Abstracts and Bios
Nyein Chan May
Nyein Chan May is co-founder and chairperson of German Solidarity with Myanmar Democracy e.V. (GSwMD). She is currently studying Political Science and Sociology in Germany. Before she came to Germany, she was a student activist in Myanmar and co-founded the Students' Union at Yangon University of Foreign Languages. Chan has given several interviews to German speaking media and public talks in European Parliament, German Federal Foreign Office about what is happening in Myanmar.
Geoffrey Aung: “Revolution and Re-enchantment: The Past and Present of Myanmar’s Radical Tradition”
The revolutionary upsurge that followed the 2021 military coup in Myanmar has reignited long-standing debates over theory and practice on Myanmar’s radical left. Armed groups, newly formed left organizations, militant sections of student and trade unions, and an emergent left media ecology have returned to and re-examined concerns that animated leftist discourse at key junctures in Myanmar’s twentieth century, from the anticolonial struggle to decolonization and from Communist insurgency to ethnic rebellion. Questions about the mass strike and peasant insurgency; class structure and political leadership; the national question and communal attachments; and shifts in imperial power have all returned to prominence in an openly revolutionary present. Mapping this resurgent leftist landscape, I argue that it is indebted to—while in tension with—what I conceptualize as the Myanmar radical tradition: an anti-authoritarian leftist tradition in which capitalism, empire, and the militarized state apparatus demand outright abolition. This paper places Myanmar’s revolutionary past and present in conversation with radical traditions elsewhere, from calls for unconditional decolonization in the Philippines to the Marxism of the Black radical tradition. It also reads Myanmar’s ongoing revolution as a temporal provocation. Here, an array of political subjects recombine and rework multiple temporal scales, not least by rethinking historicity and historical memory in relation to Marxisms past. This (re)making of a revolutionary timescape suggests a need to move beyond the long shadows of 20th century revolutionary failure, which find their echoes in recent discourses of disenchantment and melancholia.
Geoffrey Aung is a postdoctoral research and teaching associate (Universitätsassistent) in the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Vienna. His current book project examines the aesthetics, politics, and historicity of logistical capitalism, based on ethnographic fieldwork around a major economic zone in southern Myanmar.
Georg Bauer: “Achieving Historical Unity? Forming New Narratives through the Revolution”
There has been much talk about “unity” within the Revolution following the military coup of February 2021, pointing to either “unprecedented” unity amongst the many ethnic, political, and religious (resistance) groups, or decrying the lack thereof. While both views have merit, this lecture deals with a specific kind of potential unity that could arise out of the Revolution, namely one on views and narratives of history. Dating back to colonial times, different ethnic groups of today’s Myanmar have told different, often conflicting versions of the region’s history, which in turn have been used to justify different political and constitutional demands. The failure to reconcile these demands have contributed to the failure of state- and nation-building, and civil war in modern Burma. Viewing historical narratives as an integral part of collective identity, I will argue that the debates within the Revolution and a successful common ousting of the military and liberation of the country could reconcile these different narratives and shape new ones on which a common union identity could be built.
Georg Bauer is a PhD candidate and teaching associate (Universitätsassistent) in the Department of History at the University of Vienna. His research deals with the role of historical narratives for nation- and state-building in Burma. From 2018-2020, he worked at the Delegation of the European Union to Myanmar, as well as at the Australian Embassy in Myanmar, working on human rights and the civil war/”peace process”.
Thurein Naing: “Amyo, Batha, Sasana, and Political Buddhism in Myanmar: Origins and Continuities”
The Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA) was founded in 1906 by a group of college-educated Rangoon urbanites. Under the Motto of “Amyo (Race-Nation), Batha (Religion), and Sasana, the YMBA mobilized the politically disorganized and socially despaired Burmese to negotiate for political and socio-cultural concessions from the colonial government. The period also saw a transformation of Buddhism in Burma. While holding immense socio-cultural influence, the Burmese Sanga (clergy) never held political power over the pre-colonial Burmese society. However, under the YMBA’s motto of “Amyo, Batha, and Sasana,” the Sanga started to get politically involved in colonial society. The presentation explores these transformations and their continuities and manipulation in contemporary Burmese politics.
Thurein Naing is a historian in training, currently studying M.A Comparative History at Central European University. His research interests include Burmese political thought, military history, politics of resistance, and contemporary history.
Aung Zaw Myo: “Queer Spaces in the Spring Revolution”
The Myanmar Spring Revolution (2021 – until now) started off not only as an anti-military resistance movement but also challenged social norms regarding sex, gender, and sexuality, at least in the beginning. The presentation will look at if/how queer people occupied spaces within the two years of this social movement. As a theoretical framework, Nancy Fraser’s critique to Habermas’ public sphere will be used. She argued that the bourgeois conception of public sphere is not adequate for democracy in late capitalist societies. As an alternative, she proposed a multiplicity of publics suits more in stratified societies than a single public sphere. The talk will also look into homophobic rhetoric in anti-military discourses and locate how queer people in Burma formed a counter public.
Aung Zaw Myo is a master’s student at the Gender Studies Department, Central European University (CEU). He studied medicine at the University of Medicine, Mandalay. He previously worked at a local feminist organization in Yangon. He used to write short stories in Burmese and has translated four fictions from English to Burmese, including The Mersault Investigation by Kamel Daoud and Multiple Choice by Alejandro Zambra.
Su Myat Wai Hlaing: “Opportunities and Threats in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution”
The key factors of the Myanmar Spring Revolution are the Civil Disobedience Movement, the nonviolent protests, the military boycott campaign, the government in exile, and the armed revolution. The political opportunities of the revolution are the mobilization strategies on social media, increasing access of the people’s participation, the formation of new alliances and cutting resources of the military junta. The military imposes both repressive and suppressive threats on the revolution. The revolutionary forces need to build their capacity, reduce potential threats by the junta, and extend resources and opportunities to be able to succeed in the revolution.
Su Myat Wai Hlaing is a Master Degree Student from the Department of Political Science, Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria. Her research interest includes elections, electoral systems, political parties, voting behavior and social movements. She got her BA(Hons) in Political Science with first class honors from University of Mandalay, Myanmar in 2018. She worked as a short-term observer of the 2018 By-Election and as a long-term observer of 2020 General Election in Myanmar with People’s Alliance for Credible Elections (PACE). She is currently working as a researcher for the Asia-Europe Foundation.