Research at USM

5 – 6 October

A visit to the USM (Universiti Sains Malaysia) campus, where I was from July – November 2008, gave me and opportunity to say hello friends and to hear about people’s research. The striking thing from my conversations were how much of the research was focused on Penang – an interesting city to be sure, but perhaps folks were missing opportunities to consider how lessons learned in Penang applied beyond the island.

Azeem has been studying social capital among Chinese and Malay communities in Penang. He has observed that the Chinese have developed a strong network of services while the Malays have not. He attributes this to government’s provisions of services to the Malays which encourages dependency and diminishes their capacity to build social capital. Not a surprising findings, but it may have implications for the day the gov’t decides to lessen support targeted to the Malay community. He plans to see if the same is true on the East Coast of Malaysia where the Chinese are better integrated. He pointed out that the market is the one place in Penang where the different racial/ethnic groups interact. A walk across campus confirms this. The various knots of students are racially homogeneous.

Soon is shifting his research from born again Christians in the Philippines (yes he is a political scientist) to Malaysia’s artists. He is early in this research so our conversation was free flowing with ideas just pouring out. I know that from sites such as 15 Malaysia that the arts community is political engaged, and Soon reports that artists are not interested in traditional political outlets. (If you know of studies on the role of artists and the arts in Eastern Europe let me know and I will pass it on.)

Jacqueline is on a research team studying women’s decision making in Penang’s government, judiciary, and corporate sectors. The team plans to conduct roughly 160 men and women. (Jacqueline is an economist and a quantitative researcher – I will be curious how she finds the experience.) I asked if race was going to be considered I was told that the team had considered it but there probably isn’t enough diversity within any sector to pick up any variations. (Of course I am increasingly convinced that the less attention is paid to race the better.) The study is being done for the Penang state government and needs to be done by the end of the year – In time to read when I return.

Zorina is off to Germany later this year to analyze her data on examining Penangites identify as Muslims and Malaysians. Last year she completed a study on the relationship between students' religious attachments and their ability to cope with stress. The positive relationship was strongest among Muslims, but the differences between Muslim students and Christian students were not significant.