JMCoE Team Structure

Azirah Hashim is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Malaya and currently, the Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Institute and Director of the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism, University of Malaya. Her research interests include Language Contact in the Region, English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN, Language and Law, and Higher Education in ASEAN.

She is currently President of the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics, and Vice-President of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. She has been involved in ASEAN projects on narrowing the development gap and internationalization of higher education and sits on a number of committees at the national, regional and international level. In 2009, she was awarded the Georg Forster Fellowship and is a Life Fellow of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

She leads the current Erasmus+ ASEAN-EU multi-partnered joint project on capacity building in higher education, and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence action the for Asia-Europe Institute from 2017 to 2020.

Dr. Aida Idris is the Deputy Executive Director of Asia-Europe Institute, and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya (UM). Before joining UM in 2000, she had worked as an engineer and a management consultant in several multinational firms.

She served as the Director of UM’s Academic Development Centre (ADeC) from 2013 to 2015, after which she pursued her postdoctoral studies in Trinity College Dublin (TCD) with a scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. In TCD, she was appointed as Visiting Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Cultures, Academic Values and Education Research Centre, where she collaborated with a number of scholars in the field of European higher education. Currently, her research scope includes topics in higher education leadership, cross-cultural management in higher education, organizational behaviour and SME development.

Dr. Aida is one of the two coordinators for Year 1 that focuses on the economic theme.

Dr. Fumitaka Furuoka is an Associate Professor at Asia-Europe Institute (AEI). Before this he was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at AEI and Associate Professor (May 2008–January 2012) and Lecturer (August 2003–April 2008) at the School of Business and Economics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. Furthermore, he was Lecturer (February 1999–July 2003) at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and Senior Assistant (November 1991–January 1999) at the Consulate-General of Japan, Penang.

His expertise is on the field of labour market analysis in Europe and Asia, particularly unemployment issues, economic integration with a focus on trade and finance in Asia and Europe, energy market analysis in Asia and Europe in relation to global warming and sustainable development.

Dr Fumitaka is currently the co-ordinator for Year 1 that focuses on the economic theme.

Dr. Rahul Mishra is a Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya. Prior to joining UM, he worked as a Consultant with the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Before that, Dr Mishra worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), New Delhi as a Research Fellow from 2013 to 2017.

Recipient of the 2015 Asia Fellowship of the East-West Center in Washington D.C., and the Korean Fellowship, Seoul, South Korea in 2016, Dr. Mishra was a Researcher at Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi for four years (2009-2013). In 2012-13, Dr Mishra was a Visiting Research Fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University (Singapore). Prior to that, in he was affiliated with National University of Singapore. In 2007, he was selected as Fellow, Australia-India Council, as part of which he was affiliated with the Australian National University (Canberra), Curtin University of Technology (Perth), Monash University (Melbourne) and University of New South Wales (Sydney).

He has more than 150 publications to his credit, and has more than 70 media appearances in BBC, Channel News Asia (Singapore), Phoenix TV (Hong Kong), Deutsche Welle (Germany), and several Indian channels.

Dr. Mishra specialises on politico-security affairs of the Asia Pacific region. His areas of interest include: Major power relations in the Asia Pacific; India’s Act East Policy; India-China relations; ASEAN and the regional security and economic architecture; Subregionalism in South and Southeast Asia; Belt and Road Initiative; political developments in Myanmar, and Indonesia. He takes a keen interest in the Korean Peninsula also.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sameer Kumar has a PhD in Social Networking and presently works as Senior Lecturer at AEI. At AEI, Dr Sameer teaches History, Society and Culture of Southeast Asia, Knowledge Economy and the Social and Economic dimensions of Digital Economy at the Masters level. He has been a Program Coordinator for the International Masters in Information Management and International Masters in ASEAN Studies at AEI. Dr Sameer is a Project leader of 2 grant-based research projects. He has been involved in an ASEM think tank and was invited by SIIS, China to deliver a talk during ASEM Think Tank Symposium at Shanghai, China. He has several papers published in ISI indexed journals and supervises candidates both at Masters and PhD levels. His current research interests are in the field of Social Networks, Social Media and Academic networks.

Dr Sameer will be the co-ordinator for Year 3 of the project that will focus on the theme of socio-culture.

Dr. Nurliana Kamaruddin is currently a fellow at AEI. She has a PhD in International Studies majoring in Development Cooperation from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea. She was a recipient of the Korea Foundation ASEAN Fellowship (2013-2015) and the POSCO TJ Park Foundation Asia Fellowship (2009-2011). She was formerly a Research Assistant at AEI (2011-2013) and a lecturer at the English Language Centre, Stamford College (2009). She is also an active member of the international debate and public speaking scene, coaching and judging at various workshops, camps and tournaments throughout Asia. She was also previously a regular faculty at the biannual Asian Debate Institute (2007-2015) hosted by Cungang University, Seoul.

Her research interest includes development, governance and socio-politics of East Asia, gender and development, public diplomacy and cross-cultural communication.

Prof. Sebastian Bersick is chair and Head of the Department of International Political Economy of East Asia and Jean Monnet Chair of International Political Economy of EU-Asia Relations, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Faculty of East Asian Studies (since 02/2015), Adjunct Professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs (SIRPA), Fudan University, Shanghai and Visiting Professor at AEI. His areas of research and teaching include EU-Asia relations (esp. EU-China, ASEM, EU-ASEAN), US-Asia relations, Chinese foreign policy as well as regional cooperation and integration in Asia (esp. ASEAN, RCEP, APEC, TPP). He has published widely in these areas, is a frequent commentator in national and international media and was the Research Coordinator of the international research project “Asia in the Eyes of Europe”.

His role in the CoE will be to teach as a Visiting Professor “Multilateral Institutions and Asia-Europe Economic Development”.

JM Chair in European Union Law (2007-2012), JM Conference ‘The EU at 50: Assessing the Past, Prospects for the Future’ Coordinator (2008), JM Module ' Economic and Environmental Governance in the European Union: A Model?', Coordinator (2012-2015) ; EUSA-Asia-Pacific: President in 2013; EUSA-Macau: President of the Board of Directors (since establishment in 2008); Institute of European Students of Macau: Board of Directors, Member); Editorial Board of several EU studies journals (e.g., Czech Journal of European Law; Temas de Integracao); European Union Academic Programme-Macau (2012-present): Member, Executive Board and Coordinator, Faculty of Law; former counsel at the European Court of Justice; EU-Macau SAR joint commission meetings in the latter years: Member of delegation: former advisor and legal counsel to the Prime-Minister of Portugal on international and European matters

His role in the CoE will be to teach as a Visiting Professor “History, Society and Culture in Europe”.

Prof. Martin Holland holds NZ’s only Jean Monnet Chair ad personam, is Director of the National Centre for Research on Europe at the University of Canterbury and of the EU Centres Network New Zealand. He has taught at the Canterbury since 1984 and in 2000 established the NCRE, NZ’s only EU tertiary-level centre. He is internationally recognised for his work on EU Development policy, CFSP and Perceptions of the EU. He leads the “EU External Perceptions Project”. DG EAC recognized it as one of the top 20 “Jean Monnet Success Stories”. He has also supervised projects on perceptions of the EU in Asia, Africa and the Pacific. He has held a Jean Monnet Chair ad personam since 2008 and is the author of over one hundred articles and chapters and twenty-one books, the most recent being “Development Policy of the EU” and “Communicating Europe in the Times of Crisis”.

His role in the CoE will be to teach as a Visiting Professor “Advanced Studies in Europe and European Integration”.