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I am organising a panel for the 12th International Conference on Thai Studies to be held in Sydney next April. The topic is “Rebellions and Borders at the turn of the 20th Century.” I’m looking for panel members. If you are interested please get in touch:

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century a series of rebellions broke out in the newly defined borderlands of the Thai-Tai world. There were the result of local and regional shifts in the balance of power bought about by the expansion of some states, the decline of others, colonial intrusion and local migration. This panel invites papers that explore the relationship between these rebellions and the establishment of modern boundaries in the Thai-Tai world. Were some rebellions a response to the imposition of modern state borders? Or did administrative boundaries provide new places of refuge for rebellions forces? How did the outbreak of rebellion affect boundary negotiations? How did local rebellions contribute to the consolidation or dissolution of new borders? We know a lot about the role of inter-state treaty negotiations in defining modern border lines in mainland southeast Asia but much less about the role of subaltern forces in shaping their specific local character. Case studies from the Thai-Tai frontiers with the Malay, Burmese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Khmer worlds are invited.