Trained in Cultural Studies, I am a researcher engaging in interdisciplinary research on culture. My research is primarily concerned with the cultural history of modern and contemporary China through the lens of ‘folk’ or minjian. In particular, I am interested in how ‘folk’ has been discursively constructed by the state and intellectuals throughout the 20th century, and how it continues to be represented at heritage sites, folk art museums, folk art fairs, as well as contemporary art exhibitions in the 21st century. My interdisciplinary PhD training in Cultural Studies in Asia at the National University of Singapore has taught me to be a questioner, committed to promoting critical and creative thinking as a mode of living beyond academia. Being a practitioner of critical pedagogy, I always problematize preconceived ideas that have shaped our understandings of the world. As a lecturer, I believe that classroom is where knowledge is produced and challenged through productive dialogues between teachers and students. Besides teaching in the classroom, I am also an active listener keen on translating students’ personal experience and knowledge into discussion materials. Critical discussion could help students reflect upon how our perception of the world is sociologically constructed. Students are not passive learners but knowledge producers. My role as a teacher is to acknowledge students’ opinions as knowledge and situate their knowledge within a larger socio-political, economic, and cultural contexts so as to allow them to scrutinize their common sense. I am currently not available for Master's and PhD supervisions. 

Dr. Lee-Ling Lim is Professor of Medicine, UM and Head of the Diabetes Care Unit, Universiti Malaya Medical Centre. As a clinician-scientist, her major areas of interest include cardiometabolic medicine and intergenerational diabetes with translational and implementation science components.  Dr. Lim sits on the Working Groups of The Lancet Commission on Diabetes and the American Diabetes Association/European Association for the Study of Diabetes (ADA/EASD) Precision Medicine in Diabetes Initiative, who provide authoritative resources in tackling the global diabetes epidemic. She recognizes that every person with diabetes and non-communicable disease (NCD) is unique and warrants personalized care. To revolutionize health care, Dr. Lim aims to advance the implementation of Precision Medicine in Diabetes and NCD, taking into account differences in clinical presentation, genes, and lifestyles in Malaysian populations. These have led to several collaborations with the USA, UK, and other Asian countries. She has published in numerous high-impact journals including The Lancet, Nature, Diabetes Care, and Science Bulletin.  Dr. Lim has received several awards including the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Stanford University for 3 consecutive years (2022-2024), the EFSD Albert Renold Fellowship, the USA Endocrine Society Outstanding Abstract Award, and a scholarship funded by the USA NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences for training in statistical genetics at the University of Washington, USA. She is an Editorial Board Member of several Tier 1 Web of Science-indexed journals (BMC Medicine, Diabetes/Metabolism Research & Reviews, and Diabetes & Metabolism). Dr. Lim is an article reviewer for 29 leading academic journals including the European Heart Journal, Annals of Internal Medicine, Diabetes Care, PLoS Medicine, and European Journal of Preventive Cardiology.

Suzaini M. Zaid is currently teaching at the Department of Building Surveying in the Faculty of Built Environment and was the first EcoCampus Coordinator in Universiti Malaya. Suzaini holds a PhD in Planning and Urban Development from the Faculty of the Built Environment, University of New South Wales. Suzaini was part of the testing of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Sustainable Building and Climate Initiative (UNEP-SBCI)’s Common Carbon Metric and Protocol in the Malaysian context through her PhD research.    Her current research interest focuses on green intervention strategies through vertical greenery systems, operational energy, and user behaviour, which accumulated in multiple journal publications and her first book titled “Human Impact on Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation in the Built Environment”. She has teaching experience in the fields of building surveying, urban planning, and sustainable development.    Suzaini is also a professionally certified Green Building Index (GBI) Facilitator and a Malaysian Carbon Reduction and Environmental Sustainability Tool (MyCREST) Qualified Professional. She is determined to positively impact the built environment through green interventions to address the existential crisis of climate change.