Author Archives: burmastudiesgroup

Deep Cuts #11 – Discussions of Debt

“A debt of money can be liquidated but a debt of gratitude is never completely settled” – so goes the epigraph to Toe Hla’s 1987 PhD dissertation on money lending during the Kon-baung period, a fascinating study of social relations of the time rendered through examination of exchange. We also feature more recent studies of debt that may have flown under the radar, with Carstens and Watanabe, respectively, exploring how kyay-zu (rendered as ‘debt’) likewise sometimes may never be discharged, while Campbell shows how debt works to link squatters – seemingly ‘outside’ of capitalism – to markets as de facto wage workers.

see here for the PDFs, and all the PDFs from our series.

John Okell Paper Prize (2022): Launched

Eligibility: The Burma Studies Group is pleased to announce its inaugural John Okell Burma Essay Prize, which will be awarded to the strongest essay on a Burma/Myanmar related topic submitted by a graduate student or post-doctoral researcher (if you have a tenure track or stable research position you are ineligible). The awardee will be granted a $300 prize. 

Application specifications: 

  • Length: no more than 10,000 words, inclusive of footnotes
  • It must be as yet unpublished 
  • Submit an electronic document (word, pdf, pages) to burmastudiesgroup@gmail.com

Timeline: 

  • Due date: 1 June 2022
  • Award date: 1 August 2022

AAS finished | Recent Pubs, 29 March 2022

We just finished an invigorating conference at AAS – look out for our newsletter, coming relatively soon, that will cover the panels on Burma Studies and highlight what we discussed at our Business Meeting. 

But first, this week in BSG Pubs we feature Su Mon Thazin Aung’s analysis of what’s going on between the NUCC and the NUG/CRPH; Maber et al on the precarious politics of teacher ed in Myanmar; and Liyun Wendy Choo’s take on Bama privilege. See here for full citations: https://burmastudiesgroup.wordpress.com/recent-publications-2/. 

Deep Cuts # 10 (28-Mar-22) – Maxime Boutry appreciation week

This week in Deep Cuts we shine light on Maxime Boutry’s diverse work. The practicing anthropologist and scholar has studied Moken, Rohingya, land dynamics in places as varied as the dry zone and the Delta with his work with GRET, and has also done some of the most interesting research on urban precarity in Yangon that we have seen (and all of this is just his English language research; he writes in French too!). We feature two of his chapters, the first that deconstructs Bama-ness, especially outside of “Bama” spaces (an absolute hidden gem), the second on auto-construction on the peripheries of Yangon.

see here for the PDFs, and all the PDFs from our series.

Deep Cuts #9 (21-Mar-2022): Thakin Po Hla Gyi’s “Strike War”

In 1938 Thakin Po Hla Gyi led one of the largest anti-capitalist / anti-colonial worker actions in Burma’s history. Nicknamed The Ogre, PLG wrote Strike War to raise funds for the strikers but also to incite the rest of the country’s workers and peasants to revolution.

The text is provided in Burmese and translated into English by ရဲေဘာ္ Stephen Campbell, whose own work on worker movements and daily life in Myanmar is clearly inspired by Thakin Po Hla Gyi. The translation is part of a broader series called the Myanmar Literature Project that includes translations of other old, but hopefully not forgotten, Burmese texts.

See here for the PDF and for our entire series.