DR JANE M FERGUSON

Research areas

My field research deals with the changing political and cultural alignments of Shan insurgents, affiliates, and migrants in Mainland Southeast Asia. I have carried out ethnographic work in Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, and border areas on uses and appropriations of popular culture narratives by politicized Shans, and in so doing, taken interest in popular genres in Burma as well as the history of Burmese cinema and its relationship with social life in general. My current research project is on the politics and power relations (literally and figuratively) regarding a proposed dam construction on the Salween River.

Selected publications

• Ferguson, Jane M. 2012. “From Contested Histories to Ethnic Tourism: Cinematic Representations of Shans and Shanland on the Burmese Silver Screen” in David Lim, ed. Film in Contemporary Southeast Asia. London: Routledge. pp. 23-40.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2012. “Le Grand Ecran en Terre Dorée: Histoire du Cinéma Birman” [The Silver Screen in the Golden Land: A History of Burmese Cinema] in Jean Pierre Gimenez, ed. Le Cinema d’ Asie du Sud-Est. Lyon: Asiexpo Association. Pp. 25-37.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2010 “Another Country is the Past: Western Cowboys, Lanna Nostalgia and Bluegrass Aesthetics Amongst Professional Musicians in Northern Thailand” American Ethnologist. Volume 37, Number 2 (May). Pp.227-240.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2010. “Sovereignty in the Shan State.” In Nicholas Cheesman, Monique Skidmore and Trevor Wilson, eds. Ruling Myanmar in Transition. Singapore: Institute for Southeast Asian Studies Press. Pp. 52-62.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2009. “Buddhist tradition and ritual excess in a Shan novice ordination” Contemporary Buddhism. 10(1) pp 65-74.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2008 “Revolutionary Scripts: Shan Insurgent Media Practice at the Thai-Burma Border” in Sen, Krishna and Terence Lee, eds. Political Regimes and the Media in Asia: Continuities, Contradictions and Change. London: Routledge. Pp 106-121.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2007. “Watching the Military’s War Movies: (de)Constructing the Enemy of the State in a Contemporary Burmese Soldier Drama” in Khoo and Harvey, eds, special issue of Journal of Asian Cinema. 18(2). Fall/Winter. Pp.79-95.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2007. “Just Dropping By…..” Anthropology News. April. Pp. 27-28.
• Ferguson, Jane M. 2005. “Bronislaw’s Laptop Dance: How Cyborg Pirates Plundered the Gated Community in the Ether” Anthropology News December. Pp 13-14.