The Journal of Burma Studies: Q&A with Jane Ferguson on Gender and Social Change in Myanmar Special Issue

Photo of Jane Ferguson
Photograph provided by Jane Ferguson

A new special issue from The Journal of Burma Studies is now available to readers on Project MUSE. “Gender and Social Change in Myanmar” analyzes the role of gender within social activism, everyday practices, identity politics, and religious histories in Myanmar are explored in this volume.

The Journal of Burma Studies was established in 1996, with current editor Jane M. Ferguson coming on board in December 2017.  She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology, Southeast Asian History, and School of Culture, History, and Language at the Australian National University with a PhD in Anthropology and Southeast Asian history from Cornell University.

Ferguson’s publications include Repossessing Shanland: Myanmar, Thailand, and a Nation-State Deferred (University of Wisconsin Press, 2021) and Silver Screens, and Golden Dreams: A Social History of Burmese Cinema (University of Hawai‘i Press, forthcoming).

Below she shares with UH Press what its been like these last five years as the editor for The Journal of Burma Studies:

University of Hawai‘i Press: After half a decade sitting at the editorial desk, what issues or historic events have changed in your field? Additionally, why was this issue important now?

Jane Ferguson: The horrific events and repression following General Min Aung Hlaing’s 2021 military coup in Myanmar — for a country struggling with economic collapse from the COVID pandemic — constitute a large-scale humanitarian crisis, with war enveloping the country even more than in previous decades. JBS’ charter is to support research and education about and within the country; it is a minuscule contribution where civil war and repression are horrendous, but it does represent one forum for discussing issues that matter to Myanmar, from politics to history, art to popular culture and more. It is also worth engaging with Myanmar’s diverse, rich cultures, ecologies, languages, and human creativity. There is a massive humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, but focusing only on suffering risks ignoring the cultural diversity and tremendous vibrance of its people, historically and today.

UHP: JBS recently introduced a new Special Issue, “Gender and Social Change.” How did this come about? 

JF: “Gender and Social Change” is a capacious theme, and remains crucial for any context and study. It is accessible in the sense that despite the articles’ individual topics and particular research in Myanmar, the lessons are relatable to others. This issue deals with topics including gendered activism and transformation, religiosity, global popular culture, sexism, homophobia, and cyber-bullying; subjects of universal concern and relevance.  

The Special Issue on “Gender and Social Change in Myanmar” is part of our plan to reach out to and engage new and emerging scholars. JBS has general issues which gather individually-submitted articles, but the strategy for this Special Issue was to take a general, but pressing theme, and seek out different responses to it. We advertised the Special Issue via a call for abstracts, worked with authors through peer-review and the revision process, and wrote an introduction engaging the papers thematically and historically. 

UHP: What is next for JBS

JF: The Journal of Burma Studies will carry on its research and educational charter, working with new and returning authors to encourage lively debate and discussion about issues relevant to Myanmar, Southeast Asian Studies, or disciplinary themes writ large. Please stay tuned for the next call for papers for a thematic issue, or if you have a research topic you are working on please get in touch!

UHP: Do you have any advice for academics interested in submitting to The Journal of Burma Studies?

JF: Anyone interested in contributing to the Journal simply needs to send us an email and let us know! We have standard research articles, but also sections about research notes and book reviews. To support and encourage new authors, we have short written guides to help them navigate the waves of academic publishing.   

The Journal of Burma Studies
Volume 27, Number 1 (2023)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Editor’s Note: Special Issue: Gender and Social Change in Myanmar
Jane M. Ferguson

Deconstructing and Reinforcing Gender Norms and Cultural Taboos in Myanmar’s Spring
Revolution

Aye Lei Tun

Our Htamein, Our Flag, Our Victory: The Role of Young Women in Myanmar’s Spring Revolution
Marlar, Justine Chambers, and Elena

Reconsidering Renunciation: Shifting Subjectivities and Models of Practice in the Biography of a
Buddhist Woman

MK Long

The Gendered Rebel: Challenging Gendered Norms through Punk in Urban Yangon
Carolin Hirsch

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Established in 1996, The Journal of Burma Studies is the premier peer-reviewed academic print journal that focuses exclusively on Burma. The Journal of Burma Studies is jointly sponsored by the Burma Studies Group and the Center for Burma Studies at Northern Illinois University.

It is published twice a year for the Center for Burma Studies. The Journal seeks to publish the best scholarly research focused on Burma/Myanmar, its ethnic nationalities, stateless and diasporic cultures from a variety of disciplines, ranging from art history and religious studies, to economics and law.

Submit your manuscript online.

Call for Papers: Rapa Nui Journal

Edited by Dr. Mara A. Mulrooney, Director of Cultural Resources, Bishop Museum

The Rapa Nui Journal (RNJ) is the official, peer-reviewed journal, of the Easter Island Foundation (EIF). The journal serves as a forum for interdisciplinary scholarship in the humanities and social sciences on Easter Island and the Eastern Polynesian region. Each issue may include Research Articles, Research Reports, Commentaries or Dialogues, Book or Media Reviews and EIF News.

rnj_cover
Cover Image courtesy of:
© Stephen, Jesse W. (2005, July 28). The Traveling Moai [At Tongariki near Rano Raraku, Rapa Nui].
RNJ is published twice a year and welcomes contributions from a wide range of social, cultural, indigenous and historical disciplines on topics related to the lives and cultures of the peoples of Rapa Nui and Eastern Polynesia. Abstracts for articles may be published in English, Spanish, and Rapanui. We welcome submissions from scholars across Oceania, North and South America, and beyond.

File Format and Manuscript structure
Article manuscripts are peer-reviewed, and should be 3000 to 9000 words in length. Reports, Reviews and commentaries are not peer-reviewed, and should be 1000 to 6000 words in length.

Manuscripts should be double-spaced with margins of at least 1 inch (2.5 cm) on each side, and submitted as a single Microsoft Word (or similar) file with the following structure:

  1. Article title
  2. Author’s name(s) and contact details for publication
  3. Abstract
  4. Keywords 3-6
  5. Text
  6. Acknowledgements
  7. References
  8. Figures with captions
  9. Tables with captions

Manuscripts should be submitted online.  You may review journal policies and author guidelines on the journal submission site.

Please send inquiries to the Rapa Nui Journal editor at (rapanuijournal@gmail.com).

Subscribe to Rapa Nui Journal through UH Press or browse full-text issues online .

 

Early Release Articles: Korean Studies (December 2017)

University of Hawai’i Press and Korean Studies present the following early release articles through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLE

Young Barbara’s Devotion and Death: Reading Father Ch’oe’s Field Report of 1850 by Deberniere J. Torrey

EARLY RELEASE BOOK REVIEW

Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp by Jin Y. Park (University of Hawai`i Press: 2017), reviewed by Jungshim Lee

All Korean Studies early release articles may be viewed online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

The next complete volume of Korean Studies will appear in 2018. Sign up for new issue email alerts from Project MUSE here.

Early Release Article: Korean Studies (November 2017)

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following article from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLE

Implicit Political and Economic Liberties in the Thought of Tasan Chŏng Yagyong by Yi Jongwoo

Abstract: Two types of implicit liberty were the foremost features of the philosophy produced by Tasan Chŏng Yagyong (1762–1836), a Confucian scholar of the Chosŏn dynasty in Korea. The first was political liberty, which enabled people to select and dismiss their ruler. Tasan’s notion of political liberty included a stern admonition to rulers and local officials, stipulating that if they collected unfair taxes from the people, the people had the right to take necessary actions to survive. The second was economic liberty, which enabled people to relocate to another village for financial reasons in the hamlet- field system. Under the well-field system, rulers distributed their farmland among the people equally for their personal use, and therefore they were not tenant farmers. Economic liberty was implicit and advocated that the people lead lives that were consistent with Confucian moral principles.

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

Stay tuned for more early release articles from UH Press journals.

Call for Papers: Biography special issue

Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly seeks papers for an upcoming special issue tentatively titled, Biographic Mediation: The Uses of Disclosure in Bureaucracy and Politics.

The issue will be guest edited by Ebony Coletu of Pennsylvania State University.

From the submissions prompt by the Center for Biographical Research:

While personal storytelling in public advocacy has long been a strategy for social movements, biographic mediation emphasizes the interactive dynamics between public disclosure and administrative decision-making. This issue addresses multi-level demands for biographic mediation in contests over public policy, employment, and educational access to explore how disclosure has the capacity to reshape identity or to refocus engagement with policy consequences. Contributors may consider how personal disclosure shapes public debates, when self-narrative is restructured according to political opportunity, and how telling the stories of others becomes a standard mode of political argument.

BIO40-1_cover1_blog

Abstracts of 350-400 words are due by December 1, 2017 for consideration. Click here for the complete submission guidelines. Authors of manuscripts selected for publication may also be invited to present on their papers at the University of Hawai’i in August 2018.

Subscribe to Biography through UH Press or browse full-text issues online via Project MUSE.

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Early Release Book Reviews: Korean Studies (September 2017)

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following book reviews from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE BOOK REVIEWS

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

Stay tuned for more early release articles from UH Press journals.

Early Release Articles: Korean Studies, May 2017

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following articles from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLES

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore appear in their manuscript form, which may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

Stay tuned for more early release articles from UH Press journals in 2017.

Early Release Articles: Korean Studies April 2017

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following articles from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLES

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore appear in their manuscript form, which may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

Stay tuned for more early release articles from UH Press journals in 2017.

Early Release Articles: Korean Studies

University of Hawai’i Press is proud to present the early release of the following articles from Korean Studies through a partnership with Project MUSE.

EARLY RELEASE ARTICLES

EARLY RELEASE BOOK REVIEWS

Browse all Korean Studies early release articles online here.

Please note: Early release manuscripts have been through our rigorous peer-review process, accepted for publication, and copyedited. These articles will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal. These articles have not yet been through the full production process and therefore appear in their manuscript form, which may contain errors. These articles will be removed from the early release page once they are published as part of an issue.

Stay tuned for more early release articles from UH Press journals in 2017.

Call for Papers: Biography special issue

Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly seeks papers for an upcoming special issue tentatively titled, Political Biographies in Literature and Cinema.

From the editors at the Center for Biographical Research:

To what extent do biographies promote or question the biographee’s political values? What are the limitations of prevailing assumptions (popular and/or academic) about biography’s relationship with history? What models of the political subject do biographies of political figures presuppose, and with what consequences? Articles of general relevance, as well as specific case studies of print or film biographies, are welcome in this special number of Biography, An Interdisciplinary Quarterly on political biographies in literature and cinema.

bio-39-3-c1-blogAbstracts of 250-500 words for projected manuscripts of 6,000-8,000 words may be submitted electronically by April 15, 2017. Click here for complete submission guidelines.

Subscribe to Biography through UH Press or browse full-text issues online via Project MUSE.

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