Joe one of my lecturers, and my dissertation tutor actually put the idea out that perhaps we should try using a blog to put our dissertation ideas out there to help us formulate them.. and i guess see what other people comment on if they do too.. so here goes some rambling i’d made earlier..
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Burma according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is the world’s second most heavily censored country next to North Korea. I would like to then analyse or formulate a breakdown of the military junta’s oppression of its civilian population and to examine which groups seem to be expressly targeted by these various methods. I’d do this with primary and secondary research if possible with a mention to how the population has responded in various ways with a focus towards ethnic minorities.
I would then like to compare the findings to the stories of oppressed people around the world (ie; Stalinist Russia) as well referring to fictitious accounts of oppressive regimes in dystopian literature to better understand my own assumptions of life under such regimes and then relate this back to what’s going on in Burma to see how this might inform our understanding of life in this country for these people.
Topics…?
Methodology
- Desired outcome and resources available on the topic
- Qualitative and Quantitative approaches to research
- Phenomenology and the use of sources.
- Ethnography
A recent history of Burma
- 1962 Coup d’etat
- ‘The Burmese Way to Socialism’ The ideology of the military Junta
- Dissent and the history of the pro-democracy movement
- The National League for Democracy
- The last few years/ internet in 2000/cyclone nargis/ 2007 protests/ new constitution vote 2008
Government Behaviour and the country as it is..
- The Military
- Censorship and the Media
- Religion and Ethnicity
- Economy
- Human Rights
Oppression
- A comparative study on the USSR 1937-1949
- A comparative study with Dystopian Literature (Western/Eastern literature.. brave new world, 1984, We, Farenheit 451 etc.)
- Westernised views of authoritarian government
- Burmese Voices on life in Myanmar
- Forms of dissent amongst the Burmese people
It’s not so much to go on.. i guess. What I will say is Athens is flippin’ amazing.. if you haven’t got an Athens account.. then get it, or get onto Googlebooks or something like that because there’s so many resources to be found in a site like that I’ve found..
I’ve got a contact who’s linked with a group called the Free Burma Rangers who I occasionally get through to.. the contact is actually in Thailand but the organisation equips and sends teams who support and work with ethnic minoritys across the country.. so theres the chance of some first hand experience, i don’t want to hedge my bets too much though.. who knows?
Obviously I better get back into the habit or writing in my third person again..
