The 2023 Myanmar Update aims to understand, celebrate, and explicate the Myanmar people’s resistance to the 1 February 2021 coup. The military’s violent crackdown on what was initially a peaceful popular uprising provoked a near-countrywide revolutionary movement, which has brought together an array of different political, ethnic, and religious groups fighting for the shared goal of ending military rule. While differences exist in objectives and strategies, the establishment of organisations like the National Unity Government (NUG) and the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), as well as the numerous other formal and informal alliances, has arguably created an unprecedented sense of unity among Myanmar’s diverse peoples and raised widespread hope that this time the struggle may succeed.    

The conference seeks to explore the complexities of the revolutionary struggle; the effects of the coup on the state and economy; and, the myriad ways in which the people in Myanmar are coping with deepening violence and poverty.

• How has the coup and the popular response to it reshaped Myanmar politics?
• How are new armed groups forming, and how are they sustained?
• What has happened to the civil disobedience movement?
• What are the social, economic, and psychological implications of continued violence?
• How is the diaspora contributing to the revolution?
• How can foreign governments and the international aid community best support resistance to dictatorship?

We aim to address these kinds of questions, among others, in this conference.

The conference will take place at The Australian National University on Friday 21 July – Saturday 22 July 2023.

The two-day conference will feature scholars and experts from Australia, Myanmar, UK, North America and around the regions.

There are also pre-conference events on Thursday 20 July that we will list on our conference program with more information:

• 8.30am-4.30pm – Early Career Research workshop (by invitation)
• 4.30-5pm – Launch of Myanmar Update photo exhibition by Mayco Naing (Artist and Curator)
• 5.30-6.30 pm – Guest lecture ‘De-‘Area Studies’-izing Burmese History, The African (and African American) ‘Burma' Experience in the Twentieth Century’ by Michael Charney from SOAS, University of London

Convening Committee

• Cecile Medail - Visiting Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU, cecile.medail@anu.edu.au
• Morten Pedersen - Board member, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU, Morten.Pedersen@adfa.edu.au
• Yuri Takahashi - Lecturer and Convenor of the Burmese Program, ANU, Yuri.Takahashi@anu.edu.au
• Samuel Hmung - Research Officer, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU, Samuel.hmung@anu.edu.au

Sponsors

The 2023 ANU Myanmar Update is supported by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, the International Development Research Centre, Canada, the International IDEA, and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Art Exhibition: How to quantify FEAR?

By Filmmaker M, Photographer Mauk Kham Wah, and Artist Mayco Naing

During Myanmar’s revolution, three Burmese artists explore the ways in which the resistance binds, shapes, and informs who Myanmar people are. Filmmaker M, Mauk Kham Wah and Mayco Naing have witnessed the people's resistance to military rule through their camera lenses. The exhibition includes a 60-minute documentary screening* by filmmaker M, a photography exhibition by Mauk Kham Wah featuring 10 portraits of protesters and 10 photos of anti-coup fighters as well as landscapes and portraits from Mayco Naing’s barricade project.

Filmmaker M started filming on the morning of the military coup for over 177 days from various hiding places. At the same time, Mauk Kham Wah documented the teargassing and crackdowns from the frontlines of the street protests, where the resistance was born. He then followed his comrades to the jungle and documented their lives at war for over a year and a half. Artist Mayco Naing spent 50 days on the barricades, shooting people's portraits. She captured the suffering, tears, fury and determination in the protestors' eyes. 

* 177 by Filmmaker M, screening during business hours from 28 July to 10 August, in the Auditorium. 

ARTISTS

M is a filmmaker of ethnic minority background from a conflict-ridden region in Myanmar. They lived and worked abroad before settling in Yangon. After democratic changes a decade ago, they dedicated themselves to filmmaking. M's artistic activities have brought them to various film festivals around the world.

Mauk Kham Wah is a photographer, filmmaker and activist from Myanmar. Following the military coup in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, Mauk Kham Wah spent a year alongside the young Karenni men and women who joined the resistance against the Burmese military dictatorship, where he witnessed fighting, comradeship, and grief.

Mayco Naing's work first focused on the generation of Burmese born around the time of the 1988 revolution, raised with little education, conservative values, and coming of age under a repressive military regime. For her, art is not merely a medium through which she questions the state of Burmese society, it is also a tool to change women’s place in society. During the 1st February 2021 coup, Mayco immediately took to the streets to capture people on the barricades. Mayco and her comrades were pursued by the military junta for having exercised their photojournalistic work. Many were arrested, others are on the run, and Mayco is hosted in an artist residency, far from her home and loved ones.

This exhibition is supported by the ANU Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs' Department of Political and Social Change. It is one of the pre-conference events of the 2023 Myanmar Update and will be on display during business hours from 21 July to 10 August 2023. We hope to see you there!

Photo Credit: Mauk Kham Wah

Call for applications - Workshop for PhDs & ECRs

Workshop for graduate research students and early career researchers

Applications due date: Friday 19 May 202
Workshop date: Thursday 20 July 2023
Workshop venue: The Australian National University, Canberra

Eligibility

The workshop is open to all students currently enrolled in a humanities, arts, or political or social science research degree (undergraduate honours, masters with research component, MPhil, PhD) at a higher education institution in Australia or New Zealand, as well as Myanmar nationals or early career researchers in Myanmar or Southeast Asia. Myanmar nationals in Australia are strongly encouraged to apply.

While in-person attendance is preferred for those that can travel within Australia, we will seek to accommodate participants who are unable to travel to Australia by offering the possibility of online participation.

Travel costs and stipends

Participants in Australia will be eligible to receive a travel stipend to offset the costs of travel and accommodation associated with attending the conference.

Expectations

Participants are expected to attend all workshop sessions and to contribute to group discussion. Pre-reading material will be circulated ahead of the workshop. After the workshop, participants will be encouraged to submit a short research paper for publication on the ANU MRC website, in English or Burmese. Participants who have been selected to present a paper at the Myanmar Update will not be required to submit a paper for the workshop but have the option of doing so. Myanmar Update participants whose expenses will be offset by the conference organisers will be expected to attend the workshop.

Application process

Please submit:

1. a 250-word expression of interest outlining your current research, previous research experience, and interest in attending the workshop; along with
2. a brief curriculum vitae (2 pages max) to Hunter Marston at Hunter.Marston@anu.edu.au or Samuel Hmung at Samuel.Hmung@anu.edu.au.

Deadline

Deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 19 May 2023.

Successful applicants will be notified shortly after the closing date.

Contact

For further information, please contact: 

• Hunter Marston at Hunter.Marston@anu.edu.au
• Samuel Hmung at Samuel.Hmung@anu.edu.au

ECR Workshop Call for EOI Burmese version: click here. 

Book Party - Silver Screens and Golden Dreams: A Social History of Burmese Cinema

The world tends to see Myanmar (Burma) as an ancient, idyllic land of emerald-green rice paddies dotted with golden pagodas, yet sadly tarnished by a contemporary reality of grinding poverty, a decades-long civil war, and the most enduring military dictatorship in modern history. Burmese society is frequently stereotyped as isolated, hidebound to Buddhist cultural foundations, or embroiled in military rule and civil strife. Its thriving, cosmopolitan film industry not only questions such orientalist archetypes but also provides an incisive lens to explore social history through everyday popular practices. 

In a tour-de-force study of sixty years of cinematic entertainment, Silver Screens and Golden Dreams traces the veins of Burmese popular movies across three periods in history: the colonial era, the parliamentary democracy period, and the Ne Win Socialist years.

Author Associate Professor Jane Ferguson engages cinema as an interrogator of mainstream cultural values, providing political and cultural context to situate the films as artistic endeavors and capitalist products.

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre (MRC) invites you to a special 'Book Party', which will present some Burmese film clips during the reception at the Atrium. Associate Professor Jane Ferguson and Dr Yuri Takahashi from the ANU School of Culture, History & Language will discuss the content of the book, and the Director of MRC, Associate Professor Nick Cheesman will chair this event. 

Book Sale - A limited number of books will be available for sale for AUD $75 (card only). 

Light refreshments and Burmese film clips screening in the Atrium at 5.30pm
Book talks in HB1 at 6pm

Sign up to the ANU Myanmar Research Centre mailing list.

This event is part of the ANU New Year Water Festival hosted by the School of Culture, History and Language from 17-19 April.