In the Parami Talk Series held on November 10, Francesco Obino, Head of Programs in Global Development Network and Yaw Bawm Manshang, an independent scholar working with ISEAS, discussed upon the topic “Challenges for Social Research in Myanmar: Lessons from Asia”. The discussion took place at the Parami Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the 3rd floor of Shwe Gone Plaza.
Parami Talk Series is a monthly public event series hosted by the Institute that brings together students and the wider community. Participants meet influential speakers from Myanmar and across the globe to discuss pressing contemporary issues, and this month’s PTS event was the 22nd of such talks. Obino discussed about the relevance of GDN’s work and findings in Cambodia and Indonesia, Myanmar’s close ASEAN neighbors, as a means of providing valuable lessons to policymakers and researchers in Myanmar. Yaw Bawm Manshang shared findings from his chapter in the recently-published ANU journal, “Myanmar Transformed? People, Places.”
Nicola Williams, Program Manager of Peace Support Team of the Asia Foundation Myanmar the Parami guest Speaker for September 2018 said, “The Parami Talk Series event is growing in interest, respect. The discourse it’s promoting is very important in Myanmar. It brings people together, from students to policy think tanks, and into an intellectual space to give different ideas and debate different topics. I think the topic discussed is an important one. It is often missed, it’s not a topic that everyone wants to dive into. But it’s necessary. We need to dig into some of the technical policy subjects. Everyone needs to have some awareness of it”. Ella Geismar, Programs Director of Parami Institute, said “It’s exciting to see such a wide variety of people coming to Parami to engage in the same level of discourse we see in our students every day. Opening up the conversation reminds me, and I think our students as well, that the questions they’re asking in the classroom have widespread implications and solutions in the ‘real world’. Our speakers are often the people who are asking those same questions, and the Parami Talk Series events are a special chance for them to highlight the impacts of this line of critical thinking”, at the event.
