Shalini Nadaswaran holds a PhD in English specializing in African Women's Literature from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (UNSW). Her PhD was supervised by eminent postcolonial expert, Professor Bill Ashcroft, exploring Igbo women writers and contemporary Nigeria. She completed her Bachelor of Arts in English and Master of Arts in English at the English Department, University of Malaya. Her research interest considers the constant evolving representations of women in local and global spaces. She is currently a Senior Lecturer with the English Department, University of Malaya and has worked on a research project which examines cultural formations. She has published in the field of African literature and women’s literature in journals such as African Literature Today, Matatu, Wasafiri and Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature. She has also contributed book chapters to various book projects. She serves as a peer reviewer for a number of journals, two of which are ISI and Scopus cited. While her primary focus falls under the remit of African (Women’s) literature, she also has additional interests in research that explores modern day slavery, literature and injustice, and the figure of the ‘child’ in postcolonial literature. She welcomes research students working on any area in women’s literature, African literature and postcolonial women’s literature to contact her.

Dr. Arutchelvan Rajamanikam is a researcher and senior lecturer from the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University Malaya (UM). He has been active in understanding the role of highly prevalent protozoan parasite, mainly, Blastocystis sp. in healthy and diseased individuals. Arutchelvan completed his undergraduate studies in the field of Resource Biotechnology in 2010 and ventured into Parasitology during his Masters studies(MMedSc) in University of Malaya (2015). His interest in understanding the interaction and synergism of intestinal parasite and gut microbiome led him to complete his doctoral studies(PhD) in University of Malaya in the year 2019. Arutchelvan currently aims to make use of data analytics and data science to  decipher the gut microbial diversity patterns, metabolic profile and function in understanding health and explore the predictive ability of the gut microbiome for the benefit of preventive medicine. He has currently embarked into various projects relating to gut microbiome in colorectal cancer and mental illness with special reference to parasite with fundings closed to RM 1 million. He also contributes as reviewer for various ISI-indexed journals. Recently he was appointed as a working group member for European Cooperation in Science and Technology action (CA21105). His current research interest includes the host-parasite interaction in Blastocystis sp. and Acanthamoeba sp.

Wenn-Chyau Lee received his BSc (Hons) degree in Biomedical Sciences from University of Malaya, Malaysia in 2011, and graduated with his PhD in Medical Sciences from University of Malaya in 2014. Subsequently, he joined Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN, A*STAR) as a research fellow in Laurent Renia’s Laboratory. He was appointed as SIgN fellow after receiving the prestigious OF-YIRG grant awarded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC) of Singapore in 2018. He joined the newly formed A*STAR ID Labs as an investigator in 2021. Subsequently, he joined the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya as a senior lecturer. Currently, he is also an adjunct investigator of A*STAR ID Labs, Singapore. As a parasitologist, he has involved in studies encompassing several medically important parasites. His main research interest revolves around the immuno-pathobiology of malaria. He has been investigating and deciphering the roles of rosetting (a phenomenon where a Plasmodium-infected red blood cell is stably adhered to uninfected red blood cells, forming a flower-like structure called ‘rosette’) in the pathogenesis of malaria. Besides, he is exploring the potential of applying different biocontrol strategies to eliminate vector-borne diseases. He has worked as a research fieldworker in different places including the Thai-Burmese Border, China, peninsular Malaysia and Malaysian Borneo. As different laboratory settings are equipped differently, he enjoys adapting and improvising facilities available in the field sites to conduct experiments, as well as coordinating the insectarium and Arthropod Containment Level 2(ACL2) facility in the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya. To date, he has published (as first/ corresponding author) in reputable journals such as Blood, Frontiers in Immunology, eLife, EBioMedicine, Entomologia Generalis, and Trends in Parasitology. Apart from reviewing manuscripts for various journals, as well as evaluating grant proposals for local and overseas funders, he is also an associate editor of Frontiers in Microbiology and one of the editorial board members of Decoding Infection and Transmission. Previously, he worked as a guest editor for Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease.   He has involved in various teaching activities for the students of different programs in Universiti Malaya, such as the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Biomedical Science, Master of Pathology (MPATH), and Master of Medical Parasitology and Entomology, as well as the students from overseas institutes, such as the Master of Science Program in Public Health, Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Mahidol University, Thailand. Besides participating as the coordinator for courses and several projects in the department, he is also the instructor of the microscopy training for the Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (DTM&H) co-organized by the University of Glasgow and Universiti Malaya. He has been a member of the Research Management Unit (RMU), Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya since 2022. He is also a member of the A*STAR Global Network (A*GN), Singapore, and the Malaysian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (MSBMB).