Huard, Stephén. Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar. Berghahn Books, 2024.

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For decades, the heartland of Myanmar has been configured as a pacified space under military surveillance. A closer look reveals how politics is enacted at distance with the state. Calibrated Engagement weaves together ethnography and history to chronicle the transformation of rural politics in Anya, the dry lands of central Myanmar. The book presents situations as varied as local elections, inheritance transmissions, land conflicts and ceremonies, to show that politics is about how people calibrate the way they engage with each other

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“This is an incredibly important piece of scholarship … not only is this the first village study of lowland Myanmar (with Ardeth Thawnghmung’s Teak Curtain exception) in 60 years, but we have never before seen a text that develops a diachronic account of Burma’s villages over time.” • Elliott Prasse-Freeman, National University of Singapore

“Huard not only delivers the first ethnographical account of a rural village in Central Myanmar since Manning Nash and Melford Spiro’s studies in the sixties … he also writes a lively history of the making of the local rural society. Easy to go through, infused with the author’s empathy for his hosts, the book is well written.” • Brac de la Perrière Bénédicte, Centre Asie du Sud-Est-EHESS

see here for all future pubs

This week’s New Pubs features Connelly and Michaels on post-coup diplomacy in Myanmar; Chao on Burmese diasporic activism; and Palmiano Federer on Myanmar’s ceasefire process.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.

This week’s New Pubs features Khin Khin Mra and Hedström on gender and the body in the Spring Revolution; Martin et al on prison protests in the Spring Rev; and Lee and Hoque on Rohingya education in Malaysia.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.

This week’s New Pubs features Frydenlund and Phyo Wai on Buddhist responses to the 2021 coup, Aung Ko Ko et al on the challenges facing Myanmar’s territory-less minorities; and Connelly and Loong with a book on before and after the 2021 coup.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.

King Zero (photo by DVB)

This week’s New Pubs features a report by the New Lines Institute on various Rohingya issues; Nyi Nyi Kyaw on digital counter-surveillance by Burmese refugees in Thailand; and Buchanan and Khin Khin Mra on women, peace, and security funding dynamics in Myanmar from 2010-2020.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.

See you in exotic… Columbus! Wait, really, Columbus? Ohio?

This week’s New Pubs features Buscemi on weapons and the Free Burma Rangers; Chambers comparing Thailand and Myanmar’s military norms; and Siegel with a photo essay on Myanmar’s street protests.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can.

Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference 2025

Submission deadline: July 15, 2024

On behalf of the Burma Studies Group (BSG) of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), we welcome Proposals for a Designated Panel for the AAS Annual Conference to be held March 13-16 in Columbus, Ohio (USA). The BSG can designate one panel for guaranteed acceptance on the conference program.

Colleagues in Burma/Myanmar Studies are invited to submit proposals for complete panels, consisting of a panel abstract, three or four paper abstracts, author information, chair, and (if applicable) a discussant.Proposals will be ranked according to overall scholarly excellence and the degree to which they make a meaningful intellectual contribution to Burma Studies. Otherwise, equally ranked panels will be distinguished by the degree to which they reflect BSG’s diverse membership in terms of discipline, institution, career stage, gender, regional focus, nationality, race, and ethnicity. BSG will provide up to $500 to help defray conference-related costs for presenters in the Designated Panel (to be divided among panelists).  Early-career scholars will also be eligible to apply for funding through the BSG Conference Travel Award.

Proposals must be submitted by July 15, 2024, through this form. The Committee will review proposals and send a ranked list to the Country Co-Chairs. By August 1, the highest-ranked panel’s details will be communicated to SEAC/AAS to ensure the panel’s selection. You must also submit the proposal through the AAS portal in addition to this submission. The Chairs will notify those whose panels were not selected for designation.  Proposals that are not selected may be subsequently submitted for regular review by the AAS program committee. For this reason, submitters are urged to bear in mind AAS’ inclusion and diversity requirements when composing their proposals.

The BSG thanks this year’s Designated Panel Selection Committee, Beiyin Deng, Kai Ostwald and Elliott Prasse-Freeman. We appreciate your service.

Regards, 

Burma Studies Group Executive Committee

For questions, contact BSG Co-Chairs, Htet Min Lwin (hmlwin@yorku.ca) and Dr. Ma Thida (drmathida1966@gmail.com).

This week’s New Pubs features Chambers and Saw Ner Dhu Da on Gen Z’s everyday experiences of revolution.

See our Recent Publications page for all of the citations and for past weeks, and if anyone wants a PDF but is excluded by pay wall, please email us and we will help if we can. Given the low flow, BSG will go to a fortnightly release of Recent pubs until the volume increases.

image from: https://www.youtube.com/c/GenZMyanmar