Class 13 - Race in Myanmar

Welcome back!

Welcome back. Today, we’re going to be talking about race in Myanmar.

Opening Questions

1. What do race and ethnicity mean to you? Do they mean the same thing to you? If not, what are the differences?
2. What race and/or ethnicity do you identify with/as?
3. In what ways are race and ethnicity significant factors in your own community/communities?
4. How have ideas of race / ethnicity affected you personally?

After you’ve had five minutes to make notes on these questions, I’ll put you in breakout groups. We’ll feed back on the breakout groups afterwards

Discussion of Reading

Now we’re going to discuss Than Toe Aung’s piece which was set as reading homework. Here are some questions for you.

Discussion

Finally, in discussion groups, I want you to talk about the following:

1. What did you find most persuasive or compelling about this piece?
2. To what extent does it reflect your own experiences?
3. What challenges does it raise for how we think about the relationship between ethnicity, religion and nationhood?

Break!

Let’s have a short break

Race and Social Policy

Now in your groups, I’m going to get you to work in groups to come up with a series of specific policy recommendations that might addres some of the issues of race in Myanmar.

I’ll give you 20 minutes to talk about this in groups. And then we’ll feed back in the main group. Each group will need up to five concrete policy proposals.

Homework

For next time, I want you to the essay I’m going to share called “Belonging across religion, race, and nation in Burma-Myanmar” by Chie Ikeya. It’s quite a long read. But it’s fascinating! Write a response to this before the next class (graded).