API FELLOWS

Last update: August 31, 2012

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INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE

Dain Said (Malaysia Fellow Year 2006 - 2007) successfully launched his latest film 'Bunohan' and was invited to screen the film at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) during September 8 - 18, 2011. Bunohan also gained a highly complimentary review by the Variety Magazine. (photo by Clinton Gilders/Getty Images North America)

Ronnarong Khampha (Thailand Fellow Year 2010 - 2011) and Thitipol Kanteewong (Thailand Fellow Year 2009 - 2010) participated in the Asian Arts Theatre Residency Gwangju 2011 as part of The Asian Culture Complex Asian Arts Theatre Project Development Initiative Project held in Soeul, South Korea during August 29 - September 4, 2011. They also collaborated with leading Indonesian traditional artists of Mugi Dance such as Mugiyono Kasido, Endah Laras and Dedek Wahyu to present "Ejecting Human" - the concept of industrial development and Asian traditions - in Solo, Indonesia, during August 19 - 28, 2011.

ALL UPDATES: (in pdf)

• March - July 2011
• August 2011 - February 2012 (coming soon)

Tomonari Nishikawa (Japan Fellow Year 2008 - 2009) finished two films in 2010: “Tokyo - Ebisu” (premiered at the 35th Toronto International Film Festival) and “Shibuya - Tokyo” (premiered at the 48th New York Film Festival). He was invited by WORM, a Rotterdam based artists' collective to conduct a 3-day filmmaking workshop in January 2011. Nishikawa also had recent screenings at the California Institute of the Arts, Disjecta Interdisciplinary Art Center by Cinema Project, LA Filmforum, and MoMA PS1. The Liason of Independence Filmmakers of Toronto also announced Nishikawa's participation in LIFT’s international artist-in-residency program in summber 2011.

OUTSTANDING WOMEN

Sr. Mary John Mananzan, OSB (Philippines Fellow Year 2002 - 2003) has been included on the list of the 100 Most Inspiring People Delivering for Girls and Women by the Women Deliver organization. She was also awarded Resolution No. 96 by the Philippine Government last 14 March, 2011 for her achievement in merging feminism and faith in the Philippines. On September 16, 2011, she was elected a member of the Administrative Council of the International Association or Prioresses of the Benedictine Order or the CIB (Communio Internationalis Benedictarium).

Regina Hechanova-Alampay(Philippines Fellow Year 2009 - 2010) was given The Outstanding Women in the Nation's Service (TOWNS) award on October 19, 2010, strongly recognized for her research on the organized psychology of the Philippine Workforce. She also received a Cardinal Sin Book award in October 2010 for her book For the People, With the People: Developing Social Enterprises in the Philippines.

Penchom Saetang (Thailand Fellow Year 2005 - 2006) and Chalida Uabumrungjit (Year 2002 - 2003) were honored by Bangkok Post as outstanding Environmentalist and Film Activist, respectively, among the 65 Women of Influence in Contemporary Thailand 2011, for the 65th Anniversary of Bangkok Post Newspaper.

RECOGNITION

Colin Nocholas (Malaysia Fellow Year 2001 - 2002) received an award on behalf of Orang Asli Centre for Concern (COAC) as the United Nations (UN) Malaysia Organization of the Year 2011 for its efforts to promote and defend the rights of the Orang Asli in Malaysia. The award was given in celebration of the United Nations 66th anniversary on October 24, 2011.

(From left) Colin Nicholas, Tam Kar Lye, Jenita Engi, Puah Sze Ning dan Keiisha Anne Pillai from the COAC. (Photo by BERNAMA)

Thitipol Kanteewong (Thailand Fellow Year 2009 - 2010) received a Golden Elephant award 2011 from Chiang Mai University for being an outstanding researcher of the new generation in Humanities and Sociology. His several studies, including his API project, relate to the new development of humans and culture focusing on traditional Thai and Asian music by using academic and experimental methods.

PUBLIC SHARING

Kavi Chongkittavorn (Thailand Fellow Year 2007 - 2008) has been invited by the Southeast Asian Studies Program Graduate School, Chulalongkorn University, to lecture on “ORANG ASEAN: Prospects and Challenges”– the special course on ASEAN Community and citizens (“Orang”), for 15 weeks during December 13, 2011 - March 22, 2012.

Motohide Taguchi (Japan Fellow Year 2002 - 2003)’s sound installation work "Between Shifted Memories" will be exhibited at Yuchengco Museum in Makati City, Manila, Philippines until January 29, 2012. He also had a workshop on November 24, 2011 at Vargas Museum in the University of the Philippines.

Wilfredo Torres III (Philippines Year 2002 - 2003) gave a talk on "Rido: Clan Feuding and Conflict Management in Mindanao" to PNP Mindanao commanders on May 5, 2011 in Cotabato City. He also took part in the Symposium on Moro Ethnicity and Cultural Identity: Implication to Law Enforcement last April 7, 2011 in the Philippine National Police Museum. 

Ambeth Ocampo (Philippines Fellow Year 2010 - 2011) held the public lecture Mukhang Pera! Banknotes and Nation on July 9, 2011 at the Ayala Museum Lobby, Makati City, Philippines. He also delivered a similar lecture on Thai Banknotes at Chulalongkorn University in February 2011.

Dante G, Simbulan, Jr. (Philippines Fellow Year 2010- 2011) was on a Visiting Scientist Fellowship at the Nagoya University's Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Nagoya City, Japan from August 1 to November 15, 2011. His research theme was on "Yoga-based exercises, autonomic functions and chronic pain management." He also conducted weekly yoga classes for therapists and doctors of the Multi-Disciplinary Pain Center of the Aichi Medical University as part of a training and research collaboration to facilitate the integration of mind-body approaches in pain management.

Rosalie Arcala Hall (Philippines Fellow Year 2004 - 2005) presented academic papers at the Inter University Seminar in the Philippine Sociological Association conference in Naga City on October15-16 2011; in the Armed Forces and Society conference in Chicago, USA on October 23 - 25, 2011; and at the Asian International Political and International Studies Association Congress in Taichung, Taiwan on November 24 - 25 2011.
 
She is also a monthly contributor to University of Venus’ blog about gender and other issues in the US Inside Higher Education website :  http://www.insidehighered.com/

NEW POSITION

Dicky Sofjan (Indonesia Fellow Year 2007 - 2008) is now associated with the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS-Yogyakarta), an international, inter-religious and inter-disciplinary Ph.D. program that combines the strength of three Yogyakarta-based universities, namely Gadjah Mada, the Islamic University of Sunan Kalijaga and the Duta Wacana Christian University. As a Core Doctoral Faculty, Dr. Sofjan will teach "Religion and Human Rights" next semester, beginning in September 2011.

Yonariza (Indonesia Fellow Year 2008 - 2009) has been appointed Professor in the field of Forest Management at Andalas University since September 1, 2011.  

Toshiya Takahama (Japan Fellow Year 2005 - 2006) was appointed Professor, Printmaking Division, Dept. of Painting, Musashino Art University as of April 1, 2011.

Tsukasa Iga (Japan Fellow Year 2008 - 2009) completed a doctoral course in Kobe University in March 2011. The research theme was liberalization of the media and the role of the ICT in Malaysia. He has been a research associate of Kobe University since 1 April 2011, expanding his scope to neighboring countries, such as Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.

Josie M. Fernandez (Malaysia Fellow Year 2006 - 2007) has been a member of Executive Committee 2011 - 2013 of Transparency International Malaysia, the Malaysia Society for Transparency and Integrity. Her position is Secretary-General.

Naguib Razak (Malaysia Fellow Year 2006 - 2007), a document filmmaker, has been appointed Director General of National Film Development Corporation Malaysia (FINAS), effective from September 1, 2011.

Jose Luis Martin “Chito” Gascon (Philippines Fellow Year 2007 - 2008), former education undersecretary for legal and legislative affairs, was appointed undersecretary for the Office of the Political Affairs (OPA) last April 15, 2011. Previous to this, Gascon served as board member of the Bases Conversion Development Authority (BCDA) under the current administration.

Jose Eliseo Rocamora (Philippines Fellow Year 2007 - 2008) was appointed by Pres. Benigno Aquino III as the lead convenor of the National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC) on September 20, 2010. He is currently the Director for the Institute for Popular Democracy.

Rufa Cagoco-Guiam (Philippines Fellow Year 8) was appointed in March 2010 member of the Regional Advisory Council for Southeast Asian and the Pacific for the Inter-Church Development Cooperation (ICCO).

Sukran Rojanapaiwong (Thailand Fellow Year 2001 - 2002) has been serving as a secretary to committee of Office of The National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission since October 2011.

Rajeswari Kanniah (Malaysia Fellow Year 2003 - 2004) got her book “Breeders vs. Farmers: The Contest for Rights over Plant Varieties in Selected Asian Countries” published by VDM Verlag Dr. M?ller on March 4, 2011.

Abstract:
When India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines and Thailand became members of the World Trade Organization, they adopted the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), obligating them to enact laws to protect rights over plant varieties.  Kanniah’s book critically examines the plant variety protection laws of these five countries in the context of these international treaties and how private property rights are balanced with measures to conserve biological diversity. Plant variety protection laws are not typical intellectual property laws and encompass a conflation of national interests with international obligations.

Yeoh Seng Guan (Malaysia Fellow Year 2005 -2006)’s article entitled, 'In Defence of the Secular? Islamisation, Christians and (New) Politics in Urbane Malaysia', was published in Asian Studies Review, March 2011, Vol. 35, pp. 83-103

Abstract: Besides the clarion call for a "new politics" by opposition political parties, a significant catalyst that arguably swayed Christian electoral choices in the landmark Malaysian general elections of March 2008 was the counsel by religious leaders to safeguard "the secular state". This action was prompted by recent high profile controversial legal cases that were perceived to be a serious erosion of the freedom of religion clause guaranteed in the secularist Federal Constitution. In this essay, I not only examine the recent antecedents of this course of action but also delve into the more distant past in order to draw out how the apparently impervious categories of "religion" and the "secular" have been implicated in the structuring of social and political imaginaries in Malaysia.

Shanthi Thambiah (Malaysia Fellow Year 2008 - 2009) contributed to a book “Multiethnic Malaysia: Past Present and Future”.  Her chapter was on “The Paradoxes of Diversity and Commonality in Identity Formation: The Ethnicisation of the Bhuket of Sarawak”. The book, edited by Lim Teck Ghee, Alberto Gomes and Azly Rahman, discusses how a people with no primordial sense of ethnicity became an ethnic group by embracing inclusiveness as their ethnic logic. Thambiah’s chapter introduces the Bhuket - their history and migration, political-economic upheavals and colonial interventions and the persistence of their cultural category “Punan”, the hunter-gatherer. The discussion moves from identity formation at the societal level to the micro level of what it means to be a Bhuket.

Abstract: The article aims to explore the origin, role and the growth of local printed media in Indonesia in relation to the qualitative development of the society and Indonesian culture. These would also help reflect Thailand’s media business.

FELLOWS LINK:

Ambeth Ocampo (Philippines Fellow Year 2010 – 2011)

facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Ambeth-R-Ocampo/47261762634

Amir Muhammad (Malaysia Fellow Year 2003 - 2004)

website: amirmu.blogspot.com

Colin Nicholas (Malaysia Fellow Year 2001 - 2002)

website: www.coac.org.my (Centre for Orang Asli Concerns)

Kavi Chongkittavorn (Thailand Fellow Year 2007 - 2008)

website: www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/kavi/

K.S. Jomo (Malaysia Fellow Year 2001 - 2002)

website: http://www.jomoks.org/

Khoo Salma Nasution (Malaysia Fellow Year 2004 - 2005)

website: khoosalma.blogspot.com/ ; www.arecabooks.com

Nicolas A. De Ocampo (Philippines Fellow Year 2001 - 2002)

website: www.cnc.net.ph

Phra Paisal Visalo (Thailand Fellow Year 2001 - 2002)

website: www.visalo.org ; facebook: www.facebook.com/psvisalo (in Thai)

Pradit Prasartthong (Thailand Fellow Year 2011 – 2012)

facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Pradit-Prasartthong/265647793489306

youtube: www.youtube.com/user/TuaPRADIT

Ronnarong Khampha (Thailand Fellow Year 2010 – 2011)

website: www.ronnarongkhampha.com

Tomonari Nishikawa (Japan Fellow Year 2008 – 2009)

website: www.tomonarinishikawa.com

Thitipol Kanteewong (Thailand Fellow Year 2009 – 2010)

website: www.changsaton.com ; www.phooradok.com