Teaching Barefoot in Burma is tale of a less trodden path through an ancient and long isolated land. This a story is about living and teaching in a land like no other. Senior Fulbright Scholar, Robert Sterken, spent a year conducting research on Buddhism and politics, teaching, and learning about suffering and the dance of life among the most generous people on earth. His travel memoir paints an unusual, intimate, and unique personal picture of the Myanmar people, government, Buddhist monks, racism, political prisoners, students, struggles, festivals, education, hardship, and he reveals his personal struggles, insights, lessons, and joys. The author taught hundreds of Myanmar and Thai students, delivered many public lectures, consulted with governmental and academic leaders, gave workshops to members of the Myanmar Parliament, and interviewed many former political prisoners. He spent many hours sitting on mats interviewing Buddhist monks. He meditated, spent time in monasteries, and learned life lessons from the Myanmar "grass roots people." He struggled, suffered, and changed. He also enjoyed fine celebrity-chef prepared dinners with ambassadors, generals, political leaders, university presidents, and even the Princess of Thailand. This book not only provides a unique view of Burma, but will inspire readers to journey beyond their own comfort zones and find their own Burma. In the end this is a story about connection, biases, sacrifice, struggle, kindness, and the full dance of life.
Robert Sterken is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Tyler. Professor Sterken is a Senior Fulbright Scholar who has taught politics in many places around the world, most recently in Burma/Myanmar, Thailand, and Cambodia. He has been teaching and writing about politics and power for twenty plus years. Sterken is an avid runner, yogi, reader and writer, traveler and global soul who lives mostly in Tyler, Texas.
