People
Steering committee
The Steering Committee members provide overall strategic guidance to the Myanmar Research Network, as well as managing day-to-day activities of the network such as collaborative research endeavours, engagement, events, and so on.
Dr. Michael G Breen, Chair
Michael’s research focuses on federalism in Asia, and the management of ethnic diversity. He is the author of ‘The Road to Federalism in Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka: Finding the Middle Ground’ (2018, Routledge) and has contributed to Nepal’s constitution-making process that established it as a federal democratic republic. Michael’s research also explores the role of deliberative democracy and the use of deliberative polling in constitution-making and conflict management. Prior to academia, Michael was a policy maker, negotiator and project manager in various government departments in Australia and international organisations including the United Nations Development Programme. His professional background is in Indigenous rights and native title, political inclusion and environmental conservation.
School of Social and Political Sciences | McKenzie Research Fellow
Federalism and Ethnic Politics in Asia – Deliberative Democracy – Comparative Politics – Constitutional Design
Dr. Anne Décobert, Research Coordinator
Anne is a development studies scholar and anthropologist whose research focuses broadly on the intersections between conflict, development, aid systems, processes of state formation, and the rights of and struggles for self-determination of Indigenous and marginalised peoples. Strongly committed to ethically engaged research, Anne is particularly interested in approaches to addressing inequities and injustices faced by Indigenous and marginalised communities whose lives are shaped by structural violence and conflict. Myanmar is her main country specialisation, but Anne has also worked elsewhere in Asia and with Indigenous communities in Australia. In addition to her academic research, Anne previously worked as a development practitioner and consultant with local and international aid agencies in Myanmar, Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Anne’s publications include The Politics of Aid to Burma: A Humanitarian Struggle on the Thai-Burmese Border (Routledge, 2016).
School of Social and Political Sciences | Anthropology and Development Studies | Lecturer
Development – International Humanitarian Law
Dr. Tamas Wells, Research Coordinator and Editor of PK Forum
Tamas Wells is a Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences. His research focuses on meanings of democracy, governance and accountability in Southeast Asia and the role of international aid agencies and “civil society. His doctoral dissertation examined the Burmese opposition movement in the lead up to the historic 2015 elections in Myanmar and diverging narratives of democracy within the movement, and amongst its international supporters. Before beginning his doctoral studies in 2012, he worked as an aid and development adviser and consultant with various NGOs including Save the Children and Oxfam, including seven years living and working in Myanmar. Tamas has been active in developing stronger connections between academics and practitioners and policymakers in the field of aid and development and is the editor of the PK Forum, an online discussion forum on aid and development in Myanmar.
School of Social and Political Sciences | Research Fellow
Democracy in Myanmar – Civil Society – Politics of International Aid
Fellows
The Myanmar Research Network has for many years held a place for fellowships.