Speakers

Over 50 scholars and researchers from around the world will present papers covering the Revolution, Human Rights and Humanitarian Crisis, Conflict and Repression, Wildlife and Natural Resources, Education, and Language, Religion, and Culture.

The speakers have already been lined up for keynote messages as well as for expert panels on humanitarian assistance, inclusive service provision of goods and services, health, education, constitutional and institutional reform, and the role of the international community in change in Myanmar. Roundtable will focus on the discussion around Strengthening Unity among Democratic Actors through Coordinated Strategic Action for Democracy in Myanmar.

Featured Speakers of Conference

Senator Todd Young represents the state of Indiana. He currently serves on the U.S. Senate Committees on Finance; Foreign Relations; Commerce, Science & Transportation; and Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Previously, in the House, he served on the House Armed Services Committee, the House Budget Committee, and most recently the House Ways and Means Committee. Read more…

Melissa A. Brown is the Deputy Assistant Secretary with responsibility for the Office of Mainland Southeast Asia Affairs and the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia Affairs.

From 2019 to 2021, Melissa served as the Chargé d’Affaires, a.i., at the U.S. Mission to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she led an unprecedented expansion of U.S. engagement with ASEAN, as well as efforts to mobilize ASEAN to resolve the political crisis in Burma. Previously, Melissa was the Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs at U.S. Embassy Singapore from 2016 to 2019, where she also served as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission for one year and oversaw execution of the historic 2018 U.S.-DPRK Singapore Summit.

A Southeast Asia expert with a strong trade policy background, Melissa was previously assigned to Jakarta, Indonesia, as the Trade and Investment Unit Chief in U.S. Embassy Jakarta’s Economic Section. In Washington, she was also detailed to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and served on the U.S. State Department’s Vietnam Desk. Her earlier overseas diplomatic assignments included: Port Louis, Mauritius, and Bangkok, Thailand.

Before joining the Foreign Service, Melissa was a corporate legal assistant. A graduate of Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Melissa grew up in New Jersey and Jakarta, Indonesia. She speaks Indonesian and French and has studied Khmer (Cambodian) and Hungarian.

David C. Williams graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University, where he served on the Board of Editors for the Harvard Law Review. He is a popular lecturer on Native American people and on the Second Amendment. Winner of the Wallace Teaching Award and the Leonard D. Fromm Public Interest Faculty Award, Williams teaches constitutional law and Native American law. Williams has taught at the University of Paris and lectured around the world. He was a member of the faculty of law at the University of Cambridge and a fellow at that university’s Wolfson College. He was also a fellow at the European University Institute in Fiesole. Read more

Dr. Brand joined International IDEA in September 2020. His responsibility is to lead, direct and develop International IDEA’s country programme in Myanmar and to manage the team of international and national staff to deliver the programme of technical assistance and advisory services; to represent International IDEA in Myanmar and to provide and facilitate expert advice in areas related to democracy, elections, constitutional reform and participation. Read more

U Moe Zaw Oo was born in 1969, in Yangon. He actively participated in students’ demonstrations and later nationwide uprisings in 1988 when he studied at the Rangoon Arts and Science University. Then he joined the National League for Democracy led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in September, 1988. He was arrested in 1990 for his involvement in political activities and released in 1999. He received a master’s degree after studying at the Chulalongkorn University in Thailand while he was in exile. Read more

Congressman André D. Carson, now in his 7th full term in the U.S. House of Representatives, has established himself as an influential leader and respected public servant, fighting for good paying jobs, economic growth, and safer communities for Indiana’s working families. Read more

Joseph “Joe” Hogsett is the 49th mayor of Indianapolis. Before taking office in 2016, Mayor Hogsett served as Indiana’s Secretary of State and United States Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Read more

Registration

Registration is FREE. We have made this arrangement to make the conference more accessible to all. Registration is good for the entire conference (Feb 8-12) or parts of it, including the celebration of the 76th Myanmar Union Day on February 11.

Register HERE.

If you have any questions regarding registration, please contact us at: info@thebaci.org

The most up-to-date schedule of the program can be found here.

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