Everyday City-making under Authoritarianism - Research and Teaching in Myanmar

You are cordially invited to attend the research seminar by Jayde Lin-Roberts:

Date: Thursday, August 29th 2024

Time: 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM

Venue: SDE3 Level 4 LT 427

Everyday City-making under Authoritarianism – Research and Teaching in Myanmar

Real change seemed to be on the horizon for Myanmar starting in 2012, but authoritarianism once again cast its grim shadow in February 2021. How does a scholar undertake research and teaching about – and within – Burmese cities when interactions with foreigners could put Burmese people at risk and information about urban development is heavily censored by the state? This presentation discusses the challenges and ethics of doing research in Myanmar through three different projects spanning 2007 to 2023. We will examine how ethnographic and participatory research can reveal everyday city-making by diverse populations, build research capacity in students and local activists, support collaborative writing as a form of subaltern solidarity, and inform teaching about Southeast Asian cities.

Jayde Lin Roberts is an interdisciplinary scholar of Urban Studies and Southeast Asian Studies, currently in the School of Built Environment at UNSW Sydney. Her research in Myanmar focuses on urban informality, heritage-making, and the effects of transnational networks. During her 2016-2018 Fulbright US Scholar term, she worked with Myanmar universities and municipal departments to investigate discourses of urban development in Yangon. Her publications include Mapping Chinese Rangoon: Place and Nation among the Sino-Burmese, the first monograph on Yangon’s Chinatown, as well as articles and book chapters for both academic and professional audiences.