University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute - Malaysia

17/07/2024

https://www.nottingham.edu.my/Jobs/Joblistings/Academic/Assistant-Professor-Cultural-Studies-Media-and-Communications.aspx

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30/11/2023

Announcement: 2023-2024 Southeast Asian Writing Fellowship (RM4,000)
For the 2023-2024 academic year, UoNARI is inviting applications especially from scholars working in Southeast Asia who wish to use the writing fellowship to complete an article for journal publication. A small living allowance of up to RM4,000 is available upon application, but it is expected that applicants will already be at an academic institution or have institutional employment elsewhere.

We welcome applications from scholars who have not yet published in English but who have made a recognised contribution to scholarship in a language of the person’s home country. Assistance with the English-language publication may be offered. For all affiliated positions, any resulting publications will acknowledge affiliation with UoNARI, Malaysia, be asked to present a seminar, and encouraged to attend the activities of UoNARI.
Applications based on co-authorship with a Nottingham academic are also welcome.

Please submit your applications by email to [email protected].

An application should consist of a two-paged research and publication proposal detailing your topic as well as the duration and dates of your visit and a CV. In addition, we require the name of two referees willing to comment on your scholarly work. If possible, indicate a University of Nottingham Malaysia faculty member you would like to collaborate with or serve as your mentor.

Resources and Support
Those holding honorary positions - successful fellows and research associates - will be given a University of Nottingham Malaysia email account, granted access to the online library and the use of the computer terminals in the Kuala Lumpur Teaching Centre on Jalan Conlay.

In addition to the above, the writing fellow will be allocated a workspace in the Semenyih campus.

Applications close on 15 December 2023 (for 1 Feb- 31 August 2024 fellows). Only one writing fellow will be appointed in 2023-24 academic year. Decisions will be made by the UoNARI-M Board.

31/10/2023

On 9 October we had an interesting lunchtime seminar by our guest speaker, Senior Lecturer from the Department of Geography at King's College London, Majed Akhter, on "Infrastructure and racialised internal peripheries: Towards inter-Asian comparison."

19/04/2023

Invitation

ASSESSING EXTREMISM AND RADICALISATION IN MALAYSIA:
METHODS, CONCEPTS, HISTORY & THE CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL SCENE

Details

Date: 20 April 2023, Thursday
Time: 11:00 to 15:00 (GMT +8)
Location: F4B09a, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, 43000 Semenyih, Selangor.

Admission is free.

Presentation schedule

PANEL ON METHODOLOGY

Presentation 1:
DERICK BECKER: Conceptualising Extremism: The Devoted Actor Model

Presentation 2:
THANOS GKOUTZIOULIS: “Extremist” vs “Moderate” Muslims? How a Decontextual Distinction Can Trigger a Misperception about Radicalisation in Malaysia?

Lunch Break

PANEL ON HISTORY AND CONTEMPORARY MALAYSIAN POLITICS

Presentation 1:
SUMIT MANDAL: Exclusivist Historical and Territorial Claims and the Sharpening of Ethno-Religious Boundaries

Presentation 2:
WILLIAM CASE: What Next for UMNO? Coping with a Loss and Implications for PAS

Presentation 3:
JULIA ROKNIFARD: The Role of Political Islam in Radicalisation of Malaysian Political Scene

Should you like to join this event, please contact: [email protected]

28/03/2023

[NEW REGISTRATION LINK]
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

UoNARI Seminar Series
A Conversation on Authoritarianism in Asia:
Special focus on Iran and Burma

Since the Spring Revolution in Burma sparked by the Tatmadaw coup d’etat in Feb 1st 2021, and the civil unrest and mass protests due to the Mahsa Amini death in detention in September 2022 in Iran, there have been much interest on these two hotspots. The international media initially portrayed the Mahsa Amini protests as a Islamist oppression of women under the hejab when in reality, the issues include a slew of broader problems not limited to gender that are part of the characteristics of authoritarian regimes. As for Myanmar, it is not so much that international media grossly misrepresents the conflict in the country as much as it just has ceased to attend to the ongoing revolution at all, as other global events have taken pride of place. This is unfortunate as Myanmar’s revolution is not just directed against the military but at a number of other entrenched problems - racism, classism, and patriarchy - as well. In both cases, political opposition has been stifled and civilians—including children, and ethnic minorities have been fired upon. While these two events in recent history seem spectacular and momentous democratic uprisings, they are by no means new in the contextual history of authoritarianism in these nations.

Join our conversation with panel experts, Julia Roknifard (Iran) and Eliiott Prasse-Freeman (Myanmar) to discuss how authoritarianism refuses to loosen its grip in these two countries in Asia. Comparing the two states, we will cover the underlying economic reasons; the role of women; youth and the revolution; trans-ethnic solidarity whether mobilisation stems from ethnic exclusion or a cohesive uprising for national goals and lastly, the significance and consequences of violence.

Details

Date: 30 March 2023, Thursday
Time: 17:00 to 18:30 (GMT +8)
Location: Register for Zoom webinar - https://rb.gy/ecfvre

For more information on this event, kindly e-mail UoNARI-M: [email protected]

Speakers

Julia Roknifard is an Assistant Professor at the School of Politics, History and International Relations (PHIR) of the University of Nottingham Malaysia, specialising on Iran and international security.

Eliott Prasse-Freeman received his PhD from the Department of Anthropology at Yale University. He has conducted long-term fieldwork in Myanmar, and has a book in print (Stanford University Press, August 2023) on Burmese subaltern political thought as adduced from an extended ethnography of activism and contentious politics in the country's semi-authoritarian setting. Prasse-Freeman also has a book project on Rohingya political subjectivity amidst dislocation and mass violence, with a particular focus on their maneuvers in the context of post-sovereign governmental regimes that incorporate Human Rights discourse, humanitarian care/exclusion, and biopolitical regulation.

Gaik Cheng Khoo, the UONARI Director will moderate the panel. Gaik is Assoc. Prof. in the School of Media, Languages and Cultures. She works on Southeast Asian films, food and identity, and Korean migrants in Malaysia. Her current project is on developing an ecological model for the durian industry in Malaysia.

04/04/2022

University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute-Malaysia Webinar

From GE14 to Johor 2022:
Rethinking Voting Behaviour in Malaysia

How and why do Malaysians vote as they do? How should we understand Malaysian voting behaviour? What do recent trends in voting behaviour tell us about voting and electoral prospects ahead and democracy in Malaysia?

Most analyses of Malaysian politics focus on leaders, political parties and coalitions. This seminar focuses on voters, their political participation and interesting shifts in how they are participating (or not) in recent elections.

During campaigns, analysis of voter behaviour is often ad hoc and narrow. The same trends remain in academic work as well. Studies of voting behaviour in Malaysia have predominantly only used two lens to understand voters, ethnicity and geography (rural vs urban). More recent studies have drawn attention to generational differences. Analysis focus on specific elections, and are often ahistorical and not comparative.

Drawing from both qualitative and quantitative work on Malaysian elections, this seminar presents research that uses multiple lens to understand voting, and identifies important changes in how Malaysians are participating in elections since 1999 through 2022. Despite pessimism about political stagnation of reforms and democratic backsliding in national politics, focusing on voters offers more optimism for strengthening democracy in Malaysia.

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Details

Date: 12 April 2022, Tuesday
Time: 17:00 to 18:30 (GMT +8)
Location: Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 876 6083 2120

Passcode: 329433

For more information on this event, kindly e-mail [email protected]

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Dr Bridget Welsh

Dr Bridget Welsh, Honorary Research Associate, Asia Research Institute, University of Nottingham Malaysia specialises in Southeast Asian politics, with a focus on Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Indonesia. An author and editor of numerous books, reports and articles, her research examines electoral behaviour, democracy and socio-political transformations in the region. Her latest (co-edited) book was Sabah from the Ground: The 2020 Elections and the Politics of Survival (2021). She is a member of the Asia Barometer Survey, Senior Research Associate of the Hu Feng Center for East Asia Democratic Studies of National Taiwan University and a Senior Associate Fellow of The Habibie Center.

28/03/2022

Here is the recorded seminar from a few weeks ago by Ms Petra Gimbad on The Prison Diets of the Federated Malay States.

Furnivall (1948) had observed in his studies of colonial societies in Burma, Java and Malaya, how the different races (both European and non-European) formed...

07/03/2022

University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute-Malaysia Webinar

The Prison Diets of the Federated Malay States

Furnivall (1948) had observed in his studies of colonial societies in Burma, Java and Malaya, how the different races (both European and non-European) formed a plural society where different communities led separate lives, despite living side-by-side. In the case of Malaya, racial categories were used extensively to inform systems of governance, which influenced the manner in which its colonial administration organised populations into separate yet interrelated economic sectors. The use of racial categories were used as well in administrative systems of punishment, including the early colonial prisons of the Federated Malay States.

The building of prisons accompanied the growth of populations, and the prison policies that followed reflected how racial attitudes had influenced administrative logic. This can be seen in the types of diets provided to colonial inmates. The early evolution of the prison diets, seen thus, were a reflection of administrative anxieties and the need to conserve resources, with prisoners often paying the price. This seminar examines how racial attitudes influenced the manner in which food was weaponised to punish prison inmates, and how treatment of inmates differed according to perceived race and class.

Details

Date: 9 March 2022, Wednesday
Time: 15:00 to 16:00 (GMT +8)
Location: Online via Microsoft Teams

For more information on this event, kindly e-mail [email protected]

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Petra Gimbad is a PhD candidate at the University of Nottingham, Malaysia.

24/11/2021

University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute-Malaysia Webinar

Sipping Tea, Performing Plastic: Representational and Materialist Politics of Boba Tea Consumption

This talk focuses on the under-discussed non-human actor – the plastic in the process of boba tea consumption. It tracks the ways the plastic cup is represented and functioned in boba tea advertising. Is the plastic cup merely a physical and impartial container in contemporary food and beverage industry? How does plastic play a role in the visualisation and mass mediation of food content? This essay uses recent discussions of new materialism to bring together cultural analysis of the boba tea consumption phenomenon that could be relevant for reflecting a sustainable future. It examines how plastic plays a new and active role in changing the daily habits and new meanings of food and beverage in society.

Details
Date: 6 December 2021, Monday
Time: 20:00 to 21:30 (GMT +8)
Location: Online via Zoom

For more information on this event and register to obtain the Zoom link, kindly e-mail: [email protected]

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Professor Ka-Ming Wu

Ka-Ming Wu is Associate Professor in the Department of Cultural and Religious Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she has taken up ethnographic research to examine the cultural politics of state and society, waste, and most recently, gender and nationalism in contemporary China. Her first book is Reinventing Chinese Tradition: The Cultural Politics of Late Socialism (UIP 2015). Her second book Feiping Shenghuo: Lajichang De Jingji, Shequn Yu Kongjian (CUHK 2016) (Living with Waste: Economies, Communities and Spaces of Waste Collectors in China) discusses the socio-cultural impacts of waste. Her academic papers have been published in many journals such as Journal of Asian Studies, Modern China, Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theories, The China Journal, Urban Geography, and China Perspectives.

[Image: A picture containing a cup, table, coffee and food.]

07/09/2021

"The first comes as Malaysia remains mired in an ongoing wave of Covid-19 infections and facing serious economic concerns, fuelling discontent towards the political leadership. This has led to the rise of a new youth movement under the umbrella of , consisting of organisations such as Undi18, which campaigned for the voting age to be lowered to 18."

"While it has taken some time for the country’s youth to organise and break through state and social structures that do not encourage their participation, this new movement could constitute a formidable springboard for the opposition to reinvent itself. However, it would also take major efforts and self-reflection from parties within the opposition Pakatan Harapan coalition, more specifically Anwar’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, for Malaysia to move towards a more democratic and more inclusive system."

The former premier’s position heading the National Recovery Council is another sign of his survival instinct – and don’t discount another bid for the top job.

22/07/2021

Is there hope moving forward for the country, after ? Some experts hope so.

Join Khoo Boo Teik and Bridget Welsh as they chat about the impact of the pandemic on Malaysian politics and local consciousness.

Details
Date and time: Sat 24 July, 3pm.
Webinar URL: https://bit.ly/2UMeV73

For more info, email: [email protected]