DENNIS HASKELL is the author of 8 collections of poetry, the most recent Ahead of Us (Fremantle Press, 2016) and What Are You Doing Here? (University of The Philippines Press, 2015) plus 14 volumes of literary scholarship and criticism. He is the recipient of the Western Australia Premier’s Prize for Poetry, the A A Phillips Prize for a distinguished contribution to Australian literature (from the Association for the Study of Australian Literature), and of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from The University of Western Australia. In 2015 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for “services to literature, particularly poetry, to education and to intercultural understanding”. He is currently Chair of the Board of writingWA. His website is dennishaskell.com.au
HSU-MING TEO is a literary novelist and cultural historian based in the English Department at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her first novel Love and Vertigo (2000) won The Australian/Vogel Literary Award and was shortlisted for several other awards. It has been translated into Chinese, Thai, German and Italian. Her second novel Behind the Moon (2005) was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards. She is working on her third novel. Her academic publications include Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels (2012) and Cultural History in Australia (2003), as well as a wide range of articles on the history of travel, Orientalism, imperialism, fiction, and popular culture. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Popular Romance Studies and an editorial board member of the Journal of Australian Studies, the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. She is currently working on an edited project on the popular culture of romantic love in Australia, co-editing the Ashgate Research Companion to Popular Romance Fiction, and writing a monograph on history and the romance novel.
GHULAM-SARWAR YOUSOF obtained his B.A. in English from the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur and PhD in Asian Theatre from the University of Hawaii. He has served at the University Sains Malaysia, Penang, where set up Malaysia’ first Performing Arts programme, at the University of Malaya and at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He has also served as visiting professor at the University of the Philippines and Mindanao State University. He is currently Adjunct Professor at the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya.
Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof’s academic interests include traditional Asian and Southeast Asian theatre, as well as Asian literature, particularly classical drama and theatre as well as epics. He has published widely on these subjects. In addition to that he has published poetry, drama as well as short stories in the English language.
MICHELLE HENG is a Literary Arts Librarian at the National Library of Singapore. She has a B.A. in English Literature and European Studies from the National University of Singapore and an M.Sc. (Information Studies) from the Nanyang Technological University. She curated the multi-dimensional tribute showcase, Edwin Thumboo — Time-travelling: A Poetry Exhibition in 2012 and has compiled and edited Singapore Word Maps: A Chapbook of Edwin Thumboo’s New and Selected Place Poems (2012) as well as Selected Poems of Goh Poh Seng (2013). She was also the co-compiler and joint editor of Edwin Thumboo — Time-travelling: A Selected Annotated Bibliography.
PROFESSOR NOR FARIDAH ABDUL MANAF has been teaching English Literature at IIUM for almost 28 years. She is widely published in the areas of women’s writing, English Renaissance Literature, Islam, prison’s literature and Malaysia and Singapore Literature in English. Professor Faridah is also a published bilingual creative writer who has won some writing awards in Malaysia. Her poetry book The Art of Naming: A Muslim Woman’s Journey was published in 2006 and she is now working on a family history novel on the Rawas as well as her second collection of poetry, Travel Poems: Stories Untold.
FRANCIS TANGLAO-AGUAS is a Professor of Theatre and Asian Pacific Islander American Studies at William and Mary, US. He is the author of “When the Purple Settles,” winner of the 2002 Don Carlos Palanca Award in Literature, the Philippines most prestigious literary prize. His other plays include “Abuja Woman” (Audrey Skirball Kenis Playwriting Award), “Where the Carabao Sleeps” (A.S.K. Theater Projects Award), and “Ramayana La’ar” (Virginia Gazette’s Best Play of 2007). He is the founding Artistic Director of IPAX, International Performance Arts eXchange, an arts community with a view to a more diverse creative landscape. Professor Aguas’ scholarship is published in “Asian American Identities and Practices: Folkloric Expressions in Everyday Life” edited by Jonathan H.X. Lee and Kathleen Nadeau (Lexington, 2014) and Encyclopedia of Asian American Foklore and Folklife, Volume 3 (ABC-CLIO, 2010). In 2016, Routledge published his piece on Filipino comfort women of World War II in “Monologues for Actors of Color,” edited by Roberta Uno.
ZIA AHMAD is a professor of English, working in a local Govt. College under Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan. He did his PhD in 2012, and since then has taught postcolonial feminism, postcolonial theory and postmodernism. He has published 25 articles in national and international Journals in which at 10 are published in HEC (Pakistan) recognized Journals. His area of Research includes postcolonial theory, Feminism, Pakistani Fiction and modern Literature.
MUSTAPHA KAMAL an Auckland University alumni from the New Zealand has been practicing architecture for the past 27 years and is a Fellow member of Malaysia Institute of Architects (PAM) and had served 6 terms as PAM Council Member 1997-2000 and 2014 till 2017. He still sits in various PAM Committees. He was also a devoted Rotarian. He is currently the committee member in the Urban wellbeing, Sustainability, Housing and Environmental Resilience (USHER) of PAM. He is also heading the task force in the PAM Strategic Plan 2030 on Architecture: Cities Now and Future. His area of expertise is Urban Resilience. Apart from this he also Co-Chairs the Media and Publications of PAM. His was the Convener of the PAM Roundtable Discussion with Archinesia and the members of the publications communities during the 2016 Kuala Lumpur Architectural Festival that deals with Future Communities. He is now the Curator for the yearly event of the Housing and Urbanity 2017 organised by PAM which entitled How New Urban Agenda will fulfil the Sustainable Communities goals.
SABERA SHAIK is the founder and Artistic Director of Masakini Theatre Company which she founded in 2003 after having worked in various capacities with various theatre companies in Kuala Lumpur. Considered one of the most versatile actresses in the country, Shaik now specialises in solo perfromances, her latest being LADY SWETTENHAM directed by Tage Larsen of the Odin teatret, Denmark.. and a two ender with Cinzia Ciaramicoli called The Dream Dance directed by Else Marie Laukvik.She has performed her solo works widely to great critical acclaim in London, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Delhi and Mumbai. Shaik holds a Masters Degree in Theatre Arts and has been in the theatre industry for more than 35 years.
She constantly updates herself with the latest in the industry and has made visits to Denmark, Austria, Germany and Russia just as recent as 2011 and 2012.She has undergone workshops at the Odin Teatret, has worked as Assistant Diector to Roberta Carreri, acted in MEDEA directed by Eugenio Barba and was recently in Odin (October 2012) undergoing a workshop on editing a performance under the direction of Eugenio Barba . In Kuala Lumpur, Masakini Theatre Company is currently the only company doing shadow theatre, to much critical acclaim as well. Shaik trained in Germany under the shadow Master, Norbert Gotz and recently under Teatro Gioco Vita’s Fabrizzio Montecchi and Nicoletta Garioni.Shaik also writes and produces her own works and is currently touring with her shadow theatre performance called WAYANG– Malaysian Stories. The musical Chow Kit Road! Chow Kit Road! is Masakini’s second foray in this genre having started the ball rolling for musical theatre in Kuala Lumpur in 2004 with her own MY BOLLYWOOD SUMMER which was a box office success. Shaik works extensively with Orang Asli children. In Kampar Perak she built a school for pre schoolers and in Janda Baik, Pahang, she teaches young Orang Asli kids English through theatre, music and craft.
AMZED HOSSEIN is currently Professor in the Department of English, Aliah University, Kolkata. He did his PhD on the poetry of Ted Hughes at IIT, Kharagpur. His interview with Ted Hughes can be read online at http://ann.skea.com/AsiaFestivalInterview.html. His areas of interest are contemporary British Poetry, Utopian Literature, Indian Writing in English, and Dalit and Marginal Literature. He has published books and research papers on Ted Hughes, H L V Derozio, Girish Karnad, Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Delawarr Hosaen Ahmed Meerza, and translated short stories of Bangla Dalit and Muslim women authors.
ANITA HARRIS SATKUNANANTHAN is a senior lecturer of Literatures in English at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities in the National University of Malaysia where she teaches Literatures in English, Creative Writing (and occasionally) performance studies. She possesses a PhD in Postcolonial Literature from the University of Queensland, awarded in 2012. She has been awarded grants for her work on Gothic and Speculative Fiction by diasporic African women writers, and on Millennial Malaysian Genre authors (Grant Awarding Bodies: (1) Centre of Research and Instrumentation, National University of Malaysia, (2) Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia).
As the SFF author and poet Nin Harris, she has short fiction and poetry published in in the following Hugo award-winning and/or nominated venues: Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Uncanny Magazine, Lightspeed Magazine. She was a nominee for the Rhysling Award for speculative poetry in 2016. Her Gothic planetary romance short story “Morning Cravings” was published in the British Fantasy Award 2017 winning anthology People of Colour Destroy Science Fiction, edited by Nalo Hopkinson, Kristine Ong Muslim and Berit Ellingsen.
CARLOTTA LADYIZUMI ABRAMS has a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University, an MFA from Arizona State and a PhD from the University of Southern Mississippi. She has traveled to over seventy countries. She is an international speaker and writer who is the Coordinator of Creative Writing at Estrella College in Arizona.
NASIRIN ABDILLAH is senior lecturer in the Department of Heritage Studies at Universiti Malaysia Kelantan (UMK). He has a doctorate in Creative Arts from University of Wollongong (UOW), Australia. His creative works, especially his poems, have won several local writing prizes in Australia: he was the first-prize winner of the Viva la Gong 2011 inaugural poetry competition; his poem, ‘The Sunset Market’ was ‘Poem of the Week’ in May 2012 on http://www.australianpoetry.org and he was featured as ‘Writer of the Month’ in August 2012 on the South Coast Writers’ Centre’s website, among others. His other works have also appeared in various anthologies such as Unfolding (2012), Seeking Horizons (2014) and Naratif|Kisah (2016). He is currently writing a book on a new theory of Mythology based on his PhD thesis.
MAHMOUD ADBEL-HAMID MAHMOUD is an assistant professor of literary criticism and cultural studies at Taibah University, College of Humanities, Dept. of Languages and Translation. He has contributed to conferences at the University of Amsterdam, University of Warwick, Cairo University and Ain Shams University. His main interests are Cultural Studies, New Historicism, Post-colonial Criticism, cross-cultural dialogue and liminal literatures. He has published a debut article at the international conference of Comparative Literature entitled “The Quest for a Muslim American Identity in Mohja Kahf’s novel, The Girl in the Tangerine Scarf.” He can be reached at dr.mahmoudkhalifa@gmail.com and mahmeda@taibahu.edu.sa .
NORITAH OMAR received her Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, USA in 1999. She is an associate professor with the English Department at Universiti Putra Malaysia, where she teaches Literary Theory, Malaysian Literature in English, and Feminism and Social Change. She specializes in narrative and critical ethnography, and gender studies. Her work in critical ethnography has been especially focused on vulnerable population of women such as incarcerated female adolescents and women in half-way houses. Her other research interests include postcolonial literature and theory, the culture and politics of Islam in modern Malaysia, the history of Malaysian literary criticism, and the transformation of popular culture in Malaysia. She has published articles and book chapters on Malaysian and Singapore Literature, Islam and modern Malay literature, and Islam and contemporary popular culture. Her current work focuses on new intellectualism and its trajectories in literature, and addresses questions of Malaysia’s/the writer’s/literature’s intellectual place in the world.
MOHD FADHLI SHAH BIN KHAIDZIR is currently an English Lecturer at one of the Universities in Malaysia who teaches English Language and English Communication. He is currently pursuing his Post Doctorate Studies (PhD) at National University Malaysia (UKM) in Post-Colonial Literature focusing at analysing the Travel Literature through the lenses of Psychogeography. Besides lecturing, Fadhli Shah is also an established poet with two poetry books in the local market. Currently, Fadhli is working on his third solo book which is a travelogue poetry book which records his experiences travelling around the world in the form of poetry. As a part time Flight Attendant, his vast experiences across the globe help with his expressions and imaginations in writing poetry. His field of interest include Malaysian Literature, Malaysian Feminism, Psychogeography and Travel Literature, Poetic Expression, Drama and Theatre. He hopes to bring forth thematic issues in Malaysian Literature in English to the centre of the world to be shared and understand as a mean of appreciating the values of Literature and life.
HARDEV KAUR is a PhD holder in English Literary Studies from International Islamic University. She graduated after completing her thesis titled “Apartheid and the Reconciliation Process in Post-Apartheid Novels of South Africa”. Her research interests include African literature and Trauma Literature. She currently holds the post of post-graduate coordinator for English Literature in Universiti Putra Malaysia.She teaches American Literature, British Literature and African Literature in the same university.
DIREN ASHOK KHANDHAR is a secondary school English teacher attached to SM Sains Tuanku Jaafar in Negeri Sembilan. He obtained his Bachelor of Education (TESOL) from Macquarie University, Sydney Australia in 2010. Subsequently, he furthered his education in the field of literature and acquired the degree of Master in World Literature from Universiti Putra Malaysia in 2017. Currently he is pursuing his doctorate in the similar field of literature in Universiti Putra Malaysia.
AZILA AHMAD SARKAWI is Associate Professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia. She secured her Bachelor Degree (Hon.) in Shari’ah (Law) from the University of Malaya in 1997. She pursued Master of Comparative Laws (MCL) in International Islamic University Malaysia from 1998 to 2000 and been appointed as a Lecturer in the Department. She obtained her Doctorate from the Newcastle upon Tyne University, United Kingdom in 2006 for her thesis entitled “Legal Considerations of Neighbouring Lands in Development Planning: The Malaysian Context”. Her areas of specialization are Planning and Environmental Law, Islamic Planning Principles and Islamic built environment. She is an associate member of the Malaysian Institute of Planners. She received a Planning Scholar Award for Planning Excellence 2009 organised by the Malaysian Institute of Planners for her edited book ‘Urban Planning – An Islamic Perspectives’. In 2016, again she received a special mention in the same category for her works “Relevantizing Maqasid al-Shariah in Contemporary Town Planning Practices”. She has authored and co-authored more than 90 papers related to her areas of specializations.
KESTLE KHEA MEDRANO BELDEROL graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree in Comparative Literature and has a deep understanding and appreciation for the culture and history of the Philippines and the rest of Asia as well as Europe.
She currently works as an Item Developer (for English) at the AHEAD Tutorial and Review. Kestle Khea Medrano Belderol speaks proficiently in her native languages Filipino and Cebuano and is bilingually fluent in English. She also speaks a little Italian.
DR. SRI HABSARI KUSOMO graduated with a degree in Women’s Studies, from Flinders University of South Australia. She is an academic staff in English Department, Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Sebelas Maret University, Surakarta Indonesia since 1995. She has conducted various researches on TV serials, TV cook shows, children literature, folktales, high literature and short stories and some gender issues such as maternal mortality. She has published in Scopus, Thomson and Reuters, and Copernicus indexed journals in addition to national accredited journal and international proceedings. Some of her works are, Fighting Bodies: “The Construction of The Female Body in an Indonesian Television Serial”, Masculine Domination and Power In Indonesian TV Cook Show and Intersection between tradition and Islam: Female viewers’ perspective of ideal masculinity on watching sinetron.
LILY ROSE TOPE is professor and current department head at the Department of English and Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines. She has a PhD from the National University of Singapore. She is author of (Un)Framing Southeast Asia: Nationalism and the Post Colonial Text in English in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines as well as several articles on Southeast Asian literature in English, Philippine Chinese literature in English, and ethnicity in Southeast Asian literature.
ISABELA BANZON is professor and head of the Creative Writing program at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She was an Associate for Poetry at its Institute of Creative Writing. She coedited An Anthology of English Writing from Southeast Asia published in Singapore in 2012. Her latest poetry collection Maybe Something received the Philippine National Book Award for Best Book of Poetry in English and the Gintong Aklat (Golden Book) Award for Literature in English, both in 2016.
SONIA MYCAK is based at the Australian National University in the Centre for European Studies, where she is the Ukrainian Studies Foundation in Australia Research Fellow. Prior to this she held research fellowships at the University of Sydney and the University of New South Wales, in the main awarded by the Australian Research Council. Her expertise lies in literary and cultural studies, with a focus upon immigrant and multicultural writing in Australia and Canada.
SHEENA VAJAINDRAN is the Head of Programme and Lecturer of Professional Communication at International University of Malaya-Wales. She received her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from University Tunku Abdul Rahman and Masters in Multimedia Communication from Open University Malaysia and currently is pursuing her PhD, in Communication and Humanities at Asia e University. She was a Journalist and a copywriter before venturing into her passion for teaching. She has 10 years of teaching experience in her specialized areas of Visual Communications, Media Ethics, Journalism, Broadcast Journalism and Multimedia and animation. Her current research involves the study of media, interpretation of media, media influence on culture and how the media uses trend to create a particular group of society that is later categorized into sub-cultures.
RETNO WULANDRI is a lecturer attached to the English Department, Faculty of Humanities, Diponegoro University of Semarang, Indonesia. She graduated from Universitas Gajah Mada, Indonesia with a Master of Arts degree in American Studies/American literature in 2011. Her Bachelor’s degree in the same field is from Diponegoro University, Indonesia.
Retno has wide work experience in Public Relations incorporating Media and Government Relations. She worked with P. Y. Ciputara, Semarang as its PR Manager and was Public Affairs executive at Mobil Cepu Ltd., an ExxonMobil subsidiary. In 1999, she participated in the Canada Indonesian Youth Program based in Kimberley British Columbia, Canada.
MOHAMMAD ABDUL QUAYUM is Professor at Dept. of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia. He has conducted various research projects such as Imagined Communities Revisited: Asia Pacific Literature And Cultures, Muslim Diaspora in the West: A Postcolonial Study of Selected Post – 9/11 Literary Works and currently working on Muslim Women Visionaries: Gender, Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Works of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and Adibah Amin. He has won the Best Journal Award at university level.
YAU SIM MEI is currently pursuing her PhD in Malaysian Drama in English at the University Malaya Cultural Centre. Her academic interests include 19th century American Literature, and World Literature. Of late, her involvement with the works of Ghulam-Sarwar Yousof who is an expert in South-East Asian traditional theatre has sparked her interest in puppet theatre, particularly wayang kulit, and Japanese Bunraku.
SALMYYAH RAHEEM received her BA (Hon.) in English Language and Literature and MA in English Literary Studies from International Islamic University Malaysia in 2011 and 2015 respectively. She is currently a PhD candidate at the Cultural Centre, University of Malaya. Her PhD focuses on a critical reinterpretation of Aristotle’s The Poetics. Her other research interests include Romantic Orientalism, Philosophy, Sufi Literature and Marxism in Literature.
AIMILLIA MOHD RAMLI is an Associate Professor at Dept. of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia. She has written numerous article in journals such as Bronte Studies, World Literature Studies, Cultura: Journal of Philosophy of Culture and Axiology and ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews. Her research interest concerns orientalism in English literature as well as postcolonial literature.
SURAIYA SULAIMAN is Assistant Professor in English at Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, Thailand. She obtained her PhD from International Islamic University Malaysia, and had previously received her Master’s in Comparative Literature and Bachelor’s in English from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. Her research interests are in Postcolonial, Diaspora, and Comparative Literatures. She has also organized several English training programs and workshops to empower English Language Teaching in the southern region of Thailand.
SITI NURAISHAH AHMAD is Assistant Professor in literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kuala Lumpur. Her research interests include twentieth-century and contemporary Asian literature (Southeast Asia and South Asia), colonial discourse, travel writing, literary representations of women, and contemporary theories on feminism, representation, and subjectivity.
WAN NUR MADIHA RAMLAN is Assistant Professor in literature at the Department of English Language and Literature, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Kuala Lumpur. She has written articles in journals such as Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature and Asiati. As of late, she is conducting her research projects on studies of postcolonial Malaysian women’s life writing and selected contemporary women novelist in Malaysia and Indonesia.
SANGHAMITRA DALAL is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Artistic Writing, Faculty of Film, Theatre and Animation, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. She graduated from the University of Calcutta, Kolkata, India and wrote her doctoral dissertation on Diasporic Literature while studying at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, Her research interests include postcolonial, migration and diaspora studies, life-writing, transnational and transcultural literatures. Her upcoming publication includes a chapter on Patricia Pengilley, in the edited volume Claiming Space: Australian Women’s Writing, due to be published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017.
MOHAMMAD EWAN AWANG is a senior lecturer in the Department of English, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, UPM. His current research interests include geocriticism, the relationship between spatiality and spirituality in literature and memory studies. He currently teaches Literary Theory and Criticism and Literature, Film and Media at UPM.
Her current interests span topics on diasporic literature, children’s literature, transnationalism, identity and food studies.
AMALIA QISTINA CASTANEDA ABDULLAH is a lecturer at UITM Campus in Seremban, Malaysia.
The 17th Biennial Symposium on Literature and Culture in the Asia-Pacific Region: 22-24 Nov. 2017 