My Academic CV as of Feb. 2007

KYI MAY KAUNG (Ph.D.)
Curriculum Vitae

Objective: Seeking an advocacy, senior research and/or writing position in an international organization.

Strengths: Very fast and efficient researcher – Lexus-Nexus etc. on line.
Fast and accurate boil down of important issues to easily understandable points.
Excellent oral and written presentations. Convincing, engaging and experienced public speaker. Fluent English.
Able to speak and write persuasively so people listen.
Extensive contacts in academia, politics and the arts.
Able to formulate and carry out P.R. Initiatives.
Ten years of non-profit experience in DC area.
Political Economy and S.E. Asia specialist.
Able to formulate strategy and analyze organizational structure and goals.
Able to travel internationally up to 25% of the year.
Work permission in the USA.



EDUCATION
Ph.D. City and Regional Planning and Political Science, University of Pennsylvania, May 1994.
M.A. City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania, 1987.
M.A. Economics, University of Rangoon, 1967.
B.A. Honors, Economics, University of Rangoon, 1964.

DISSERTATION
"Modernization, Breakdown and Structural Configurations: Retrogression in Burma (1962-1992)."
Chairman: Henry Teune, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
Members: Josef Silverstein, Professor Emeritus, Rutgers University.
Donald E. Smith, Political Science, University of Pennsylvania.
Seymour Mandelbaum, City Planning, University of Pennsylvania.

LATEST PUBLICATIONS:

Foreign Policy in Focus. Debate on Sanctions in Burma. Jan. 2007

Wild River Review – Burmese Migrant Workers and Shrimp Shelling and Tuna Canning in Mahachai, Thailand – March14, 2007.

Also in Burma Economic Watch, on line.

OpenDemocracy articles. 2006-2007

Asian Survey

The Irrawaddy (Burmese dissident magazine – read by members of Congress)

Creative writing (fiction, nonfiction, poetry) – Norton Anthology (upcoming), Poet Lore, Wild River Review, Northern Virginia Review, Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine (short story – 1997), Poet’s Attic, Meridian Anthology.

Extensive poetry readings in the United States and Canada.

AWARDS AND HONORS


Best short story – March 2007, The Northern Virginia Review.

William Carlos Williams Award, Academy of American Poets, 1995.

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Award, for concept for play FLASHBACK (now titled Shaman.)

Pew Finalist, 1996 and 1994, for play SHAMAN and allegory She-Monkey respectively.

Fulbright Scholar, 1982-89. University of Pennsylvania.

Polish-Burma Exchange Scholar, 1969-70. Central School of Economics and Statistics, Warsaw, Poland. First place winner.

M.A. with distinction, first in class, Rangoon, 1967.

B.A. first division, first place winner, 1964.


VOLUNTEER POSITIONS

Supporter – U.S. Campaign for Burma.

Founder/facilitator: Dr. Kaung’s Salon, 963 Bonifant St. Silver Spring, MD.

Board member, Burma Refugee Project, (medical aid to refugees), Jan 2005- present

Board Member, Burma Economic Watch, An Electronic Magazine, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. 2004 to present.

Member, Technical Advisory Network, Burmese Government in Exile, 2000-present.


WORK
2004- Consultant and Free Lance Writer.
Senior Research Associate. The Burma Fund, Washington DC, Sept 2001-Dec 31, 2004
Senior Research Analyst. Radio Free Asia, Washington DC, May 1998-Sept 2001.
International Radio Broadcaster, RFA Burmese Service, Washington DC, March 1997-April 1998.
1982-1994. Ph.D. candidate, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
1978-1988. Assoc. Professor, Economics Department, University of Rangoon, Burma.

RESEARCH INTERESTS/WORK IN PROGRESS

Greater Mekong Region, environmental problems.

Yangtze Dams.

Environmental Laws and the United States.

Effects of Global Warming.


Dissertation to Book --- completed August 2004.

Economic Transitions in Burma: Strategies and Scenarios. Book length project, co-authored with Zaw Oo, 2002.

About possible scenarios should there be democratic change and the World Bank and IMF enter Burma. I intensively studied Joseph Stiglitz’ points of criticism.

Migration on Thai-Burma Border, Thai policies and SPDC Roadmap.

SPDC Roadmap and Problems.

2004 – Second Wholesale Sell Off of Natural Resources in Burma.

2004 – Sanctions vs. No Sanctions: United States’ Burma Policy.

Human rights, especially women's and children's rights.
Closed vs. open systems.
Command economies vs. open markets.
IMF and World Bank packages and shortcomings.
US policy and Burma, the Burmese democracy movement,
System change and democratic, market reforms in China and Russia etc.
Causes and effects of out-migration and search for humane solutions.
Burma and Asean, community of democracies.
Alternative models and their application to Burma.
Problems of transition in Burma, Vietnam, Russia, Poland.
Chinese Economic Reforms 1978-present, N and S Korea.
Exploring humane solutions to Thai-Burma refugee problem.

Economic History. J.S. Furnivall and Economic Planning, the Plural Society in Burma during the U Nu (democratic) period in Burma 1948-62.

Novel in Progress, about a Burmese dissident.

Collection of Short Stories.

Play development -- Shaman

Painting – abstracts and iconic figures – 3 one woman shows in greater DC area since 2001

SEMINARS/CONFERENCES, STRATEGIZING SESSIONS 2001 –

April 5, 2007, Northern Illinois University, Focus on Burma and Aung San Suu Kyi – I have been invited to be on the keynote panel.

November 2006, Refugee Conference – American University – one of invited speakers.

October- Dec., 2006. Refugee art exhibit, one of invited painters. Helped plan the exhibition, Gateway Heliport Gallery, Silver Spring, MD.

July 2006, E-W Center DC sponsored a closed door conference on Conflict Resolution in Burma in Bangkok. I was one of a dozen invited commentators/rapporteurs.

July 2006, Burma Studies Group – Singapore.

October 2005, The Politics of Voices, House of World Culture, Berlin. Invited with 5 other S.E. Asian writers “who dare to confront.”

October 2004. Panel on Burma, “The Latest Purge in Burma,” Burma Studies Center, DeKalb IL. Keynote Panelist.

September 2004, Bank Information Center, Open Society Institute. Washington DC

Helped plan seminar on World Bank and IMF, Lessons from Bosnia.
March 2004. Closed door strategizing session on Burma, SAIS Johns Hopkins, Washington DC.

March 2004, Young Scholars Forum at American University, Washington DC. Paper proposals of Burma scholars in USA and discussions on research methodology

August-September 2003, Research on G.H. Luce and Furnivall Archives.

July 2003, helped formulate interview questions for Migrant Workers Survey on Thai-Burma Border (collaboration with Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia.)

Jan 2003 International Association for Study of Forced Migration, paper on Burmese refugees, Thailand and SPDC “roadmap.”

March 2002 Technical Advisory Network, NCGUB, Bangkok, Thailand. Role of Advisors of Burmese Government in Exile.

Nov. 2002. SAIS, Johns Hopkins, Washington DC. Participant. Strategizing for Burmese democracy movement in exile.

Sept, 2002. Burma Studies Conference, Gottenberg, Sweden, co-chaired panel on Diplomacy and Dialog in Burma.

Jan 2003, Conference on Forced Migration and Burma, Chiengmai, Thailand.

July 2003, Canberra, Australia, Australian National University, Peer Reviewed book on Economic Transitions in Burma. Peers from Burmese Democratic Government in Exile,

July 2003, Sydney, Australia, Australia Burmese Students Conference.

March 2003, Globalization and Human Trafficking, Denver CO.

Aug. 2002, International IDEA Stockholm, Democratic Capacity Building for Burma.

August 2002, Asean People's Assembly, “Globalisation and ASEAN,” Bali, Indonesia.

April 2001 Conference on World Affairs, Boulder CO. “World without Borders.”


References: On request.

Color Coded on the 22nd of February, 2007

Chinese New Year -- the Year of the Boar (not bore:) has passed.

The anniversary of my father's death, after a car accident in Calcutta, has passed.

I was invited to a Conference on Burma and democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in Chicago on 5th April, on the basis of my articles in OpenDemocracy.

It is just like the House of World Culture inviting me and other S.E. Asian writers "who dare to confront" to Berlin in the fall of 2005. The invitations came in as email.

The power of web publishing and blogs, if one is judicious about it.

I helped my dissident friends resolve a mini-crisis.

I "pulled and dropped" a "friend" to my X-files -- because she was cavalier about my original audio material and lost them.

Elephants have long memories.

I baked a fruit cake and offered it on my Buddhist altar.

The Year of the Pig, will be a joyous Pig.

Copyright Kyi May Kaung

Mostly Burmese Mugs -- March 2007 Bio + Statement

Kyi May Kaung (Ph.D.) Bio – 2007
Ms. Kaung is a multidisciplinary and multi-faceted writer and artist who does not fit neatly into any pre-conceived category. She has been called “a trained social scientist with the soul of a poet.” She has just won a best short story prize for her story Black Rice from the Northern Virginia Review (#21).
Originally from Burma, she has published two poetry chapbooks; poetry in Rattapallax, CrossConnect, Poet’s Attic, Mosaic, and Passport Magazines; read poetry with DC Poets Against War, Washington Musica Viva and in the U.S.A. and Canada. Her short stories have appeared in Wild River Review, Northern Virginia Review (upcoming), Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine and Shoptalk; foreign policy articles in Foreign Policy in Focus, OpenDemocracy, Asian Survey and Irrawaddy. Her play “Shaman” was praised by Edward Albee and others and she has been a Pew finalist in literature twice. She is also a winner of the William Carlos Williams Award of the Academy of American Poets.
Kyi has been painting professionally since 2001. Mostly Burmese Mugs is her third one-woman show. (Previous shows were Flux – at Foundry Gallery, DC 2002 and Blotches from Burma at Space 7-10, MD in 2005). Kyi paints abstracts in an action painting style that has been compared to Franz Kline and Jackson Pollak, and intuitive and haunting “portraits” generated from photographs of real people and/or her imagination.

Kyi May Kaung: Artist’s Statement – for Mostly Burmese Mugs and Trunk Show – Space 7-10, Kefa Café, Silver Spring, MD. March13 – April 7, 2007
In this show, I am exhibiting iconic portraits that I have painted in oils on canvas since 2005 in an intuitive process that I worked out for myself. Starting from a sketch or snapshot of a real person, I keep painting to a point where the picture starts to tell me what it wishes to be. At this point I put the reference shot away and pay attention to what is happening on the canvas. The subjects change gender or ethnicity, or become iconic figures such as Our Lady of Scorpions or Lady Vanda (an orchid species.) They develop personalities of their own and select the objects they wish to be surrounded by. They also dictate to me, their conduit, in which style they wish to be painted. Some are in lumpy paint straight from the tube, and some are smooth surfaced.
These are the mug shots in this show. The rest are my hand painted ceramics, some of them actual mugs you can drink from.
This is my first Trunk Show of wearable art. For a scheduled interview, I am thinking back to the genesis of this particular artistic activity of mine, and find I can trace it to two monologs on stage which I did in 1994 at Annenberg Center in Philadelphia. In one of these, “Head Turned Backwards,” based on one of my poems, I unpack a suitcase full of clothes that I had meant to take home with me, while talking about my grandmothers. I wore a jacket made of the cut up parts of my old Burmese clothes that no longer fit.
By 2005, women on the streets would swivel their heads to look at my clothes, and ask me where I bought them. As I am unable to sell some of the jackets made from collectible fabrics with long histories (for example, the longyi or sarong I wore at my wedding breakfast), I decided to make jackets out of the fabrics I have collected on my travels, mostly in S.E Asia.
It is important to remember that I am not a tailor or a dressmaker who makes finely tailored, fitted and highly constructed, padded clothes. I am a poet and artist who sometimes makes poetic and metaphorical clothes. Due to my aging, I no longer do fine stitching or embroidery. I don’t want to contract out and be an employer of sweatshop labor. So I make everything on my own, minimizing seams and leaving in minor defects, because as the Turkish carpet makers say, “Only God is perfect.”
I make the jackets to complement everyday clothes such as the little black dress and the blue jeans, because I think clothes should make the wearer feel secure, covered and more truly herself or himself. I make jackets to read my poetry in.
I am against anorexia and make clothes for the mature woman.
Feb. 14, 2007