Jon Fernquest | Mae Fah Luang University (original) (raw)

Papers by Jon Fernquest

The musical instrument known as the Qin or Chinese seven-string zither, for hundreds of years has... more The musical instrument known as the Qin or Chinese seven-string zither, for hundreds of years has been part of a tradition of solitary amateur music-making aimed at personal aesthetic experience and cultivation of social and cognitive well-being. Until recently the sociology of music
avoided dealing directly with aesthetics, the ways in which music penetrates and influences social reality at the private level, focusing instead on the power relations that shape the distribution and reception of music in society at the public level. For instance, the sociological approach of Bourdieu’s Distinction (1984) treats musical events such as listening, concert-going or even music creation as strategic positionings in social space in relation to class or group norms. Tia DeNora has brought
aesthetics back into the sociology of music and shown that the “affordances” of a musical event, what is made possible by the musical event, are as important as the power relations conditioning the musical
event before it occurs. Whereas power relations behind music range from valorizing and prioritizing elite tastes in music to the cultural hegemony of certain professional musical practices such as the concert or virtuoso performance, possible affordances of music range from putting a baby to sleep with a lullaby, to marching music guiding an army to war, to background music in a store, to creating a private personal space in everyday life. The Qin’s long history of music philosophy integrated with
practice makes it a model instrument for the neglected category of “solitary amateur music-making” and the accompanying affordance of “subjective well-being” under a new aesthetics-driven sociology of music.

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

This article focuses on the war on drugs in the Philippines in order to explore issues related to... more This article focuses on the war on drugs in the Philippines in order to explore issues related to extra-judicial killing, which remains common in many countries that have abolished the death penalty and in many more that retain it but seldom carry out judicial executions. In the first year of Rodrigo Duterte’s presidency (2016–17), thousands of people were killed by police or by vigilantes who were encouraged to prosecute his war on drugs. At a time when democracy is in retreat in many parts of the world, this case illustrates how popular harsh punishment can be in states that have failed to meet their citizens’ hopes for freedom, economic growth, and security.

2022 Joint International Conference on Digital Arts, Media and Technology with ECTI Northern Section Conference on Electrical, Electronics, Computer and Telecommunications Engineering (ECTI DAMT & NCON), 2022

An architecture for a flashcard system for learning vocabulary is presented here that feeds direc... more An architecture for a flashcard system for learning vocabulary is presented here that feeds directly off the experimental work on vocabulary acquisition. In principle, experiments in vocabulary acquisition based on traditional inferential statistics applied to small once-off collected sets of data, can inform vocabulary pedagogy as teachers are exposed to experimental results via training courses and practical teaching-oriented literature. Recently, however, in many domains of practical application, this traditional statistical approach has been replaced by a machine learning approach feeding off large continuous streams of real time data. Here it is proposed that a flashcard app implemented as such can serve as an adaptive experimental platform for continual pedagogical improvement. Flashcards for learning the multiple senses of high-frequency academic vocabulary from context is chosen as an important initial exploratory domain of application.

SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 2005

In 1596, one thousand Lao war captives fled from Pegu, the capital of the kingdom of Burma, back ... more In 1596, one thousand Lao war captives fled from Pegu, the capital of the kingdom of Burma, back to their native kingdom of Lan Sang. This incident is insignificant when compared to more cataclysmic changes like the founding or fall of dynasties, but it has attracted the attention ...

SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 2005

Min-gyi-nyo (r.1486-1531) occupies an important place in Burmese history as the first king of the... more Min-gyi-nyo (r.1486-1531) occupies an important place in Burmese history as the first king of the First Toungoo dynasty of Burma (1486-1599). After Min-gyi-nyo's death in 1531 mainland Southeast Asia rapidly became the stage for large-scale expansionary warfare. This warfare unified what for hundreds of years had been separate isolated zones of Burmese and Tai political control. The Toungoo Dynasty rapidly established control for a short time over such far-flung states as Ayutthya, Lan Chang (Laos), and the Chinese Shan states. As a result of these wars the Burmese state expanded to a size that it has never matched again. Min-gyi-nyo has long been neglected by historians of Burma. The last scholarly journal article on his reign was published in 1912 (Shwe Zan Aung, May Oung, and M.K., 1912). Lieberman (2003, 142-4, 150-1) and Surakiat (2005) have recently reasserted Min-gyi-nyo's importance for the study of state expansion and the early modern Southeast Asian polity. Despite this new-found importance, there is still no adequate narrative history of 1 I would like to thank the anonymous referees for their extensive and helpful critiques as well as Mike Charney, U Saw Tun, Bruce Reynolds, and Michael Aung-Thwin for their help and encouragement.

Court ritual, political theory, the conduct of warfare, the interpretation of omens, sage advice ... more Court ritual, political theory, the conduct of warfare, the interpretation of omens, sage advice from wise ministers to kings, as well as many other domains of indigenous knowledge are described in rich detail by the indigenous historical chronicles of Southeast Asia. Indigenous historical chronicles did many things besides

Table of Contents 1. Introduction: In search of "Mong Mao" a. State or chieftainship? b. Historic... more Table of Contents 1. Introduction: In search of "Mong Mao" a. State or chieftainship? b. Historical over-extrapolation: Unified states and Southern Advances c. Geography: Where was Mong Mao? d. A Tai Frontier? e. History of the Tai Frontier: Public or hidden? f. Goals, conventions, sources, and analytical frameworks 2. Tai raids and the founding of Ava (1301-1382) a. Tai raids, a period of crisis, and the founding of Ava (1359-1368) b. Mingyiswasawke builds the state of Ava (1368-1400) 3. The Ming conquest of the Tai Frontier (1382-1398) a. The initial Ming attempts to win Yunnan over (1369-1380) b. The Ming invasion and conquest of Yunnan (1380-1383) c. Si Lun-fa seizes power and submits to the Ming (1382) d. A Tai challenge to Ming rule in Yunnan (1382-1388) e. The Battle of Dingbian 1388: A Ming punitive expedition against the Tais f. The pursuit of Si Lun-fa and war reparations (1388) g. Tai attacks against Ava and a Ming mission to the region (1393-1396) h. Si Lun-fa deposed by a rival Tai leader (1397) i. The reinstatement of Si Lun-fa (1398) 4. The Ava-Pegu and Ming-Vietnam Wars (1401-1427) a. Ming frontier administration reorganized (1402-1406) b. The Ava-Pegu War: Irregular cavalry forces from the Tai frontier (1401-1406) c. Further inroads into the Tai Frontier by Ava under Minyekyawswa (1406-1414) 5. A crucible of war: The aftermath of the Ava-Pegu and Ming-Vietnam Wars (1426-1438) a. The North: Mong Mao expansionary warfare eastwards into Ming Yunnan (1427-1438) b. Political disorder and uncertainty in the Tai Frontier: A small case study c. The South: Tai involvement in Ava's domestic politics (1426-1440) 6. Burma as Ming proxy in a Tai manhunt: The final Luchuan-Pingmian Campaigns (1442-1454) a. The Third Luchuan-Pingmian Campaign (1443-1444) b. The Fourth Luchuan-Pingmian Campaign (1448-1449) c. The Burmese capture Si Ji-fa (1449-1454) 77 The author would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers who reviewed this paper for their invaluable suggestions and corrections as well as Dr.

Ban gko k Post Introduction: the Premodern State Court ritual, political theory, the conduct of w... more Ban gko k Post Introduction: the Premodern State Court ritual, political theory, the conduct of warfare, the interpretation of omens, sage advice from wise ministers to kings, as well as many other domains of indigenous knowledge are described in rich detail by the indigenous historical chronicles of Southeast Asia. Indigenous historical chronicles did many things besides chronicle history. The narratives of Burmese and Mon historical chronicles have a strong fictional character. Plot enhancing story elements, often quite melodramatic, range from love, trickery, and chase scenes to supernatural interventions in history and are mixed freely with fact and enliven dry historical detail. The Pali Buddhist literary traditions of India found in story collections such as the Jatakas, the Dhammapada Commentary, or the Mahavamsa Tika are clearly an inspiration if not the source of these historical adornments, an influence made quite explicit in the later Jataka-based explanations of Burmese history in Shin Sandá-lin-ka's The Treasured Precedents (Maní-yadana-poun, translated by Eun Bagshawe, 1981). A modern historian would quite reasonably not accept these fictional portrayals as pure Rankean factual history. At the same time, the minutiae of military operations and court ritual, described in a precise and non-fictional manner, have the outward appearance of historical documentation. Dry technical military details disqualify much of the narrative as literature, one would think. Therefore, what exactly are these texts? Is the "fiction" found within Burma's historical texts merely entertainment to be discarded by a serious historian or does it have some deeper significance as, for instance, an intellectual history of ideas that historians wove into the fabric of the history they were writing? And, if so, what period is this intellectual history associated with? The earlier period in which the events are described such as the relatively autonomous Ava period of Burmese history (1368-1551) or from some much later period such as the Kònbaung period (1752-1885) in which European influence on historical writing is already seen?

3. The Ming conquest of the Tai Frontier (1382-1398) a. The initial Ming attempts to win Yunnan o... more 3. The Ming conquest of the Tai Frontier (1382-1398) a. The initial Ming attempts to win Yunnan over (1369-1380) b. The Ming invasion and conquest of Yunnan (1380-1383) c. Si Lun-fa seizes power and submits to the Ming (1382) d. A Tai challenge to Ming rule in Yunnan (1382-1388) e. The Battle of Dingbian 1388: A Ming punitive expedition against the Tais f. The pursuit of Si Lun-fa and war reparations (1388) g. Tai attacks against Ava and a Ming mission to the region (1393-1396) h. Si Lun-fa deposed by a rival Tai leader (1397) i. The reinstatement of Si Lun-fa (1398)

The reign of the Mon king Rajadhirat (r. 1383-1421) was an exceptional period in Burma’s history.... more The reign of the Mon king Rajadhirat (r. 1383-1421) was an exceptional period in Burma’s history. Rarely has one person exerted so much influence over the events of an era. Lower and Upper Burma were locked in endemic warfare for almost forty years during his reign. Unlike his father and predecessor, Rajadhirat was forced to wage war to obtain power. Once in power, he had to continue fighting to maintain power. During the critical first seven years of his rule, Rajadhirat consolidated power in a series of conflicts with other members of the ruling elite. The war that Rajadhirat waged had its origins in a succession crisis, a common problem plaguing the transition from one political regime to another in many societies (Ferguson, 1999, 402). Upon the death of a king, members of the ruling elite typically competed for the vacant throne and in general:

Philippine Sociological Review , 2018

This article explores the cyclical nature of violence in the Philippine War on Drugs, with the ai... more This article explores the cyclical nature of violence in the Philippine War on Drugs, with the aim of charting potential paths out of this violence. With a focus on how media framings of violence can help bring violence to an end, the article proposes a cycle of violence paradigm to explain how violence progresses in three stages: mass public socialization into violence via violent political rhetoric, a process of state denial that sustains the violence, and finally, public socialization out of violence through an effective response by media, communities, and civil society (i.e., human rights activists, academics, churches) at the national level. State strategies of denial, coupled with a lack of transparency in security force operations (i.e., police, military, militia), help perpetuate the violence. Amid a cycle of violence, the deaths of innocent individuals can lead to increased media coverage, public discourse and awareness, which in turn, leads to public identification with the victim and fear for the safety of one's own community and family. As case studies, a comparative narrative analysis is performed of two killings that led to mass public engagement at the national level, namely that of the Filipino teenager Kian delos Santos and the Korean expat businessman Jee Ick Joo.

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

The development of indigenous Burmese historiography was heavily influenced by the Pali and Sansk... more The development of indigenous Burmese historiography was heavily influenced by the Pali and Sanskrit literatures, developing what amounts to an artha-shastra folk political science tradition thoroughly integrated with indigenous historiography. Like recombinant DNA passing traits between living beings, literary lists or “repetitive, chant-like lists of epithets and qualities” facilitated the passage of ideas between literary genres.

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

SOAS Bulletin of Burma Research, 2005

Philippine Sociological Review , 2018

Asian Journal of Law and Society, 2018

In 1985 at the height of the Martial Law Era of Philippine history, just before the fall of Marco... more In 1985 at the height of the Martial Law Era of Philippine history, just before the fall of Marcos (1965-86) in the rural community of Tulunan on the island of Mindanao, half-way between the cities of Davao and Cotabato, a priest was shot dead by a local militia member. The killing of Father Favali is one of the most well-documented cases in Philippine history of extrajudicial killing (EJK), i.e. state killing outside the formal legal system of the state. Since the perpetrators were tried, found guilty and punished for their crime, the killing was also an exception to the historical norm of impunity for the perpetrators of EJK (Parenno 2011), a norm once again present in the wave of EJK that began in 2016 under the Duterte regime. This study probes deeper into the Father Favali case to see what it can teach us about the relationship between perpetrators of EJK, the state and the public, as well as what it reveals about how impunity becomes a norm for perpetrators of EJK.

Neglected Filipino intellectuals live, teach and pursue research on the island of Mindanao in th... more Neglected Filipino intellectuals live, teach and pursue research on the island of Mindanao in the midst of a long-running conflict, writing as critical activist intellectuals deeply embedded in the actual situations that they write about, even to the point of putting their own lives at risk. As activist intellectuals they fight against the ethnocide and epistemicide that takes place before their very eyes. They are intellectuals of the sort evoked by Foucault when he draws a picture of the activist intellectual employing tactics and strategy, fighting in
a politics that is a continuation of war my other means, and also intellectuals of the global south as put forward by Boaventura de Sousa Santosa in the more recent Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide (2015).

This paper reviews the resources available for Sanskrit self-pedagogy along with an approach to l... more This paper reviews the resources available for Sanskrit self-pedagogy along with an approach to learning Sanskrit through in-depth reading of classical poetic stanzas that is based on traditional approaches to learning Sanskrit. A first attempt at conceptualizing Sanskrit grammars as composed of modules with 'information hiding' is also made.

Extrajudicial killing (EJK) is a relatively recent concept located at the intersection of human r... more Extrajudicial killing (EJK) is a relatively recent concept located at the intersection of human rights, criminology and the sociology of law. It is defined as state-killing outside of the formal legal system of a state without due process of law. As a residual category it relies heavily on the definition of what a 'state' is and thus a theory of the state. A key feature of EJK is a denial of state involvement in killing necessitated by EJK's constituting state crime in which the state violates its own self-defined rules for operation. The specific focus of this study is how state 'frames' are used in speeches and political communication to promote state-killing while denying any state connection to that killing. EJK is seen to occur in coordinated waves of violence (cycles of violence) that resemble the trajectory of infectious diseases in epidemics that are influenced by the frames put forth by the state and watchdog institutions in 'cycles of moral reaction'. This case study focuses on EJK in the Philippines which has played a key defining role in EJK internationally, specifically on police encounter shootings and death squad killings during the 'War on Drugs' that began in 2016.

U Kala's Mahayazawingyi is arguably the most important Burmese historical chronicle, yet no schol... more U Kala's Mahayazawingyi is arguably the most important Burmese historical chronicle, yet no scholar has yet studied the text in depth.

A set of tools is needed to transform chronicle manuscripts into a scholarly translation in a timely and accurate fashion. In addition to software and databases to aid the translator, workflows are also proposed.

Although the focus will be on U Kala’s Burmese historical chronicle, the approach will not be regionally limited to Burma as previous work on Burmese history has been. In its essence the thesis work will be cross-culturally comparative emphasizing the empirical diversity of manuscript cultures (Burmese, Tai, Lanna, Pali) that exist in mainland Southeast Asia.

A special emphasis will be placed on historical geography and the production of maps to visualize this dimension of manuscripts. Towards this goal the development of tools to analyze this dimension of manuscripts is essential, namely historical Geographical Information System (GIS) tools to be elaborated on in great length below.

Presentation on software prototyping guided by literature review as a methodology for incremental... more Presentation on software prototyping guided by literature review as a methodology for incremental software architecture design and implementation.

Jampudipa Publishing, 2024

The period 1300-1600 was one of endemic warfare and continually shifting geopolitical boundaries... more The period 1300-1600 was one of endemic warfare and continually shifting geopolitical boundaries of Ming China’s southern neighbors in mainland Southeast Asia. These neighbors consisted of groups speaking the Tai, Burmese, and Mon languages. The standard often romanticized interpretation casts these premodern political entities as small city state principalities ruled over by a prince and his family embroiled in continual military conflict. Each city state is endowed with a limited economic hinterland of wet rice cultivation located along a river valley. This food supply provides an economic surplus to support the ruling elites in their continual military pursuits. From the perspective of the
Ming state these political formations were termed pre-state ‘tusi’ or ‘chieftainships’. The papers in this volume provide evidence for such loosely organized ‘chieftainships’ with continually shifting boundaries and centers, rather than well-ordered states or ’kingdoms’ with stable, well-structured bureaucracies and state institutions.