Dr Julian C. H. Lee (on leave through 2009)

Over the past few years, I have been conducting research into how Malaysians make use of, as well as create, public spaces for advocacy and political participation in the context of both authoritarianism and politicized Islam. I have been particularly interested in how activists creatively use and combine the realms of law and party politics to push their agendas forward. My research can be broadly broken into the following intertwined threads: an ethnographic study in participation in Malaysian elections; an anthropological examination of elections as a form of ritual; an inquiry into the manifestations and causes of moral policing in Malaysia; multiculturalism and violence in the national consciousness of Malaysia and Australia. I returned to Malaysia in January 2008 after a six-week Australia-Malaysia Institute Fellowship during which time I conducted interviews with Australian organizations that assist refugees and migrants in order to understand social capital formation and multiculturalism in Australia.

I am conducting my inquiry in moral policing alongside Zaitun Kasim (of Sisters in Islam, Malaysia), and Tan Beng Hui (National University of Singapore), as part of a larger project organized by Women for Women’s Human Rights (WWHR) – New Ways and the Coalition for Sexual and Bodily Rights in Muslim Societies (CSBR). I am also planning comparative work on multiculturalism in Australia, Malaysia and Singapore, with scholars around the world.

I also believe in public engagement and, in order to promote this and to educate the general population of the value of anthropology, I am guest-editing throughout 2008 a column called Ini Budaya Kita (This Is Our Culture) in the Malaysian Arts and Culture magazine, Off The Edge. A list of my popular and academic publications can be found below.

I also do (or have done) volunteer work for organizations including UNESCO and Sisters in Islam (Malaysia), and most recently, the Women’s Candidacy Initiative (WCI) – a civil society initiative to put promote women’s access to government and democracy in Malaysia.

Academic Publications

Non-peer-reviewed Publications