse but interrelated, even when there appears to be a single enemy ̶ the junta. It will challenge ahistorical accounts of the war in Myanmar, which can privilege dominant actors, and instead foreground how conflicts interact with preexisting socio-ecological relations, and how actors form communities, care for one another, and enact solidarity, even amidst violence. The talk closes by reflecting on the limits of what researchers – particularly those not from Myanmar – can know about everyday experiences of war and violence.

𝗔𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿: Dr. Shona Loong is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Zurich where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in political geography. Dr. Loong studies conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and the politics of international development, and has published extensively on these topics, particularly on Myanmar and its peripheries. Her work has appeared in various geography and social science journals, including Political Geography, Geoforum, and Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers. Dr. Loong is also an editor of the Tea Circle and is a frequent contributor to policy reports on Myanmar.