This is an event series of readings and discussions of works in progress. We focus on issues of identity, conflict and religion in Burma from the nineteenth century to the present.
This is a pivotal moment for Burma and the study of Burma. The next years will see a huge transition for the country and its diasporas. It is key to think through both the long history of the current fractures in Burmese society (religious identities, ethnic identities) as well as how the contemporary situation reconfigures these in important ways. The speakers are organized in four thematic clusters: Religious Minorities; Ethnicities and Belonging; Critical Studies of Buddhist Monasticism; Economy, Activism and Politics. The series is organized by Alicia Turner (Humanities).
All are welcome. For more information: ycar[at]yorku.ca.
2024–25 events
Algorithm-Human Interactions in a Revolutionary Situation: Hidden & Public Transcripts of Digital Resistance in Myanmar | Thiha Wint Aung | Wednesday, 09 October 2024
Matter and Memory: the Formation and Reformation of Pagoda Trusts in Burma | Peter Alexander, York University | Wednesday, 23 October 2024
Fact Checking in Low-Resource Languages: A New Dataset and Transformer Model for the Burmese Language | Lwin Moe, York University | Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Riot | Sana Aiyar | Wednesday, 04 December 2024
The Phaung Daw Oo Buddhas: Transformation Through Touch Worship | Gillian Graham | Wednesday, 15 January 2024
Policy Deliberations and Emotions: Formulating Myanmar's Health Policy | Tun Min Oo, Chiang Mai University | Wednesday, 29 January 2024
Role of Media in the Transition: Perspectives from Myanmar (2012–2021) | Nathan Maung | 26 February 2024
Earlier events
Pāramī and Rebirth in the Lives of Thilashin | M K Long, Cornell University | 25 April 2023
Ma Ba Tha in Myanmar: Contesting and Shaping Modern Buddhist Subjectivities | Matthew J Walton, University of Toronto | 28 March 2023
A Political Lexicon of Myanmar | Nick Cheesman, Australian National University | 10 February 2023
‘Peace’ as ‘peace for business and development’ or ‘peace’ as ‘an end to violence, oppression’ and ‘presence of justice’?: Understanding Karen people’ assertion of ‘genuine’ peace and peacebuilding process through the Salween Peace Park | Sheila Htoo, Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, York University | 25 November 2022
Making Religion through Moral Practice in Colonial Burma: Intoxication, Women and Inter-religious Collaboration | Hitomi Fujimura, York Centre for Asian Research, York University | 28 October 2022
Discourses on Secularism and Burmese Anti-colonial Subjectivities | Htet Min Lwin, Religious Studies, York University | 14 October 2022
Real Change: Converting Politics in Myanmar | Michael Edwards, Centre of South Asian Studies, University of Cambridge | 12 April 2022
Imagining an Overseas Chinese Community in Colonial Burma | Siew Han Yeo, Doctoral Candidate in History, University of Toronto | 7 April 2022
Women’s Participation and Visibility in the Anti-Military Online Movement in Myanmar | Isabella Aung, PhD Student, Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University | 15 March 2022
Exposing Enlightenment: The 'Living Arahant' in Photography and Print in Post-colonial Burma | Tony Scott, Department of the Study of Religion, University of Toronto | 01 March 2022
Objects of Religious Change in the Konbaung Kingdom | Alexandra Kaloyanides, Assistant Professor, Religious Studies, University of North Carolina Charlotte | 16 February 2022
Awareness of Nationality and the Responsibility for Nation through the Christian Youth Networks: A Case Study of the Burmese Baptists in the 1900s | Hitomi Fujimura, Postdoctoral Fellow, York University | 02 February 2022
Negotiating Antifascist Solidarity across Ethnic Difference in Myanmar: Bhamo Tin Aung’s Yoma Taikbwe | Stephen Campbell, Assistant Professor, Social Sciences, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore | 15 December 2021
Geographies of Production and Reproduction: The Case of Myanmar Migrant Factory Workers in Thailand | Carli Melo, PhD student, Geography York University | 18 November 2021