REGIONAL GRANT – 2 years (2016-2018) University Affiliation: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia; Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, Thailand; Universiti Malaysia Saraak, Malaysia.Research Objectives: To examine human rights awareness among university students in Malaysia and Thailand (particularly those studying in our respective institutions) and using our analysis of their awareness to develop a framework that can be used to analyse human rights awareness among other university students in the region and beyond.Our research also seeks to create a web portal that we hope will be used as a platform to further raise human rights awareness among university students in Malaysia, Thailand and other countries in the region where they can exchange ideas about human rights awareness and think of feasible ways to protect and defend these rights.Significance of Research: The study hopes to fill up to the lacuna in the scholarship of human rights and peace education in the ASEAN region through
- the findings on the complexities and specificities of university students’ perceptions of human rights and the extent to which these perceptions are shaped by their demographic backgrounds, everyday lived experiences and material conditions, psychosocial, political, moral, and spiritual realities to name just a few
- the development of an integrated framework which will be used not only to analyse the concepts of human rights in the region, but also to help construct policies concerning human rights that engage more fully with university students’ own perceptions of human rights and the kinds of rights that affect them the most.
Lead Researcher: Dr Collin Jerome and Dr. Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha Personal bios:Dr Collin Jerome is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Language Studies and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He holds a PhD in English Literature from University of Sussex and has been involved with research projects in the areas of identity, gender, and sexuality in pedagogy, literature, and the media.Dr. Kriangkrai Vathanalaoha is a lecturer at Language Centre, International College for Sustainability Studies, Srinakharinwirot University. He received Doctor of Dental Surgery from Chulalongkorn University, MA (English Language and Literature) from Thammasat University and Certificate of Postgraduate Research in Applied Linguistics at Lancaster University, UK. He is now a PhD candidate at Language Institute, Thammasat University and has published academic papers on literary linguistics, characterization and stylistics. His research interests include cognitive poetics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, ESP and contrastive rhetoric. He has conducted several academic services and English training programme for national and international participants. Co-ResearchersDr Zaimuariffudin Shukri Nordin is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. He graduated with a PhD in Education from the University of Exeter in 2011. Dr Zaimuariffudin Shukri Nordin specializes in field of social science and humanities and has been with the formulation of Malaysia ™s National Human Rights Action Plan (NHRAP) and projects related to human rights education in the country initiated by the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM).Mr Damien Anak Mikeng graduated from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia with a B.Sc.Ed (Hons) in Teaching English as A Second Language (TESL). Experienced English Language teacher and has taught in government secondary school before joining UNIMAS. Throughout the years as English teacher, has actively involved with MELTA (Malaysian English Language Teacher Association), an examiner of MUET (Malaysian University English Test), a recipient of E-Teacher Scholarships by the Department of States (Oregon University) and has published English workbooks for Malaysian Secondary Schools (PMR & PT3). Currently hold the post of Senior Language Teacher with the Faculty of Language Studies and Communication Studies UNIMAS.Associate Professor Dr. Su-Hie TING is an associate professor of sociolinguistics at the Faculty of Language Studies and Communication Studies, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. She graduated from the University of Queensland with a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics in 2001 and has since published on language choice and identity, strategic competence and academic writing.
