Maitrii Aung-Thwin

Maitrii Aung-Thwin (PhD, University of Michigan; BA, Northern Illinois University) is Associate Professor of Myanmar/Southeast Asian History and Coordinator of the Comparative Asian Studies PhD Program at National University of Singapore. He has written on social movements, law, colonialism, nation-building, and intellectual history.

Dr. Aung-Thwin’s research has been concerned with the histories of domination, resistance, and identity in Southeast Asia during the late colonial age. He has pursued these interests through studies on intellectual communities, historiography, and the production of knowledge. His first monograph, The Return of the Galon King:  History, Law, and Rebellion examined colonialism’s role in the historical construction of resistance in British Burma.

His approach to studying the region has been influenced by scholarship on transnationalism, colonialism, ethno-history, socio-legal studies, oral history, and public history.  These conversations have deepened his interest in the development of legal, business, and religious networks in South and Southeast Asia.

Most of his research is situated in the specific context of colonial and postcolonial Myanmar.  He is co-author of the recent A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times (2012).

Dr. Aung-Thwin’s recent work critically examines the role of colonial and domestic scholar-officials in our understanding of Southeast Asian culture.  He is currently completing a project entitled, Towards a National Past in Myanmar: Public History, Memory, Biography.

Two ongoing projects include an intellectual history that examines the construction of a peasant hero in socialist Burma (1962-1988) and a study that explores interaction amongst state, religious, and business interests in the development of transnational Buddhist networks in India, Myanmar, and Indonesia.

Contact: hismvat@nus.edu.sg