Category: Academic life

The secret pleasures of peer review

The work of reviewing manuscripts is something many academics complain about; it’s mostly uncompensated labour done for rich publishing conglomerates. Journal platforms do offer reviewers a means to get their reviewing work ‘recognised’, but it is more data collection than actual recognition or compensation. It’s common to hear, usually from male academics, that we should… Continue reading The secret pleasures of peer review

New publication [January 2025]

Back in May 2022, I was invited to a lovely workshop organised by Cüneyt Çakırlar at Nottingham Trent University. It was my first time in the ancient, much spruced-up city of Nottingham, the northern English spring gently warmed my cheeks. The workshop would eventually produce a new edited volume, Transnational Horror: Folklore, Genre, and Cultural… Continue reading New publication [January 2025]

New publication (June 2024)

2024 is a bit of a bumper year, a ‘full house’ of publications for me: a journal article, book chapter, video essay, and literary magazine article. Of the four, I am especially pleased that my latest journal article on the public personality and entrepreneur Dato Seri Vida is now published in the Religion and Gender… Continue reading New publication (June 2024)

Reading the Malay-Indonesian Film syllabus

It’s now 4th week of term, and so obviously I’m only sharing this for the benefit of non-students of this course. Designed for final year undergraduates majoring in Malay Studies, this course is an intensive critical engagement with key film and scholarly texts on Malay/Singaporean and Indonesian cinema. It was a pleasure creating this syllabus,… Continue reading Reading the Malay-Indonesian Film syllabus

From ‘nowhere’ to ‘somewhere’

In her famous essay on situated knowledges, Donna Haraway writes about why the place of ‘subjugated knowledges’ is more politically privileged and ‘preferred’ over the position of established authoritative knowledge: ‘… they are preferred because in principle they are least likely to allow the denial of the critical and interpretive core of all knowledge. They… Continue reading From ‘nowhere’ to ‘somewhere’

Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

For the second exercise of the AHRC-funded project, I have created an experimental voiceover video that combines an unrelated audio recording with scenes from a horror film, in this case Amanda Nell Eu’s It’s Easier to Raise Cattle (Lagi Senang Jaga Sekandang Lembu, 2017). Amanda’s film is excellent for this exercise; it’s largely devoid of… Continue reading Voiceover exercise for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History

Upcoming roundtable discussion on the ‘Labour of Piety’ at AAS 2023, Boston

I’m quite thrilled to announce that my colleagues and I will be in Boston next March for the 2023 Association for Asian Studies conference to participate in a roundtable discussion panel on the ‘Labour of Piety in Southeast Asia’. This roundtable discussion focuses on an under-examined aspect of religious life that is, piety as labour,… Continue reading Upcoming roundtable discussion on the ‘Labour of Piety’ at AAS 2023, Boston

My talk at IIAS, 30th March 2022: From the factory floor to the page

I will be giving a short talk on my current project on modern Malay print romance at Leiden University on 30th March 2022 via Zoom. For more info on registration, click here. About the talk: What is the significance of place and space in the print culture of Malay romance? My presentation demonstrates how print… Continue reading My talk at IIAS, 30th March 2022: From the factory floor to the page