Myanmar Musings

Join Tom Kean and Ben Dunant of Frontier Myanmar, the premier English-language journalism organisation in the country, as they discuss the changes in Myanmar's politics since February 1 through the lens of press freedom. It's a whole new world for the people and the press in Myanmar, as the tug of war continues between the people and the military - between the smartphone and the gun.

What is the future of rebel politics in Myanmar? Talking three weeks after major political convulsions at the centre of the Myanmar state, Dr David Brenner, Lecturer at the Department of International Relations at the School of Global Studies, University of Sussex, discusses his book Rebel Politics: A Political Sociology of Armed Struggle in Myanmar's Borderlands and how ethnic armed organisations...

Join us for an elaboration on collaborative museum exhibitions with Dr Georg Noack, Senior Curator for South and Southeast Asia, at the Linden-Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Georg worked with the Kayan and Kayaw communities in Kayah State to develop a new exhibition both in person and online that focuses on the region's many material cultures. Visit in your browser here: https://sammlung-digital.li...

Recorded on January 13, 2021, this episode focuses on the life of U Dhammaloka, a fascinating figure in Myanmar history. Born on the Emerald Isle and ordained in the Golden Land, U Dhammaloka's story and contribution to Burmese and imperial politics and global Buddhism is the subject of a new book by Dr Alicia Turner, Associate Professor of Humanities and Religious Studies at York University, name...

Burmese Prince Myingun is an enigmatic historical figure, at once a rebel who enacted a murderous coup, an exile who never gave up hope and a trickster who moved at the interstices of colonial Southeast Asia at the turn of the 20th century. Dr Penny Edwards, Associate Professor in the Department of South & Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, is in the final stages of...

What is Myanmar's culture of giving and how does the gift work to maintain social bonds in rural Myanmar? Dr Hiroko Kawanami, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion at Lancaster University, UK, discusses her recently published book with Bloomsbury Academic Press, "The Culture of Giving in Myanmar: Buddhist Offerings, Reciprocity and Interdependence" (2020).

Millions of Burmese workers in Thailand are routinely underpaid, overworked and predated upon by a coercive police force. What is the labour regime under which these workers try to earn their livelihoods and how can we better understand the challenges they face? Dr Stephen Campbell, Assistant Professor in the School of Social Sciences at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore discusses his st...

This is a recording of a webinar held by the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific and the Myanmar Research Centre on November 19, 2020. Two Myanmar experts at the ANU convene and moderate a discussion with four researchers on the controversies and consequences of the 2020 elections, touching on results for each parliament, systemic issues, party attitudes and prescripti...

Anthropology! What is it good for? In this episode four PhD students of Anthropology at the Australian National University discuss their research into Burmese tea, tomatoes, beer and of course, the people of Myanmar. This is a special collaborative episode with The Familiar Strange, an Anthropology-focused podcast of the ANU, and hosted by Alexander Emile D'Aloia.

Elections expert Su Mon Thant and Ben Dunant, Managing Editor at Frontier Myanmar, converse on whether the upcoming 2020 elections represent a backwards step for the institutionalisation of democracy in the country. They focus on the UEC, political parties and the effects of COVID-19 in this deliberative and wide-ranging discussion.

Come curious and hungry to this podcast and you won't be disappointed! From delectable bamboo shoots to deliciously pungent akhuni, from changing rice beer traditions to expanding fruit wine markets, Dr Dolly Kikon, an Anthropologist at the University of Melbourne, discusses how Naga fermentation cultures and foodways are changing and connected to regional as well as global stories and histories i...

Naga society is undergoing significant change as a consequence of ceasefires and the easing of conflict in north-east India. Matt Wilkinson, a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, discusses his thesis on the Naga people and their homelands, emphasising how gender is important for understanding these changes and their concomitant reactions.

How do Bama Buddhists conceptualise social relations, prestige and gender difference? In an episode primed for outsiders trying to understand mainstream Myanmar culture, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas, Ward Keeler, discusses his book The Traffic in Hierarchy: Masculinity and its Others in Buddhist Burma, published in 2017 by the University of Hawai'i Press.

Many ethnic parties are running for seats in the 2020 elections, pushing for increased influence and rights. Will ethnic parties fare better in this election compared to 2015? What challenges are they facing? This episode is a recording of a seminar held by the Swedish Burma Committee on September 23rd with panelists Ying Lao of the Salween Institute and Ko Sai Ye Kyaw Swar Myint of PACE Myanmar,...

In the lead up to the elections this November, we cannot hope to understand the beliefs and actions of civilian political elites in Myanmar without grasping the underlying meanings that they attach to the word democracy - according to our guest Dr Tamas Wells, Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Tamas wrote his PhD thesis on the diverging...

This is a syndicated episode from the Asia Research News Podcast discussing the Doing Research in Myanmar report on how social science research is produced, distributed and used in the country. We hear from U Zaw Oo at the CESD, previously known as the MDRI, and from others at the GDN, ANU and elsewhere. The full report can be viewed here .

Who were the Baptists and why are they important to Burmese history? In our 50th episode we talk about the nineteenth-century American Baptist mission to Burma with Dr Alexandra Kaloyanides from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The borderland of Samut Sakhon province in Thailand has recently had a huge majority of its workers hailing from Myanmar. How did the Burmese end up in such large numbers there in particular, and how does Thai society view their presence? Dr Puttaporn Areeprachakun (Jip), Lecturer in the Department of Geography at Chulalongkorn University, joins us to discuss her ethnographic research on these mul...

How does Wa State, a polity ostensibly within Myanmar, thrive relatively peacefully, yet independently of the formal Myanmar State? Dr Hans Steinmüller, Associate Professor in Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science, sketches a picture of Wa State and life within its politics of care and capture.

More than 800,000 Rohingya people have been forced from their homes and the country in which they were born by the Burmese military. Disturbingly, this has happened in such force only after Myanmar's hybrid regime instituted partial civilian government in 2010-11. Kirt Mausert, PhD Student at the University of California, Berkeley, outlines why and how the Rohingya community of Myanmar have been r...

Who will win the November 8, 2020 elections in Myanmar and what is at stake in an NLD or USDP victory? What should we be paying attention to over the next three months as the COVID-affected campaign heats up? All this and more in our first "big picture" elections podcast with Ei Ei Toe Lwin, Chief Election Correspondent and Ben Dunant, Managing Editor, both at Frontier Myanmar - and Dr Gerard McCa...

Dr Charlotte Galloway from the Australian National University discusses the art of the ancient capital city Bagan, the Ananda temple, ongoing research, tourism and development there, and how universities and museums in Myanmar are re-engaging with the international community to nurture and further explore Bagan as a new UNESCO World Heritage site.

Nats are hugely powerful, influential spirit beings believed to inhabit the trees, towns and buildings of Myanmar. Dr Sally Bamford discusses the history, folk tales and art history of nats, including how they are connected to Buddhism yet retain their animist roots in many ways.

In our annual Press Freedom episode, journalists Tom Kean and Ben Dunant discuss how COVID-19 is the final "nail in the coffin" for traditional advertising-based media in Myanmar and evaluate the government's and the media's responses to the pandemic.

Mike Dunford, PhD Candidate in Anthropology at the Australian National University, takes us on a whirlwind tour of all things tea leaf salad, a uniquely Myanmar dish that is still ragingly popular. Who grows tea in Myanmar, how, where? How do you ferment tea? What is the difference between tea for eating and tea for drinking? It's all here!