Current postgraduates

Supervisors: Prof. Neville Wylie, Dr. Sean Matthews 

Research topic: Peraktown - A Study of a Sikh Diaspora Community 

Narveen's research focuses on the Sikhs of Peraktown, providing a richly detailed, ethnographic account of community with colonial period migrant origins, living in the multi-cultural landscape of Malaysian life yet remaining distinct and separate from the national narrative. 

Her research challenges dominant tropes of migrant integration and assimilation and questions of the continued relevance of multiculturalism in accommodating difference and diversity. Her findings show that the Peraktown Sikhs remain a nomadic population, ready to shift either physical or mental position in pursuit of status, socio-economic or cultural benefits. Their experience challenges migration without assimilation causing downward socio-economic mobility and cultural disconnection with host societies. Using oral history interviews and memoirs, her work describes the evolution of identity and belonging over three generations. 

Key themes include: kinship and community bond formation and maintenance; the expanding role of women; alterations in customs and attitudes towards relationship, marriage and family; the importance of educational achievements and the continued transmission of religious and cultural traditions. 

Research interests: Diaspora Studies, Oral History, Migrant Assimilation and Identity, Postcolonial Theory, Ethnography

Supervisors: Dr. Trevor Parfitt, Christopher Napoli 

Research topic: Effect of Environmental Related Trade Act/Legislations/Policies on Peninsular Malaysia's Forest and Timber Sector 

Research interests: Trade and Environment

Supervisor: Prof. Neville Wylie 

Research topic: Hybrid Warfare, Military Adaptation and a Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Operations in the Sri Lankan Civil War

My doctoral thesis is a study of wartime conduct in the Sri Lankan Civil War, with the focal point of the research being the Eelam War IV campaign (2006 to 2009). This project aims to establish and communicate  a balanced account of military strategy, operations and tactics in the incumbent’s controversial final campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). To that end, this project has leveraged the methodology of Crisis Mapping in the collection, visualisation and analysis of spatially and temporally-referenced data on over 3,000 wartime events reported as having transpired during Eelam War IV. 

Ultimately, the project advocates an active consideration of the difficult ‘three-block’ ground realities that emerge in conflicts – such as Sri Lanka’s – which involve the use of hybrid modes of warfare. In particular, my research is concerned with how the exigencies confronting counterinsurgents on the contemporary battlefield necessitate certain changes in force planning, military doctrine and defence policy. This project also employs a demand-led and supply-side framework of military adaptation to explore the broader context in which Sri Lanka’s last war was won. Here, the emphasis is on how the confluence of domestic political change and key engagements in the international arena fostered specific outcomes in the combat theatre.

Research interests: Military History, Strategic Studies, Crisis Mapping, Counterinsurgency and Counterterrorism

Note: Piyumi has successfully submitted her thesis last year.