The International Conference on Burma /Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) committee would like to invite submissions for ICBMS4, which will be hosted at Chiang Mai University on the 2nd – 4th August 2024, titled: ‘Assemblages of the Future: Rethinking Communities after the State’.

Three years after the coup and amid desperate circumstances, the people of Myanmar have responded with renewed thought and action to reimagine the present and future for themselves and their communities. As it has become clear that many traditional forms of authority have had their power eroded – notably the inability of the Myanmar “state” to carry out basic functions – such emergent realities present both opportunities and challenges.

The “assemblages” of the future refers to new “entangled ways of life,” what Anna Tsing calls the “mosaic of temporal rhythms and spatial arcs” as taking place in Myanmar of 2024. This framing asks scholars to situate their work within this contested reality, and ask critical questions about the emergent future. In particular, this refers to the complex rhythms of Myanmar’s social reality, where many aspects of culture, power and life have been transformed after the coup, yet others remain stubbornly intact – for better or worse. In simple terms, in this state of flux, how do we understand how the people of Myanmar are acting in the present to (re)assemble their future commons in its various forms?

ICBM4 in Chiang Mai therefore seeks to foster academic debate and facilitate dialogue to progress the scholarly understanding of what is happening in Myanmar. We would like to invite individual abstracts as well as panel proposals, roundtable proposals from interested academics, researchers, graduate students, and professionals, as well as practitioners engaged in the field of Burma/Myanmar studies. While we welcome submissions on any aspect relating to the study of Burma/Myanmar, we particularly encourage scholars to consider how their work speaks to this contested present and future, as highlighted through these suggested themes:

Conference Themes

Negotiating New Realities: Power, Practice, and Praxis

• Emergent Governance and Civilian Protection
• Multipolarity in a Contested Region
• Resilience and Localisation in Service Provision: Education, Healthcare, and Religion
• Energy, Infrastructure and Sustainable Development

Identity, Territory, and Belonging amidst Conflict and Climate Change

• Ethnicity and Territoriality
• Border Politics & Transnationalism
• Migration, Forced Displacement and Refugees
• Livelihoods, Agriculture and Food Systems

Uncovering Lived Experiences and Marginalised Narratives

• Nascent, Marginal and Informal Economies
• Inequality and Empowerment
• Gender, Sexuality and Power
• Civil Disobedience, Social Movements and Everyday Life

Remaking Knowledge and Finding Truth in Revolution

• Discourses of Peace, Conflict, and Justice
• Propaganda, Media and Information Landscapes
• Arts, Literature and Popular Culture
• Research Ethics, Decolonization and Methodological Challenges

For further information, please contact the ICBMS IV Secretariat at icbms.cmu@gmail.com

Important Dates:

Deadline of Abstract & Panel proposal submission: 30 April 2024
Announcement of accepted abstract and proposal: 31 May 2024
Early bird registration: 1 June 2024
Deadline for full-paper submission: 30 June 2024
Registration of Participants (Audience): TBA
Conference Dates: 2 – 4 August 2024

About ICBMS

In July 2015, Chiang Mai University hosted the first International Conference on Burma / Myanmar Studies (ICBMS) entitled  ‘Burma/Myanmar in Transition: Connectivity, Changes and Challenges.’ The second edition of ICBMS was held at Mandalay University, co-hosted with Chiang Mai University in 2018, bringing together 543 participants from 29 countries, with 48 sessions of paper presentation and 7 roundtables. The third and largest ICBMS (to date) was delayed, finally being held as a hybrid event in March 2021. Over 1000 participants joined from across the globe under the title of ‘Myanmar / Burma in the Changing South East Asia Context.’