PhD Students

Bancharat Polpila earned her Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration from Khon Kaen University in Thailand in 2018. In 2022, she then pursued a Master’s degree in Public Economics, Law, and Politics at Leuphana University, which she completed in 2025. Currently, she is a PhD student and actively works as a scientific staff member at the Chair of Development Politics at the University of Passau.

Contact Details

Email: bancharat.polpila@uni-passau.de.

Office: HK 16 217, University of Passau.

Research Focused Area

1. Democratization and Authoritarianism in Southeast Asia
2. Social Movement
3. Politics of memory

Ongoing Research

The role of Gen Z in the 6 October commemoration in Thailand

• Gen Z and Political Memory: The study has conducted extensive research on how Generation Z in Thailand commemorates the October 6, 1976, massacre, examining how these practices challenge official state history.

Contemporary Gen Z movement

• The research focuses on the new wave of Gen Z movements, particularly in Southeast Asia.

Courses

Summer semester 2026

44360 Political Systems and Democratization in Southeast Asia

Winter semester 2025/26

44380 Recent Social Movements in Southeast and East Asia

44330 Myanmar/Thailand Update

Min Htin Kyaw Lat graduated with a degree in Economics and Management from Singapore Institute of Management in 2012 after which he returned to Yangon to pursue a career in the tech sector. In 2019 he moved to Hamburg to do a maters’ degree in Politics, Economics and Philosophy at the University of Hamburg. As a doctoral researcher at the University of Passau.

Kontakt

Email: MinHtin.KyawLat@uni-passau.de

Office: HK 16 217, University of Passau.

Research Focused Area

1. Digital labour
2. Media studies development studies
3. Platformisation, informal digital economies, misinformation, digital resistance, digital strike.

Publications

• Fröberg, L., & Lat, M. H. K. (2025). Digital strike: Monetizing online engagement and content for Myanmar’s spring revolution. Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, 18(2), A1-A20. doi.org/10.14764/10.ASEAS-0126
• Schaffar, W., & Lat, M.H.K. (2026). Neue Weltordnung und Künstliche Intelligenz in Südostasien: Zwischen Luxus-Konsum in Smart Cities und Zwagsarbeit in Betrugsfabriken. In B. Belina, A. Demirovi, S. Heeg, S. Klauke, T. Sablowski, & A. Salih (eds.), Multiple Krise und neue Konstellationen des Kapitalismus (pp. 245 – 267). Westfälisches Dampfboot.

Ongoing Research

Structure and Agency in Platform-Mediated Content Production in Myanmar

The doctoral project investigates Myanmar’s digital content economy by focusing on informal networks that produce low-quality or clickbait content on online platforms. Using mixed methods such as interviews, digital ethnography, and market analysis, the study explores how content producers, entrepreneurs, and informal digital workers adapt to changing platform rules, political conditions, and economic opportunities.

Digital Strike

After the 2021 coup in Myanmar, politically motivated online networks began coordinating content production and engagement to generate advertising revenue in support of resistance forces, using tactics inspired by K-pop fandom culture such as mass streaming and click-farming. Based on digital ethnography, the study examines how these networks are organized, what content they create, and how their monetization strategies turn online activity into a form of “digital strike” that merges fandom, entertainment, fundraising, and political activism.

Past projects

(Master’s thesis)Digital Sovereignty in the Indo-Pacific: A comparative study of governance models of digitalisation in India, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Courses

• 44313 Myanmar/Thailand - comparative conflict studies
• 44311 Political Economy of Digital Platforms (WiSe 25/26)
• 44330 Myanmar/Thailand Update (WiSe 25/26)

Profile Links:

LinkedIn