Part of the joy of being in the business of teaching and learning is that the learning never quite ends, and if you’re lucky, you get masterclasses from with some of the greatest minds in the business. I was incredibly privileged to attend a personal tutorial session with Professor Catherine Grant recently to work on… Continue reading ‘Between laughter and silence’
Category: Feminism
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
Pecha Kucha video for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History
At long last, the world premiere of my first video essay exercise as part of the Women’s Global Horror Film History project funded by the AHRC, led by Associate Professor Alison Peirse. Being a complete beginner, it took me 10 days to learn how to use Adobe Premiere and create a one-minute video! It’s in… Continue reading Pecha Kucha video for Doing Women’s Global Horror Film History
Comments on Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization
On 28th January 2022, I was invited to discuss Rosalind Galt’s new book, Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (Columbia University Press) at NTU’s Asian Cinema Research Lab. We had a great audience and Rosalind was superb. The following are my comments on her book, soon to be published in the journal of… Continue reading Comments on Alluring Monsters: The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization
Book talk: Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization
I will be discussing Professor Rosalind Galt’s new book, The Pontianak and Cinemas of Decolonization (Columbia University Press, 2021) in a book talk organised by The Asian Cinema Research Lab at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, on 28th January 2022.
Structures of feeling and dark laughter: A few more publications for 2019
Utter neglect has plagued this blog yet again. To my detriment I’m sure. I’ve missed opportunities to properly self-promote my work on this blog, the very place that launched my life in writing. To remedy that, here are some rather belated updates. 1. Back in February 2018, my friends Adil Johan, Nazry Bahrawi and me… Continue reading Structures of feeling and dark laughter: A few more publications for 2019
The New Malay Woman, a modern cosmopolitan subject
Plenty of research are re-discovering cosmopolitan female subjects and the ‘modern girl’ in the late colonial and early postcolonial eras. In my own work, I’ve added to the list the ‘New Malay Woman’ who was more than a consumer and image, but a literary voice and agent of change: [She is ] independent, highly-educated, urban… Continue reading The New Malay Woman, a modern cosmopolitan subject
On women’s laughter in Malay horror (Part 2)
This is Part 2 of a two-part post on the pontianak and women’s laughter in Malaysian horror cinema. Read Part 1. Consider laughter’s capacity to upset and as a vehicle of resistance. More specifically when women laugh at men, laughing at patriarchy, laughing at power, laughing from below. Situated below speech in the register of… Continue reading On women’s laughter in Malay horror (Part 2)
#MeToo and the deafening Malaysian silence
I’ve talked about sexual harassment quite a bit. In light of the Harvey Weinstein scandal and the global domino effect it had across other industries and institutions within and outside the US, it seemed inevitable that Malaysian liberal circles felt compelled to join in the conversation, albeit in small-scale curated debates and scattered hashtag activism… Continue reading #MeToo and the deafening Malaysian silence
On women’s laughter in Malay horror (Part 1)
This is an edited version of a conference paper presented at the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies conference in Seoul, South Korea in July 2017 The meaning of laughter, seen as springing from humour and moral degradation, has been a matter of philosophical preoccupation with human morality since the ancient time of Aristotle. And for much of… Continue reading On women’s laughter in Malay horror (Part 1)