Arts and conflict transformation in Myanmar. Participatory workshops and peace education in minority areas

This project uses academic and arts participatory workshops to generate new knowledge about forms of conflict transformation in contemporary Myanmar. To do so, the project develops a network around the collaboration between researchers, artists and education practitioners working in conflict and post-conflict regions. The purpose is to generate knowledge about how artistic interventions transform conflicts, develop innovative educational material and widen access to quality education among marginalised communities.
Since attaining independence in 1948 Myanmar has experienced a high number of domestic conflicts and armed insurgencies. After more than five decades of authoritarian rule the military handed over government to a formally civilian government in 2011, which embarked on wide-ranging process of political and economic liberalisation. Despite the landmark elections of 2015, which brought to power the long-time opposition party, National League of Democracy, political transformation remains largely incomplete. The military remains in charge of key sectors of government. The 2017 Rohingya crisis in Rakhine state and the 2018 crackdown in Kachin state serve as stark reminders of the challenges the country is confronted with and their seemingly intractable nature. Building peace remains a tall order. Progress in other key areas, such as welfare and economic development, hinges on tackling that challenge.
Efforts at reconciliation and conflict resolution in Myanmar have typically been top-down and have focused on high-level political dialogue. This project complements such approaches by exploring the potential of bottom-up participatory initiatives by local artists, civil society and researchers to promote dialogue, reconciliation and social justice. As such it is innovative in its emphasis on co-production of knowledge among artists and researchers and and crosses boundaries among disciplines as it places the arts at the very centre of a field traditionally dominated by the social sciences.
The project focuses on four different regions of south-eastern Myanmar: three have a long history of armed conflict (Karen, Kayah and Mon states), whilst one has been largely peaceful (the Bago region). The regions are home to some of Myanmar's largest ethnic groups (the Karen, Kayah and Mon communities), they show religious diversity (Kayah state is evenly split between Buddhists and Christians, Karen is predominantly Buddhist with Christian and Muslim minorities, Mon is predominantly Buddhist with some Muslim minorities). The population in Bago region is mostly Bamar and Buddhist, and the area has not experienced the conflict of nearby territories.
Myanmar has a vibrant arts scene, and many initiatives blur the lines between arts and active citizenship and social reflection. Through the development of arts participatory workshops local artists will co-produce knowledge with local organisations and international partners to widen access to innovative and quality education. Furthermore, the ethnic and religious complexity of the country and the specific dynamics of each conflict will help the project participants to appreciate the importance of local context and local experiences at reconciliation, serving as cautionary notes against rather abstract macro-level approaches.
The project enables a partnership between the Thabyay Education Foundation, a Yangon-based NGO with a strong experience in providing peace education to marginalised communities and the UK-based PI as they build a network with a wide range of local and international researchers, peace educators and artists.

The majority of the impact and benefits of the project and its activities will be channeled directly into Myanmar society.

Beneficiaries include:

Project participants
The project will involve a series of arts workshops across Myanmar. Participants, from a variety of ethnic and religious backgrounds, will produce creative writing and visual art around their understandings of inclusion, exclusion, inequality, peace and conflict. The results of the participants' activities will include a booklet, reports and additional material (visual and sound) to be shared on the project's website.

The Myanmar education sector
The project's participants and activities will produce a number of outputs that will be of benefits to the Myanmar education sector with the aim to deliver quality education, be it formally and informally, in the classroom and beyond, so that a wider audience can be reached and engaged. The education sector has gone through considerable change since liberalization in 2011. The PI has worked closely with a number of HEIs between 2013-2016 in efforts that led to 1) the re-design of the undergraduate curriculum in international relations, 2) the launch of new degree programmes in political science and 3) the re-launch of new degree programmes in international relations since the closing of those programmes in 1988.

Myanmar government and other official stakeholders
PI and local partners will involve representatives of national and local governments in Myanmar from the planning stage and will share the findings of the project with them, particularly with the Ministry of Education, the Office of the State Counsellor and the President's Office.

Civil society
Myanmar is home to an increasingly vibrant civil society which includes NGOs - and other organisations and groups - focused around youth education, gender studies, minority education, the provision of digital environments. PI and local partners will work with them to maximise the benefits of the project's findings and their maximum reach.

Wider public
The project's website and social media platform will make the activities and findings available to the wider public, enabling us to share the project's findings across society.