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We are pleased to announce the 2026 Myanmar Update - Contours of a New Myanmar. The Update will be held on Friday, 24 July and Saturday, 25 July 2026 at the Australian National University in Canberra.
The conference is convened by the ANU Myanmar Research Centre in the College of Asia and the Pacific, and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales Canberra.
The conference will explore the social, political, economic, technological, and international changes wrought by the 2021 military coup in Myanmar and the subsequent countrywide resistance to military rule, and consider how these changes are likely to shape a post-conflict Myanmar.
This is an opportunity to explicate and celebrate the revolutionary changes brought about by the Myanmar people’s resistance to military rule, while also reckoning with more problematic aspects of the five-year long civil war.
The program and speaker details have been updated on this site. Please register to secure your place!
This is an in-person only event.
Myanmar Update 2026 Convenors
- Prof Bina D’Costa – Board Member, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU; CEVAW Chief Investigator and ANU Node lead on migration and trafficking. bina.dcosta@anu.edu.au
- Dr Morten Pedersen – Policy director, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU; Senior Lecturer in International Politics, UNSW Canberra. Morten.Pedersen@unsw.edu.au
Program
Day 1 (Friday 24 July)
Venue: Auditorium, Australia Centre on China in the World Building 188, Fellows Lane, ANU
9-9.30am Welcome
9.30-10.15am Opening Address
- Andrew Selth, Adjunct Professor, Griffith Asia Institute, Griffith University - Fifty years of engagement with Burma/Myanmar
10.15-10.30am Morning tea
10.30am-1pm Keynote speakers
- Nyantha Maw Lin, Founder, Anagat Initiatives
- Kyaw Saw Han, Independent peace and conflict expert
- Yun Sun, Director of China Program, The Stimson Center
- Jared Bissinger, Lead researcher, Catalyst Economics
1-2pm Lunch break
2-3.15pm Panel on "Wartime politics"
- Tian Zhang, Associate Professor, Sun Yat-sen University - Depolitisation and party politics during Myanmar’s transitional decline
- Swe Oo Mon, Postdoctoral Fellow, Australian National University - Voter behaviour in Myanmar’s 2025/26 Elections
- Soe Htet, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne - Power dynamics in the National Unity Consultative Council
3.15-3.30pm Afternoon tea
3.30-5pm Panel on ‘‘'The Chinese border’: conflict, crime, and underdevelopment”
- Tamas Wells and Naw Naw Maran, University of Melbourne - Conflict, crime, and civil society in the China-Myanmar borderlands
- Zhenxin Huang, MPhil candidate, Oxford University, UK - China’s evolving cross-border governance
- D Moon Aung, PhD candidate, Chiang Mai University, Thailand - From crony capitalism to war economy: Resource governance in Kachin State
- Lanung Tu Kumbun, PhD candidate, University of Hyderabad, India - Myanmar’s rare earth minerals: Geopolitical competition between China and India
5-6pm Conference reception
Venue: Auditorium Foyer, Australia Centre on China in the World Building 188, Fellows Lane, ANU
Day 2 (Saturday 25 July)
Venue: Auditorium, Australia Centre on China in the World Building 188, Fellows Lane, ANU
9-10.30am Panel on “Resistance, local governance and proto state building”
- Htet Lynn Oo, Research Fellow, Chiang Mai University, Thailand - Two paths to governance from below: Governance-building trajectories in post-coup Sagaing and Karenni
- Tony Neil, PhD candidate, London School of Economics - The Karen National Union and the new Kawthoolei Governing Council
- Sophia Htwe, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne - Legitimacy and sub-state governance in post-coup Rakhine State
- Khaing Min Thant, PhD candidate, UNSW Canberra - Rebel natural resource governance in Karen and Kachin states
10.30-11am Morning tea
11am-12.30pm Panel on "Sustaining public services in the midst of civil war"
- Nick Cheesman, Associate Professor, Australian National University and Ma Hnin Win Aung -National Unity Government (NUG) use of law and courts
- Tun Aung Shwe, PhD candidate, UNSW Sydney - Communal disputes and the remaking of local governance in post-coup Myanmar
- Maw Maw Tun, Lecturer in Burmese, Australian National University - The role of ethnic institutions in higher education
12.30-1.15pm Lunch break
1.15-2.45pm Panel on “Beyond survival: Humanitarianism, rights and justice in Myanmar’s revolution”
- Phyu Phyu Oo, Research Fellow, CEVAW, Griffith University - Women-led CRSV protection and responses in Post-coup Myanmar
- Amporn Marddent, Associate Professor, Thammasat University, Thailand, and Zoe Bell, Research Fellow, CEVAW, Australian National University - Multidirectional oppression in Post-Coup Myanmar: Accounts from Rohingya women in displacement
- Kajali Shehreen Islam, Associate Professor, Dhaka University - From struggles for survival to resilience and resistance: The role of information technology in the lives of Rohingya women in Bhashan Char
- Charlotte Grech-Madin, Research Fellow, Australian National University - Old forests, new growth: Resisting child labour through conservation in the Salween Peace Park
2.45-3pm Afternoon tea
3-4.15pm Panel on “International engagement”
- Nicholas Coppel, Honorary Fellow, University of Melbourne - ASEAN ‘interference’ in Myanmar’s ‘internal’ affairs
- Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw, Lecturer, University of Hong Kong - Reflections on ASEAN’s role in Myanmar
- Shannen Ann Enriquez, International peace and development specialist - Rethinking the international aid architecture in Myanmar’s revolution.
Sponsors
The 2026 Myanmar Update is supported by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific; and The Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW Project # CE230100004).
