http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1429/663

View the VIDEO here: http://www.binala.org/content/human-trafficking-thailand-and-cambodia

Till Death Do Us Part- Producers Plan Chicago Production

Click below to read about the Award:

http://losangeles.broadwayworld.com/article/Laurie_Metcalf_Kirk_Douglas_et_al_Honored_with_LA_Drama_Critics_Circle_Nominations_20100125 

We trust that this award, which certainly belongs to the entire creative team, will help secure investment for our upcoming Chicago and New York productions.

Read what the Los Angeles Times has to say about the Ovations: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2009/10/ovation-nominees-announced.html

Congrats to the entire cast, crew and creative team for a job well done!

I spoke about my research this past summer in Northern Thailand where I met many ethnic Shan women and children and tried to make sense of their experience in the face of what I call Thailand’s “National Identity Project.” While working at DEPDC, a school in Mae Sai (a small city bordering Burma), I attempted to understand why so many Shan community members turn to child trafficking as a viable means of economic survival, and how this activity is related to Thai nationalism. After presenting my paper to an audience of Thai, Burmese, Shan and western academics and others, I was thrilled to find that the discourse was coherent and struck a chord with many members of the audience. I asked the questions, “Why are ethnic Shan not given refugee status in Thailand?” “What is at the heart of Thailand’s National Identity Project?” and perhaps most importantly, “How can we better understand the experiences of ethnic minority women and children living in northern Thailand?”

The other members of my panel were also compelled by these questions. Ursula Cats, an anthropology student from the Netherlands’ Vrije University and Busarin Lertchavalitsakul from Chiang Mai University presented papers on the illegal status of young Shan refugee women in northern Thailand and food within ethnic Shan communities, respectively. Together with the audience, we managed to open up a dialogue around the lives and experiences of Shan women living in Thailand—lives at once precarious and fragile yet deeply rooted in tradition and ethnic identity. For me, sitting on the panel with these two amazing women was an extremely empowering and enlightening experience that I won’t soon forget!

Being a student of Public Diplomacy, my blog about the conference wouldn’t be complete without a brief mention of politics: the Euro-Burma Office, in their efforts to maintain diplomacy were fairly strict about the panelists refraining from discussing Burmese politics during the conference. After our panel discussion, one man stood up: a lawyer and refugee from Burma, asking us passionately why we hadn’t been more strident in criticizing the Burmese government in our presentations. While I briefly addressed the man’s question, explaining that the focus of my studies was on the Shan in Thailand, not Burma, the conversation left several of us with questions as to how far politics can and should be explored in this type of conference. While the goal of the conference was indeed to celebrate Shan culture and identity, the conversation would not be complete without also understanding the root cause of the Shan’s migration into Thailand: namely, their oppression by Burma’s military junta. The debate about how much to say, and how to say it lingers in my mind. I can only hope that by opening up a space for studying Shan culture, academics, governments and publics alike will begin to take notice of the complex political web in Burma that, I believe, must be addressed by the world community in a more pro-active way.