Call for applications - Workshop for PhDs & ECRs

Workshop for graduate research students and early career researchers

Applications due date: Friday 19 May 202
Workshop date: Thursday 20 July 2023
Workshop venue: The Australian National University, Canberra

Eligibility

The workshop is open to all students currently enrolled in a humanities, arts, or political or social science research degree (undergraduate honours, masters with research component, MPhil, PhD) at a higher education institution in Australia or New Zealand, as well as Myanmar nationals or early career researchers in Myanmar or Southeast Asia. Myanmar nationals in Australia are strongly encouraged to apply.

While in-person attendance is preferred for those that can travel within Australia, we will seek to accommodate participants who are unable to travel to Australia by offering the possibility of online participation.

Travel costs and stipends

Participants in Australia will be eligible to receive a travel stipend to offset the costs of travel and accommodation associated with attending the conference.

Expectations

Participants are expected to attend all workshop sessions and to contribute to group discussion. Pre-reading material will be circulated ahead of the workshop. After the workshop, participants will be encouraged to submit a short research paper for publication on the ANU MRC website, in English or Burmese. Participants who have been selected to present a paper at the Myanmar Update will not be required to submit a paper for the workshop but have the option of doing so. Myanmar Update participants whose expenses will be offset by the conference organisers will be expected to attend the workshop.

Application process

Please submit:

  1. a 250-word expression of interest outlining your current research, previous research experience, and interest in attending the workshop; along with
  2. a brief curriculum vitae (2 pages max) to Hunter Marston at Hunter.Marston@anu.edu.au or Samuel Hmung at Samuel.Hmung@anu.edu.au.

Deadline

Deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 19 May 2023.

Successful applicants will be notified shortly after the closing date.

Contact

For further information, please contact: 

ECR Workshop Call for EOI Burmese version: click here

Please note this workshop is by-invitation only. 

 

Myanmar studies since the 2021 coup - Workshop for graduate research students and early career researchers

This workshop will bring together early career researchers and PhD scholars of Myanmar to share experiences and lessons learned regarding fieldwork, methods, research, and writing since the February 2021 coup.

The workshop will comprise of several panels over the course of one day, immediately prior to the ANU Myanmar Update conference on 21-22 July 2023.

The sessions will address fieldwork and data generation, researching at a geographic distance, ethics, policy engagement, and new challenges for those wanting to speak, write and publish about Myanmar.

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre will provide ongoing support to participants who are interested in submitting a paper to the working paper series or sharing their research as part of the MRC Dialogue Series.

Professorial Lecture Series

This public lecture marks the culmination of our Professorial Lecture Series this year, a captivating series of four presentations, all dedicated to honouring our distinguished academics while highlighting their profound contributions to research and education.

 

About the event

Ambitious claims are often made today for big data analytics as the preeminent tool for understanding and predicting human behaviour. In this talk, Professor Benjamin Penny will 'zoom in' to consider the value of a micro- rather than a macro-perspective, focusing on the utility of the specific, the local, and the individual for analysing human society.

A famous aphorism, variously attributed to Roman Jakobson and Nietzsche, has it that philology is the art of reading slowly. It was only after Benjamin had completed many years of his education in Chinese that he realised that reading slowly had been the foundation of his disciplinary practice.

The intense focus philology has on the specific ramifications of each word as we read has been a key methodological underpinning of Benjamin's work. While 'big data' analytics undoubtedly has its value taking the specific instance seriously - a single life, one group of religious practitioners, the small data - can still be beautiful.

 

Agenda

6-7pm Academic lecture

7-7.30pm Networking drinks & canapes

 

About the speaker

Benjamin Penny is a professor of Chinese history and religion in the School of Culture, History and Language at ANU College of Asia and the Pacific. His research examines religious and spiritual movements in modern and contemporary China as well as in medieval times; Taiwanese religion and society, and expatriate society in the treaty ports in the nineteenth century.

Read more about Benjamin's profile here.