FASS Staff Profile

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MAITRII V. AUNG-THWIN
CONVENER, COMPARATIVE ASIAN STUDIES PHD PROGRAM/ DEPUTY DIRECTOR, ASIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE/
DEPARTMENT of HISTORY

Appointment:
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Office:
AS1/05-34
Email:
hismvat@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
+65 6516-6053
Fax:
+65 6774-2528
Homepage:
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/hismvat/
Tabs

Brief Introduction

Maitrii Aung-Thwin received his PhD from the University of Michigan (2001) where he studied Burmese and Southeast Asian history. He has lived in and conducted research on Southeast Asia for over two decades.  He is currently Deputy Director of the Asia Research Institute, Convener of the Comparative Asian Studies PhD Program, and Editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 


Teaching Areas

Dr. Aung-Thwin offers a range of undergraduate and graduate modules in Asian and World History. Some of his more regular undergraduate courses include "Asia in the Moder World" , "Introduction to Southeast Asian History", and "From Monarchy to Military: History of Myanmar". Graduate courses recently offered include "Asian Studies in Asia", "Approaches to Southeast Asian History" and "Theory and Archive".


Graduate Supervision

PHD STUDENTS
 

2023-Current Ms. Kyi Kyi Sein          [Crisis and Revolution in Myanmar]

2022-Current  Mr. Arthur Swan          [1st Anglo Burmese War]

2022-Current  Mr. He Junde              [Asian Public Intellectuals in Japan and Indonesia]

2019-Current Ms. Jessica Yeo           [Comparative Religious Movements]

2019-Current   Mr. Thaw Dar              [Migration, Myanmar-Japan]

2018-Current   Ms. Kang Minji            [Sangha-State, Modern Myanmar]

2017-2022   Mr. Jung Hojai                 [Media and the State, Korea-Myanmar]

2017-2022   Ms. Ma Ling                    [Borderlands, Yunnan-Myanmar]

2017-Current   Ms. You Chenxue       [Diplomatic History, China-Myanmar Border]

2017-Current.  Ms. Moe Thuzar         [Diplomatic History, Myanmar]

2014-2018.      Mr. Anisur Rahman     [Socio-Legal Studies, Knowledge Production, Bangladesh]

2014-2020.      Mr. Phyo Win Latt       [Nationalism, Identity, Myanmar]

2013-2017.      Mr. Kisho Tsuchia       [Ethno-history, Knowledge Production, East Timor]

2012-2016.      Mr. Ruel Pagunsan     [Natural History, Colonialism, Philippines]


 

MASTERS STUDENTS
 

2023-Current   Ms. Chen Beiqi, "Chinese Perspectives of Contemporary Myanmar Leadership"

2009-2011.       Ms. Sheena Kumari, “Mapping the Unknown: Empire, Gender, and the Oriental ‘Other’ in Women’s Travel Narratives of Colonial Southeast Asia”.

2007-2009.       Mr. Ho Chi Tim, “A Situated History of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies (1960-1979)”.

2005-2007.       Ms. Nurfadzilah Yahaya, “Good Friends and Dangerous Enemies: British Images of the Arab Elite in Colonial Singapore”. 

2005-2006.       Ms. Chua Hui Ching Emily (Co-advisor with Huang Jianli)

 

 


Current Research

  • Dr. Aung-Thwin's current research is broadly concerned with the social history of nation-building and in particular the role of Burmese scholar-officials in the epistemological construction of Myanmar.
     
  • A second project explores the relationship between Myanmar nation-building and Buddhist transnationalisms in South and Southeast Asia through the activities of Myanmar's religious and business communities.
     
  • A third research project examines the historical and ethnographic construction of national identity in Myanmar.

Research Interests

Dr. Aung-Thwin is interested in questions that pertain to historiography, intellectual history and the construction of knowledge in and about Southeast Asia. Much of his research has been influenced by area-studies writings on colonialism/post-colonialism, ethno-history, socio-legal studies, public history, the history of anthropology, Buddhist scholarship, and heritage.


Publications

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED

  • 2013. A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times: Traditions and Transformations with Michael Aung-Thwin (Revised and Updated), London: Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press.
  • 2012. A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times: Traditions and Transformations, with Michael A. Aung-Thwin, Reaktion Books/University of Chicago Press.
  • 2011. The Return of the Galon King: History, Law, and Rebellion in Colonial Burma, Ohio University Press.
  • 2010. A New History of Southeast Asia, with M.C. Ricklefs, Bruce Lockhart, Albert Lau, and Portia Reyes, Palgrave-Macmillan.

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

  • 2013. "Recovering Peasant Politics in Colonial Burma: Orientalism, Rebellion, and the Law", Journal of Comparative Law, 7:2. 
  • 2013. "Reassessing Myanmar's Glasnost" in Kyoto Review of Southeast Asia, CSEAS, Kyoto University.
  • 2012. “Towards a National Culture: Chinlone and the Making of a National Sport in Postcolonial Myanmar”, Sports in Society, Vol. 15, No. 10.
  • 2010. “Healing, Rebellion, and the Law: “Ethnologies of Medicine in Colonial Burma, 1928-1932”, Journal of Burma Studies, Vol. 14, September.
  • 2008. “Structuring Revolt: Communities of Interpretation in the Historiography of the Saya San Rebellion”, Vol. 39, (2), Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, June.
  • 2008. “Introduction: Communities of Interpretation and the Construction of Modern Myanmar”, Vol. 39, (2) Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, June.
  • 2003. “Genealogy of a Rebellion Narrative: Law, Ethnology, and Culture in Colonial Burma”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 34 (3), October.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  • 2019. “The Making of Myanmar’s 1947 Constitution: Geography, Ethnicity, and the Law", in Kevin Tan and Ngoc San Bui (eds.) Constitutional Foundings in Southeast Asia, London: Bloomsbury, 2018.
  • 2018. “Connections, Contact, and Community in the Southeast Asia Past: Teaching Transnational History Through Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace”, in Jane Wong (ed.) Asia and the Historical Imagination, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018.
  • 2017. “The State”, in Adam Simpson, Nicholas Farrell, Ian Holliday (eds.) Routledge Guidebook to Contemporary Myanmar, Oxford: Taylor Francis, 2017
  • 2013. "Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity in Southeast Asia: Defining Communities" in Norman G. Owen (ed.) Routledge Handbook to Southeast Asian History, Routledge. 
  • 2012. "Remembering Kings: Archives, Resistance, and Memory in Colonial and Postcolonial Burma", in Roxana Waterson (ed), Contestations of Memory in Southeast Asia, Singapore: NUS Press.
  • 2011. “The Limping Monk and the Deaf King: Peasant Politics, Subaltern Agency, and the Postcolonial Predicament in Colonial Burma”, in Kenneth Hall and Michael Aung-Thwin (eds), New Perspectives on the History and Historiography of Southeast Asia: Continuing Explorations Routledge.
  • 2010. “Discourses of Emergency in Colonial and Post-colonial Burma” in Victor V. Ramraj and Arun K. Thiruvengadam (eds) Emergency Powers in Asia: Exploring the Limits of Legality, Cambridge University Press.
  • 2008. “Water and Polity in Pre-colonial Southeast Asia: A Preliminary Historiography”, in Peter Borschberg and Martin Krieger (eds) Water and State in Europe and Asia, Manohar Press.

COMPILATION WORK ON BOOKS

  • 2005. “Anti-colonialism, Southeast Asia” in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Charles Scribner and Sons.
  • 2005. “Westernization, Southeast Asia” in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Charles Scribner and Sons.
  • 2005. “Colonialism, Southeast Asia” in New Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Charles Scribner and Sons.

EDITORIAL WORK ON JOURNALS

  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 2, June 2018.
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 49, No. 1, Feb. 2018
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 3, Oct. 2017
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 2, June 2017
  • Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 48, No. 1, February 2017

     

  • 2008. "Communities of Interpretation and the Making of Myanmar", Guest Editor, Special Issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 39, No. 2.

CONFERENCE PAPERS

    • 2014.  "Transnational Sport and Community Formation in Myanmar: The Case of Chinlone", AAS-in-Asia:Asia in Motion, Singapore.
       
    • 2014.  "(Re)Writing the Nation in Southeast Asian History: Plurality, Identity, and Community in Regional Perspective", SEASREP Workshop Plural Identities in Southeast Asia, Manila, Philippines.
       
    • 2013.  “Towards a National Culture in Myanmar: Public History, Identity, and the Making of the National Museum System, 1952-1962”, International Convention of Asian Scholars, Macao, China.
       
    • 2012. “Imperial Inter-texuality and the Making of a Burmese-Bengali Criminal: Saya San’s Connection to the Chittagong Armory Raid Case of 1930”, International Burma Studies Conference, Northern Illinois University.
       
    • 2012.  “Communities of Interpretation and the Intellectual Histories of Southeast Asia”, The Development of Southeast Asian Historical and Political Discourse, SEASREP, Bali, Indonesia.
       
    • 2012.  “The Shwedagon in Sumatra: Buddhism, Trans-nationalism, and Patronage in Burmese and Southeast Asian History”, Busan University of Foreign Studies.
       
    • 2012. “Towards a National Culture: Chinlone and the Construction of Sport in Postcolonial Myanmar”, Association for Asian Studies Conference, Toronto, Canada.
       
    • 2011. “Resistance as a Category in Southeast Asian History”, Outer Civilization and Infra-Culture in Southeast Asia, Busan University of Foreign Studies.
       
    • 2011. “World History from the Rimlands: Two Southeast Asian Perspectives, World History Association Conference, China, July.
       
    • 2011. “Resistance as a Category in Southeast Asian Cultural History: A Millenarian Rebellion”, ISEAS-Korea/Pusan University of Foreign Studies (S. Korea), June.
       
    • 2011.  “Writing Myanmar: Communities of Interpretation and the Construction of a Southeast Asian Nation”, Writing Asia: Textual Traditions, Scriptural Modernities, Singapore.
       
    • 2010. “Towards a National Culture: Chinlone and the Construction of a National Sport in Colonial and Post-colonial Burma”, April.
       
    • 2010. “Maitreya’s Diary? Colonialism, Scholarship, and Millenial Revolt in British Burma”, ISEAS, Singapore, July.
       
    • 2009. “Discourses of Emergency in Colonial and Postcolonial Burma”, Workshop NUS Law Faculty, May.
       
    • 2008. “Forgotten Rebels: Ethnologies of Nostalgia and Peasant Resistance in Colonial Burma, 1930-1932”, AAS. March.
       
    • 2007. “The Jurisprudence of Rebellion: Orientalist Ethnologies and the Criminalization of the Domestic in Colonial Burma”. EuroSeas, Italy, November.
       
    • 2006. “Communities of Interpretation and the Making of Modern Burma”, AAS, San Francisco, March.
       
    • 2005. “Casting Futures: Rebellion Ethnographies, Archives, and the Law in Colonial Burma”, ARI, Singapore, July.
       
    • 2005. “Genealogies in Myanmar Studies” AAS, Chicago, March.
       
    • 2004. “Prosecuting Priests: Law, Ethnography, and Rebellion in Colonial Burma”, IAHA, Taiwan, December.
       
    • 2003. “Legalizing a Rebellion Ethnology in Colonial Burma”, ICAS, Singapore August.
       
    • 2003. “Prioritizing Processes in Modern Southeast Asian History”, Asia Pacific International Scholars Association, November.
       
    • 2003. "Guidebooks, Galons, and Genealogies: Legalizing Ethnology in Colonial Burma” AAS, New York, March.

     


     

PAPERS FOR SEMINAR, PUBLIC TALK, LECTURE

  •  

     

    • 2014. "In the Shadow of the King: Rural Resistance and Special Rebellion Law in Colonial Burma, 1930-1937", Southeast Asian Studies Research Center, City University of Hong Kong, Nov. 24th.
       
    • 2014. "Community as a Category in Southeast Asian History", UNESCO Shared Histories Project, 2nd Experts Meeting, Bangkok Thailand, September 16-17.
       
    • 2014. “Integration and the Challenge of Reform: Myanmar’s Long Transition, 1948-2014”, IEDP Myanmar-Burma Symposium, Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, 1st February, 2014.
       
    • 2014. "Burma's Liberalization: Prospects for Democracy and the Role of the United States", American Center/Association for International Affairs, Prague, Czech Republic, January 22nd.
       
    • 2014. “Assessing Change in Contemporary Myanmar”, ALYAS – AMO, Lectures for Young Asia Scholars, Prague, Czech Republics, January 23rd.
       
    • 2013. "Integration and the Challenge of Reform", Myanmar in ASEAN: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead for the 2014 ASEAN Chair, ASEAN Studies Center, American University, Washington DC, USA, Dec. 4.
       
    • 2012. "Imagining Myanmar: Conquest, Collapse, and the Struggle for Community", Gardner Center of Asian Arts and Ideas/Jackson School of International Studies, Seattle, WA, USA, September 29th.

Awards and Distinctions

  • 2017. SSRC, "Making Identity Count in Asia", ($74,448)
  • 2016. Faculty Teaching Excellence Award
  • 2014. Tier 1 MOE Grant. "Envisioning Myanmar: Images, Identities, Ideas" ($30, 000.00)
  • 2013. Tier 1 MOE Grant. "Nation-Building and Public History in Myanmar" ($87,765.46.).
  • 2012. ODPRT Research Excellence Award (Top 20% in FASS).
  • 2012. Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.
  • 2012. Faculty Research Support Scheme. ($3500). 
  • 2007. Faculty Research Support Scheme. ($4882.50).
  • 2007. Faculty Teaching Excellence Award.
  • 2004. Faculty Research Support Scheme. ($3880.00).
  • 2003. Faculty Start-up Grant. ($16,800.00).
  • 1998. John D'Arms Outstanding Graduate Student Teaching Award (Univ. of Michigan). 
  • 1995. Department of Education Summer Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship SEASSI (Univ. of Wisconsin)
  • 1994-1997. Department of Education Foreign Language Area Studies Fellowship (Univ. of Michigan)

 

Professional Affiliation

  • Association for Asian Studies
  • International Association of Historians of Asia
  • National Council of Public History
  • International Federation of Public History
  • Burma Studies Group
  • American Historical Association



 

Editorial Boards and Advisory Posts

  • 2017-Current. Member. Board of Directors, SEASREP Foundation

  • 2014-Current. Member. UNESCO Expert & Technical Advisory Committee, Shared Histories Project.

  • 2014-Current. Member. Presidential Nomination Committee, Association for Asian Studies.

  • 2014-Current. Elected Member. Board of Directors, Association for Asian Studies.

  • 2014-Current. Chair. Southeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies (SEAC).

  • 2014-Current.  Assessor, Australian Research Council.

  • 2013-Current. Elected Member. Southeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies (SEAC), Council Member (2013-2016)

  • 2003-Current. Editorial Board. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. Department of History, NUS. 

  • 2003-Current. Advisory Board. Heritage. National Museum of Singapore.

  • 2011-2014. Co-Chairman. Burma Studies Group of the Association for Asian Studies. 

  • 2012-Current. Trustee. Burma Studies Foundation. 

 

 

Continuing Professional Development Training

  • 2017. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Training Convener (Indonesia)
  • 2017. UNESCO Content Developer, "Shared Histories in Southeast Asia".
  • 2016. UNESCO Technical Advisor, "Shared Histories in Southeast Asia".
  • 2014-Current. Trainer. Asia Research Institute Graduate Student Froum

 

Conferences and Workshops Organized

  • 2018  Busan University of Foreign Studies Teaching Workshop on Southeast Asia II. Co-organizer (S. Korea).
  • 2017. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Workshop: Reassessing 1819 in Singapore History. Co-organizer (Singapore)
  • 2017. Busan University of Foreign Studies Inaugural Teaching Workshop on Southeast Asia. Co-organizer (S. Korea).
  • 2017. SEASREP Foundation Workshop. Law, Nature and Nation in Southeast Asia. Co-organizer (Myanmar)
  • 2016. SEASREP Foundation Workshop. Public History in Southeast Asia.  Co-organizer (Thailand)
  • 2016. SEASREP Foundation Workshop. Placemaking in Southeast Asia. Co-organizers (Thailand)
  • 2014. International Burma Studies Conference.  "Envisioning Myanmar". Co-organizer. (Singapore).
  • 2013. Forefront Asia Conference. "The Study of Southeast Asia Today". Co-organizer.
  • 2010. Workshop. "Writing Asia: Textual Traditions, Scriptural Modernities" Co-organizer.
  • 2010. Workshop. "History and Memory: Myanmar Language Commission" (Yangon, Myanmar).
  • 2009. Workshop. "History and Memory: Myanmar Historical Commission" (Yangon, Myanmar).
  • 2006. International Burma Studies Conference. "Communities of Interpretation". Co-organizer. (Singapore).
  • 2005. Workshop. "Casting Faiths: Imperialism and the Construction of Religion in East and Southeast Asia", Co-organizer. (Singapore).

Last Modified: 2024-02-29         Total Visits: 16149