GSSC Seminar Series
22 April 2025
Myanmar in Focus: Collaborative Futures for Post-Earthquake Humanitarian Response in a Polycrisis Setting
Su Myat Thwe (University of Cologne)
12:00-13:00
This seminar offers a briefing and critical reflection on the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Myanmar, with a specific focus on the Mw 7.7 earthquake that struck the Sagaing Region on 28 March 2025. Amid ongoing conflict, regime-curated media censorship, and disrupted communications, the full scale of devastation remains unclear. However, testimonies from first responders speak of profound trauma, urgent humanitarian needs beyond mere aid delivery, and an overwhelming sense of despair that goes beyond the earthquake itself. Drawing from on-the-ground coordination experiences, personal communications, and ongoing situation monitoring, this session foregrounds the intersecting structural crises that have amplified the potential for this natural disaster to evolve into a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe, with near-permanent obstructions to disaster resilience.
Following the military coup in February 2021—at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic—the situation in Myanmar was dubbed “CoupVid.” By mid-2022, scholars such as Houtman and Vaddhanaphuti re-conceptualized this as the “3Cs Crisis,” incorporating climate change—an often-overlooked factor in conflict-affected countries like Myanmar. Since then, the list of compounding 'Cs' has continued to grow: cash crunch, cyclones, cyberscams, (transnational) crimes, crony capitalism, caste-like discrimination, civilian-targeted airstrikes, (four-five) cuts, forced conscription, and more. Most recently, in January 2025, UNDP categorized Myanmar’s situation under a single term: polycrisis.
This seminar aims to bring together scholars working across the Global South, inviting further academic dialogue on the structural dynamics of Myanmar’s ongoing polycrisis. It aims to reflect on how humanitarianism can be reimagined in such constrained and conflict-affected contexts and to generate collaborative pathways for more inclusive and context-sensitive action research initiatives.
Su Myat Thwe holds an MA in International Development Studies from Chulalongkorn University and is currently pursuing PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne under the DAAD Hilde Domin at-risk scholarship programme. She is a licensed lawyer in Myanmar with an LLB degree and has worked on pro bono legal cases. In addition, she holds a degree in business, with professional experience in corporate communications and social responsibility.
Her research interests center on displacement studies, particularly issues of marginalization, access to justice and protection, humanitarianism in conflict settings, and educational equity. Her doctoral research project explores the anthropology of futures through education among displaced communities, with an ethnographic focus on the Thailand–Myanmar borderlands. She is also involved in policy research related to Myanmar, with an emphasis on humanitarian access and tertiary education.