UoNARI-M supports research under the broad theme of TransAsia,
current projects include:
Faculty research
Current projects (subthemes of TransAsia)
1. Cosmopolitan networks, transnational linkages that can be Inter-
Asia, regional Asia and beyond.
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- Associate Professor Gaik Cheng Khoo, School of Media, Languages and Cultures (Korean Migrants in Malaysia: Modernity, Temporality and Affect; Southeast Asian Cinema between 1945-1997; A Political Economy of the Malaysian Durian);
- Associate Professor Sumit Mandal, School of Politics, History and International Relations (Gravesites of Muslim saints in the Malay world as inscriptions of transnational histories and sacred geographies; Cosmopolitan histories and racialised politics in Malaysia);
- Associate Professor Thomas Barker, School of Media, Languages and Cultures (Creative industries in Malaysia and its relationship to China; Southeast Asian media and culture especially Indonesia and Malaysia);
- Assistant Professor Dag Yngvesson, School of Media, Languages and Cultures (Non-Aligned Features: The Coincidence of Modernity and the Screen in Indonesia); and
- University Teaching Fellow Mandy Siew Chen Sim, CELFE (Inter-organisational Linkages for Innovation and Marketing, Talent for Digital Economy and Business Trends in Asia).
2. Media and Gender in Asia
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- Assistant Professor Melissa Yoong, School of English (Professional Discourses, Gender and Identity in an Asian Media Context); and
- Assistant Professor Gayathry Venkiteswaran, School of Media, Languages and Cultures.
- Ahmad Fuad Rahmat, School of Media, Languages and Cultures
3. Trust, security, soft power
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- Assistant Professor Benjamin Barton, School of Politics, History and International Relations (Specialising in China-EU relations, Africa);
- Assistant Professor Chee Meng Tan, Business School (Panda diplomacy and China's soft power; trust in national governments in relation to Confucius Institutes);
- Ng Pek Kim, Business School (Panda diplomacy); and
- Assistant Professor Julia Sveshnikova School of Politics, History and International Relations (Iran and the Middle East, religion as a political instrument).
- Assistant Professor Ho Ying Chan, School of Politics, History and International Relations
4. Food and identity related to community wellbeing and
sustainability
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- Assistant Professor Aini Hamid, School of Biomedical Science;
- Associate Professor Gaik Cheng Khoo, School of Media, Languages and Cultures (The political economy of the durian, Korean restaurants in Malaysia).
Doctoral research
1. Kuala Lumpur: An Exploration of the Subaltern Spaces and Figures of a Capital City
This research takes a historical approach in striving to understand how Kuala Lumpur came into existence. By placing the poor and forgotten as the movers of the city's creation, it strives to provide an alternative narrative to the "big men of history" approach.
- Petra Gimbad, School of History, Politics and International Relations
2. The Quasi-Populist Mobilisation of Conservative Malay-Muslim Social Movement: A Study of Perkasa and ISMA, 2008-2017
This dissertation discusses the factors (political opportunity) that brought about a conservative backlash in the Malaysian civil society between 2008 and 2017. It explores the relationships of two prominent Malay-Muslim NGOs with the state and how they might have employed populist strategies in mobilising their grassroots to collective action.
- Kevin Tan, School of History, Politics and International Relations
Past research projects
1. Place-making within the Peraktown Sikh Diaspora
- Narveen Kaur, PhD student, School of Politics, History and International Relations
2. Social Media and Political Communication Strategies in Thailand
- Mukda Pratheepwatanawong PhD student, School of Modern Languages and Cultures
3. Neither Here Nor There: The Uneven Modernisation of Malay Masculinity
- Ahmad Fuad Rahmat PhD student, School of Media, Languages and Cultures
4. Modernising Desire: The Malay Sentimental Public as a Politics of Space
My research utilises Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand love in Malay popular culture in terms of cognitive mapping, wherein films offer a spatial imaginary to negotiate the contradictions of modernity. Key here is how masculinity - hegemonically deemed as the body of progress - is depicted in sentimental terms and its implications for the construction of a modern gender regime more broadly.