The University of Mandalay (UM) is the second oldest Higher Education Institution in Myanmar which awards PhD degrees and it is taking the steps to be among the first universities in Myanmar to be granted autonomy, and strives to become a leading national research university. With 40 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with foreign universities and academic organizations underpin the University’s commitment to internationalization.

The vision of University of Mandalay is "to emerge as a leading research university in Myanmar, providing quality education to new generations of academic leaders and professionals, and engaging in world-class research responsive to local, regional and national challenges and global trends". To accomplish this vision, UM has to seek alternative pedagogy for quality education and has to prioritize community-based projects to respond local, regional and national challenges. The HaB program is an initiative that seeks to offer an alternative pedagogical paradigm for universities and institutions of higher learning. It is built around a collection of community-based projects reflecting universal themes, such as food, place, practice and word. HaB program is going beyond classroom and textbook-based pedagogies and it is deploying embodied teaching and learning practices. Through HaB program UM promotes high quality education and creating a vibrant, dynamic and engaging environment for teaching and learning that stimulates students to rise to their full potential. Moreover, HaB provides UM strong support for advancement of teaching, learning, research, community engagement and personal growth. In addition for UM, an institution reflects Myanmar’s multinational and multicultural society, HaB gives opportunities to take advantage of broad interdisciplinary and international collaborations.

As HaB 'institutional space' in our university that can facilitate the HaB 2.0 program we have identified a cluster of departments and university-level structures as follow:

• Department of Anthropology
• Social Science Departments
• University Administration Board
• The Curriculum for Asian Studies (under the process)

Below are the proposed educational activities and long-term capacity developments to be conducted under HaB 2.0 and its network, intra-regionally as well as inter-regionally:

• Staff/Student exchange program (semester exchange/credit transfer program)
• Conducting Collaborative research on common interest (for instance- weaving, water, tea leaf, ethnicity, urban change, Work and Labor)
• Summer school program: By combining state-of-the-art research in Asia and Africa with an innovative teaching format, the summer school will gather students, junior researchers, local activists and senior scholars in a two-week intensive program around a topic on universal themes, such as food, place, practice and word. The aims are:

• To conduct Civic Education through different way (HaB program)
• To share Knowledge among HaB members
• To improve the existing curriculum in other disciplines

In the first week of the summer school, students will get an introduction into fundamental knowledge on the concept of food, place, practice and word by lecturers of the participating universities. The lectures will be closely related to each lecturer’s on-going research from the unfolding and experiences of HaB. In the second week of the summer school, students will train their skills in ethnographic research methods by exploring food, place, practice and word at the field sites in and around Mandalay and carry out practical assignments in mixed groups. Reflecting on these assignments, students and lecturers will discuss what it means to do ethnographic research on food, place, practice and word of the field site. We expect to build a network of students, teaching staff who are together conscious of the realities of local communities and nurture open-minded scholarship through HaB projects.

Contact Persons:

Prof. Dr. Mi Mi Gyi, Pro-rector

Dr. Thidar Htwe Win/ Dr. Zin Mar Latt, Faculty, Dept. of Anthropology.