Current Research

I use the methodology of conceptual history and discourse analysis to investigate the semantic shifts of Burmese words, concepts, and categories such as time, categorization of people, secular knowledge, astrology, and divination through a diachronic corpus composed of texts from different literary genres ranging from the Early Modern period to the turn of the twentieth century. This research enables me to trace the progressive changes in the Burmese Buddhist universe of thought and imaginary, and to examine how these local changes are partially informed by broader regional and global contexts through a process of circulation and localization of different systems of knowledge.

Major Publications

Book

La réforme politique en Birmanie pendant le premier moment colonial (1819-1878) [The Political Reform in Burma during the First Colonial Moment (1819-1878)]. Paris, EFEO, 2020. Winner of the International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize (French edition). More about the ICAS 2021 French edition .

Edited Books

Lefèvre-Pontalis, Pierre. Journey to Southern Thailand and Burma (1912), Bangkok, River Books, 2025. Texts compiled, co-edited, and annotated with Olivier Evrard.

Birmanie (Myanmar) 2010-2017: un pays en transition? [Burma (Myanmar): A Country in Transition?], Paris, Presses de l’INALCO, 2020. Sole editor with contributions from Alexandra de Mersan, Bénédicte Brac de la Perrière, Aurore Candier, Nicolas Salem-Gervais, and Stéphen Huard. Read online .

Edited Journal Special Issue

(with Jane Ferguson), “Astrological and Divinatory Practices in Burma,” Special Issue of The Journal of Burma Studies, 26(2), 2022.

Peer-Reviewed Articles/Book Chapters

• “Les relations franco-birmanes sous le Second Empire,” in Dominique Barjot et Jean-François Klein (eds.), Rencontres impériales : L’Asie et la France, le “moment Second Empire,” Maisonneuve et Larose, 2023, pp. 347–362.
• “The Emergence and Evolution of the beidin Category in Burma: The Transition of the Long Nineteenth Century,” The Journal of Burma Studies, 26(2), 2022, pp. 147–159.
• (with Alexandra de Mersan and Alice Vittrant), “Désigner l’humain en birman: l’émergence des catégories de ressortissant national et d’étranger au contact de l’Occident,” in Angelina Aleksandrova and Jean-Paul Meyer (eds.), Nommer L’Humain: Descriptions, catégorisation, enjeux, Paris, L’Harmattan, collection Langages et discours, 2021, pp. 75–96.
• “Mapping Ethnicity in Nineteenth Century Burma: When ‘Categories of People’ (Lumyo) Became ‘Nations’,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 50(3), 2019, pp. 347–364.
• “Les transformations des notions de temps, de passé et l’évolution des régimes d’historicité des élites dirigeantes birmanes (XVIème siècle-XIXème siècle),” Péninsule, 77, 2018, pp. 5–34.
• “Conjuncture and Reform in the Late Konbaung Period: How Prophecies, Omens and Rumors Motivated Political Action from 1866 to 1869,” The Journal of Burma Studies, 15(2), 2011, pp. 231–262.
• “Convergences conceptuelles en Birmanie: la transition du XIXème siècle,” Moussons, 16(2), 2010, pp. 81–102.
• “Histoire et Temporalité à travers douze extraits du journal de voyage d’un ambassadeur birman en France (1874),” Journal Asiatique, 295(2), 2007, pp. 221–347.
• “A Norm of Burmese Kingship? The Concept of Raza-dhamma through Five Konbaung Period Texts,” The Journal of Burma Studies, 11, 2007, pp. 5–48.

Podcast

“Semantic Shifts in Burmese History”
Southeast Asia Crossroads Podcast – CSEAS @ NIU, 2025
Listen to the podcast

Courses Taught

• HIST 171 – World History since 1500
• HIST 442/542 – Buddhist Southeast Asia
• HIST 447/547 – History of Burma

Interdisciplinary Affiliations

• Director, Center for Burma Studies, NIU.
• Associate, Center for Southeast Asian Studies, NIU.
• Associate, Centre de l’Asie du Sud-Est (CASE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique – École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France.
• Association for Asian Studies