On the occasion of what would have been Aung San’s 111th birthday, I release a video lecture which I have given in late 2021 to anthropology students from Myanmar after the Myanmar military attempted a coup on 1 February 2021.

Some of my own students and tens of thousands more had to go into hiding once the military began occupying their universities and took over their cities. With their professors resigning from their positions out of protest, their education came to a sudden, abrupt halt. Having to leave their dormitories and sitting in their parents’ homes again, or having to flee Yangon, Mandalay and other bigger cities in which they had until then studied, they still longed to continue their studies.

This lecture was an effort to support them in this endeavour, albeit without being able to substitute for what they had lost. Moreover, it became evident over the course of the online sessions, that many could not concentrate due to the ongoing violence and the many new tasks they had to adhere to in order to secure their own living or contribute to the livelihood of their families. It is hard to study while having to cope with trauma.

In the lecture, I discuss the concept of ‘guerilla anthropology’ as a way to educate each other while in hiding or from abroad; education as a subversive act of resistance and as refusal to give in. In the main part of the lecture, I cover both the history of anthropology and the role of history in anthropology.

By 2026, several so-called “virtual universities” have taken over from what had been a first effort of mine and fellow anthropologists back then. They have now build a systematic online education path for thousands of Myanmar students. Moreover, some of my own former students from the Unviersity of Yangon have become educators themselves and now teach schoolchildren in the Myanmar-Thai border region. Others have left the country to pursue their own education – all hope to be able to return to Myanmar one day…

May their dream come true!