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Inside this issue:

Nottingham-Monash

Research Meeting

Going Global 2011

School of Modern Languages

and Cultures-Research

Activity

Upcoming Conferences

Editors: Dr. Christopher Hill Anita Pathma

Nottingham Malaysia Campus: Research Quarter Jan-Mar 2011

UNMC Research Quarter contains information regarding research,

events, workshops, seminars and Graduate School activity

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Nottingham-Monash Research Meeting March 2011

Nottingham-Monash Research

A joint research meeting between the Schools of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sci-ences, UNMC and representatives from Monash University was held here on 22 March. The meeting commenced with opening remarks from Dr Andrew Morris (Director of Studies, School of Pharmacy) followed by Professor Chris Porter (Head of Re-search, School of Pharmacy, Monash Uni-versity, Parkville Campus) and then Pro-fessor Kenneth Lee (Director of Studies, Monash University Sunway Campus). This was followed by six research presen-tations by academics from both campuses on a range of research areas including drug metabolism, rain forest plants re-search and drug delivery. An overview of an existing collaboration between Monash and Nottingham was presented by Prof. Stephen Doughty, Vice-Provost (Teaching and Learning): “Application of the active site pressuriza-tion modelling technique to drug design”. The meeting was drawn to a close after a round table discussion on collaborations in teaching, learning and research.

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Why do TNE? Practical examples from host and provider countries

Going Global 2011

Session Chair: Re-defining Trans-National Education: A case study of the UK-Malaysia relationship Dr Christopher Hill, representing a research group with members from UNMC, UM, HELP University College and Sunway University College, chaired a session at the recent British Council Going Global Conference in Hong Kong. 2011 marks the fifth annual Going Global Confer-ence but the first one to take place outside of the United

The research, presented by Dr Hill, is part of an FRGS funded project examining practices and policies of TNE arrangements between Malaysia and the UK. During the session outlined above, Dr Hill examined the existing structure of TNE agreements between Malaysia and the UK in light of the historical relationship that exists between the two nations, and evaluated the need for a redefinition of the central concept moving forwards. He argued that while higher edu-cation is moving into a new phase of development, there is an absolute need to examine exist-ing practices, evaluate new methods and explore the true impact and legacy of international de-velopment.

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School of Modern Languages and Cultures Research Activity

Voices: Farish Noor

CNN i-University

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures has been invited to be the Malaysian participant in the CNN i-University project. The recent launches of two new campus magazines – Creative Notts and The Trigger has been sponsored/supervised by SMLC faculty, and we are working with local and regional stakeholders to extend our critical and professional presence in this area. The project will involve coordinating work with students across Malaysia in training and experience for practical journalism. Joanne Lim and Zaharom Nain are leading on the project.

Identity and Language

Leong Yut Moy participated in the Malaysia International Conference for Foreign Languages (MICFL 2010) held on 1-2 December 2010, at the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Communication, Uni-versiti Putra Malaysia. Academics and researchers from Africa, Asia, Europe and Middle East gath-ered for a 2-day conference to discuss how social identities are created and maintained in social interaction through linguistic means. Leong was a participant in the discussion sessions “Gender Identity Negotiation and Power of Metalinguistic Practice in Japanese Discourses” and “Identity in the Japanese Sphere”, co-presenting with academics from Japanese and Malaysian universities.

Farish Noor, Sean Matthews (Chair) and Sharaad Kuttan (Respondent) at ‘Voices’ 26 February.

The opening event in a public lecture series organized by Zaharom Nain for the Centre for Study of Communications and Culture, on Saturday 26 February at the UNMC KLTC, was a talk by the renowned Malay-sian intellectual, social scientist and histo-rian Dr Farish Noor, Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and Nanyang Technological Univer-sity (NTU), Singapore. forthcoming speaker in the series on 9 April

Dr Noor‟s presentation, „Public Intellectuals and Public Discourse – Examining the Parameters‟, es-tablished the historical and political contexts for thinking about the „public sphere‟ across the region. The lecture was synoptic and critical, comparing the range of determinants and experiences of intel-lectual and political discourse from India to Indonesia, examining the key problems for the emer-gence of free speech and democratic governance. In a lively, well-attended Q&A, problems sur-rounding the emergence of an informed and critical younger generation, the political iconography of the region, the significance of religion in local discourse, and the differences and similarities be-tween Malaysia and North African Arabic countries were all discussed. The event was chaired by Sean Matthews and the Respondent to Dr Noor was Sharaad Kuttan,

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School of Modern Languages and Cultures Research Activity

Voices: Amir Muhammad

Reporting Ethnicity and Race Zaharom Nain conducted a one-day workshop on Reporting Ethnicity and Race for working Ma-laysian journalists on Saturday 5 March, in partnership with the Centre for Independent Journal-ism. The event was well attended with representatives from the National Union of Journalists, the National News Agency (Bernama), and numerous local newspapers. The workshop was funded by the European Union. Action and Intervention at Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia on Teenage Pregnancy and Child Abandonment In a FASS collaborative project bringing together academics from SMLC, NUBS and Education, the Ministry of Education has granted funds to Angelina Yee (NUBS), Patricia Ang Mei Mei (NUBS) ,Gana Subramanian (Education) and Zaharom Nain (SMLC) to study current Malaysian attitudes and policies in relation to teenage pregnancy and the abandonment of babies. The team will conduct surveys and studies within Higher Education institutions across the nation to explore the topic. An initial pilot was successful and the work will be ongoing for six months leading to publications and a report to the ministerial policy committee.

Joanne Lim chairs Amir Muhammad,

‘Stories for the nation’, 19 March.

Film-maker, writer and publisher Amir Muhammad, author of a book-length study of the late Ma-laysian cineaste Yasmin Ahmad and the ground-breaking One Hundred and Twenty Malay Films, as well as director of the controversial film The Last Com-munist gave the second of the „Voices‟ talks at the UNMC KLTC on Saturday 19 March.

„Stories for the Nation‟ explored the ways in which early Malaysian films contributed to the for-mation of ideas of nationhood and nationality, and how the filmic representation of history, of westerners, of other southeast Asian peoples, was often formally and artistically surprising. The talk included clips from seven films, beginning with the period of the establishment of a Malaysian film industry in Singapore in the immediate postwar period. Muhammad‟s engaging and encyclopaedic narrative also explored the nature of censorship and reception in the southeast Asian context, and the ways in which film and TV have become increasingly central (and distorting) elements in Malaysian self-definition.

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School of Modern Languages and Cultures Research Activity

International Workshop - Regimes, NGOs, and New Media. On 12-13 February, Zaharom Nain organized a two day international workshop at Cititel Mid-Valley Hotel. It was attended by paper presenters and observers from Singapore, Thailand, Viet-nam, Cambodia, The Philippines and Malaysia. The workshop was part of a bigger project funded by the IDRC (Canada). The papers presented will be published in a book, to be edited by Rom, later this year. Towards Normative Standards in Japanese Language Education On 5-6 March 2011, Leong Yut Moy was an invited speaker at “2010-11 Malaysia Japanese Lan-guage Education Seminar: Introducing Japan Foundation (JF) Standard for Japanese Language Education” organized by the Japan Foundation, Kuala Lumpur. The seminar, held at the Univer-sity of Malaya, brought together academics involved in Japanese language education from all over Malaysia as well as Indonesia. Dr Noriko YOKOYAMA and Ms Tomoko KOMATSU from the Japanese Language Institute, Japan Foundation HQ, were introducing the JF standard for Japa-nese language education that will soon be adopted worldwide. The seminar was aimed to intro-duce and standardize the description and assessment on Japanese language teaching and learning. When the new standard is fully developed and implemented, academics from different regions of the world will be able to utilize the same new standard in assessing learners from all levels and countries. Facebook and Twitter communities speak up! Joanne Lim is leading on a project examining the views of 80 young adults from various institu-tions of higher learning in Malaysia on the role of ICT to mobilize and advocate change among Malaysians. Many were critical of the recent proposals to amend and expand the Printing Presses and Publications Act to include online publications and the numerous attempts by the authorities to censor, monitor and control the Internet and social media in the country. These dis-cussions will provide crucial insights into the link between ICT and youth political engagements within the Malaysian context. The fieldwork is conducted as part of a 6-nation study funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada entitled „Youth, ICT and politi-cal engagement in Asia.‟ The sessions took place between January and March 2011, and the project is scheduled to deliver a series of reports and a book chapter by the end of November.

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Upcoming Conferences Jan - April 2011

POCER2011 Secretariat Environment Research Division Faculty of Engineering, The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus Broga Road, 43500 Semenyih, Selangor. Phone: +603-89248347

(Dr. Chong Mei Fong, Chairperson POCER2011) +603-89248609 (Dr. Yap Eng Hwa, -Chairperson POCER2011) +603-89248143 (Dr. Yousif Abakr, Publicity Chair POCER2011) Conference email : pocer2011@nottingham.edu.my

Website : www.nottingham.edu.my/POCER2011