Current research students
Research Degree Students
Master of Arts (MA)
Reading Realism in the Neoliberal Period
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PhD Arts
Kaflina Binti Kamalul Ariffin
Thesis title:
An exploration on the usage of mobile technology for older adults in fostering community bonding
Abstract:
This research explores the utilisation of mobile application service for the Malay older adults in Klang Valley towards community bonding. It attempts to study their motivations, communication patterns and how communication technologies help to foster bonds in the absence of physical community activities such as the recent Covid-19 lockdown. The tentative framework will integrate analytical frameworks on friendship, kinship bonding and textual communications. The data collection will involve collection of WhatsApp texts from participants (upon ethics clearance) and focus group interviews. This study is hoped to provide an insight on the communication framework and social cultural change in the digitisation for the older adults in Malaysia .
Supervisors: Associate Prof Dr. Emma Baulch (main supervisor) & Dr. Susan Leong (Associate Supervisor)
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Supervisors: Dr. Joel D. Moore (main supervisor) & Professor Helen Nesadurai (associate supervisor)
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Supervisors: Assoc. Prof Sharon A Bong (main supervisor) & Assoc Prof Yeoh Seng Guan (associate supervisor)
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The Reality of TV: Identity, Authenticity and Personal Power within Reality TV based Science-Fiction
This research will centre on Science Fiction texts that feature Reality Television programs – The Hunger Games are a prime example. I will be investigating how Science Fiction uses the mechanics of Reality TV to explore notions of identity formation, power relations between media producers, participants and viewers, as well as whether one can ever recover any semblance of authenticity in a sea of televised hyper-reality that saturates our screens. I am using Science Fiction because the genre holds a dark mirror up to society, and can be both informative and prophetic in its vision of our Reality TV obsessed world.
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Roy Chua Kwee Cheng
Thesis Title:
The loss of capital in school consolidation
Abstract:
My research will be a descriptive account of Singapore schools through sociological analysis. I will investigate the phenomenon of school mergers (or consolidation) through the narratives of Bourdieusian "players" in the "field" of education. The thesis aims to be a prescriptive account to pause and reconsider the value of schools in urban policy planning.
Supervisors: Dr Yeoh Seng Guan (main supervisor) and Dr Tan Meng Yoe (associate supervisor)
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Satish Ranggayah
Thesis title:
Implications of the rohingya human trafficking issue to Malaysia's national security
Abstract:
Malaysian Muslim Malays are politically dominant and the majority; any status-quo change is viewed as national security threat. The Rohingya influx is a perceived threat to that status-quo. Hence, formulation of domestic and foreign policies on the Rohingya treatment must accommodate contradictory demands of the Malay stand and as a Muslim country.
Supervisors: Assoc. Prof Marco Buente (main supervisor) and Professor Helen Nesadurai (associate supervisor)
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Stephanie Tan Li Hsia
Thesis title:
Everyday Life in Practice: The Everyday as Identity, Resistance, and Tradition in Virginia Woolf
Abstract:
This research examines the cultural theory surrounding the everyday through Virginia Woolf, exploring how Woolf's work both emerges out of, and informs, existing theoretical models in rethinking and reshaping the everyday as a basis for radical praxis, in ways crucial to the production of forms of identity, resistance, and tradition.
Supervisors: Assoc. Prof Andrew Ng Hock Soon (main supervisor) and Dr Jonathan Driskell (associate supervisor)
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Adrian Yao Yong Tat
Thesis title:
Heutagogical learning of Malay as a foreign language in a flipped learning approach
Abstract:
This study intends to explore heutagogical learning in learning of Malay as a foreign language by international students through the design, development and evaluation of instructional vodcasts in learning and its effectiveness of learning in a flipped learning environment.
Supervisors: Dr Joel D.Moore (main supervisor), Dr Melissa Wong (associate supervisor) and Dr Neethiahnanthan Ari Ragavan (external)
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Nadiah Ahmad
Thesis title:
Assessing the efficacy of gender mainstreaming policies
Abstract:
This research hopes to explore the efficacy of gender mainstreaming policies in addressing imbalances in gender relations, by examining the Kecamatan Development Program, also known as KDP, as a case study. The program involves a decentralized process of planning, budgeting and implementation in rural villages across Indonesia, with a special emphasis on women’s development.
Supervisors: Dr Joel D.Moore (main supervisor) and Professor Helen Nesadurai (associate supervisor)
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Claire Joyce Grant
Thesis title:
Modernist Authors and the Aesthetics of Space
Abstract:
The works of Virginia Woolf in respect to the built environment is the inspiration of my research.
The trajectory of Woolf's work stretches across the Modern literary era. The physical structures that contribute to Woolf’s unique stream of consciousness technique is the foundation of this inquiry; Spatial Perceptions, the Cityscape and Liminal Landscapes.
The research includes a special session on a Woolf conference, Woolf's legacy to Modern space and form, in and out of the Academic spectrum. Beyond the focus on urban and ethical issues, this research addresses the new structures in Woolf's work, a move that suggests new insights into Woolf as a "real world" social critic.
Supervisors: Assoc. Prof Andrew Ng Hock Soon (main supervisor) and Dr Christopher Worth (external)