Esther Sarah Tenberg

I graduated from the Southeast Asian Studies Masters program in Bonn in 2018, during which I spent one year in Myanmar to study the Myanmar language at the Yangon University of Foreign Languages (YUFL). In my master thesis, I examined how ethno-racial and gendered categories in Myanmar are informed by Buddhist ideas of morality and how such hierarchical categories influence social status.

In my Ph.D. I am researching digital religion and religious authority in online Buddhist communities in Myanmar. The thesis aims at providing a better understanding of monks' discursive practices. My research interests include intersectional identity formations and political discourse in Myanmar. Currently, I am especially interested in monastic forms of self-representation on Facebook.