SASS & Me
Dr Ghislaine Lewis
At the One Liberty Observation
Deck in Philadephia (2018). ▶
It was just my luck or perhaps destiny that Monash
University Malaysia (MUM) was advertising for lecturer/
senior lecturer in the field of journalism. I had spent
my almost four years in New Zealand with both a
Malaysian roommate and a Malaysian officemate. So
when I applied, interviewed and was offered the job at
SASS, it all seemed like serendipity.
When I left New Zealand to embark on my Malaysian
adventure, I could not have imagined how much it
would change my life and my world view. For two and
a half years the campus in Subang Jaya was home,
the faculty and staff in the School of Arts and Social
Sciences were my family, and the students I taught in
the classroom were my joy.
There are so many amazing memories from my time
on campus and in SASS.
Among my fondest memories are sitting in the office
with Dr Sharon Bong as she guided me through the
insecurities and doubts faced by every new academic
faculty. She was my champion, my shoulder to
lean on, my fellow tea lover and the best possible
supervisor an early-career academic could desire. Her
tenacity, energy and love for her discipline has ensured
the growth of the gender studies major. I hope to be
half the mentor she was to me.
Other memories include:
alking into the administrative suite saying “what’s
• W
up?” and watching a grin spread across Tan Mei
Sie’s face
• T
im Wong Wai Toh always checking to see if I
needed a ride home
• F
ong Yew Soon and Felicia Chang Mei Lin patiently
guiding me through what seemed at the time to be
an incessant stream of paperwork
• S
parring with Dr Yeoh as he insisted I call him Seng
Guan since I was not his student
• T
he infectious delight that emanated from Dr
Andrew Ng Hock Soon’s pores made me smile on
many a tired afternoon
r Helen Nesadurai going to bat for me to ensure I
• D
would be able to go to a media policy workshop at
the University of Oxford
raveling to Thailand with Dr Joseph Goh for the
• T
International Convention of Asia Scholars, and
sightseeing with him in Chiang Mai
• M
aking way too many inappropriate jokes in Dr
Chan Chang Tik’s Graduate Certificate in Education
(GCHE) class
• H
elping to plan and execute a SASS Alumni
forum on “Media in a Post-Truth Era” with Eswary
Sivalingam in 2017
• F
aculty dinners at my Taylor’s Lakeside apartment
building
137
I can truly
say I love
teaching and
the GCHE
program made
me a more
aware lecturer
as I strove to
implement a
more student-
centered
focus to my
discipline.
I’ll tell you a secret. I applied to head up the journalism
minor in the School of Arts and Social Sciences
(SASS) on a whim. I had recently completed my PhD
in Media and Communication at the University of
Canterbury in New Zealand and was seriously toying
with a move to Asia, my fifth continent. I had spent a
week in India prior to my thesis submission and fallen
in love with the complexity and culture of the country,
and by extension the region.