Dr. Kevin Fernandez is currently Deputy Executive Director (Development, Research, Innovation, and Internationalization) Asia-Europe Institute at the University Malaya. Prior to that, he spent five years working at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan. Dr. Fernandez's primary area of study interest is in new media and political mobilisation, specifically the ways in which it may both encourage and weaken democracies. He is also interested in researching traditional and non-traditional security threats that are prevalent in Southeast Asian countries. He worked as a consultant for the Southeast Asia Centre for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCCT), and the organisation sent him to undergo training on the subject of preventing violent extremism in East Timor Leste, Guam, and Washington, D.C. In addition to writing academic journal articles, chapters in books and other forms of popular reading such as the New Mandala and RSIS Commentaries, he is the author of a book titled Rallies, Propaganda, and Democracy: New Media in Malaysia and has recently co-edited a book titled The New Normal and Its Impact on Society: Perspectives from ASEAN and the European Union.