Formed in June 2008, the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) is home to a dynamic set of research intensive scholars. The academic and disciplinary expertise of the staff is wide-ranging, covering diverse areas in the humanities and social sciences. While working primarily in the geographical locality of Malaysia, staff members also extend their research interests to the neighbouring countries of Southeast Asia, and in some cases beyond this region to track the movement of peoples, artifacts and ideas.

Through our multi-disciplinary research and community engagement, we critically interrogate the world around us through texts, both generated and extant, towards re-iterating and re-claiming the agency of the disenfranchised and citizenry at large, and affording a new aesthetics and transformative praxis in Southeast Asia. Our research is informed by an engaged ethos as evidenced by our interrogation of cutting-edge topics that include: electoral reform, ethnic politics, representations of the marginalized, moral policing, queer sexualities, religion and civil society, governmentality and aesthetics of the city, local democracies, and the regional governance of globalization.

Innovations in engaging with and theorizing beyond ‘Western’ thought and philosophies are demonstrated by the staff's current range of research activities: from promoting a multicultural Gothic aesthetics in the reading of postmodern and Asian literatures (including postcolonial and Asian American texts), delineating the politics and poetics of New Cinema (with an emphasis on independent films), transnational media formations, critical visual ethnographies, and cultural translation to an interrogation of the development of ‘bio-politics’ in the history of western political paradigm,  and the construction of new subjectivities through cyber-mediations and post-human representations. In so doing, we offer a transformative praxis and political platform for change that calls for a democratization of discourses and practices within the local and global contexts that we inhabit.

     Research Leader       : Dr Yeoh Seng Guan

     Research Members  : Prof James Chin

                                            Dr Helen E.S Nesadurai

                                            Dr Sharon A Bong

                                            Dr Andrew Ng

                                            Dr Zakir Hossain Raju

                                            Mr Benjamin McKay

                                            Mr Wong Chin Huat

                                            Mr Julian Hopkins

       Areas of Expertise of SASS

      The fields of expertise at the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) are grouped into four (4) clusters as outlined below. Click on the   

      clusters below to have a more comprehensive description of our individual researchers, their particular interests and their research projects,  

      specializing on each clusters:

• The Global and International
• Gender, Sexuality and Religion
• Texts - Authored & Auteured
• Identity, Ethnicity & Politics

      INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

TRAUMA, MEMORY & TRANSFORMATION: THE MALAYSIAN AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN EXPERIENCE

Host: School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Sunway campus, Malaysia

Venue: School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University, Sunway campus, Malaysia

Jalan Lagoon Selatan, 46140, Bandar Sunway, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia

                        Submission of Abstract: Monday, 2 November, 2009

                        Notification of Acceptance: Tuesday, 1 December, 2009

                        Submission of Conference Paper: Monday, 3 May, 2010                         

Conference and Workshop: Tuesday, 22 June – Thursday, 24 June, 2010

     In recent humanities and social science research there has been a cross disciplinary interest in notions of both trauma and memory. Trauma is seen as a moment of profound alteration and change in the lives of both individuals and communities. The range of catalysts for the assessment of trauma is wide, from the effects of war, terrorism, state violence and natural disaster through to the more personal instances of trauma such as illness, sexual identity acceptance and survivors of crime, including survivors of gender based violence.

     The study of memory has also been an important development in the humanities and social sciences. Memory study complements more traditional historical discourse by offering alternative pathways to an assessment of personal and shared experience. Memory Studies provides subaltern communities with a distinctive opportunity to have their recollections and memories considered as a part of a living history – revealing narratives that might be alternative to the grand narratives of national and regional historic discourse(s).

     This conference wishes to scrutinize localized Malaysian and Southeast Asian responses to trauma through an analysis of a variety of case studies that are informed by memory and that reveal as a result patterns of transformation that have arisen. How do individuals and communities in Southeast Asia respond to trauma? How is trauma overcome? What role does reflection play in the process of transformation? What particular features do the Malaysian and Southeast Asian experiences of a range of traumas add to our understanding of trauma and memory at a global level?

Participants for this conference can bring experience from a wide and diverse array of discipline backgrounds including, but not limited to:

·         Southeast Asian Studies

·         Cultural Studies

·         International Relations

·         Political Science

·         History

·         Literary Studies

·         Film Studies

·         Anthropology

·         Sociology

·         Psychology

·         History of Medicine

·         Development Studies

·         Economics

·         Gender Studies

·         Law and Legal Studies

·         Health Sciences and Medicine

     As the conference wishes to explore the nature of applied practice in relation to the areas of trauma and memory we invite the participation of those outside the academy. The work of Non-Governmental and Civil Society groups in these areas is important in Southeast Asia and the conference anticipates their valuable participation and input. Proposals for papers that address gender and the diversities of sexuality will be warmly welcomed.

     Abstracts and Panel proposals not exceeding 500 words should accompany a brief biography and be sent no later than Monday November 2, 2009 to:

                 Benjamin McKay,

                Lecturer,

                School of Arts and Social Sciences

                Monash University Sunway

                Jalan Lagoon Selatan,

                46150 Bandar Sunway

                Selangor Darul Ehsan, MALAYSIA

                Email:    benjamin.mckay@sass.monash.edu.my

                Fax:        (+603) 5514 6365

For further conference information please also contact the above.