Announcements
Judith Beyer gave an interview to the Myanmar Television Channel MRTV4 on the occasion of a one-day research workshop "Doing fieldwork in Myanmar", which she co-organized with the Department of Anthropology at the University of Yangon in Myanmar on April 1st, 2016. You can watch the news feature here.
Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer is a member of the new network "Plurale Ökologien im Widerstreit: Ethnologische Perspektiven auf Südostasien" sponsored by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). During the next 3 years 12 scientists will be working on questions in terms of human-environment-relations in the area of South-East-Asia. A total of 6 working meetings got approved, one of these will be held in 2017 in Konstanz, under the direction of Prof. Beyer.
During the summer term of 2016, Prof. Dr. Judith Beyer is a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Konstanz. Her teaching obligations will be substituted by Dr. Raúl Acosta-Garcia.
Former research assistant Esther Htusan from Myanmar awarded Pulitzer Price for Public Service
We are proud of Esther Htusan from Myanmar, a former research assistant to Prof. Judith Beyer, who has been awarded the Pulitzer Price for Public Service together with three of her collagues from the Associated Press on April 18, 2016.
Esther Htusan and her colleagues rigorously investigated the South East Asian seafood industry and their use of slave labor over the course of two years. The womens' articles, videos and awareness-raising campaign led to the freeing of 2000 slaves who had been held captive on an island off the Indonesian coast for years. Their investigation involved close collaboration with the International Organization for Migration and inspired a legal reform process over food security in the U.S. Congress. Following their reporting, the United Nations are now investigating labor abuses in supply chains as the produce of slave labor – mostly peeled shrimp - is being sold by major brands in the US and Europe.
Before starting her career as a journalist in 2013, Esther Htusan has worked as a research assistant in Prof. Beyer’s research project on religious minorities in Yangon, Myanmar.
We congratulate Esther for receiving this prestigious prize!
Announcement on the Pulitzer Prize homepage with further links to the journalists’ articles
forthcoming book by the Associated Press on the topic: Fishermen Slaves
Esther Htusan with an Indonesian coastal guard, looking for Burmese fishermen-slaves; Ambon, Indonesia.
Esther Htusan and her colleague Robin McDowell from the Associated Press with runaway Burmese slave laborers; Aru Islands, Indonesia.
Presentations/ Conferences/ Workshop
05. December 2016
Was mit Menschen. Ethnologie als Beruf(ung). ALS-Akademie. Alte Landesschule Korbach.
23. July 2016
Individuality and the making of urban communities. European Association for Social Anthropology, University of Milano-Biccoca, Italy.
15.-16. July 2016
"Ethnologie online. Über das Wissenschaftsblog allegralaboratory.net". Universität Leipzig.
14. July 2016
Religious minorities in Myanmar. First findings from fieldwork. Arbeitsgespräch am Kulturwissenschaftlichen Kolleg. Universität Konstanz.
23.-25. June 2016
Gemeinschaft ohne Gesellschaft? Religiöse Minderheiten in Yangon. Myanmarforschung 2016. Interdisziplinäre Erkundungen eines Landes im Wandel, Humboldt Universität Berlin.
14. June 2016
"'Don't trust the trustees!' Representing and administering religious minorities in Yangon, Myanmar," Institutskolloquium, Department of Anthropology, University of Freiburg.
10.-12. June 2016
Gerichtlich gesicherte Existenz. Ethnizität, Besitz und die Rolle des Rangoon High Court als Ort der Wissensproduktion. DFG-Netzwerktreffen, Universität Heidelberg.
The workshop program can be accessed here.
You can watch the news feature here.