The International Myanmar Students Research Symposium

About Us

Network

A group of concerned researchers, academics, and practitioners has come together to organise this symposium, hoping to provide a forum for young and emerging scholars in/from Myanmar to present their research. We are very excited to welcome undergraduate and graduate students and those who have just started their careers in research or practice (mostly less than two years).

Theme and Topics

This interdisciplinary symposium welcomes presentations on any research topic within Myanmar studies that pertains to social science. We encourage participants to frame their research around the key topics below (but not limited to):

Everyday Myanmar: Lived experiences of young people, (everyday) activism and resistance.
Revolution and Armed Resistance: Social and political implications of violence, moral and ethical dilemmas of violence and non-violence, and their impact on everyday life.
Advocacy and Human Rights: Grassroots development, civil society, community engagement and mobilisation, solidarity movements, building a pluralistic society, art and freedom of expression in post-coup Myanmar.
Cyberspace: digital security, digital revolution, digital activism, and data storytelling.
Research Methods: Methodological, practical, and ethical challenges of doing research in Myanmar.
Gendered experiences: Impact of the conflict, power dynamics, and the intersection of ethnicity, class, sexuality, and (dis)abilities (across the above mentioned topics and beyond).

ORGANIZERS

The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Spring University Myanmar (SUM), and The SecDev Foundation are the three institutional organisers of this symposium. AIT focuses on advancing education through academic excellence, professional development, and fostering networking opportunities with regional academic and research institutes, with a strong focus on gender and development. SUM is an alternative education platform that addresses educational needs in Myanmar by developing bespoke undergraduate and graduate courses and working with education stakeholders inside Myanmar to enhance education systems in liberated areas. The SecDev Foundation specialises in promoting digital resilience among vulnerable populations, safeguarding them from digital threats such as hacking, phishing, social engineering, disinformation, and gender-based violence. Together, these organisations bring extensive expertise in executing impactful educational programmes and ensuring digital security.

DONORS

The symposium is made possible by the generous support of USAID, and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) through their development programme Knowledge for Democracy Myanmar (K4DM).

Conveners and Coordinators

The core team consists of two co-convenors (Professor Kyoko Kusakabe and Anders Moeller), three programme coordinators (Hannah Russell, Balawansuk Lynrah, and Dipannita Maria Bagh), and two admin coordinators (Zar Chi and Khant). We also have five scholars/practitioners who have committed to mentoring the presenters during the symposium.

KYOKO KUSAKABE

Kyoko Kusakabe is a professor of Gender and Development Studies (GDS) at the Department of Development and Sustainability (School of Environment, Resources and Development) at the Asian Institute of Technology. She is a co-PI of the GenderLab project, a platform for activists, researchers, /practitioners, and other concerned people working on or interested in gender equality and democratic justice in Myanmar. GenderLab has a reach of over 50K people through its social media and has a proven track record of building networks through its workshops, discussions and research publications related to gender and democracy in Myanmar. GDS-AIT also works directly with various organisations on research and outreach on gender equality in Myanmar.

Anders Moeller

Anders Moeller is an educator and adviser to Spring University Myanmar (SUM), an alternative education institution founded in the aftermath of the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar. From 2022 to 2024, he founded and led the Institute of Human Rights and Democratic Governance (IHRDG), a postgraduate training institute under SUM, offering diploma programmes in applied social sciences. He previously worked in Myanmar as a policy researcher and entrepreneur, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Urban Geography at the National University of Singapore (NUS). As chair of the IHRDG seminar series, he has organised discussions featuring both national and international scholars on key topics in Myanmar Studies, including the marginalisation of the Rohingya, the military's digital repression tactics, the impact of conflict on communities, and local governance responses to post-coup violence.

Hannah Russell

Hannah Russell is a researcher focused on disability and inclusion in the Myanmar context, and previously lived in Yangon for three years. In 2021 she co-founded Myanmar Action Group Denmark, a volunteer civil society organisation made up of Burmese and Danish activists and academics. She currently manages a higher education programme for displaced scholars in Mizoram. Alongside her research work, she volunteers supporting displaced people on the Thai and India borders through fundraising and technical writing support.

Balawansuk Lynrah

Balawansuk Lynrah is a researcher focused on children and youth geographies in northeastern India. She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of East London (UEL) and a visiting faculty member at Spring University Myanmar (SUM)'s Institute of Human Rights and Democratic Governance. Prior to joining academia, she was a development worker with a community-based organisation in Bodoland, India. Her work mainly focused on conducting action-based research and workshops and monitoring and evaluating projects for non-profit organisations in the northeastern Indian region.

Dipannita Maria Bagh

Dipannita Maria Bagh is the Editor at IHRDG since July 2023. In her role, she oversaw the publication of the IHRDG Quarterly Update in October 2023 and the flagship research publication IHRDG Annual Summary of Myanmar Research 2023 in February 2024, highlighting over a hundred resources consisting mainly of research publications and multimedia related to Myanmar Studies. She previously worked as a Research Assistant at the Netaji Institute for Asian Studies, Kolkata, Department of Higher Education, Government of West Bengal funded project 'The Transformation of Myanmar Politics and the Implications for Regional Cooperation', examining Myanmar's higher education policy landscape. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Political Science at the North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. In September 2024 Dipannita joined the esteemed faculty at IHRDG, where she is coordinating an elective course, 'Diplomacy for a Democratic Myanmar' for the AY 2023-2024.

Zar Chi

Zar Chi is the Gender Lab-K4DM project coordinator at AIT, GDS. She completed a specialised course in Gender and Politics through a collaborative effort between AIT, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and Gender Equality Network (GEN) in August 2021. Her academic background includes a postgraduate diploma in Development Studies from the Yangon Institute of Economics, Myanmar in 2005 and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Dagon, Myanmar. Throughout her career spanning over a decade, she has been actively engaged with international organisations and civil society organisations, working to advance the rights and opportunities of marginalised communities, particularly women and key populations.

Khant

Khant is a Project Officer for a collaborEconomicsative project between K4DM and SecDev under a small grant research initiative at AIT, GDS. She has researched on labour rights issues, focusing particularly on the rights of female workers in the Thilawa Special Economic Zone. Khant earned a Master's Degree in Social Science (Development Studies) from Chiang Mai University in 2022.