We are pleased to announce Oona Paredes (UCLA) and Ardeth Maung Thawnghmung (University of Massachusetts Lowell) as our keynote speakers this year.
Thawnghmung Ardeth Maung is Professor and Chair of Political Science Department at University of Massachusetts Lowell. She was born and raised in Myanmar and is a member of Karen ethnic group. Her areas of specialization are on Myanmar/Southeast Asian politics, ethnic politics, and political economy. Her most recent book is Everyday Economic Survival in Myanmar (University of Wisconsin Press, 2019). Her forthcoming book, “Winning by Process: The State and Neutralization of Ethnic Minorities in Myanmar” (Cornell University Press), is a collaboration with Canadian academics Jacques Bertrand (University of Toronto) and Alexandre Pelletier (Cornell University). She has written numerous books and articles on ethnic politics in Myanmar, with particular emphasis on the evolution of center-peripheral relationships, the role of non-armed minority populations, the divisions within minority ethnic populations, and the implications of democracy on ethnic conflicts. Her Thursday, 21 October talk is titled “Academic Research in Post-coup Myanmar: Challenges in Ethics, Values, Safety, and Best Practices.”
Oona Paredes is a Southeast Asianist specializing in the ethnographic and archival study of the southern Philippines, in particular its indigenous non-Muslim minorities known collectively as the Lumad. Her Sunday, 24 October talk is titled “The Pandemic as Social Movement in Pericolonial Southeast Asia.”