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 PhD supervisions. 

Hazlee Azil Illias was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He received Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Universiti Malaya, Malaysia in 2006. He immediately joined Freescale Semiconductors Malaysia as a product engineer before pursuing his PhD studies in 2008. He obtained PhD Degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom in 2011. He was a Senior Lecturer from 2011 to 2016 and an Associate Professor from 2016 to 2024 at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Malaya. Currently, he is a Professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Malaya. Since joining the Universiti Malaya, he has received funding and grants of nearly RM 3 million (~USD 0.7 million), published more than 80 journal papers in ISI-indexed publications and 80 refereed conference papers and successfully supervised to completion of 13 PhD, 6 Master's Degree by research and 37 Master's Degree project (by coursework) candidates. He is currently an Associate Editor of IET Science Measurement and Technology (since 2019) and the Head of Universiti Malaya High Voltage Laboratory and Research Group (since 2011). His current management post at the Universiti Malaya is the Director of Corporate Ranking Centre (CRC) under Associate Vice Chancellor (Corporate Strategy). He was the Head of Department of Electrical Engineering from September 2013 to July 2014, the Secretary of IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation Society (DEIS) Malaysia Chapter from 2015 to 2019 and the Counselor of IEEE Universiti Malaya Student Branch from 2018 to 2024. He is now a Senior Member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), Fellow of IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology), Corporate Member of IEM (Institution of Engineers Malaysia), a registered Chartered Engineer (C.Eng UK) and a Professional Engineer (P.Eng Malaysia). He is an active reviewer for numerous high-quality journals, which include publishers from IEEE, IET, Elsevier and IOP. His main research interests include modelling and measurement of partial discharge phenomena in dielectric insulation materials, condition monitoring, insulation system diagnosis, lightning overvoltage, transmission line modelling, optimisation methods and artificial intelligence techniques.

  Kasturi Dewi Varathan, is currently an associate professor at the Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology, University of Malaya, Malaysia. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National University of Malaysia. Her main research focus is in the field of Data Analytics, Text Mining and Information Retrieval. Dr.Kasturi has published in several high-ranked journals and conferences. Her research on data analytics won several awards in international and national level competitions. Research institutions too have gained from her expertise. She has served as visiting scientist to the Information Systems Research Group of the Faculty of Informatics, University of Lugano, Switzerland as well as research fellow at the Institute of Visual Informatics, National University of Malaysia. She has been appointed as Adjunct Professor at Veltech University, India. Dr.Kasturi has also secured national and international grants. Some of the prominent grants that she has received are Applied Research Partnership Grant funded by ETH Zurich(Switzerland), People Exchange Grant funded by Swiss Education, Research and Innovation Grant(Switzerland) and Prototype Research Grant from the Ministry of Higher Education (Malaysia).  She is also a recipient of the prestigious Leadership in Innovation Fellowship award by the United Kingdom and Malaysian Government.