Dr Nick Cheesman
Areas of expertise
- Law And Society 180119
- Government And Politics Of Asia And The Pacific 160606
- Political Theory And Political Philosophy 160609
Research interests
political order, the rule of law, the state, sovereignty, authority, power, impunity, human rights, torture; Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, South and Southeast Asia; interpretivism, empirical political theory, hierarchies of credibility, politics of knowledge production
Biography
I hold an Australian Research Council grant to study the relation of torture to political order in mainland Southeast Asia. The study follows my doctoral and early post-doctoral research, published as Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar’s Courts Make Law and Order (Cambridge UP, 2015). I host the Southeast Asian Studies channel (with Patrick Jory, Michele Ford and Faizah Zakaria) and Interpretive Social Science series on the New Books Network, and edit the ASAA Southeast Asian Publications Series (NUS Press) (with Ed Aspinall).
I teach Human Rights in Asia (ASIA2081); Critique: PANDEMIC! (VCUG3005) and Colonialism & the Rule of Law (LAWS4309/ASIA2120) with Desmond Manderson (Law), and Meaning in Politics (POLS2137) and Interpretation, Method and Critique (POLS4047/8047) with April Biccum (SPIR). Potential students of those courses, or research students interested to discuss possible new projects, please get in touch. I am also the NTEU delegate for the Coral Bell School, and welcome inquiries from academic and professional staff (whether union members or not) on workplace matters.
Visting positions: Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University & Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, 2019; Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, 2016-17; American Bar Foundation, Chicago, 2017; Awards: Distinguished Book Award, Asian Law & Society Association, 2017; Discovery Early Career Research Award, 2015; President’s Prize, Asian Studies Association of Australia, 2013; JG Crawford Prize, ANU, 2013; Commendation for Contribution to Student Learning, ANU, 2012; VC’s Scholarship, ANU, 2008; Bradshaw Prize, University of Western Australia, 2003; Fellow: Higher Education Academy, UK; Editorial board member: Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, Law & Social Inquiry (2016-18); Committee member: Interpretive Methodologies & Methods @ APSA, Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars
Current student projects
Heba Al Adawy (PhD, ANU, supervisor & chair) Understanding Youth Development and Political Engagement in Pakistani Higher Education Institutes, Ana Alonso (PhD, ANU, associate supervisor) Children born of war in Peru and Guatemala, James Bean (PhD, ANU, associate supervisor) Jawi-Malay grievances and perspectives on local conflict in Southern Thailand, Oliver Friedmann (PhB Hons, ANU, supervisor) Apprehending transfer: a study of the Australian and Sri Lankan response to unauthorised maritime arrivals, Polina Polianskaja (PhD, ANU, supervisor & chair) An ethnography of (in)justice and law in Myanmar women's lives, Nick Ross (PhD, ANU, supervisor & chair), Tasfi Sal-sabil (PhD, ANU, associate supervisor), Sirichinda Thongchinda (PhD, ANU, chair) Cohabitation in Thai political life: Ethical obligations and emotions in motion, Wong Kai Shing (PhD, Mahidol University, external advisor) Political patronage and police reform: A case study of Thailand, 1992-2006
Past student projects
2020: Samuel Hmung (MPolSci, ANU, supervisor); 2019: Gerard McCarthy (PhD, ANU, advisor); 2018: Catherine Yen (PhB Hons, ANU, supervisor), Kristina Simion (PhD, ANU, advisor), Eve Warburton (PhD, ANU, advisor), Jaqueline Menager (PhD, ANU, advisor); 2017: Chit Win (PhD, ANU, advisor), Tushira Wickramariyaratne (M Nat Sec Policy Hons, ANU, advisor), Alice Dawkins (LLB Hons, ANU, advisor); 2016: Tamas Wells (PhD, Melbourne, advisor)
Publications
- Khan, M & Cheesman, N 2020, 'Law, Lawyers and Legal Institutions', in Adam Simpson & Nicholas Farrelly (ed.), Myanmar: Politics, Economy and Society, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Oxon, pp. 44-58. https://www.routledge.com/Myanmar-Politics-Economy-and-Society/Simpson-Farrelly/p/book/9780367110444
- Chambers, J & Cheesman, N 2019, 'Introduction: Coming to Terms with Moral Authorities in Myanmar', Sojourn, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 231-257. bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/account/downloads/get/20714 [OPEN ACCESS]
- Cheesman, N & Fernando, B 2019, 'Why Asian Legal Institutions Fail to Protect the Rights of the Vulnerable', in De Varennes, F & Gardiner, C (eds), Routledge Handbook of Human Rights in Asia, Routledge, New York, pp. 16-29. doi.org/10.4324/9781315720180
- Cheesman, N & Janse, R 2019, 'Martin Krygier's Passion for the Rule of Law (and His Virtues)', Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, vol. 11, no. 2-3, pp. 255-276. doi.org/10.1007/s40803-019-00131-0 [OPEN ACCESS]
- Cheesman, N 2019, 'Pragmatic Critique of Torture, in Sri Lanka', in Fassin, D & Harcourt, B (ed.), A Time for Critique, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 193-209. jstor.org/stable/10.7312/fass19126
- Cheesman, N 2018, 'Rule-of-Law Ethnography', Annual Review of Law and Social Science, vol. 14, pp. 167-184. doi.org/10.1146/annurev-lawsocsci-101317-030900
- Cheesman, N, ed., 2018, Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar, Routledge, London. www.routledge.com/Interpreting-Communal-Violence-in-Myanmar-1st-Edition/Cheesman/p/book/9781138504448
- Halliday, T, Chua, L, Liu, S & Cheesman, N 2018, 'Book Discussion - Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar's Courts Make Law and Order', Asian Journal of Law and Society, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 485-498. doi.org/10.1017/als.2018.18
- Cheesman, N 2017, 'How in Myanmar "National Races" Came to Surpass Citizenship and Exclude Rohingya', Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 461-483. doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1297476
- Cheesman, N 2017, 'Introduction: Interpreting Communal Violence in Myanmar', Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 47, no. 3, pp. 335-352. doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1305121 [OPEN ACCESS]
- Cheesman, N 2017, 'Las cuatro décadas de lucha interna en Birmania' ('Burma's four decades of struggle within)', in Pedro Iacobelli, Robert Cribb & Juan Luis Perrelló (eds), Asia y el Pacífico durante la Guerra Fría (Asia and the Pacific during the Cold War), Fondo de Cultura Economica, Santiago, pp. 209-222.
- Cheesman, N 2017, 'Theorizing about Torture', Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Occasional Paper No. 59. www.sss.ias.edu/sites/sss.ias.edu/files/papers/paper59.pdf
- Cheesman, N 2017, 'Taking the Rule of Law's Opposition Seriously', Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 29-44. [Symposium on "Opposing the Rule of Law" with Martin Krygier, Sally Engle Merry, Frank Munger, and Jothie Rajah.] doi.org/10.1007/s40803-016-0048-4
- Cheesman, N & Farrelly, N, eds, 2016, Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore. bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/2168
- Cheesman, N 2016, 'Myanmar and the promise of the political', in Nick Cheesman and Nicholas Farrelly (ed.), Conflict in Myanmar: War, Politics, Religion, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 353-366.
- Cheesman, N 2016, 'Reading Hobbes's Sovereign into a Burmese Narrative of Police Torture', Asia Pacific Journal on Human Rights and the Law, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 199-211. [Special section on torture after 9/11 coedited with Cynthia Banham.] doi.org/10.1163/15718158-01702003
- Cheesman, N 2016, 'Rule-of-Law Lineages in Colonial and Early Post-colonial Burma', Modern Asian Studies, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 564-601. doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000468
- Cheesman, N, D'Costa, B & Haberkorn, T 2016, 'Anticipating the Struggle against Everyday Impunity in Myanmar through Accounts from Bangladesh and Thailand', Asia & The Pacific Policy Studies, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 48-61. doi.org/10.1002/app5.118 [OPEN ACCESS]
- Cheesman, N 2015, Opposing the Rule of Law: How Myanmar's Courts Make Law and Order, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781316014936
- Cheesman, N 2015, 'That Signifier of Desire, the Rule of Law', Social Research, vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 267-290. muse.jhu.edu/article/587492
- Cheesman, N 2015, 'The Right to Have Rights', in Nick Cheesman & Htoo Kyaw Win (ed.), Communal Violence in Myanmar, Myanmar Knowledge Society, Yangon, pp. 139-164. [In Burmese and English.]
- Cheesman, N & Htoo Kyaw Win, eds, 2015, Communal Violence in Myanmar, Myanmar Knowledge Society, Yangon. [In Burmese and English.]
- Cheesman, N 2014, 'Bodies on the Line in Burma's Law Reports, 1892-1922', in Melissa Crouch, Tim Lindsey (ed.), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Hart, Oxford, pp. 77-94.
- Crouch, M & Cheesman, N 2014, 'A Short Research Guide to Myanmar's Legal System', in Melissa Crouch, Tim Lindsey (ed.), Law, Society and Transition in Myanmar, Hart, Oxford, pp. 21-32.
- Cheesman, N 2014, 'What Does the Rule of Law Have to Do with Democratization (in Myanmar)?', South East Asia Research, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 213-232. doi.org/10.5367/sear.2014.0203
- Cheesman, N & Kyaw Min San 2014, 'Not Just Defending; Advocating for Law in Myanmar', Wisconsin International Law Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 702-733.
- Cheesman, N 2014, 'Democratization, Violence, and Myanmar', in Nick Cheesman, Nicholas Farrelly and Trevor Wilson (ed.), Debating Democratization in Myanmar, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 331-349.
- Cheesman, N, Farrelly, N & Wilson, T, eds, 2014, Debating Democratization in Myanmar, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/1981
- Cheesman, N 2014, 'Law and Order as Asymmetrical Opposite to the Rule of Law', Hague Journal on the Rule of Law, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 96-114. doi.org/10.1017/S1876404514001031
- Cheesman, N 2012, 'Myanmar's Courts and the Sounds Money Makes', in Nick Cheesman, Monique Skidmore and Trevor Wilson (ed.), Myanmar's Transition Openings, Obstacles and Opportunities, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 231-248.
- Cheesman, N, Skidmore, M & Wilson, T, eds, 2012, Myanmar's Transition Openings, Obstacles and Opportunities, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/1246
- Cheesman, N 2011, 'How an Authoritarian Regime in Burma Used Special Courts to Defeat Judicial Independence', Law and Society Review, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 801-830. doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5893.2011.00457.x
- Cheesman, N 2010, 'The Incongruous Return of Habeas Corpus to Myanmar', in Nick Cheesman, Monique Skidmore and Trevor Wilson (ed.), Ruling Myanmar From Cyclone Nargis to National Elections, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore, pp. 90-111.
- Cheesman, N, Skidmore, M & Wilson, T, eds, 2010, Ruling Myanmar From Cyclone Nargis to National Elections, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore. bookshop.iseas.edu.sg/publication/1229
- Cheesman, N 2009, 'Thin Rule of Law or Un-Rule of Law in Myanmar?', Pacific Affairs, vol. 82, no. 4, pp. 597-613. doi.org/10.5509/2009824597
- Cheesman, N 2003, 'School, State and Sangha in Burma', Comparative Education, vol. 39, no. 1, pp. 45-63. doi.org/10.1080/03050060302565
- Cheesman, N 2002, 'Seeing Karen in the Union of Myanmar', Asian Ethnicity, vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 199-220. doi.org/10.1080/14631360220132736
Projects and Grants
Grants information is drawn from ARIES. To add or update Projects or Grants information please contact your College Research Office.
- Supporting the rules-based order in Southeast Asia (SEARBO) (Secondary Investigator)
- The politics of torture in Myanmar and Thailand (Primary Investigator)
