Dr Vilashini Somiah is a feminist anthropologist from Sabah, Malaysia, and a Senior Lecturer in the Gender Studies Programme at Universiti Malaya. She holds a PhD from the National University of Singapore, an MA from Ohio University, an MRes from Universiti Malaya, and a BA from Universiti Malaya. Her research centres on underrepresented narratives of women, migrants, and interior Bornean communities, with a particular focus on marginality, survival, and lived political realities. She is co-editor of Revisiting Covid-19 in Malaysia: Plight and Perseverance (UM Press, 2023) and Sabah from the Ground: The 2020 Elections and the Politics of Survival (SIRD/ISEAS, 2021). Her first single-authored monograph, Irregular Migrants and the Sea at the Borders of Sabah, Malaysia: Pelagic Alliance (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), received the Universiti Malaya Award for Outstanding Achievement (ACUM) for Best Social Science Book and has gained international recognition. She is currently completing her fourth book on the lives and resilience of Bornean women, under contract with University of Hawaii Press. Dr Somiah was a Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics in 2024, supported by the Henry Luce Foundation and SEANNET, where she researched Indigenous women entrepreneurs in Sabah and forms of entrepreneurial resilience in the post–Covid-19 period. She was also an ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute Visiting Fellow in 2025, focusing on subaltern politics in East Coast Sabah in the lead-up to the 2025 Sabah state elections. She currently serves as a Harvard Asia Center Associate (2025–2026) and was elected to the Southeast Asia Council of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), where she will serve until 2028. In 2026, she was awarded the Greenberg Chair Visiting Scholar Bursary at the University of Ottawa. Beyond academia, she writes widely on Malaysia’s socio-political landscape and is co-founder of the Datum Initiative, a regional research observatory working at the intersection of data, justice, and inclusive socio-economic transformation in Southeast Asia. To know more about her works as a scholar and with Datum visit www.vilashinisomiah.com and www.datum-initiative.com      

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.

Dr. Mila is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya (UM). With a background in tropical medicine, family medicine, and public health, she has experience teaching public health and health research across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.   As an award-winning researcher, Dr. Mila has presented work at international conferences and published research and review articles in peer-reviewed international journals. She also serves as a scientific reviewer for leading journals, including The Lancet, BMC, Springer Nature, SAGE Publications, and the Medical Journal of Malaysia (MJM).   Dr. Mila has been actively involved in diverse research projects, including studies on migrant workers, breast cancer awareness through mass-media campaigns, and community mental health. Her international collaborations extend to research on COVID-19, mental health, digital health literacy, and tropical infectious diseases reflecting a commitment to advancing public health and research.