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

This week’s New Pubs features Saruya on Burmese American youth experiences with Buddhism in the SF bay area… and that’s the only new pub we have this week.

As ever, send on your publications! And 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.

Title: Reflections on the revolution in Myanmar

Speakers: Swe Win, Moe Thuzar, and Jason Tower

Date: Tuesday 4 June 2024

Time zone: 5–6pm AEST (UTC+10), 1.30–2.30pm MMT, 9am–10pm CEST

More than three years since the military coup in Myanmar, fierce opposition to the junta continues in different forms around the country. Almost daily, there are new shifts in conflict and new episodes of junta repression, as well as stories of resistance, survival and hope. This panel event explores key aspects of the revolution in Myanmar, from the borderlands to foreign relations, presenting an up-to-date overview from different perspectives. Each speaker will deliver a short presentation, followed by a 30-minute Q&A.

Speakers

Swe Win is the editor-in-chief at Myanmar Now. He holds a masters degree in journalism from the University of Hong Kong.

Moe Thuzar is a Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, where she coordinates its Myanmar Studies Programme. 

Jason Tower is the country director for the Burma program at the United States Institute of Peace.

hosted by the ANU Myanmar Research Centre’s MRC Dialogue Series 2024

This week’s New Pubs features the late Saw Eh Htoo (w/ Waters) on Ne Win’s legacy of Burmanization; Pedersen on Myanmar’s fragmented state; and Chu et al using a biopolitics lens to explore why the ULA supports the Kyaukphyu SEZ.

As ever, 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.

The New UN Special Envoy on Myanmar: A Mission Impossible?

Date: May 27, 2024 (Monday)   

Time: 06:00 – 07:00 PM AEST Time (14:30-15:30 Myanmar/Yangon Time) 

Zoom Meeting here

The appointment of former Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop as new UN Special Envoy to Myanmar has been met with a mix of quiet hope and vocal scepticism. Many see the job of the Envoy as essentially impossible, and some have even called for the position to be terminated. The webinar will reflect on the past 30 years of UN mediation in Myanmar and discuss how the mandate might be most useful today.   

Dr Morten B. Pedersen is a Senior Lecturer in International Politics at the University of New South Wales Canberra (Australian Defence Force Academy) and a former senior analyst for the International Crisis Group in Myanmar. He has been working on Myanmar politics and development affairs for more than twenty years and has served as a policy adviser to the Australian government, the United Nations, the European Commission, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, among others. His major publications include A Good Office: Twenty Years of UN Mediation in Myanmar (International Peace Institute, 2012), with Sofia Busch; Principled Engagement: Negotiating Human Rights in Pariah States (Ashgate, 2013), with David Kinley; and The Rohingya Crisis, Myanmar, and R2P ‘Black Holes’ (Global Responsibility to Protect, 2021).

Moe Thuzar is a Senior Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, where she coordinates its Myanmar Studies Programme. Moe joined ISEAS in 2008, as lead researcher in the ASEAN Studies Centre up to August 2019. Prior to joining ISEAS, Moe spent ten years at the ASEAN Secretariat, where she headed the Human Development Unit from 2004 to 2007. A former diplomat, she researched Burma’s foreign policy implementation (1948-88), for her PhD at the National University of Singapore. Moe was a Fox International Fellow (2019-2020) at Yale University’s MacMillan Center during her PhD candidacy. Her research interests include Myanmar’s foreign policy, ASEAN integration impacts and issues (socio-cultural areas) and ASEAN’s dialogue relations. Moe has co-authored, co-edited, and contributed to several compendia and edited volumes on ASEAN, and on Myanmar

This week’s New Pubs features Campbell and Aung on bringing an analysis of imperialism back into analyses of 21st century pol-econ; MacLean on digital human rights storytelling about ethnic cleansing in Myanmar; and Uddin on understanding Rohingya refugee resettlement “from below”.

As ever, 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 Independent Journal of Burma Scholarship’s release of the second part of their two part issue on Feminism. Compiled by Tharaphi Than and with contributions from Zaw Yin, Collins, Gynn, Wala Kaw, Min Lwin, Shunn Lei Swe Yee, Hlaine, Hnin Wai, Htin Lynn, Nyi Aye, Ma Kyay, Pyo Let Han, and Su Su Maung.

As ever, 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.