French Talks in December (Online)

French Texts and Contexts of community life in 19th Century Malaya

Associate Profesor Dr. Shanthini Pillai of UKM will discuss, with her research team Dr. Liz Ng, Dr. Suziana Mat Saad, and Ms. Anne Vanessa Vincent, the inter-ethnic encounters of French missionaries and explorers with various local communities in the Malayan territories in the 19th century and how these formed counter-narratives to the British colonial divide and rule policy.

Date: Monday, 7 December 2020

Time: 8pm

ONLINE EVENT on Facebook Live @AllianceFrancaisedeKL

Speakers:

Shanthini Pillai (PhD)

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM.

Her research interests are anchored primarily in cultural studies with particular reference to diaspora and transnationalism, ethnic diversity, and religious mobilities, especially in the context of global South Asian communities. She has held Research Fellowships at the University of Queensland, Australia and the Asia Research Institute, Singapore and has published widely in her area of expertise. Most recent publications include “French and Diasporic Tamil Catholic Mobilities in Colonial Malaya” in SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia (2020), "The Apostolic Vicariate of Western Siam and the Rise of Catholicism in Malaysia and Singapore" in the International Journal of Asian Christianity (with Bernardo E Brown, 2018) and "Modern Asian ecclesiastical interconnections: Catholic Tamil Nadu and its diaspora in Malaysia" in The Australian Journal of Anthropology (2017). 

Suziana Mat Saad (PhD)

Senior lecturer at Foreign Languages and Translation Unit, School of Language and Linguistics, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia where she teaches French Language for the past 23 years.

She graduated from Université de Nancy 2, with a bachelor degree in Linguistics and obtained her master’s degree and PhD from University of Malaya and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, respectively.  Suziana is also interested in Cross cultural studies. She has also carried out a few studies on Malay-French translation and novels, with particular interest on conceptual metaphors.

Dr. Ng Lay Shi, Liz (PhD)

Senior lecturer at the National University of Malaysia UKM’s Centre for Research in Language and Linguistics, and concurrently a language instructor for MALAYSIA and CHINA: International Relations and New Economies program at School of International Training, U.S.

Dr. Liz started her teaching career since year 2005 and she joined UKM in year 2014 after obtaining her Ph.D. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Beijing Normal University, China. Her area of expertise is in Chinese syntax. Her current research interests include Chinese syntax, computer assisted language learning, teaching mandarin as second language and Malaysian Chinese education studies.

Anne Vanessa Vincent

Research Assistant and student of the Master of Arts in Postcolonial Literatures in English at UKM.

She is currently completing her thesis on The Representation of Ethnic Diversity in Nineteenth Century Malaya: A Comparative Study of French and British Perspectives under the guidance of her supervisor Associate Professor Dr. Shanthini Pillai.

Event brought to you by

Alliance Française de Kuala Lumpur

Embassy of France in Malaysia

National University of Malaysia (UKM)