If you have been following our work for a while, you will know that at Wind&Bones, we have long-standing connections with Myanmar. In 2017, Wind&Bones’s Will Buckingham was on the founding faculty at the Parami Institute, which is now Parami University. Then between 2018 and 2019, Will was back in Myanmar to work on a writing residency with his Wind&Bones collaborator and co-director, Hannah Stevens, delivering workshops on writing, ethics and social change.
Since then, we have continued to work for Parami, where Will is now on the full-time faculty. After the 2021 coup, Parami University effectively became a university in exile, as well as an integral part of the Open Society University Network, and it now provides education online for students in post-coup Myanmar and beyond.
In 2022, 7Digital’s Mollie Davidson approached Will with an idea for a documentary to be broadcast on the BBC World Service, exploring the challenges of providing education in the difficult post-coup environment. Will was involved in researching and consulting for the documentary, and is also interviewed, alongside Parami president Kyaw Moe Tun, scholar Dr. Shona Loong, and a brilliant group of Parami students.
Head over to the BBC World Service website to have a listen.
