Angeline Wong Wei Wei finds her passion in exploring the multiplicity of re-presentations and re-imaginations of life in texts of different forms and genres. Her hope is that students will see that literature is not something obscure to them but a treasure chest of discovery about who they are and what they can be. She has just returned to teaching in January 2011 from her study leave with a renewed zeal and aspiration in teaching, researching and sharing.
Noraini Md Yusof adores books and lives among books. She loves to claim "Literature is my life!" to anyone who would listen to her. She is happiest if she gets to read a historical novel with some milk and cookies as well as music in the background. She is fascinated with the past and its transformations into fiction. Besides writing short stories and dreaming of writing a novel one day...she also cannot resist all the latest techno gadgets!
Raihanah M. M. has been involved in the teaching and studying of literature for over 17 years. The thing that strikes her the most from all the years working with undergraduate and graduate students in the field of humanities is this: there is always something new to say about a text that has been read by so many others. That's the beauty of a good literary work irrespective of the setting and context. She finds pleasure both in developing an idea for a paper as she does in developing a student’s interest in his/her research. She hopes to be named 100 most influential educators of all time! J
Ravichandran V. is a newcomer to literary academia, but two decades of teaching writing courses and a lifelong addiction to great literary works have taught Ravi that good literature, like music and art, is nourishment for the soul. Not surprisingly, he now teaches Stylistics, hoping to equip his students with all the right tools so that they too can appreciate the inherent beauty of good literature.
Ruzy Suliza Hashim has been teaching literature for almost 20 years, and will happily spend the next 20 years doing more of literature. As Oscar Wilde once said, "Literature always anticipates life. It does not copy it, but moulds it to its purpose.” It is this anticipatory nature of literature that makes it exciting (she hopes her students share her enthusiasm and passion for anything literary). She feels most comfortable working on gender issues in literature, and dreams of writing a book on “Theorising Malaysian Autobiography” one day.
Shahizah Ismail Hamdan has been a student of literature for most of her life. She now also teaches and engages in researches in the area of posthumanism and science fiction as well as gender and popular culture. She is very passionate and forthright in her mission to develop students' interest in literature.
Shanthini Pillai has been an avid scholar of literature for more than 20 years now, having traversed the traditional tenets of canonical works to ground breaking postcolonial narrative history and most recently, innovations in literary teaching and learning. As Emily Dickinson once wrote “Faith—is the Pierless Bridge/Supporting what We see/Unto the Scene that We do not”. This epitomizes Shanthini’s view of the infinite nature of literary studies, as a bridge that connects all areas of life. It is precisely this view that she advances without fail in her classrooms and in her supervisory consultations with graduate students, having the faith that they too will see the vast horizon that lies before them as budding literary scholars.
Zalina Mohd has a lifelong love affair with books and she has been exploring and helping students to discover literature (and themselves!) for more than 25 years. She has nurtured a love for books in her children and this in turn has nurtured in her a love for books that children and teenagers love. She is currently conducting research into Malaysian literature for children and teenagers, and literary translation; and welcomes contact, information and input on the topics.
