Graduate Research Studies
at the School of Arts and
Social Sciences (SASS),
Monash University
Malaysia.
“…the humanities [and
social sciences] should be a
part of our repertory. They
may not enrich our wallets,
but they do enrich our lives.
They civilise us. They
provide context.”
– Nicholas Kristof
OUR RESEARCHERS AND
RESEARCH CLUSTERS
The School’s research and its scholars are generally grouped
according to four broad clusters:
What can we learn from the past to manage the
present so that we can ensure a humane,
sustainable future? How do we understand, for
example, the notions of space, gender, belief, race,
class, tradition, states, markets, nature, and ethics
in a world whose boundaries are becoming
increasingly porous, whose prospects are arguably
uncertain, and whose fortunes are rapidly and
constantly changing? Why are cultural forms and
expressions, practices of remembrances, political
shifts, economic engagements, and the
communication of knowledge, among other
things, fundamental to the construction of
identities and how people live and work, and to
shaping how people engage with each other and
with the environment?
These are some of the paramount questions we
at SASS strive to answer through rigorous,
often comparative, research focusing on both
the Southeast Asian region and beyond. We
would like to invite interested individuals to
join us in this quest for knowledge as higher
degree by research (MA or PhD) candidates
by pursuing studies in one of the following
broad clusters.
Communication, Media and Policy
This cluster generally considers the geopolitics of communication and
the link between media (with special attention on digital media) and
the state and society. It attempts to understand the way cultural and
political practices engage the media and to achieve specific results,
the present developments redefining the nature of communications,
and the challenges determining the future direction of the media.
Crucial questions regarding the implications of new digital media
geographies for global communications and the development of
public policy, media rights and strategies for advocating media
freedoms, the sociological and ethical consequences of applying new
digital technologies, and the impact of multiple international policy
responses to engagement with contemporary media and the various
communication channels, both old and new, are of particular interest
to this cluster.
“My research is in the area of online religion.
It means that I am interested in how people of
particular faiths use the internet to develop
and express their spiritual identity online. The
internet and religion seems like two topics
that have little to do with one another, but it is
an example of the breadth of what
communication studies is about – discovering
the intricacies of how communication
technologies, culture, and society interact
with one another and what does that say
about the world we live in”.
Dr Tan Meng Yoe