Over the last four years of a nationwide revolution against military rule in Myanmar, a constantly evolving cast of actors has engaged in civil resistance, armed opposition, and sometimes both. While a broad consensus supports a future based on federal democracy, this vision is shaped by competing—sometimes even contradictory—perspectives. Gen Z-led groups have called for sweeping and iconoclastic changes, challenging a wider range of social and political norms and institutions, but more traditional power structures and practices have complicated the relationship between revolutionary groups, especially as opposition military victories over the last year have shifted influence back to armed actors. This panel discussion will unpack the evolving role of civil resistance among diverse stakeholders in Myanmar’s revolution.

Matthew J Walton is an Associate Professor in Comparative Political Theory in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Previously, he was the inaugural Aung San Suu Kyi Senior Research Fellow in Modern Burmese Studies at St Antony’s College, University of Oxford. His research focuses on religion and politics in Southeast Asia, with a special emphasis on Buddhism in Myanmar. Matt’s first book, Buddhism, Politics, and Political Thought in Myanmar, was published in 2016 by Cambridge University Press. His articles on Buddhism, ethnicity, politics and political thought in Myanmar have appeared in Politics & Religion, Journal of Burma Studies, Journal of Contemporary Asia, Nations & Nationalism, Journal of Contemporary Buddhism, Buddhism, Law & Society, and Asian Survey.

Nyi Nyi Kyaw is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies at the University of Bristol. He is also an Honorary Fellow of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School. Prior to joining the University of Bristol, he was one of the twelve Research Chairs on Forced Displacement in the Global South, funded by the International Development Research Centre (Canada) and based at Chiang Mai University in Thailand. He holds a Ph.D. in International and Political Studies from the University of New South Wales Canberra. His research interests include identity, citizenship, nationalism, (forced) migration and contentious politics, with a particular focus on Myanmar. His work has been published in journals including Political Geography, Social Identities, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, Asian Journal of Law and Society, and Statelessness & Citizenship Review, among others. He is currently working on a manuscript on Muslims in Myanmar.

Khin Khin Mra is a PhD student at the University of Manchester, researching institutional change and gender. She has over a decade of senior program leadership experience and has worked extensively in conflict-affected and humanitarian settings in Myanmar. Her work focuses on governance and gender, particularly at the intersection of adaptive programming, evaluation, learning, and policy. She has experience working with UN agencies, donors, NGOs, think tanks, and former government departments.