Md Faruk Abdullah is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Shariah and Economics, Academy of Islamic Studies, Universiti Malaya (UM). Prior to joining UM, he was a Senior Lecturer at the School of Banking and Finance, Faculty of Business and Management, Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA), where he served for eight years. He obtained his PhD in Islamic Economics from Universiti Malaya in 2016 and completed the Chartered Islamic Finance Professional (CIFP) program at INCEIF University in 2012. His academic background also includes a bachelor’s degree in Fiqh and Usul al-Fiqh (Islamic Law and Jurisprudence) from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) in 2010, where he was awarded the Best Student (Overall) in the faculty. Dr. Faruk has demonstrated expertise in teaching Islamic finance, wealth management, Shariah, and fiqh al-mu‘āmalāt at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He has published extensively in Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus-indexed journals, with an H-index of 4 (WoS) and 6 (Scopus). His research interests include the Shariah dimensions of business and finance, product innovation in Islamic finance, Islamic social finance, and Islamic wealth management. He previously served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Nusantara Studies (JONUS) and currently collaborates with the Accounting Research Institute (ARI) at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) as an Associate Fellow. In addition to his academic work, he shares insights on fiqh al-mu‘āmalāt, Islamic finance, and wealth management through his dedicated YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2mjMBd7f_AmnkyjtwIEeCA

  Started his research career in the think tank sector, Dr. Lee Chee Leong (Karl) is attracted to the rise of non-traditional diplomacy in the international order today. Such appeal has taken Dr. Lee into new research horizons that started with his Monash University's doctoral research on the Chinese sub-state diplomacy in China-ASEAN economic cooperation. With constructive supervision by Professor Helen Nesadurai and Associate Professor Kuik Cheng Chwee, Dr. Lee completed his doctoral thesis that unravels how a faraway and least developed sub-state of Guangxi managed to overcome its own hurdles, navigate the complexities within the Chinese state and become the frontline actor in China-ASEAN economic cooperation.  Following his doctoral completion, Dr. Lee's research on non-traditional diplomacy has expanded into Taiwan’s quasi-state diplomacy in Southeast Asia. Such quest has led him spending at great length in comprehending the concept of soft power, a concept that finds its relevance to Taiwan, which has no official diplomatic with Southeast Asia but is heavily connected to the region and has to rely on soft power in its engagements with these Southeast Asian nations. By comparing different case studies of Taiwan's quasi-state engagement within Southeast Asia, Dr. Lee has developed the soft power diffusion process to explain how such phenomenon operates in the real world. His ongoing and incoming research projects include Unpacking ‘De-risking’ China in the Indo-Pacific Region: Economic Statecraft (ES) & Geoeconomics, Taiwan's New Southbound Policy (NSP) and NSP+: The Domestic-International Dichotomy, The Taiwanese Connections in Nvidia's Global AI Supply Chain and Taiwan and Ireland: The Story of Two Tech Powerhouses.  To date, Dr. Lee was the recipient of several scholarships and fellowships in Malaysia and overseas: University of Malaya’s Graduate Fellowship (2010-2011); Monash University’s Merit Scholarship (2016-2019); Chinese Government Scholarship (2018-2019); and Taiwan Fellowship (2020). Prior to his appointment as Senior Lecturer at the Institute of China Studies (ICS), he was the Visiting Scholar at Guangxi University for Nationalities (GXUN) (2018-2019), Taiwan Fellow at National Chengchi University (NCCU) (2020) and Associate Fellow at ICS UM (2016-2019). He welcomes any potential PhD candidate who would like to work on Taiwan-Southeast Asia relations, comparative cases of ES between Asia and Europe, US-China-ASEAN semiconductor geoeconomics and case studies of donut economies in Asia. He is also willing to discuss with potential doctoral candidates on proposals related to the Chinese sub-state (provincial and city) diplomacy toward ASEAN, comparative cases of sub-state diplomacy between Asia and Europe as well as conceptual innovations of sub-state diplomacy vis-a-vis soft power.     

Dr. Issa Khan joined in 2015 at the Department of Shariah and Management, Academy of Islamic Studies, University of Malaya as a Senior Lecturer after completing his Ph.D. in Takaful (Islamic Insurance) with Bright Sparks Scholarship from the University. He was also awarded an amount of money for completing this degree within three to four years. Prior he had been awarded the University of Malaya Fellowship for the Master's Programme in Islamic Financial Transactions.   In 2014,  he received Bronze Medal Award from APIUM Academic Open Week (Minggu Terbuka Akademik) and the Best Paper Award from Islamic Finance and Property Research Seminar (Seminar Penyelidikan Kewangan Dan Kehartaan Islam), the University of Malaya in 2013.  Moreover, he achieved his B.A.(Hon’s) degree in Islamic Studies and Da’wah from Darul Ihsan University, Bangladesh. Earlier, he completed Takmil (Dawra Hadith) in Hadith from Jamiyah Arabiyah Makzanul Ulum, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.