Law and gender in Myanmar's Spring Revolution

Law and gender in Myanmar's Spring Revolution

Across the political spectrum, amongst ethnic armed organisations, actors like the National Unity Government, and newly formed defence forces like the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force (KNDF), the question of both present and future legal frameworks has been increasingly present since the 2021 military coup. This talk, based on preliminary research in and on Karenni, tries to understand the emphasis on legal structures as an integral aspect of resistance, moving the focus away from battlefields and arms to legal documents and customary systems, understanding these as potentially underwriting rebel claims for legitimacy and governance. A focus on legal frameworks and document drafting and revision reveals how struggles over gender inclusion and participation have taken on a heighted focus, as women’s groups are mobilising to create and sustain a forward-moving momentum for women’s rights at the same time as broader systems of militarisation and patriarchy are gaining ground. Why has the law become central to rebel-led resistance strategies, and what roles does gender play in furthering claims for legitimacy and political order?

Speakers

Dr Jenny Hedström is an Associate Professor in War Studies at the Swedish Defence University. Jenny’s research and teaching concerns the relationship between households, gender, and warfare; women’s activism and resistance; and ethics and methods when researching war, often with a focus on civil wars in Myanmar. Her research has been published in the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Peacebuilding, Critical Military Studies, International Studies Review, and other outlets. Together with Elisabeth Olivius, she is the editor of the collection 'Waves of Upheaval in Myanmar: Gendered Transformations and Political Transitions' (NIAS Press, 2023). Jenny’s book, 'Reproducing Revolution: Women’s Labor and the War in Kachinland' will be out with Cornell Univeristy Press in 2025.

Dr Elizabeth Rhoads is currently a researcher at the Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, in the Department of History at Lund University in Sweden. She is an interdisciplinary legal scholar, whose work draws on legal history, legal anthropology, legal geography, urban studies, and human rights studies in understanding the everyday lived experience of citizenship, property relations, and minority-state relations in Southeast Asia. Her research has been funded by the Fulbright Commission, British Academy, the European Commission and the Swedish Research Council. Her work has been published in Geopolitics, Citizenship Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Critical Asian Studies.
 

Chair

David Hopkins, david.hopkins@anu.edu.au

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre Dialogue Series is a conversation concerning current research on Myanmar aimed at providing scholars with an opportunity to present their work, try out an idea, advance an argument and critically engage with other researchers. International and Myanmar researchers from any discipline are invited to contribute. The Dialogue Series is particularly seeking to provide a space for early career researchers wishing to receive constructive feedback. Each dialogue is one hour long, including a 30-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute Q&A. As a hybrid series, the Dialogues are presented in both virtual and in-person format, hosted by the ANU Myanmar Research Centre.