SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Teaching

Courses Taught

• Culture and Society of South East Asia
• Ethnography of a Selected Region - South East Asia

Research

Meditation, biography, Buddhist practice, anthropology and media.  My fieldwork in the early 80s grappled with the popularization of vipassana contemplation since the mid-19th century in Burma for a PhD in anthropology with several dozen traditions surveyed, each with their own biographical, historical and literary trajectories, many of which have remained largely unstudied. Since the late 90s I have focused on soteriological liberation discourses associated with vipassana (insight contemplation) and samatha (concentration meditation) deployed by national leaders, including rhetoric (by Aung San, Aung San Suu Kyi and others) aiming for release from (colonial and military) confinement, imprisonment and occupation. I have held visiting professorships at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, University of Muenster, University of Gothenburg and University of British Columbia.

Expertise

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Experience

Teaching experience: taught at School of Oriental and African Studies, Durham University, London Contemporary Dance School, Goldsmiths College, University of Muenster, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)

Available for

Regional Expertise

• South East Asia

Country Expertise

Languages

• Burmese/Myanmar
• Dutch
• English
• French
• German
• Spanish

Publications