Clarissa AL Lee's Lateral Worlds

  For anyone who still occasionally checks on this blog, you will realize irregular the updates had been. Things had been hectic since the last update back in May 2023 (and that was merely a cut-and-paste from an existing text), which was also around the time when I was engage in some next-steps activities. Due to both life and professional changes, I have decided to make some changes to what this blog's purpose will be going forward, while also giving context to the why of these changes. 1. This blog will be used more for making announcements and updates relating to all aspects of my professional and creative activities. 2. To catch up on my non-academic writings and quasi-academic writings not published elsewhere, please check out my  Medium page, which has been active since August 2023, although I am not writing at the same frequency or purpose as someone who wants to make big bucks through writing (though of course I appreciate making some money for the effort expended). ...

      What qualifies as "toxic" in society is an inherently unstable category, dependent on risk assessment, structures of profit but also cultural ideas about safety and health. This joint lecture focus es on a specific form of toxicity, namely nuclear toxicity, through the example of management of nuclear fuel resource s, especially in their aftermath as waste. Starting with an overview of technoscientific risks consideration of nuclear, we will venture into questions of safety, recycling, storage, and stakeholders interpretation through art, broaching case-studies from Europe, Asia and the US.   This joint-lecture falls under the Leonardo Lecture series, under the auspice of Excursus of Energy Transitions under the remit of  "Resource Policy."   https://www.leonardo.rwth-aachen.de/en/modules/suse-2023/resource-policy-2/ 

The public lecture will take place on  June 7, at 5 pm(CET) w at the Stadtpalais, Theaterstraße 75, 52062 Aachen. You can also attend online via the following link https://rwth.zoom.us/j/91769488851?pwd=VnBKc1l1M0JRSzBzRDIwZFBodFlYQT09 Meeting-ID: 917 6948 8851 Kenncode: 477889 ABSTRACT: This talk explores how one could develop and apprehend a philosophically intuited syzygy that is art and science, giving way to art-science and artscience (without the hyphen). However, this is not merely about what philosophy could do for artscience (the un-hyphenated version is the speaker’s preferred choice for reasons to be explained in the talk), but also untangles and highlights the simultaneous (and comparative) philosophical arguments that invariably, even if not intentionally, exert the co-existence of art-like (filtered through aesthetics) and science-like (filtered through cognitive acts of logic) subjects in epistemological discussions that often reinforce reductive representations of a...

 It's been 4 months since I'd last posted as I'd been busy completing some papers, attending workshops, presenting at one of a major local conference, and also completing the first draft of a revised book project proposal (these were all between January and the first week of April 2023). This month, it has been about building (and exploring) new skills while also organizing materials (both past and new stuff) for the first two chapters of my book. That said, there are a few announcements to be made with regard to recently published articles, starting from December 2022 since I have forgotten to post about the small booklet that came out in that month. In Devember 2022, my article-length book, " Stanning" Najib: Fanning a Personality Cult in Malaysian Politics " was published by ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. This book is co-authored with ISEAS's research associate Amirul Adli Rosli. This work brings together political communication, fan studies, and platfor...

 It has been awhile since i have updated here, as life has taken a different turn this past year. I left my tenure-track position at Universiti Malaya (despite having three more years on the contract, although that had since reduced to 2 years and 4 months by the time I left) to pursue the broadening of horizons and also to make my own creative and intellectual dreams come true (and go through). This is done by giving myself this year, through the affordances of a fellowship, to reconfigure things I am doing so that they are more in line with the direction I am seeing myself increasingly converging on. It has been a challenging yet good year of new experiences, new insights, and self-reflections. I was losing the ability to try new things and take risks in what I do, and now, I see myself returning, taking a small step at a time, to what had made life worthwhile in the first place. Before that, I had spent the months between June 2022 and September 2022, which was about 4 months, t...

You can obtain this article when it comes out to the nearest bookstore to you in Malaysia, or you can buy it online here to save the hassle. See below for a snapshot of the article and the TOC.

The new semester is already in full-swing since the last time I posted - over the long 'summer' days of eternal lockdowns (now that the summer has passed, the lockdown has also been lifted), I have been busily giddy with new discoveries that I forget my promise to post here more regularly - some of these 'discoveries' will make their appearances next year. Some have already been published as tasters . Not only that, I had also not been as active on social media. In fact, it is only since two days ago that I am taking the time, for the first time in months, to tidy up my Academia page (do have a look to see what new updates there are since your last visit) where I have decided to get rid of most of the uploaded talks from my graduate student days except the ones delivered thereafter. A talk (in bilingual texts) that marks my first participation in a theater-centric conference (I had never done this prior to my present job) that brings together past and present interest...

When I was a kid, I loved sleep. I used to have this school holiday practice of sleeping early (forcing myself to do so even when I didn't want to) and then making myself wake up early and planned a bunch of activities for myself. Growing up in the 20th century without the ubiquitous electronics and 24/7 streaming services made this fairly easy (especially when the TV went dead by a certain time). Sure, I was also the kid that enjoyed staying up and watching old movies. But the most important thing of all, I slept well regardless.  When I failed an exam, I slept well. When I resented someone, I slept well. As a kid, we probably had the natural habit of not allowing any of the emotions of the day to carry into bedtime and the next day. This practice is lost on us as adults. As part of my own enforced well-being practice on weekends (I am getting better at it by reminding myself that I will be more productive this way, although I still fall through the cracks), I read Sleep Smarter: ...

Update 2: Here is another talk I gave to a more arts-centred audience on some theories as well as art practices inspired by my book   Update: I'd uploaded a preview chapter of my book on my Academia page as a teaser.   I just completed a booktalk last Friday and will be doing another in May June, together with Universiti Sains Malaysia. focusing on a different topic. Will post on the event once confirmation and details are received.  I found this old blog post about my residency at the Oregon State University Libraries Resident Scholar program and am reposting it here only because some of the work I did there made its way into the book!  The book should have made its way to a number of main bookstores such as Silverfish books, Kinokuniya, MPH and Popular. You can also find some copies at Litbooks at Tropicana and also at The Space, Penang. My book is now available as Print-on-Demand in Singapore: https://www.sgbookshelf.com/product-page/artscience Here is the l...

 For those who missed my talk last Friday (April 23, 2021), you can now catch it here on Youtube. In the talk, I also mentioned Hikayat Hang Tuah and Sulalatus Salatin, and Puteri Gunung Ledang. Watch on to know why.  Please click to expand this blog post for the link to appear.  

https://literature.um.edu.my/lloyd-fernando-seminar-series   Shapes of Knowledge: Speculative Fiction Through Artscience A talk presented by Clarissa Ai Ling Lee from the Drama Department of the Faculty of Creative Arts at University of Malaya Friday, 23 Apr 2021 from 3.00 - 5.00 pm Video call link:   https://meet.google.com/mpy-jmoe-qsk More on the book here .    

We live in a very bureaucratic world, where productivity is measured by the amount of busywork you are able to complete, even though you may not realize that in doing this, you are actually giving away your time for free.   For a busy academic, there are so many things that make demands on your time: teaching, administrative work, community outreach, supervisions, meetings for everything under the sun, building industrial connections, and of course, doing everything else you are supposed to do to keep up with your identity as a scholar/scholar-practitioner.   Here, I am going to talk a bit about the hacks in getting research and research writing done even when you feel overwhelmed and not quite up to it. This is something I am grappling with as there is now a 500% increase of demand on my time compared to last year. Regardless whether you are teaching two courses or four courses a semester, there are ways to still keep research going, even if you think what you are d...

 For the first time in my academic career of 6.5 years since PhD graduation, I am expected to teach both an undergraduate and postgraduate course, within about a month since commencing my duties as a senior lecturer at my present institution. This is both exciting yet a little anxiety-provoking, not because I do not believe in my capabilities, but because there are so many new things to grapple with, and also because I am given the free hand of figuring out my course content (as long as the institutionally-approved learning outcomes are intact) while figuring out how to deliver them to students whom I have not met, and who are very different from the students I had been surrounded by prior. The exciting about the courses is that I get to learn along side the students (I mean, I have never taught classes specific to drama/performance arts!) and at the same time, use this time to question what I understand about art (because this is the first time in my entire academic career that I ...

I  am now accepting post graduate candidates intent on pursuing an MA by research/PhD on a topic that speaks to #artscience in any way imaginable (even in ways that I do not myself pursue at this time). I am working on starting up various artscience related initiatives, so am looking for students who will not only be a student, but someone who could be a collaborator, in ways that would be advantageous to their work. Therefore, I am most interested in highly motivated individuals. Interested candidates should get in touch with me about their topics and on applying to the University of Malaya. Scholarships and assistantships are available too https://aasc.um.edu.my/scholarships-postgraduate

Earlier in the week, I found myself given the choice of accepting an appointment with Malaysia's Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation as probably one of the few humanists to be represented on their R&D grant programme. Although the my role has been listed out on the appointment letter, I wonder if there is much I could do to persuade my fellow colleagues there on the importance of always bringing in humanistic interventions to whatever scientific/technological programmes envisioned, to encourage cross-disciplinary conversations between scientists and humanists, with the social scientist sitting somewhere in the uncomfortable middle, as these are sorely lacking in the Malaysian context. A few days before that happened, I found myself inducted into the Clubhouse scene and had since been exploring many of the technology/science/policy oriented rooms, with some occasional diversion into other areas of interest (such as rooms dedicated to issues that are hot in Malaysia) ...

By visiting my portfolio, with the links found at the top left grid, you probably would have noticed that I have left my previous position at Sunway University and am now a senior lecturer at the University of Malaya, beginning February 2021. This is the year of many exciting things and I promise that this blog will be more updated than previously. Not least, this is the year when I will be getting a proper domain and turning this blog into a full-on professional website, with the aid of some professionals. As a taster for some things to come, I have some works brewing and which are forthcoming that will be announced in due course, sometime between this and the next month. At the same time, once I settle into the rhythm of teaching, research, and project development, I will also be engaged with consultancy opportunities through my university's consultancy unit. If you want to get in touch with me for any professional reasons, you can find me at my university email, listed at one of...

Date: Dec 10, 2019 Time: 3pm to 4.30pm Venue: LT3, West Wing, UG, Sunway University Abstract  In the Malaysian context, social media platforms, particularly Facebook and Twitter (and increasingly, YouTube), are weaponized to further the cause of the then Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional constituted government. The previous government accessed state’s resources to hire big data consultants (i.e. Cambridge Analytica/SCL) and marshal paid trolls (cybertroopers) to disrupt their opponents campaigns, and enacted Malaysia’s Anti-Fake News Bill prior to GE14 as a pre-emptive strike against their political opponents. Manipulation of newsfeeds on social media would not have taken place without these enterprises taking advantage of new technical affordances which were adapted from targeted advertising and ‘disruption’. This JCI Forum will address different forms of internet political trolling triggered by pre and post GE14 events. As we edge towards Web 3.0, what goes on ‘under the ...