Media Release for InterculturAdelaide

Here’s the media release that the University of South Australia wrote to publicise InterculturAdelaide. The University of Adelaide also publicised the event online.

Creating citizens of the world in intercultural Adelaide

What makes a society operate in peace, harmony and prosperity – luck, goodwill, strategy and legislation, or a combination of factors?

It’s one of many questions to be explored when UniSA’s International Centre for Muslim and non-Muslim Understanding joins with the Government of South Australia and the University of Adelaide to consider the significance of diversity in our community at the InterculturAdelaide summit on July 9.

Summit convenor UniSA’s Dr Amrita Malhi says InterculturAdelaide will offer important opportunities to consider how notions of multiculturalism that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s have evolved.

Read more

How does Malaysian Federalism Influence How Land is Managed?

Federalism workshop flyer, issued by the Penang Institute.

I’ve just participated in a workshop convened to consider whether it might be possible to innovate the way Malaysian federalism functions, both in theory and in practice. As the present system is a highly centralised federation, it seems this question is increasingly important to state governments wishing to test their position in relation to federal power since the “political tsunami” elections of 2008 and 2013. Read more

ASAA Conference, Perth

ASAA 2014 Conference Brochure Cover

The 20th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies Association of Australia just wound up today in Perth. It was a great experience, and featured keynote presentations by South Korean Ambassador for National Security Affairs and Professor of International Relations Prof. Chung Min Lee, and Race Discrimination Commissioner, Tim Soutphommasane.

My own talk was on how much Malaysia’s 2013 election highlighted the tensions present in Malaysian society over what sort of nation it should be, and whether or not it needs its “National Front” to hold itself together firmly enough to prevent this tension from undoing it completely. This kind of analysis needs a bit of distance from the election, however.

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