Mala Rajo Sathian is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies and the founding coordinator of the Thai studies programme, both at Universiti Malaya, Malaysia. She previously held visiting research affiliations at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani campus, Thailand, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, US. Her areas of research include Thailand, south Thailand and north Malaysia, relating to ethnicity and marginalisation, diasporas, conflict, governance and histories of nation building. Her publications include: Siamese in Malaysia: Beyond sixty years of heritage (2018) and various articles and chapters on ethnic minorities, identity, conflict and methodology in area studies.  She hopes to advance a message of peace and tolerance towards minority communities living in multicultural Southeast Asia through her research and writing.