The Inya Institute Quarterly Newsletter
Winter 2025
More than a year after the start of Operation 1027, a successful campaign by ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) to control many cities and infrastructure in the Shan State, Rakhine State is also on the cusp of being taken over by the Arakan Army. Meanwhile the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) is making headway in Northern Myanmar. The Tatmadaw’s countrywide struggle is compounded by botched conscription that results in new conscripts surrendering to resistance forces once they are sent to the frontline. In this context, Myanmar people are anxious to see what 2025 will have in store for them after nearly four years of economic struggle, widespread military assaults by the Tatmadaw on civilian population, and massive displacement.
Despite these dire conditions, research is still possible within Myanmar, and may even, under very specific circumstances and for certain topics, be encouraged. On pp. 10–12, two Ph.D. students from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Aye Thiri Kyaw and Isabelle Pearson, present an overview of their research conducted in this post-coup period in various parts of the country. Thiri spoke with groups of child workers on their working conditions and Isabelle with groups of adolescent girls on their mental health. While much of the scholarship currently produced involves investigations of antijunta movements in the outlying areas of the country and along its borders, both researchers show the importance of
In this issue
studying “invisible” groups and the extent to which their life has been affected by the military coup in areas still controlled by the junta.
At Inya, work is underway to develop an advanced beginners’ curriculum for the three languages offered (Karen, Kachin, and Shan) as part of our Languages of Myanmar course series. This is done in collaboration with Minnesota’s Saint Paul Public Schools System (which has been training Karen language teachers for K-12 kids of the Karen diaspora), Cornell’s Southeast Asia Program (SEAP) and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s Carolina Asia Center. We hope to offer this advanced beginners’ level in 2026. In the meantime, our introductory course will run as usual in Summer 2025. Stay tuned to our Facebook page for the announcement!
Lastly, join us in congratulating our five new 2025 CAORC-INYA fellows! May Shine, Katherine Pulaski, and Drake Avila are our three new Short-term Fellows; Courtney Wittekind and Michael Barrett are our two new Scholars’ Fellows. Read about their research topics on p. 13! In a first since the launch of the fellowship program, the entire cohort consists of researchers planning to conduct field work along the Thai–Myanmar border. Their research projects promise to provide significant insights on current developments happening there.
The Inya Institute team in Yangon
Reflections from the Field 3 The Techno-Archive: To What End? by D. Santistevan
Reflections from the Field 5 Linking Embodied Knowledge of Migration from Myanmar to Institutional Histories to the ThaiBurma Border, by N. Venker
Reflections from the Field 7 Investigating Tobacco Use among Myanmar Refugees in Mizoram, India, by T. Chin
In Focus 10 Researching Child Domestic Work in the Myanmar Context, by Aye Thiri Kyaw
In Focus 11 Ethical Challenges of Research amidst Crisis: A Participatory Approach with Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Myanmar, by I. Pearson
New Fellows at Inya 13 2025 CAORC-INYA Fellows
New Books on Myanmar 16
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Mathias Jenny, Chiang Mai University
Ni Ni Khet, University Paris 1-Sorbonne
Alexey Kirichenko, Moscow State University
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Aurore Candier (Northern Illinois University)
U Thaw Kaung, Yangon Universities’ Central Library (retd)
Reflections from the Field
The Techno-Archive: To What End?
Dominiquo Santistevan is a Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at the University of Chicago. Focusing on the final years of the nineteenth century in Burma, his dissertation project investigates the changing relationship between politics, economics, and conflict that gave shape to the emerging inter-imperial regional order. Dominiquo was one of the 2024 CAORCINYA fellows. The CAORC-INYA fellowships are funded by CAORC through a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
The Asia & Africa Studies Reading Room at the British Library is a familiar place to anyone studying Myanmar’s colonial past. For those of us lucky enough to stay beyond a few days, we begin to recognize familiar faces. We learn the small tricks to streamline our day. And once that day begins, we know we have approximately seven hours to do as much as we can before we’re asked to leave again. The archival constraints are exclusivity and local proximity: with the time given, we must overcome these constraints, whether by reading documents and internally synthesizing their contents, or the more digital route, the phone scan–we excavate from that store that is the archive. If we planned our trip with sufficient thoroughness–meaning we outlined which records we would need to request, approximately how long each would take, and maybe with the remaining time, places where we might explore–, each day may be roughly accounted for before the trip even begins. When time is a scarce resource, this approach would make sense, but as anyone who has spent enough time studying documents in the British Library likely knows, a linear path towards a singular a priori goal is tough, almost impossible, to maintain because our relationship to the documents is
dynamic, and this dynamic movement is mediated by tools constantly in development. About one year ago, this technical mediation became impossible to ignore.
Last October, the British Library was the victim of a ransomware attack, effectively dismantling the digital infrastructure overnight. For months, academic production waited in darkness. The British Library has successfully revived or rebuilt much of the digital infrastructure over the past year, but not all of it. Prior to the attack, a library user (or reader, as they’re called) would log into his or her account to find past searches and bookmarked records. The reader might submit some of these bookmarked records for viewing. Or alternatively, they might type in a few keywords into the catalogue, follow some tags attached to previously viewed records, or scroll through the collection tree and pin a few more for later. If the record was already
digitized, the reader could just save the link or download the file locally, and for the records that required physical inspection, the record could be called to the desk within in about an hour, and each day, the reader was allowed to call up to ten items, sometimes more. Since the attack, the archival experience has reflected the relative state of recovery. During my own visit this past August and September, my relationship to the materials was much more analogue. And more than just a matter of adjusting my practice, it felt like a unique snapshot into another way of performing research and another way of understanding what an archive might be.
Most archival materials remained accessible and complete, yet they were accessible without the digital platforms and searchability, and further, most hand list and indexes also were not available outside of the reading room. This had two immediate implications. First, had I even wanted to plan out my archival work, the planning could only have gone so far. Without hand lists and indexes, the only means by which I could’ve located documents was through archival reference guides, usually available in my own university library, or the incomplete surrogate database that was available through
the National Archive. In either case so-called thorough planning would produce a much sparser outline than if the digital catalogue had existed. Second, without text search, I was forced to expand my mental account of the archival structure through trial and error. While text search generally produces a series of documents that may be of some relevance to the topic or event of interests, alone it lacks structure, forcing me to think more explicitly about my relationship to the archival materials and the relationships between records–a painful yet invaluable process.
Archives are made in all different ways for all different purposes. What gives the concept coherence is the relationship between time and the institutional domains of authority. The India Office Records, to take the most obvious example, were not made with the intention of becoming a fixed set of documents to eventually sit in the British Library. They’re effectively administrative documents built with the very pragmatic intention of government. When an administrator faced a new problem, they searched the past for relatively analogous circumstances from which they might distill the lessons of government. To form this hypothetical distillation, generally in the form of a report, the administrator needed to navigate the existing records, locate referenced documents, and investigate the broader context of these past situations. This research required tools and knowledge of how the records are arranged. Constantly and continuously, civil servants in their respective departments read through existing records, made notes, and later catalogued the subjects into collections, including what we might call “meta data” into large volumes. Administrative changes meant changes in record keeping, further increasing
the complexity of the growing mass of information. So even though the general orientation of record keeping remained, in theory, towards practical ends, they were similarly an historical accumulation of habits and workarounds, and sometimes these practical workarounds had impractical consequences.
In 1899, the Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, spoke about exactly this in his Memoranda on the System of Noting in the Departments of the Government of India. The system of notation, whereby documents are circulated among administrators, sometimes between departments for comment, is itself an historical legacy, and this accreted body may be more than the sum of its parts. Curzon’s memorandum is a critique of the deviation from practi-
Archive.” Thus, while the records were functionally “alive,” oriented towards the ends of government, the records have since transformed into something else after this raison d’etre became otherwise, when there was no India Office and therefore no practical ends. But yet the archive “lives” on.
cal ends. Presumably each adjustment and update to the system of noting was aimed towards practical ends, but as Curzon points out, no prior change did more than tinker with a failing system. The radical changes necessary to realign the practical ends of government with the very body of documents that record its life were not recognized. In a telling example, Curzon complains about how a simple question of the promotion of a Colonel produced over 50 pages of notes and extended over 14 months before reaching his desk: “What an intolerable scandal!” It is this very system, moving and twisting through history both with its own momentum but also reflecting and internalizing the wills of people like Lord Curzon, that has become “the
As scholars, we enter the archive, usually, as individuals with our own ends in mind. We have to publish a paper, finish a chapter, or find a particular documents to fill in some gap. Institutional pressures and time constraints structure the conditions on which we make that confrontation, and though it may not seem like it, we are also shaped and changed in the process. The logic is a threefold path: our understanding of historical change reflects our knowledge of the archive; our knowledge of the archive is structured through our practical interactions with materials; and lastly, that practical interaction, the bridging of conjecture with confirmation, is mediated by tools. The India Office Records are no longer a tool of practical government, and with that, there is no longer a figure like George Curzon to lead reforms against the accumulation of historical accidents towards the end of efficiency, yet the machine rolls on. The site of knowledge production–in this case, the institutional intersection between academic research and a major public institution like the British Library–is broad, yet the very question of its end and whether that end is good should not be lost in the institutional expanse. Yes, sometimes we’re given surveys about our experience in the reading room. And in other rare cases, the infrastructure breaks down–or is deliberately broken in the case of the cyber-attack–, revealing to us that this so-called “dead” archive, is still quite alive and being shaped every day. I can only ask: to what end?
Pic. 2: The Burma-China Boundary Commission 1898-9 (Sir James Scott Collection, Photo 92: British Library)
Reflections from the Field
Linking Embodied Knowledge of Migration from Myanmar to Institutional Histories of the Thai-Burma Border
Nicole T. Venker is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Natural Resources at Cornell University. She is a humanenvironment geographer interested in the shifting relationships between people and land in the context of transnational migration. Following the CAORC-INYA fellowship, she will continue research and scholarly exchange in Thailand with support from the Society of Women Geographers and the Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies. Nicole was one of the 2024 CAORC-INYA fellows. The CAORC-INYA fellowships are funded by CAORC through a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
How are everyday relationships with the environment transformed across borders? Amid the challenges of displacement and resettlement, how do people forge meaningful connections with nature in new landscapes? What insights can we learn from changes in labor, livelihood, and environmental practices among migrants about the broader geopolitics of migration and mobility? These are some of the big questions that motivate my PhD research.
As a graduate student, I have dedicated much of my time to exploring these questions in Upstate New York, where I live, work, and study. Together with my research collaborator, Patrick Kum Jaa Lee, we engaged with multi-ethnic communities of migrants from Myanmar, focusing on those who resettled in the US as refugees during the 2000s and 2010s. Our goal was to understand how Myanmar migrants’ everyday relationships to the environment have been shaped by broader histories and experiences of migration from Myanmar to the US. We conducted in-depth interviews and oral histories, examining how migrants’ livelihoods have been shaped by the histories of conflict in Burma, bordering regimes in neighboring Southeast Asian countries, and resettlement practices in the US. We pay particular attention to how rural ways of life and environmental
livelihoods, such as fishing and hunting, are both transformed and forged anew across the distant landscapes that our participants have traversed.
My research in the US inspired me to continue my doctoral studies in Thailand through the 2024 CAORC-Inya Short-Term Fellowship for U.S. Graduate Students Conducting Fieldwork in a Third Country. Most of the individuals I encountered in my research are among the millions who migrated from My-
anmar as refugees in the 2000s, tracing their journeys from rural Burma through Thailand before resettling in the US. Their migration histories were shaped by the aftermath of the 1988 pro-democracy movement, during which the Burmese government intensified offensives against ethnic organizations and activist groups.
This led to mass displacements in southeastern Myanmar, including Mon, Tanintharyi, Karenni, Bago, and Karen states and regions. My research with those who navigated, survived, and sustained intergenerational lives across these areas has illuminated how relationships between people and the environment shift across spaces, particularly under transnational regimes of refugee migration. To further contextualize the embodied knowledge shared by participants, I aimed to better understand the institutional networks and political structures that shape transnational migration pathways.
Hosted as a visiting scholar at the Chiang Mai University Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development during the fellowship period, I sought to learn about humanitarian interventions, policy shifts, and governance practices as emerging since the 1980s that are embedded in the long history of the Thai-Burma border. This led me to identify as well as meet with scholars, humanitarian practitioners, civil society groups, and non-governmental organizations working on transborder issues, whose expertise helped me better contextualize and reflect on the knowledge shared with me by my earlier research communities. By spending time in Chiang Mai, Bangkok, and Mae
Pic. 1: A research participant in Upstate New York points to a photo while discussing his memories of life on the Thai-Burma border in the 1990s.
Sot, I got the chance to meet with such organizations and individuals, albeit over a brief few months, providing me a narrow window into the rich body of knowledge that have both preserved knowledge about and influenced forms of mobility in the region. In the wider scope of my research questions, this stage helped me to conceptually merge two different kinds of knowledge about the Thai-Burma border – knowledge which is preserved in institutional memories or and written records, and knowledge which is produced and preserved in the embodied experiences of those whose lives have been shaped by the politics of conflict, displacement, and migration.
I also learned about books, articles, maps, and reports to consult, laying out an agenda for further literature-based work. These resources, such as NGO reports, maps, news stories, and various academic publications helped shed new light on the social and political dynamics of migration from Myanmar to Thailand that I had earlier learned about from interlocutors. For example, maps published in the Border Consortium’s annual reports illustrate the shifting landscape of informal and formal refugee camps between the 1990s and 2000s through which my earlier participants had moved. Additionally, I was able to hear from experts and scholars about the temporal changes in border governance, including how the humanitarian aid landscape has shifted over time, as well as key changes in transborder labor migration policy/ processes. This was an exciting time in my research career because it allowed me to talk with people interested in similar questions and topics, coming from different approaches, expertise, and life experiences. The generosity, kindness, and interest from those passionate about and working on migration issues, either from a professional or personal perspective, were both motivating for me as a scholar, as well as allowed me to think more broadly about the potential
relevance of studying the intersections of environmental access, livelihoods, and migration, outside of the US context.
One of the highlights of my fellowship was the opportunity to present some of my previous research to scholars and researchers based in Thailand, particularly those from Myanmar. During the fellowship, I gave two presentations focusing on challenges and importance of environmental access in the context of resettlement to the US. Specifically, I shared early findings on how rural
cited to engage in discussions about themes of migration, food systems, and the environment beyond the scope of my own research. These opportunities helped refine my writing, identify broader theoretical or empirical overlaps, and share ideas with people interested in similar topics in different geographic contexts.
Focusing on themes of livelihood and migration inevitably led me to also learn more about the contemporary politics of migration from Burma to Thailand, driven by various intersecting factors following the 2021 military coup. These drivers include armed violence, forced conscriptions, targeting of activists, climate change, and rapid economic downturn. Since 2021, explicit and structural forms of violence have escalated throughout the country, particularly in rural regions, renewing historical drivers of displacement and leading to new forms of migration within and beyond the country’s borders.
livelihood activities, such as fishing, are transformed within the labor, food, and resource governance regimes that migrants encounter upon resettlement, and the enduring importance of environmental access for individual, cultural, and community well-being. I received helpful feedback from audiences, and I was ex-
While the core of my PhD research has focused on understanding how relationships to labor, livelihood, and environment have shifted for those who resettled abroad during historical waves of migration from Myanmar, the key themes, patterns, and issues I address are not isolated from the contemporary politics of displacement and resettlement today. Investigating the past while also learning more about the contemporary allowed me to see some of the continuities, disruptions, and parallels between historical and present-day patterns of displacement. During the fellowship, I reflected on the interconnectedness of migration issues across different time periods and geographies of mass displacement. In the future, I hope to continue engaging, find intersections, and learning with those I met during the fellowship to develop new empirical and theoretical directions for understanding the impacts of displacement on people’s relationships to nature, and ways of supporting environmental equity across borders.
Pic. 2: Hand-drawn maps, published by the Border Consortium’s 1991 and 1992 annual reports, illustrate refugee and student camps on the Thai-Burma border.
Pic. 3: Enjoying samosa after participating in a group discussion with Thailandbased scholars from Myanmar.
Reflections from the Field
Investigating Tobacco Use Among Myanmar Refugees in Mizoram,
India
Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, Teresa Chin earned a B.A. in Neuroscience from Rice University and will begin medical school in Fall 2025. With experience in hospice and emergency care, as well as research on genetic epilepsy, she is passionate about addressing health and educational inequities in underserved and refugee populations. Since December 2023, she has collaborated with Thantlang Council International to support Myanmar refugees and develop strategies to improve the well-being of Thantlang and Chin State, the region her family calls home. Teresa is dedicated to creating meaningful, long-term impact in marginalized communities through service and research. Teresa was one of the 2024 CAORC-INYA fellows. The CAORC-INYA fellowships are funded by CAORC through a grant from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. State Department.
Experiences from the Thantlang Refugee Community
Following the 2021 military coup in Myanmar, many residents of Thantlang, a town located in Chin State, Myanmar, were forced to flee across the border into Mizoram, where they now live as refugees. Preliminary observations during a previous trip to the refugee settlements in December 2023 revealed concern among pastors and elders regarding widespread tobacco use in the Thantlang township refugee community.
The heavy tobacco use among locals in Mizoram further raised the question of how displacement has affected the Thantlang community. Northeast India, particularly, Mizoram, faces a critical public health challenge with its alarmingly high rates of tobacco use, which notably includes tobacco chewing and smoking. According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS), over 58% of men and 27% of women in Mizoram use tobacco, either by smoking or chewing.
many Chin diaspora members who have visited the refugee communities since 2021, I decided to investigate this issue further. My project titled, “The Attitudes and Prevalence of Tobacco Use Among Thantlang Refugees in Mizoram,” took place between June and
Methodology
I used a mixed-methods approach, integrating qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys to gain a comprehensive understanding of tobacco use among Thantlang refugees in Mizoram. As a Chin person myself, and a fluent speaker of Hakha Chin, the primary language of the Thantlang refugees, I was able to communicate directly with participants, eliminating the need for a translator and allowing for more candid conversations. Connections to the refugee community were established by Thantlang Council International, a US-based non-profit consisting of Thantlang diaspora who seek to conceptualize and aid the development of the Thantlang Township and Chin State as a whole.
Based on these insights, as well as concerns raised by the refugees and
August 2024 and was aimed at understanding the extent of tobacco use in this vulnerable community and the factors driving its persistence, in the hopes that this understanding will result in more informed projects to combat this issue.
Thus, I directly interviewed community leaders, including pastors, teachers, and parents, as well as students and young adults, to explore their knowledge and perspectives on tobacco use. Data collection took place in various community settings such as churches, refugee homes, refugee camps,
Pic. 1: Examples of Tobacco Products Sold in Mizoram. Many tobacco products often feature warnings (written in English) against tobacco use. They are often part of public health initiatives to inform consumers about the significant health risks associated with tobacco use. Thantlang Council International. 2024.
and schools attended by Thantlang refugees. In addition to individual interviews and surveys, group discussions were also facilitated to further explore attitudes and beliefs regarding tobacco use in the community. I also recorded personal observations regarding tobacco use and how people interact with it in different settings.
Key Findings
1. Increased Tobacco Use Among Refugees Post-Displacement
The first overall finding from my research was that based on the data collected, tobacco use among Thantlang refugees has significantly risen since displacement to Mizoram. Interviews with parents, nurses, teachers, and pastors reveal that tobacco use, once limited among immediate Thantlang citizens, has become more widespread in their view, to the point that even little children can be seen playing with tobacco products in more rural areas. While increased use is attributed to different factors, one overarching theme emphasized by participants of each occupation and age was the overall increased availability and access to tobacco in Mizoram.
2. Lack of Regulation and Easy Accessibility
When further exploring exposure to tobacco products, especially among the youth, many interviewees pointed to a lack of regulation on tobacco products. In Mizoram, children can purchase tobacco due to the lack of enforcement on tobacco sales to minors. Tobacco is consistently sold in both permanent, building-based stores and small, shackstyle street vendors. Stores often feature warning signs about tobacco use with graphic images, which imply that tobacco use will lead to mouth diseases. However, no actual restrictions exist.
During one group discussion with Thantlang refugee students in Aizawl, young boys reported purchasing tobacco using money from friends or parents, with some being introduced to it through candy packaged to resemble tobacco products. One English teacher specifically recalled seeing these types of candies and shared his personal theory that they are intentionally marketed to condition young consumers to purchase tobacco products in the future. Surveys also revealed that 75% of male stu-
dents in grades 9-12 at a predominantly refugee-attended high school admitted to past tobacco use. This early exposure to tobacco and even tobacco-like products, coupled with minimal regulation, may pose significant health risks and implications for future use.
3. Existing Educational Efforts on Tobacco Risks
Since Chin refugee communities have settled into Mizoram for the past 1-2 years, one important question to explore was also the interventions that have been made thus far in attempts to lower tobacco use among the community. Across all participants, refugees reported that they have been exposed to or been part of anti-tobacco-use lessons and education. These speeches or presentations are offered in different aspects of community life, with one significant area being the church.
Within the predominantly Christian Thantlang community, tobacco use is viewed as a sin since it has the potential to harm the physical body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Sunday school teachers, pastors, and church elders all recalled repeating this rhetoric to both children and adults through sermons and Sunday School lessons, though they said that this has been overall ineffective, especially when speaking to teenagers.
At schools established by refugee communities, or schools with prominent refugee enrollment, the dangers of tobacco use are frequently highlighted. For older students in particular, the effects of drug and alcohol use are highlighted in biology courses, and the pathophysiol-
ogy of tobacco smoking is taught. When asking refugee 9-12th grade students about their knowledge of tobacco use, many were able to answer about how it can cause issues in the lungs and cancer in the mouth.
From the wider Mizo community, some public schools in Mizoram prohibit tobacco use and conduct awareness programs led by nurses and the Young Lai Association (YLA) twice a year. Refugeerun schools also hold nightly meetings where they often warn students about tobacco’s dangers, emphasizing its physical and spiritual harms. Overall, it is clear that efforts to educate refugees about tobacco’s harmful effects are ongoing, both within the refugee community and from the wider Mizo community.
4. Social and Cultural Acceptance of Tobacco
Despite efforts to lower tobacco use among the refugee community, cultural norms and the social acceptance of tobacco in Mizoram, and an increasing acceptance among the refugee community, may limit the effectiveness of these educational initiatives. Interviewees reported that cultural practices in Mizo and Northeast Indian communities normalize tobacco use, making it a common social gesture and even a part of religious gatherings. For example, one Thantlang pastor noted that tobacco has been placed in church offering baskets in one Mizo church. He also recalled being shocked as multiple Mizo church elders began chewing tobacco in one meeting between Chin and Mizo church leaders, saying that this behavior would have been unacceptable in Thantlang.
Final Notes
Overall, tobacco access and consumption have reportedly increased among the Thantlang refugee community in Mizoram since their displacement from Myanmar. My findings indicate that addressing this issue will require more than education alone, as tobacco use is becoming increasingly socially accepted, particularly among teens and young adults. A multifaceted approach will be needed needed, though challenges may arise due to the community’s status as refugees in India. Stricter government enforcement of laws restricting minors’ access to tobacco would be essential, alongside community engagement efforts by leaders, educators, and healthcare workers to
Pic. 2: A warning sign depicting the negative effects of chewing tobacco on the mouth. The sign reads, in Mizo, that people under the age of 18 should not use tobacco. Thantlang Council International. 2024.
raise awareness about the harmful effects of tobacco use.
In the future, collaboration with organizations such as Thantlang Council International and health-based organizations on the field, and dialogue with local government officials regarding tobacco restrictions can help address the environmental factors enabling tobacco consumption. Through collective and culturally sensitive efforts, it may be possible to promote a healthier lifestyle even in the face of displacement, in which refugees are already at risk of various health challenges.
Pic. 3: A school built and established by refugees near Saiha, Mizoram, where teachers were interviewed regarding student tobacco use, school life, and personal views on tobacco use in the community. Refugee schools are often built directly by community members if there is no possibility of renting a proper building. Thantlang Council International. 2024.
Acknowledgments
Finally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Inya Institute and its team for their invaluable support for my research. I look forward to continuing our collaboration to enhance our understanding of the complex cultural, socioeconomic, and health challenges facing Myanmar, particularly its diverse ethnic groups, cultures, and rich history.
2025 Fellowship Applications are now open! Full information here
Building on the success of the inaugural 2023 fellowship, the Inya Institute is now accepting applications for a Fellow to lead the Summer 2025 Research and Mentoring program devoted to supporting the study of Myanmar’s borderlands. The Fellow may be based in Thailand, India, Bangladesh, or Malaysia and will lead a series of online workshops sponsored by the institute with six groups of up to three Myanmar junior researchers from June 30 to August 1, 2025. During the online workshop sessions, the Fellow will mentor the groups of Myanmar junior researchers on the development of their research papers.
The first batch of online sessions (June 30-July 4) will focus on research design, guidance on research methods and field research with all participating Myanmar researchers. The remaining weeks (July 7-August 1) will involve one-on-one online mentoring sessions with each of the six groups of Myanmar junior researchers.
The Fellow will be expected to mentor the groups of Myanmar junior researchers on a broad variety of themes related to Myanmar’s borderlands.
In addition to a stipend covering international travel, ground transportation, lodging, local subsistence, and internet costs, the Fellow will receive US $5,800 as teaching and mentorship fees. Within the limits of the time available outside of the Fellow’s mentoring duties, the Fellow is encouraged to engage in their own personal research work.
The Institute will organize a conference in 2026 on Myanmar’s borderlands in which both the Fellow and the groups of Myanmar junior researchers will participate and present their papers. This follows the success of the 2024 International Interdisciplinary Conference on Myanmar’s Borderlands (2024 IICMB) held at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
In Focus
Researching Child Domestic Work in the Myanmar Context
Aye Thiri Kyaw is a social and behavioural scientist whose research focuses on violence prevention, public health and the well-being of women and girls. She is PhD candidate of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). She is proficient in both advanced qualitative and quantitative research methods and has worked for UNOPS and UNOCHA. Thiri is also a feminist and gender equality advocate. The Inya Institute offered Thiri some guidance at the start of her field research.
Myanmar is known for its prolonged civil war, ongoing humanitarian crisis, and multi-ethnic complexity. The military takeover on February 1, 2021, has intensified the country’s political instability. According to the 2015 Myanmar Labour Force, Child Labour, and School-to-Work Transition Survey, an estimated 10.5 percent of the total child population is engaged in some form of work. Among these children, 9.3 percent are trapped in hazardous work, including agricultural employment, construction, mining, and domestic work. However, current data on interventions for child domestic work, both globally and specifically in Myanmar, do not disaggregate working conditions and activities specific to child domestic work. To develop effective interventions, precise information is needed on the multiple dimensions of child domestic work that affect health and well-being outcomes. This project aims to use Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to address this gap by gathering detailed information about different aspects of child domestic work.
ever, protocols for ethics approval had to be adapted. Due to security concerns, it was not possible to obtain ethical approval from the Department of Medical Research (Lower Myanmar). In addition to the LSHTM ethics review committee, a panel of local research experts—familiar with conducting sensitive research in this setting—was formed to provide ethics advice throughout the project,
considering emerging risks to study participants and corresponding mitigation measures.
This Ph.D. research was conceived after the military coup, so the research design did not need to be changed. How-
During data collection, the study collaborated with three local CSO partners who are established child protection actors in the selected study sites. Since this study is part of a larger programme, the “Invisible Girls” research initiative, relationships between my research
supervisors and the local partners were already in place. Participant recruitment was initially challenging, as child domestic workers (CDWs) often work behind closed doors and are isolated from the outside world. However, with support from the CSO partners, participants from the Yangon and Ayeyarwady divisions were successfully recruited. This approach was effective, as the organizations are trusted and well-known within the community. However, due to sensitivity of interviewing current domestic workers, the study recruited 33 participants, former child domestic workers who recently quit domestic work. Consent and assent were collected from all participants, with additional consent obtained from parents or guardians for those under 18. Our data collection team included three interviewers who were specially trained in ethical and childfriendly interview practices. However, interviewing younger children was challenging despite the use of childfriendly interview guides. During pilot sessions, children were initially reluctant to open up, likely perceiving me as an older, more experienced person from a large institution. To
Pic. 1: Conducting interviews with study participants.
help participants feel more comfortable, younger team members led the discussions. I learned that it’s generally more effective for interviewers to be in the same age bracket as the participants, who felt more at ease talking to them than to me, whom they saw as older and somewhat foreign, despite my own Burmese background. We provided flexibility in terms of timing, date, and interview location. Participants were also reimbursed for their time and travel expenses, as they often had to cancel work and travel to the interview location. The data we collected was often extremely distressing, so we ensured that the interviewers, transcribers, and translators were given adequate rest for their well-being.
This Ph.D. is based on the assumption that not all child domestic work is necessarily harmful; rather, there may be a spectrum of harm, from the most to least harmful, and even beneficial situations in some cases. Currently, we know very little about what constitutes the most harmful forms of child domestic work versus beneficial ones. Understanding this distinction is critical to ensure that future
interventions provide necessary support where it is most needed. This study aims to provide intervention evidence on how child domestic workers perceive their working conditions in Myanmar. Ultimately, the findings will serve as foundational data for future surveys and interventions for CDWs in Myanmar and beyond. During consultations with our partners, we discovered that many of their programs have lost funding or are unlikely to receive extensions due to the extreme challenges of operating in Myanmar. However, from our experience, it is possible to continue research in Myanmar by being more resilient, flexible, and adaptable to the changing context. We heard numerous stories from former child domestic workers whose voices are seldom heard, and it has been an honour to amplify their voices through this project.
Ethical Challenges of Research amidst Crisis: A Participatory
Approach with Adolescent Girls and Young Women in Myanmar
Isabelle Pearson is a mixed-methods social and behavioural scientist and an independent public health consultant. She is currently a PhD candidate at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), where her research examines the wellbeing of adolescent girls and young women in low-income settings across Myanmar. Specifically, her research explores the critical intersections between mental health, conflict, and violence. The Inya Institute offered Isabelle some guidance at the start of her field research.
When we initially planned this study on adolescent girls’ health in Myanmar, we did not foresee the 2021 military coup, which ultimately led me to spend my first PhD year reassessing whether conducting our research remained ethical and feasible under the country’s new and challenging conditions. Research on adolescent girls’ health is ethically complex in any setting, but armed conflict and political insecurity intensifies these complexities. Since the recent coup, research in Myanmar has become increasingly
restricted and unwelcomed by the military. Therefore, now—in addition to the standard ethical responsibilities of researchers—critical attention is required to safeguard researcher and participant safety, prevent potential backlash and ensure detailed, robust data security. To help navigate these challenges, we established a research team of six peer-researchers. These peerresearchers were young women who were former beneficiaries of our partner organisation Girl Determined’s
empowerment programme, which supports adolescent girls and young women from the lowest socioeconomic quintiles across Myanmar. By collaborating with peer-researchers, who bring both local expertise and lived experiences similar to our target population, we were able to co-design a study that was grounded in the reallife contexts of our participants. This approach ensured the study design was responsive to both the immediate needs and long-term wellbeing of the young women involved.
Pic. 2: Study site in the Ayeyarwaddy Division.
Building on this collaborative foundation, we designed the study with a broad aim: to conceptualise the wellbeing of adolescent girls and young women facing multiple, overlapping crises. To achieve this, we began by conducting 12 participatory focus group discussions, led by our peer-researchers and engaging 73 girls and young women from Yangon and Mandalay, the results of which we used to develop a survey tool. We intentionally used the term wellbeing instead of physical or mental health, as wellbeing framed the study in a more positive light, helping to avoid placing additional emotional burden on participants. In Burmese, we translated wellbeing as “a good life” to ensure that the discussions were uplifting and supportive, especially considering the immense stress and insecurity faced by many of these young women. We found that the relatable presence of peer-researchers fostered a safe, positive, and culturally sensitive environment where participants felt comfortable sharing their experiences openly.
Interestingly, despite the intentionally positive framing of the focus groups—where participants were invited to draw and discuss what “a good life” meant to them— many were relieved to finally be asked about their lives in a safe and supportive space, where they felt acknowledged and heard. This open -
ness extended beyond our initial questions, as participants themselves raised sensitive topics related to their health and wellbeing, including their experiences of the ongoing conflict. Their willingness to share these personal experiences is a testament to the peer-researchers ability to facilitate a safe space and foster trust and confidence among the participants. Furthermore, with the support of our local organisation, and their network of contacts, we were able to provide a safe space where participants’ privacy and confidentiality were upheld.
Our close collaboration with the peer-researcher team meant that their expertise, local knowledge, and shared lived experiences with participants enabled us to safely explore the complex realities of girls’ wellbeing amid ongoing crisis and insecurity. However, despite its advantages, participatory research can risk becoming exploitative and performative, and that raises unique ethical challenges. Beyond facilitating the research, I was responsible for ensuring that ethical standards were upheld for both the participants and the peer-researchers themselves. Since obtaining local ethical approval from the government is not possible in Myanmar currently, we worked with local experts who critically reviewed our study protocol and provided ongoing ethical
guidance. Our local partner, Girl Determined, was also instrumental in developing a robust data management plan and referral procedure to safeguard participant and researcher safety and wellbeing. When I began this project, I questioned whether conducting research in Myanmar was appropriate given the ongoing crisis. However, what I learnt from this experience was that for many young people, such as the young peer-researchers who I worked with, their ambitions and goals did not end when the coup happened. With rising poverty, insecurity and burdens on mental and physical health, collecting data has become more important than ever. Such data not only empowers local organisations to target their interventions effectively but also strengthens their ability to advocate on national and international levels. Since the 2021 coup, funding for research in Myanmar has drastically declined, limiting essential support for the country’s population and curtailing opportunities for local researchers to continue their work. For international researchers looking to contribute meaningfully in Myanmar, my advice is to follow the lead of local experts, focus on capacity building for young researchers, and ensure the study design and dissemination of findings is led by those closest to the study population.
Pic. 1: Adolescent girls taking part in a participatory focus group.
New Fellows at Inya
May Shine is a Master’s Degree student at the International Affairs Department of George Washington University. She mentions of her project titled “The Impact of Armed Conflict on Education Access in Myanmar’s Ethnic Minority Regions” that “Myanmar’s long-standing armed conflicts have severely impacted ethnic minority regions like Chin, Karen, Kachin, and Rakhine, disrupting education through school destruction, teacher displacement, and limited learning opportunities. This study examines the effects of conflict on education access for minority children, focusing on challenges such as inadequate infrastructure and psychological trauma. It also explores the role of nongovernmental actors, particularly Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) teachers, in sustaining education. The research aims to identify strategies and policy recommendations to improve education access despite ongoing conflict, offering valuable insights for policymakers and humanitarian organizations.”
Drake Avila is a Master’s Degree student at the Asian Studies Department of Cornell University. His project will explore “Funding The Fight: Myanmar Resistance Groups & Diaspora Donations”.
For his project, Drake will interview
Katherine Pulaski is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology at University of Wisconsin-Madison. She describes her project entitled “Border Spaces and Familiar Faces: Hope and Resilience Among Burmese Migrants in Mae Sot, Thailand” as follows: “This project focuses on the connections and relationships forged among refugees from Myanmar currently residing in Mae Sot, Thailand. Border spaces, as areas both highly regulated and simultaneously ignored by the state, create zones of exception in which the constant presence of fear, anxiety, and homesickness comingles with hope and resistance. Using ethnographic research methods, this project will trace the connections that form among formal and informal organizations that work to support Burmese refugees. Katherine will focus on joyful moments that disrupt persistent trauma from war and loss and allow for different ways to navigate life.”
resistance fighters and activists along the Thailand-Myanmar border about their Facebook campaigns to solicit donations from the Myanmar diaspora. Through these interviews, he hopes to understand what social media strategies resistance groups use and how much
they rely on diaspora donations for sustaining their movements. Comprehending how and when resistance groups receive donations could provide a unique lens for understanding the trajectory of Myanmar’s post-coup conflict and how long it will last.
Dr. Michael Barrett currently works at the International Rescue Committee and will work on a project entitled “Navigating Trauma and Resilience in a School Setting: A Gendered Exploration of Karen Migrant Youth Along the Thai-Myanmar Border”.
Ethnic Karen youth, displaced by decades of conflict in southeastern Myanmar, face profound trauma with limited access to culturally informed support. This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how gender shapes resilience among these youth, a factor overlooked in existing trauma recovery research. By engaging 20 male and 20 female Karen students in semi-structured interviews and focus groups, this study explores gender-specific strategies for trauma management. The findings will offer innovative insights for designing trauma-informed and culturally responsive education models, advancing global efforts to support conflict-affected populations, and setting a new standard for addressing trauma through gender-sensitive approaches.
Dr. Courtney Wittekind is an Assistant Professor at Purdue University. Her project is entitled: “Influencing the Revolution: Social Media and Digital Fundraising in the Myanmar Diaspora”. Amid a global uptake of new technologies, a contentious debate has asked if social media is contributing to democracy’s decline. While social media was once considered a “liberation technology” able to undermine authoritarian governments, journalists have since detailed platforms’ role in increasing polarization and enabling election interference across the globe. Influencing the Revolution intervenes in this debate by examining the social media fundraising campaigns sustaining Myanmar’s “Spring Revolution.” The project argues that, while transnational fundraising aims to support democratic activism in Myanmar, fundraisers’ digital tactics depend on the very profit-generating mechanisms that make social media susceptible to undemocratic outcomes.
Journal of Burma Studies |
NEW ISSUE NOW AVAILABLE!
Volume 28, Number 2, 2024
Table of Contents
• Special Issue Introduction: PopMyanmar
Jane M. Ferguson
• Rumblings in Rangoon: Labor, Race, and Nationalism in the Dockworker Riot of May 1930
Alfred Scott and Rory Gill
• Chinese Culture in Translation: A Case Study of the Multimedia Dissemination of Four Classic Novels of Chinese Literature in Myanmar
Htay Htay Myint
• Music as an Element of Contemporary Courtship in Burma/Myanmar
Heather MacLachlan
• Thingyan Is Here! We Will Fight! Burmese Popular Sounds and Protest Verses for H5K’s “Revolutionary Thingyan Anyeint”
Lorenzo Chiarofonte
• Afterword
Bob Hudson
Annual Membership
Membership of the Inya Institute is now available for Institutions as well as Individuals!
Despite Myanmar’s current multidimensional crisis, the Inya Institute continues to operate in Yangon providing educational and training opportunities to Myanmar students, supporting scholarship by Myanmar and International researchers in Myanmar and in third countries, and offering language learning opportunities for those interested in Myanmar’s linguistic diversity. It is also one of the few libraries currently open to the public in Yangon. Interconnectedness between Myanmar, the U.S., the Myanmar diaspora in the U.S. and elsewhere is more important than ever and the institute is keen to support this value as shown by its activities listed above. You can be part of this so please consider becoming a member of the Inya Institute! Contact us at: contact@inyainstitute.org
I NSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIP
Any recognized academic or educational institution in the United States or Canada may become an Institutional Member of the institute. If a representative of an institutional member chooses to send a delegate to serve on the board of directors, he/she has an opportunity to shape the institute’s programs and activities.
Other benefits include: (1) Recognition of institutional member status in the institute’s quarterly newsletter; (2) Publishing of members’ scholarly events in the institute’s quarterly newsletter; (3) Invitation to join online events, including conferences and webinars, organized by the institute.
Annual institutional membership dues are $400.
I NDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP
Anyone may become an Individual Member of the institute, upon application and acceptance by the institute.
Benefits: (1) Inclusion in the institute’s listserv of those institutions and individuals receiving the quarterly’s newsletter; (2) Invitation to join online events, including conferences or webinars, organized by the institute; (3) Reduced fees for the language learning opportunities developed by the institute.
Annual individual membership dues are $25.
Upcoming Events across the U.S. and beyond
February Events
1. A Shattered Country: Burma/Myanmar Four Years After the 2021 Military Coup d’Etat
Location: Thomson Hall (THO), University of Washington
Date: Feb. 4, 3:30-5:00 PM (U.S. PT)
Speaker: Mary Callahan
In February 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup that ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected government, headed by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party had won a historic landslide in the November 2020 elections. Since late 2023, the Myanmar military has suffered one unprecedented battlefield humiliation after another, as it faces the nationwide uprising of hundreds of armed, anti-state groups committed to a revolution to remove the army from political power for the first time in history.
More info here.
2. The Impacts of Political Conflicts on Education in Myanmar since the 2021 Military Coup
Location: Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
Date: Feb. 14, 2025 at 12 PM to 1 PM (U.S. CT)
Speaker: Saw Yu May
More info here
Zoom registration here.
March Events
1. The Sino-Burmese Community in Post-War Myanmar
Location: SOAS University of London
Date: Mar. 3 , 2025 at 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM (U.K. Time)
Speaker: Yi Li
After the independence of Myanmar in 1948, a group of Sino-Burmese men of letters’ collectively sought to document and reflect upon their shared past during a period marked by the regional Cold War, national reconstruction, and social realignment in early post-war Myanmar. Growing up in trilingual (Chinese, English and Burmese) pre-war Burma, and often of mixed ancestry, they were self-tasked to rebuild their war-torn community through their writings.
This talk will present Yi Li’s investigations on post-war Sino-Burmese cultural dynamics and collective identities, both in and beyond Myanmar. With hindsight, it is evident that this community was acutely aware of its precarious position in a country that categorically prioritised its dominant (Bamar) ethnicity. This cultural endeavour coincided with the 1962 military coup and the anti-Chinese riot of June 1967, the latter of which abruptly yet effectively ended these communal efforts on the ground.
More info here.
Conference Event in October
16th International Burma Studies Conference:
Dealing with Legacies in Burma
Location: Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois
Date: Oct. 3-5, 2025
The Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University, the Burma Studies Foundation and the Burma Studies Group invite scholars and students to examine intertwined memories, legacies, and histories of interaction between and throughout the different regions of Burma/Myanmar. We accept submissions in a variety of formats including organized panels, roundtables, workshops, book talks, film launches, poetry, and performances.
Apart from individual papers, we accept other presentation formats to be given in any language in relation to Burma/Myanmar (but titles and abstracts should be submitted in English or Burmese).
We also want to invite members of the diaspora and Burmese Americans to share the knowledge and practices of their communities and civic society organizations. Participants who need a visa to attend the conference will receive early notification of acceptance to help in the visa processing. Please fill in the “visa section” in the submission form.
More Info here.
New Books On Myanmar
Crimes in Archival Form: Human Rights, Fact Production, and Myanmar
Ken MacLean
University of California Press, 2022 Crimes in Archival Form explores the many ways in which human rights “facts” are produced rather than found. Using Myanmar as his case study, Ken MacLean examines the fact-finding practices of a human rights group, two cross-border humanitarian agencies, an international law clinic, and a global NGO-led campaign. Foregrounding fact-finding, in critical yet constructive ways, prompts long overdue conversations about the possibilities and limits of human rights documentation as a mode of truth-seeking. Such conversations are particularly urgent in an era when the perpetrators of large-scale human rights violations exploit misinformation, weaponize disinformation, and employ outright falsehoods, including deepfakes, to undermine the credibility of those who document abuses and demand accountability in the court of public opinion and in courts of law. MacLean compels practitioners and scholars alike to be more transparent about how human rights “fact” production works, why it is important, and when its use should prompt concern.
Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar
Stéphen Huard
Berghahn Books, 2024
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.
The Evolution of Economic Reforms across Myanmar’s Administrations
Winston Set Aung ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, 2024 Myanmar’s economic trajectory has shifted across various governmental regimes, transitioning from socialist to democratic systems and from planned to market economy structures.
The economic policies implemented by successive governments often lacked coherence and were characterized by ad hoc measures aimed at short-term solutions rather than addressing underlying issues. Policymakers since 1989 have endeavored to guide Myanmar towards a marketoriented economy, characterized by what could be termed the “Burmese/Myanmar Way to Market Economy”, which includes significant restrictions and controls.
Both the military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) and civilianled National League for Democracy (NLD) administrations made significant efforts to enhance liberalization and strengthen market economic principles, despite multidimensional challenges including inadequate capacities for policy formulation and over-reliance on past domestic experiences rather than international lessons.
All these reforms and economic pillars, established through intellect and hard work to ensure liberalization and a market economy, collapsed under the State Administration Council regime following the military coup of 1 February 2021.
Citizenship and Genocide Cards, IDs, Statelessness and Rohingya Resistance in Myanmar
Natalie Brinham Routledge, 2024
This book draws on Rohingya oral histories and narratives about Myanmar’s genocide and ID schemes to critique prevailing international approaches to legal identities and statelessness. By centring the narratives of survivors of state crimes, collected in the aftermath of the 2017 genocidal violence, this book examines the multiple uses of state-issued ID cards and registration documents in producing statelessness and facilitating genocide. In doing so, it challenges some of the international solutions put forward to resolve statelessness. Rohingya narratives disrupt a simple linear understanding of documenting legal identity that marginalises experiences of these processes. The richly layered accounts of the effects of citizenship laws and registration processes on the lives of Rohingya problematise the ways in which international actors have endorsed state ID schemes and by-passed state-led persecution of the group. This book will be valuable for scholars studying global criminology, state crime, development studies, refugee and migration studies, statelessness and nationality, citizenship studies, and genocide studies.