Upcoming Events in the U.S. and beyond

January Events

1. Exposing Enlightenment: The ‘Living Arahant’ in Photography and Print in Post-colonial Burma Location: University of Toronto, Munk School Date: January 13, 2023 at 4:00 pm- 6:00 pm Speaker: Tony Scott, Matthew Walton & Christoph Emmrich

The saint, prophet, liberated guru, or enlightened being occupies a powerful place not only in their respective religious spheres, but in the social lives of the cultures that create and maintain them. Yet how are these social categories “created” and through what means are their parameters delimited over the last century and a half as technologies of mass communication have transformed the epistemology of discourse? To approach these questions, this paper focuses on the “living arahants” of early twentieth-century Burma, examining how the narratives surrounding this supposedly enlightened class are negotiated and contested in the public sphere through the mediums of photography and print. More info here

2. Decolonising Elephants: Animals and the End of Empire in Myanmar Location: SOAS University of London Date: January 13, 2023 at 12:pm-1:30 pm Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Saha

Recent calls to decolonise academia have percolated through to the field of animal studies, pushing scholars to reject colonially-derived understandings of nonhuman creatures and to engage with indigenous thought. This welcome, if nascent, shift is often divorced from the messy history of decolonisation itself. This talk looks at how the experience of decolonisation in Myanmar altered the lives of working elephants. How far were elephants decolonised during decolonisation? More info here Zoom registration here

3. Masculinity for Sale: Shan Migrant Male Sex Workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand and the Performance of Manhood Location: University of Hawaii Date: January 25, 2023 at 2:00 pm (HST) Speaker: Dr. Amporn Jirattikorn

The talk focuses on Shan male migrant sex workers from Myanmar who engage in selling sex to gay men clients in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As most of Shan male sex workers identify themselves as heterosexual men, I attempt to understand how selling sex to gay men affects their masculinity and how they redefine and reconstruct their masculinities devalued by selling sex to men. Based on two sets of in-depth interviews with Shan migrant male sex workers in Chiang Mai, Thailand before and during the Covid-19 pandemic, the research will also discuss how the pandemic shapes the ways in which Shan men engage in sex work. Zoom registration here

February Event

1. CSEAS Lecture Series. Massacre in Myanmar: How two reporters uncovered a Rohingya mass grave— and the price they paid for it Location: Univeristy of Michigan Date: February 10, 2023 at 12:00 pm-1:00 pm Eastern Time (US and Canada) Speaker: Antoni Slodkowski

In August 2017, the Myanmar military launched a massive offensive against Rohingya Muslims living in the country’s northwest, killing thousands of people, burning hundreds of villages, and pushing more than 700,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. The Aung San Suu Kyi government declined to condemn the offensive. Many ministers claimed the Rohingya burned their own homes and returned to their “homeland” of Bangladesh. The officials declared the area off limits to the press, but two Myanmar journalists with the Reuters news agency, Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, kept reporting. They uncovered a mass grave with ten Rohingya men and boys, complete with before and after pictures of the execution and first-person, on-therecord testimonies by the perpetrators. More info here Zoom registration here

2. CSEAS Spring Lecture Series: Healing while Performing the Ritual to the Burmese Spirits Location: Northern Illinois University, Center for Burma Studies Date: February 24, 2023 at 12:00 pm-1:00 pm in Central Time (US & Canada) Lecturer: Catherine Raymond

More info here Zoom registration here

April Event

1. CSEAS Graduate Colloquium Lecture: Resistance, Accommodation, Violence, and the Role of Local Administrators in Post-coup Myanmar Location: Northern Illinois University, Zoom Date: April 7, 2023 at 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm in Central Time (US & Canada) Lecturer: Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung

More info here Zoom registration here

Conference Event in June

15th International Burma Studies Conference Envisioning Myanmar: Crisis, Change, Continuity Location: University of Zurich Date: June 9-11, 2023

The Burma Studies Group, the Myanmar-Institut and the University of Zurich cordially invite you to participate in the next Burma Studies Conference Envisioning Myanmar: Crisis, Change, Continuity! Tatmadaw’s 2021 coup d’etat precipitated a crisis for Myanmar and its people. Scholars are taking stock of how the coup has reshaped a wide range of issues, encompassing conflict, livelihoods, gender relations, and the environment. In doing so, they ask if the coup has indeed undermined long-held orthodoxies in Myanmar, or if much of what appears to have changed is actually a continuation of underlying processes. But although crises tear apart, they can also mend. New social relations are being formed among people and groups who were once divided, and as a result, new aspirations for the country are taking root. As scholars continue their support for research and educational endeavours, they too participate in co-creating these new futures. More info here