Anti-Muslim Hate Speech in Myanmar (Nickey Diamond)

In his PhD research, Nickey Diamond will investigate how hate speech by the state and popular Buddhist ethno-nationalism have laid the terrain for mass atrocities against Muslims, (collective) acts of persecution, and repression. Using a multimethod approach to anti-Muslim propaganda in Myanmar, the research also investigates the genocide committed by the Tatmadaw (Myanmar Army) against the ethnic group of mostly stateless Muslim Rohingya in Rakhine state (beginning in 1978), as well as the incident of anti-Muslim violence that occurred in the city of Meikhtila in the Mandalay Region in 2013. In addition, Nickey has collected empirical materials of hate speech by the state since the 2012 anti-Rohingya violence outbreak in Rakhine state.

Building from cutting-edge legal anthropological scholarship, this research project will advance the anthropology of the state and statelessness, the anthropology of violence, and the anthropology of human rights. In addition to its conceptual and empirical relevance, the project will facilitate – in close dialogue with activists and other scholars both in Myanmar and outside the country –the incorporation of highly vulnerable stateless and non-recognized ethno-religious groups into a future federal democratic system in Myanmar, in support of the ongoing civil disobedience movement (CDM) in the country.

Get to Nickey Diamonds webpage.