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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

American Association of Geographers @geographers.bsky.social · 23d

Literature on nonstate territories often foregrounds grassroots actors that resist militarization and violence. @shonaloong.bsky.social discusses that armed struggle may be necessary in the resistance to #postcolonial state building, focusing on the KNU-controlled Salween Peace Park. buff.ly/7aayJxx

Screenshot of the journal abstract. Click the link to learn more.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Aug 27

This morning at @rgsibg.bsky.social conference: two hybrid sessions on the Political Geographies of Foreign Aid

🕘 09:00–10:40 & 10:55–12:50 BST
📍 Alan Walters Bldg, Rm 223

Co-convened by Emma Mawdsley & Paul Gilbert
Sponsored by @polgrg.bsky.social & @devgeogsrg.bsky.social

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

8/ We hope this piece resonates and highlights ongoing efforts to shift knowledge politics in Myanmar, as part of longer struggles over centre-periphery relations.

Read it here: 👉 teacirclemyanmar.com/education/pr...

#Myanmar #WhatsHappeninginMyanmar

Producing knowledge in/of/for Myanmar’s borderlands - Tea Circle

The authors reflect on the politics of producing borderland knowledge in Myanmar after the coup.

teacirclemyanmar.com

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

7/ This article emerges from a roundtable we co-organised at the 2024 Myanmar Borderlands Conference at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

We hoped to encourage conversations about how knowledge is produced about Myanmar’s margins, and by whom.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

6/ The coup closed & opened space for borderland knowledge.

While some must keep research unpublished to stay safe, new education platforms rethink pedagogy, build networks, and include students from across Myanmar.

We call for active support, mentorship & resources.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

5/ Borderland knowledge production is also shaped by socio-political realities, incl. security threats from both states, ethnic self-determination movements, & aid dynamics.

Still, borderland researchers have unique advantages, e.g. languages, access to cross-border resources.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

4/ We highlight challenges that face borderland knowledge producers seeking to resist state-centric narratives, such as:
🧠Under-resourced education institutions
🧠 Language and access barriers
🧠 Uneven donor dynamics
🧠 Conflict and displacement

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

3/ Myanmar’s borderlands have long been cast as marginal, violent, or primitive – narratives often used to justify state violence.

But they have also produced knowledge that facilitates resistance, shaped by generations of local educators, activists, & researchers.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

2/ The 2021 coup sparked debates about the politics of knowledge in Myanmar, as research shapes international responses to the Spring Revolution.

We ask: Who produces and transmits knowledge about Myanmar’s borderlands, and under what conditions.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Jul 28

1/ 📖 For Tea Circle, we reflect on the politics of producing knowledge in/of/for Myanmar’s borderlands after the 2021 coup.

With co-authors: Anders K. Moeller, Radka Antalikova, Dan Seng Lawn, Peter Suante - each involved in non-state research/education work.
🔗 teacirclemyanmar.com/education/pr...

Producing knowledge in/of/for Myanmar’s borderlands - Tea Circle

The authors reflect on the politics of producing borderland knowledge in Myanmar after the coup.

teacirclemyanmar.com

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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

David Brenner @davidbrenner.bsky.social · May 13

Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) are key actors in Myanmar's revolutionary war. But their positioning towards the crisis has been far from clear. How do we make sense of their strategies?

I hope to shed some light on this with my new open access article: doi.org/10.1080/0047...

Some takeaways🧵1/8

Rebel Politics after the Coup: Ethnic Armed Organisations and Myanmar’s Spring Revolution

Ethnic armed organisations or EAOs play a pivotal role in the revolutionary war against Myanmar’s junta. These ethno-national rebel movements have not only captured large swathes of territory, but ...

doi.org

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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

Hpan Ja Brang @hpanjabrang.bsky.social · May 10

For World Press Freedom Day, we'd like to share: Journalists from Shan State-based news outlets Shwe Phee Myay continue their work amid civil war, military repression, & challenges linked to USAID funding.

By @emilyfishbein11.bsky.social and Me

www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/...

Reporting from behind shifting front lines in Myanmar’s civil war

Journalists with the Shan State-based news outlet Shwe Phee Myay continue to report amid civil war and repression.

www.aljazeera.com

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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

David Brenner @davidbrenner.bsky.social · Apr 24

I am late to the party, but this is a fantastic article on one of the most inspiring projects of ethnic minority resistance in Southeast Asia. Well worth your time, also for anyone interested in how more-than-rebel governance can foster alternative modes of progressive community building!

Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

🧵1/ How can armed resistance enable—not undermine—democracy, peacebuilding, and the revitalisation of Indigenous socio-ecological relations?

In the Annals of the AAG, I write about post/decolonial approaches to territory & the #SalweenPeacePark
doi.org/10.1080/2469... @geographers.bsky.social

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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

Hunter Marston @hmarston.bsky.social · Apr 24

My review of @connellyal.bsky.social & Shona Loong's excellent book on #Myanmar is available in the newest issue of Contemporary Southeast Asia. You can read the full review here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/70/artic...

Project MUSE - <i>New Answers to Old Questions: Myanmar Before and After the 2021 Coup d’État</i> by Aaron Connelly and Shona Loong (review)

muse.jhu.edu

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

8/ Available #OpenAccess at doi.org/10.1080/2469..., with thanks to the many, many people who contributed and who shared their thoughts with me. All errors are my own.

More-Than-Rebel Territory: War, Resistance, and Relations in the Salween Peace Park

Building on postcolonial and decolonial approaches to territory, this article conceptualizes more-than-rebel territories as a subset of nonstate territories. Whereas existing literature on nonstate...

doi.org

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

7/ It seeks—however imperfectly—to centre the perspectives of Karen people and organisations navigating decades of war, while still forging solidaristic social relations.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

6/ This article brings two literatures into closer conversation—territory & rebel governance—by showing that a political struggle involving arms can enable other, nonviolent political projects.

It also brings Karen State and Myanmar into debates on anticolonial movements.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

5/ Specifically, the KNU's armed resistance created room for reconfiguring local socio-ecological relations. Not because the KNU is absent—but because in Mutraw, localised dynamics of the KNU's long struggle allowed other Karen actors to reimagine territory on their own terms.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

4/ To explain this, I introduce the concept of more-than-rebel territory, i.e. spaces where armed groups capture—but then enable civilian-led, relational processes of territory-making.

This contributes to literature on post/decolonial approaches to #territory & #rebelgovernance.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

3/ At the heart of the Peace Park is a bold political move: elected community representatives govern the area alongside the KNU and community-based organisations.

Together they oversee Indigenous lands, Karen cultural survival, and natural resource governance.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

2/ In 2018, amid stalled ceasefire talks, Karen community-based organisations, the #KarenNationalUnion, and community leaders launched the Peace Park. This is a grassroots initiative that seeks self-determination for local, Indigenous Karen communities.

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 17

🧵1/ How can armed resistance enable—not undermine—democracy, peacebuilding, and the revitalisation of Indigenous socio-ecological relations?

In the Annals of the AAG, I write about post/decolonial approaches to territory & the #SalweenPeacePark
doi.org/10.1080/2469... @geographers.bsky.social

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Reposted by Dr Shona Loong

Kyaw Hsan Hlaing @kyawhsanhlaing.com · Apr 16

Here is my piece for @foreignpolicy.com on Myanmar’s earthquake and its political aftershocks

“Myanmar needs more than charity: It needs solidarity and sustained pressure for the freedom that its people have died for.” foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/16/m...

Myanmar’s Earthquake Exposes Political Fault Lines

The junta has exploited past crises to reinforce its power—and it can do it again.

foreignpolicy.com

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 14

Thankful for information from many sources, including @pvamplify.bsky.social and @data4myanmar.bsky.social

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Dr Shona Loong @shonaloong.bsky.social · Apr 14

The cumulative impact of the earthquake and responses to it are manifestations of deeper currents that shape Myanmar today, chiefly the violent role that the military plays in statebuilding and the geopolitical currents that sustain its rule. (15/x)

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