“Why Are Transvestites Better Than Women at Making Women Beautiful in Mandalay?”

The Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies presents “Pirated Transnational Broadcasting: The Consumption of Thai Television Soap Operas Among the Shan Community in Burma,” a talk by Anthropology Associate Professor Ward Keeler.

Monday, October 6, 12-1pm
E. P. Schoch building – EPS 1.128
University of Texas at Austin

“Many Burmese friends in Mandalay have told me that male to female transvestites are better at making women appear beautiful than women are. They attribute this to the dual nature of the transvestites’ gender and therefore understanding of what is attractive. In believing this of transvestites, Burmese sustain a view of them as being particularly capable of crossing boundaries: in the past, they were employed primarily as spirit mediums but now they cross the boundary between the local and the international in the matter of cosmetics and style.”

Pirated Transnational Broadcasting: The Consumption of Thai Television Soap Operas Among the Shan Community in Burma

The Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies presents “Pirated Transnational Broadcasting: The Consumption of Thai Television Soap Operas Among the Shan Community in Burma,” a talk by Anthropology PhD candidate Amporn Jirattikorn.

Monday, September 29, 12-2pm
E. P. Schoch building – EPS 1.128
University of Texas at Austin

“Pirated Transnational Broadcasting” examines the roles of transnational media in the lives of Shan community in Burma with a focus on their consumption of Thai satellite television. It analyzes how the Shan appropriation of transnational television creates a new site of identity transcending national boundaries as well as expressing an ambivalent sense of interaction with mediated modernity. It also demonstrates the role of transnational media as a catalyst for the emergence of Shan migration to Thailand.

Fall Colloquium Schedule

The Américo Paredes Center for Cultural Studies hosts an annual fall colloquium presenting research by UT students and faculty and visiting faculty. Join us Mondays from 12-1 in EPS 1.128 for new and in-progress research in cultural studies!

September 29
Amporn Jirattikorn: Pirated Transnational Broadcasting: The Consumption of Thai Television Soap Operas among the Shan Community in Burma.

October 6
Ward Keeler: Why Are Burmese Transvestites Better at Making Women Beautiful Than Women Are?

October 13
Lalitha Gopalan (Dept of Radio, TV, and Film).

October 20
John Hartigan: Making Sense of Race: America’s National Conversation.

October 27
Mathangi Krishnamurthy: Trespassers Will be Recruited: Attrition and recruitment in the Indian call center economy.

November 3
Heather Barfield: Artaud’s Daughters in New Media Culture.

November 10
Patricia Clough, (Queens College, CUNY)
“Scenes of Secrecy, Scales of Hope”

November 17
Marina Potoplyak: Modernity in Print: Publishers and Avant-Garde Literary Groups in Petersburg and Buenos Aires during the 1920s.

November 24
Afsheen Nomai: Culture Jamming: Ideological Struggle and the Possibilities for Social Change.

December 1
Dan Villarreal: Heritage Mandarin Speakers in Taipei, Taiwan.