Sheila Murugasu

My teaching and research interests are center around the study of migration and culture, and the effects of globalisation on identity construction and formation.

I am currently a PhD candidate in anthropology studying the transnational politics of refugee communities in Malaysia. Malaysia has a large population of refugees, but little is understood about how they organise among themselves and with what goals in mind. Neither is their relationship with the state, their homeland and civil society actors clear. My research aims to shed light on this.

Besides this, I am also working on a visual anthropology project that is interested in the self-representation of migrants; how migrants, when given the chance, choose to represent themselves to the broader world. This project involves getting participants, using digital cameras, to take photographs of daily life within their communities over an extended period of time.

I started off my professional life as a journalist, but my travels around Southeast Asia sparked an interest in studying the social, political and cultural diversity of the region. To this end I attained a master’s degree in Southeast Asian Studies from the National University of Singapore. My ongoing doctoral research takes me further along the same path of uncovering the interconnectedness of and relationships between communities in Southeast Asia.