Shanthini Pillai, PhD.
Associate Professor
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
National University of Malaysia
spillai@ukm.edu.my
Scopus ID : https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=26435995700
Publons ID : https://publons.com/researcher/2069972/shanthini-pillai/
ORCID ID : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7555-5698
Specialisation
Ethnic diversity, diaspora and transnationalism in literary and cultural texts with particular reference to the global South Asian diaspora, cultural consciousness of Asian Catholic diasporic communities, Religious Mobilities, French-Malaysian Transnational Connections
Qualifications
Doctor of Philosophy (Literary Studies), National University of Singapore, 2004
Master of Arts (Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures in English), University of Warwick, 1996
Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) (English), Universiti Malaya, 1995
Biographical Note
Shanthini Pillai (PhD) is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Malaysia (UKM).Her research is anchored in ethnic diversity, diaspora, and transnationalism within literary and cultural texts, with particular emphasis on the global South Asian diaspora. Over a quarter century of scholarship, she has cultivated an extensive body of work in transnationalism, diaspora studies, and religious mobilities. An emergent strand of her inquiry explores the cultural consciousness of Catholic diasporic Indian and Chinese communities in Malaysia, foregrounding intersections of faith, identity, and postcolonial memory. She has headed a number of research projects on transnationalism and cultural identity and has also participated in transnational research projects. She has held Research Fellowships at the University of Queensland, Australia, the Asia Research Institute, Singapore and Université catholique de l'Ouest, France.
Her recent scholarly contributions examine Catholicism, diaspora, and symbolic power across colonial and postcolonial Malaysia, with particular attention to Tamil and French Catholic mobilities, missionary aesthetics, and the sociolinguistics of Malaysian Indian scholarship. These works span historical, ethnographic, and interpretive modes, appearing in journals such as SOJOURN, Social Sciences and Missions, The Australian Journal of Anthropology, and The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, as well as in edited volumes including The Handbook of Language and Mobility (De Gruyter Mouton), Critical Sociolinguistics: Dialogues, Dissonances, Developments (Bloomsbury Academic Press) and Figures of Interpretation (Multilingual Matters). Thematically, they engage with transnational faith networks, unequal discursivities, classical diasporas, and the affective textures of religious life.
She is currently Editor in Chief of 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, and member of the editorial boards of The International Journal of the Sociology of Language, The International Journal of Asian Christianity (IJAC) as well as the Contemporary Asian Catholics Book Series ( University of Pittsburgh Press).
Excellent Service Award, National University of Malaysia, 2025
Academic Staff Mobility Grant Award from the French Embassy in Malaysia to Université catholique de l'Ouest, Angers. (5 September 2023 to 5 October 2023)
French Embassy in Malaysia Research grant 2020 – 2021
PhD Research Scholarship, 2002-2003 (National University of Singapore)
Special Quality Award (Excellent Teacher Award Category), 2004 (National University of Malaysia) (UKM)
Australia Malaysia Institute Fellowship Awards, 2007 (Australia Malaysia Institute, Canberra, Australia)
Excellent Service Award, 2008 (National University of Malaysia) (UKM)
Research Fellowships Held
French-Malayan Literary and Linguistic connections, 5 September 2023 - 5 October 2023 Awarded by the Embassy of France in Malaysia , conducted in residence at Université catholique de l'Ouest, France.
Nativisation and the constructions of Nationhood in the Cultural Narratives of the Malaysian Catholic Community April – June 2013. Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. Visiting Senior Research Fellowship
Homeliness in Contemporary Australian Writing: The Intersecting Passages of Migration, Nationhood and Gender. 19 April – 30 May 2007. Source: Australia-Malaysia Institute, Canberra Australia. Principal Sole Investigator (Conducted in-residence at the School of English, Media Studies and Art History, University of Queensland)
Selected Publications Across a Quarter Century of Scholarship in Transnationalism, Diaspora, and Religious Mobilities
2025
Pillai, S. (2025). In pursuit of the Malaysian Catholic communal story across multiple sites of discursivities. In A. Del Percio (Ed.), Handbook of language and mobility (pp. 53–72). De Gruyter Mouton.
Pillai, S. (2025). Malay rulers, French Catholic missionaries, and the horizonality of religious accord and diplomacy across the centuries. In Race, religion, royalty in Malaysia: Discursively reproduced, resisted, renegotiated (pp. 109–131). Springer Nature Switzerland.
Pillai, S., Wong Wei Wei, A., & Tan Tjin Ai, J. (2025). Changing covenants: Sociolinguistic mobilities and the transgenerational discursivities of the convent in the Malaysian cultural imaginary. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature – The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 31(3), 416–429. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2025-3103-25
2024
Atanga, L. L., Moyer, M., Pérez-Milans, M., Pillai, S., & Salonga, A. O. (2024). Discursive spaces of identity. In A. Del Percio & M.-C. Flubacher (Eds.), Critical sociolinguistics: Dialogues, dissonances, developments (p. 277). Bloomsbury Academic Press.
2023
Pillai, S. (2023). Multi-dimensional perspectives of South Indian coolie life in selected memoirs by the European plantocracy of colonial Malaya. South Asian Diaspora, 15(1), 17–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2022.2129645
2022
Pillai, S. (2022). Gastronomic aesthetics of a French Catholic missionary during the Japanese occupation of Malaya. SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English, 59(2), 39–57.
2021
Pillai, S. (2021). Arokiam and the unnamed catechist. In B. A. S. S. Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchêne (Ed.), Figures of interpretation (pp. 24–27). Multilingual Matters.
Pillai, S. (2021). Paths less trodden: Representations of Indian women outside the plantation frontier in colonial Malaya in K. S. Maniam’s fiction. In M. A. Quayum (Ed.), Reading Malaysian literature in English (Asia in Transition, Vol. 16, pp. 123–140). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5021-5_8
Pillai, S. (2021). The synekism of Catholic faith and citizenship in Peninsular Malaysia: The influence of the Société des Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP). Social Sciences and Missions, 34, 335–365.
Pillai, S. (2021). Unequal discursivities and the symbolic capital of Malaysian Indian scholarship. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 267–268, 241–251. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-0072
2020
Pillai, S. (2020). French and diasporic Tamil Catholic mobilities in colonial Malaya. SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 35(2), 217–242. https://doi.org/10.1355/sj35-2b
2019
Pillai, S., Leong, P. P. Y., Perry, M. S., & Wong Wei Wei, A. (2019). Dialogical intersections of Tamil and Chinese ethnic identity in the Catholic Church of Peninsular Malaysia. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 13(2), 167–181.
2018
Pillai, S., & Brown, B. E. (2018). The Apostolic Vicariate of Western Siam and the rise of Catholicism in Malaysia and Singapore. International Journal of Asian Christianity, 1(1), 45–63.
2017
Pillai, S. (2017). Modern Asian ecclesiastical interconnections: Catholic Tamil Nadu and its diaspora in Malaysia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 28(2), 165–179.
Pillai, S., & Shangeetha, R. K. (2017). Comparative constructions of Malaysian Indian class dynamics: K. S. Maniam’s The Return and Preeta Samarasan’s Evening Is the Whole Day. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 19(2), 312–328.
2015
Pillai, S. (2015). The intertwining vines of liturgy, ethnicity and nationhood: The nativised imaginary of the Malaysian Catholic community. Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture, 18(1), 94–112.
2014
Pillai, S. (2014). Transnational negotiations of memory and space in new Malaysian diasporic writings. In J. Misrahi-Barak & C. Raynaud (Eds.), Diasporas, cultures of mobilities, 'race', Vol. 1: Diasporas and cultures of migrations. Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée.
2013
Pillai, S. (2013). Syncretic cultural multivocality and the Malaysian popular music imaginary. Kajian Malaysia: Journal of Malaysian Studies, 31(1), 1–18.
Pillai, S. (2013). Transnational collaboration and media industry in South India: Case of the Malaysian-Indian diaspora. In G. Pillai (Ed.), The political economy of South Asian diaspora: Patterns of socio-economic influence (pp. 201–215). Palgrave Macmillan.
2012
Pillai, S. (2012). Memory and the diasporic creative imagination: Preeta Samarasan’s Evening Is the Whole Day. Kritika Kultura, 18, 44–56.
Pillai, S. (2012). Resignifying “coolie”: Amitav Ghosh’s The Glass Palace. In C. Sankaran (Ed.), History, narrative, and testimony in Amitav Ghosh’s fiction (pp. 128–144). SUNY Press.
2011
Sankaran, C., & Pillai, S. (2011). Transnational Tamil television and diasporic imaginings. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(3), 277–289.
Pillai, S., & Paramasivam, S. P. (2011). From the fringes of the diasporic garment: Creative pageants of Indian Christian identity from Malaysia and Singapore. South Asian Diaspora, 3(1), 71–88.
2010
Pillai, S. (2010). Essentialism and the diasporic native informant: Malaysia in Hsu-Ming Teo’s Love and Vertigo. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 10(1), 3–15.
2008
Pillai, S. (2008). Unpacking imperial crates of subalternity: The Indian immigrant labourer of colonial Malaya. In M. F. Borch, E. R. Knudsen, M. Leer, & B. C. Ross (Eds.), Bodies and voices: The force-field of representation and discourse in colonial and postcolonial studies (pp. 137–152). Rodopi.
2007
Pillai, S. (2007). Occidental echoes: Beth Yahp’s ambivalent Malaya. Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women’s Liberation, 33(1), 174–189.
2006
Pillai, S. (2006). Rituals of retreat: The liminality of the early migrant Indian experience in colonial Malaya. Journal of the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies (JNU, New Delhi), Spring, 36–47.
2004
Pillai, S. (2004). In gendered chambers: The figure of the Indian immigrant woman of colonial Malaya. Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women’s Liberation, 30(1), 141–160.
Pillai, S. (2004). Reclaiming space on a transforming plantocratic chequerboard: Pierre Boulle’s Sacrilege in Malaya. The Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, 5(1).
2002
Pillai, S. (2002). The gaze of a diasporic, the voice of a subaltern: Amitav Ghosh’s articulation of the Indian immigrant labour experience in The Glass Palace. The Atlantic Literary Review, 3(4), 128–144.
2000
Pillai, S. (2000). A portrait of the imagination as a malleable kolam: K. S. Maniam’s In a Far Country. Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies, 5(1), [Autumn].
Complete List of Publications
Journal Articles
Pillai, S., Wong Wei Wei, A., & Tan Tjin Ai, J. (2025). Changing covenants: Sociolinguistic mobilities and the transgenerational discursivities of the convent in the Malaysian cultural imaginary. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 31(3) : 416-429. https://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2025-3103-25
Ming, H., & Pillai, S. (2025). Foodscapes and the resurgence of Sinologism: Chinese dietary and medicinal practices in Peter Hessler’s works. GEMA Online® Journal of Language Studies, 25(1). https://doi.org/10.17576/gema-2025-2501-10
Menon, P. S., & Pillai, S. (2024). Developing cultural quotient in the Malaysian English language classroom: The role of Malaysian literatures in English. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 30(4) : 393-414. http://doi.org/10.17576/3L-2024-3004-26
Ming, H., Pillai, S., & Vengadasamy, R. (2024). The Cultural Unconscious of Peter Hessler as a Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher In River Town. International Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 20(1), 149–171
Su, J., & Shanthini, P. (2024). Psychogeographical Remapping of Hong Kong between Being and Non-being in Liu Yichang’s Intersection. SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English, 61(1), 176-200.
Pillai,S., Amarasekera, J.S., & Wong,A.W.W. (2023). Rerouting The Worlding of Inter-Ethnic Estrangement Through Critical Solace:Shivani Sivagurunathan’s Yalpanam. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature® The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies Vol 29: 3, 258-271
Pillai, S. (2023) Multi-dimensional perspectives of South Indian coolie life in selected memoirs by the European plantocracy of colonial Malaya, South Asian Diaspora, 15:1, 17-30, DOI: 10.1080/19438192.2022.2129645
Yee, C. W., Pillai, S., & Shi, L. N. L. (2023). Yee, C. W., Pillai, S., & Shi, L. N. L. (2023). Intergenerational Ambivalence and Negotiations: Malaysian Chinese Family Dynamics in the film The Journey.
Pillai, S. (2022). Gastronomic Aesthetics of a French Catholic Missionary during the Japanese Occupation of Malaya. SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English, 59(2), 39-57
Pillai, S., Saad, S. M., & Shi, N. L. (2022). French Translocalities and Alternative Colonial Genealogies of Knowledge in Nineteenth-Century Malaya. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 16(2), 41-55.
Amarasekera, J. S., & Pillai, S. (2022). Navigating Sri Lankan Identity in A State of Crisis: The Role of the Creative Imaginary. 3L: Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, 28(3).
Pillai, Shanthini. (2021).The Synekism of Catholic Faith and Citizenship in Peninsular Malaysia : The Influence of the Société des Missions étrangères de Paris (MEP). Social Sciences and Missions. Vol. 34 pp. 335–365
Pillai, Shanthini. (2021). Unequal discursivities and the symbolic capital of Malaysian Indian scholarship. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Vol. 267-268 pp. 241-251. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2020-0072
Pillai, Shanthini. (2020). French and Diasporic Tamil Catholic Mobilities in Colonial Malaya. SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 35 (2) : 217–242 DOI: 10.1355/sj35-2b
Pillai, S., Leong, P. P. Y., Perry, M. S., & Wei Wei, A. W. (2019). Dialogical Intersections of Tamil and Chinese Ethnic Identity in the Catholic Church of Peninsular Malaysia. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, 13(2), 167-181.
Loganathan, R., Pillai, S. and Krish, P. (2019). “Accented Spatial Representations in the Internal Exilic Eelam-Tamil Film Viduthalai Moochu ”Kritika Kultura 33/34 : 476-502
Pillai, Shanthini and Melissa Shamini Periasamy. (2019). Forum kritika on the shifting frontiers of literary studies in the twenty-first century, Kritika Kultura 33/34 : 377-387
Pillai, S., & Brown, B. E. (2018). The Apostolic Vicariate of Western Siam and the Rise of Catholicism in Malaysia and Singapore. International Journal of Asian Christianity, 1(1), 45-63.
Wong, A.W. W., S. Pillai and P. L. Ong. (2018). The golden era of the Malaysian film industry: Cross-cultural dialogue and negotiations of ethnicity in a budding nation. Kajian Malaysia 36(1): 1–24. https://doi.org/10.21315/km2018.36.1.1
Loganathan, R., Pillai, S. and Krish, P. ( 2018). Space-time formations in the South Indian Tamil popular film Kannathil Muthamittal. International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies 14 (2): 143–164, https://doi.org/10.21315/ijaps2018.14.2.7
Pillai, Shanthini. (2017). Modern Asian ecclesiastical interconnections: Catholic Tamil Nadu and its diaspora in Malaysia. The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 28(2), pp.165-179.
Pillai, Shanthini & Shangeetha, R. K. (2017). Comparative Constructions of Malaysian Indian Class Dynamics: KS Maniam's The Return and Preeta Samarasan's Evening Is the Whole Day. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies, 19(2), 312-328.
Amarasekera, J., & Pillai, S. (2016). Bound by the Sea: Transnational Sri Lankan Writings and Reconciliation with the Homeland. 3L: Language, Linguistics, Literature®, 22(1).
Pillai, Shanthini. (2015). The Intertwining Vines of Liturgy, Ethnicity and Nationhood: The Nativised Imaginary of the Malaysian Catholic Community. Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture. 18 (1) : 94-112
Amarasekera, J. S., & Pillai, Shanthini. (2015). Re-engaging Sri Lanka as a site for reconciliation or a perpetuation of trauma: Roma Tearne's Brixton Beach. South Asian Diaspora, 7(2), 97-109.
Pillai, Shanthini. (2013). Syncretic Cultural Multivocality and the Malaysian Popular Music Imaginary. Kajian Malaysia : Journal of Malaysian Studies 31(1) : 1-18
Shanthini Pillai. 2012. “Memory and the Diasporic Creative Imagination : Preeta Samarasan’s Evening is the Whole Day” Kritika Kultura. 18 : 44-56
Chitra Sankaran and Shanthini Pillai. 2011. “Transnational Tamil Television and Diasporic Imaginings”. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 14(3) 277-289.
Shanthini Pillai and Sharenee Philomena Paramasivam. 2011. From the Fringes of the Diasporic Garment Creative Pageants of Indian Christian Identity from Malaysia and Singapore. South Asian Diaspora 3:1, 71–88
Shanthini Pillai. 2010. Popular Pedagogy: Multimodal environments for the teaching and learning of Literature in the Malaysian Tertiary World. Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature 4:2 , 81-91.
Shanthini Pillai. 2010. Essentialism And The Diasporic Native Informant: Malaysia In Hsu Ming Teo’s Love And Vertigo. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 10 (1), pp. 3-15
Shanthini Pillai. 2007. “Occidental Echoes: Beth Yahp’s Ambivalent Malaya” in Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Womens Liberation , 33 (1), Pp. 174-189.
Shanthini Pillai. 2006. Rituals of Retreat The Liminality of the Early Migrant Indian Experience in Colonial Malaya, Journal of the School of Language Literature and Culture Studies, JNU New Delhi. Spring, Pp.36-47
Shanthini Pillai. 2004. In Gendered Chambers: The Figure of the Indian Immigrant Woman of Colonial Malaya in Hecate: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Women’s Liberation, 30.1,. Pp.141 -160
Shanthini Pillai. 2004 “Reclaiming Space on a Transforming Plantocratic Chequerboard: Pierre Boulle's Sacrilege in Malaya” in The Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol 5:1 (Spring)
Shanthini Pillai. 2002 “The Gaze of a Diasporic, The Voice of a Subaltern: Amitav Ghosh’s Articulation of the Indian Immigrant Labour Experience in The Glass Palace’ in The Atlantic Literary Review, Volume 3: 4 (Oct.-Dec). pp.128-144
Shanthini Pillai . 2000 “A Portrait of the Imagination as a Malleable Kolam: KS Maniam’s In a Far Country” in Jouvert: A Journal of Postcolonial Studies, Vol 5: 1 (Autumn)
Chapters in a Book
Pillai, S. (2025). In pursuit of the Malaysian Catholic communal story across multiple sites of discursivities. In A. Del Percio (Ed.), Handbook of language and mobility (pp. 53-72). De Gruyter Mouton.
Pillai, S. (2025). Malay Rulers, French Catholic Missionaries, and the Horizonality of Religious Accord and Diplomacy Across the Centuries. In Race, Religion, Royalty in Malaysia: Discursively Reproduced, Resisted, Renegotiated (pp. 109-131). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Atanga, L. L., Moyer, M., Pérez-Milans, M., Pillai, S., & Salonga, A. O. (2024). Discursive Spaces of Identity. Critical Sociolinguistics: Dialogues, Dissonances, Developments, edited by Alfonso Del Percio and Mi-Cha Flubacher, 277. Bloomsbury Academic Press.
Pillai Shanthini. (2021) Paths Less Trodden: Representations of Indian Women Outside the Plantation Frontier in Colonial Malaya in K. S. Maniam’s Fiction. In: Quayum M.A. (eds) Reading Malaysian Literature in English. Asia in Transition, vol 16. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5021-5_8
Pillai, Shanthini. 2021. Arokiam and the Unnamed Catechist. in Meier-Lorente-Muth-Duchene, B. A. S. S. (Ed.). Figures of Interpretation. Bristol : Multilingual Matters.pp. 24-27
Pillai, Shanthini. 2021. Structural Shifts and the Graduate Literary Essay : Examples for the Twenty-First Century Classroom in Making the Grade : Reimagining the Graduate Seminar Essay in Literary Studies. Kevin A Morrison (ed.) London : Rowman & Littlefield.
Pillai, Shanthini and Pramela Krish. 2021. The digital divide among Malaysian Indian women : Comparative Communal Narratives. In Routledge Handbook of Asian Diaspora and Development. Ed. Ajaya K. Sahoo. London : Routledge. pp. 175-185
Pillai, Shanthini. (2016). Malaysian Indian women entrepreneurs: borderless economic empowerment through social networking sites. In Contemporary Malaysian Indians: history, issues, challenges and prospects. Eds. Denison Jayasooria and K S Nathan. Bangi : Institute of Ethnic Studies UKM (KITA)
Pillai, Shanthini and Pramela Krish. (2016). “Gender, Empowerment and the Digital Domain : A Case Study of Malaysian Indian Woman Entrepreneurs” In Marlyna Maros, Shanthini Pillai, Saadiyah Darus & Norizah Mohd Noor (Eds.) Evolution in Language Studies. ISBN 978-967-412-420-5
Pillai, Shanthini (2014). Transnational Negotiations of Memory and Space in New Malaysian Diasporic Writings in Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities, 'Race', Volume 1 'Diasporas and Cultures of Migrations', Judith Misrahi-Barak & Claudine Raynaud, (Eds.), Montpellier : Presses universitaires de la Méditerranée
Pillai, Shanthini . (2013). Transnational Collaboration and Media Industry in South India: Case of the Malaysian-Indian Diaspora. In Gopinath Pillai (Ed.). The Political Economy of South Asian Diaspora Patterns of Socio-Economic Influence. London : Palgrave Macmillan
Pillai, Shanthini. (2012). ‘Resignifying "Coolie" : Amitav Ghosh's the glass palace’ in Chitra Sankaran (Ed). History, Narrative, And Testimony In Amitav Ghosh`s Fiction. Albany, NY : SUNY
Pillai, Shanthini. (2008). ‘Unpacking Imperial Crates of Subalternity: The Indian Immigrant Labourer of Colonial Malaya’. In Falck Borch, Merete, Eva Rask Knudsen, Martin Leer And Bruce Clunies Ross (Eds.) Bodies and Voices.The Force-Field of Representation and Discourse in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies. Amsterdam/New York, NY : Rodopi.
Pillai, Shanthini. (2007). ‘Hailing Diaspora:Western Responses To Malaysian Literary Reflections Of Diasporic Sensibility’ in Ganakumaran Subramaniam, Shanthini Pillai and Hafriza Burhanudeen (eds.) Reconstructing Realities: Occident-Orient Engagements Petaling Jaya: Pearson Malaysia.
Pillai, Shanthini. (2007). “Cultural Studies Approach”. In Ganakumaran Subramaniam (Ed.). Approaches to Teaching Literature: Theory and Practice. Ganakumaran Subramaniam (ed.) MELTA-Sasbadi ELT Series , Sasbadi Sdn. Bhd, Petaling Jaya
Pillai, Shanthini. (2007). “Integrating Patterns of a Coolie Past: Literature and the Figuring of Contemporary Malaysian Indian Identity” in Lee Su Kim, Thang Siew Ming and Lee King Siong (eds.) Border Crossings: Moving Between Languages and Cultural Frameworks. Selangor: Pelanduk Publications
Pillai, Shanthini. (2006 ) ‘The Gaze of a Diasporic, The Voice of a Subaltern: Amitav Ghosh’s Articulation of the Indian Immigrant Labour Experience’ in The Glass Palace" in Writing the Past into the Present : Reflections of 35 Years of Scholarship in Language and Literary Studies. Shanta Nair Venugopal, Khazriyati Sallehuddin, Shanthini Pillai & Vanjuree Sriadulpan (eds.). Bangi: UKM Press
Pillai, Shanthini. 2005. ‘Returning an Exiled Past: K S Maniam’s Between Lives and the Politics of Malaysian Indian Identity’ in Nationhood in Literature: Expressions of Realities. Ganakumaran Subramaniam, Ismaznizam J Azyze and Shahizah Ismail Hamdan (Eds.), Bangi : School of Language Studies and Linguistics, UKM
Pillai, Shanthini. (2005). “The Tides of Diaspora in the Works of Amitav Ghosh” in Asian Migrations: Sojourning, Displacement, Homecoming & Other Travels Beatriz P.Lorente et.al. (eds). National University of Singapore Press: Singapore
Pillai, Shanthini. (2003). "Manichean Edgings: The Discursive Profiteering of the Malayan Planter in Henri Fauconnier's The Soul of Malaya In Reclaiming place and space: Issues in new literatures. Ruzy Suliza Hashim and Ganakumaran Subramaniam (eds.) School of Language Studies and Linguistics, UKM Press: Bangi,.
Pillai, Shanthini. (2003). “Cosmic Dancers: The Indian Diaspora of Malaysia” in Linking Literary Identities: Malaysian Society, Culture and the Other Raihanah Mohd Mydin and Shahizah Hamdan (eds.) Serdang: UPM Press,
Pillai, Shanthini. (2002). “Beadless in a Foreign Land or a Jouti of a New Kind: David Dabydeen’s Turner” in Post-colonial Cultures and Literatures: Modernity and the (un)Commonwealth, Andrew Benjamin et al (eds.) New York: Peter Lang
Pillai, Shanthini. (2001). “Indo-Malaysians: Suspended Identities or Citizens of a New Selfdom” in In Diasporas: Theories, Histories, Texts Makarand Paranjape (ed.), IndiaLog Publications: New Delhi
Pillai, Shanthini. (2000). “Relocated Identities, Redefined Voices: The Indian Women of Colonial Malaya Multiple Shaktis: Literary Echoes of Indian Women in Shanthini Pillai and Noraini Md Yusof (eds.) UKM Press:Bangi
Pillai, Shanthini. (2000). “Of Spaces and Enclosures: The Memsahib and the Gendered Subaltern of Colonial Malaya” in Language and Globalisation: Voices of Asia Harriet Wong et al (eds.) Pearson Education Sdn Bhd: Kuala Lumpur
Pillai, Shanthini. (1999). “Remembering One-Third Quota Coolie Woman: Comparative Aspects of Indo-Malaysian and Indo-Caribbean Women in Re-cognising Language, Literature and Identity Agnes Wong et.al (eds.) ACLALS Bulletin 1998 : Bulletin of the Association for Commonwealth Literature and Language Studies, Kuala Lumpur
Books
Shanthini Pillai. 2007. Colonial Visions, Postcolonial Re-visions: Images of the Indian Diaspora in Malaysia. Newcastle Upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Amarasekera, Jeslyn Sharnita and Shanthini Pillai. 2018. Sinhalese Perspectives in Transnational Sri Lankan Literature. Penerbit UKM
Shangeetha, RK and Shanthini Pillai. 2018. Diasporic Consciousness Of Malaysian Indian Writings In English. University of Malaya Press
Ganakumaran Subramaniam and Shanthini Pillai (Eds.) 2012. Developing Literacies through Alternative Assessments. Puchong : August Publishing Sdn Bhd
Ganakumaran Subramaniam, Shanthini Pillai and Hafriza Burhanudeen (eds.) 2007. Reconstructing Realities: Occident-Orient Engagements Petaling Jaya: Pearson Malaysia
Shanta Nair Venugopal, Khazriyati Sallehuddin, Shanthini Pillai & Vanjuree Sriadulpan (eds.). 2006. Writing the Past into the Present : Reflections of 35 Years of Scholarship in Language and Literary Studies. Bangi: UKM Press.
Manjit Kaur et al (eds.) 2001. Newpals: New Paradigms in English Language Studies Faculty of Language Studies,UKM: Bangi
Shanthini Pillai and Noraini Md Yusof (eds.) 2000. Multiple Shaktis: Literary Echoes of Indian Women UKM Press:Bangi
Pillai, Shanthini. (2013, August 29) BFM The Bigger Picture : Notions of "home" [Audio Podcast] available online at https://www.bfm.my/podcast/the-bigger-picture/live-learn/notions-home-imaginary-homelands
Pillai, Shanthini (2012, March 18) BFM I love KL : Lived Cosmopolitanism [Audio Podcast] available online at https://www.bfm.my/podcast/night-shift/i-love-kl/ilovekl-livedcosmopolitanism-1703
Reconstructing a more inclusive Malaysian Catholic communal narrative: A combined archival and oral histories approach (External grant awarded by DCBAsia.org), SK-2023-014, 01/06/2023 - 31/05/2024
French Humanist Perspectives on community life in Nineteenth Century Malaya (External International Grant from the Embassy of France Malaysia), SK-2021-001 01/01/2021 - 31/12/2021
Reassessing the Colonial Divide and Rule Impact on Inter-Ethnic Relations in Nineteenth Century Malaya. GUP 2019-056 1 October 2019 - 31 October 2022
Diaspora and Catholic mobilities in Peninsular Malaysia. RE-2017-001 01 August 2017- 30 September 2018
Transcultural adaptability and engagement amongst the Malaysian Catholic Community: A journey from the Nineteenth Century to the Millenium. SK 2016-009. Source : Catholic Research Centre, Malaysia , June 2016-August 2018
Female empowerment via Social Networking Sites: A Case Study of young Malaysian Indian Woman entrepreneurs. 2014 -2015. Source : Research Development Grant, National University of Malaysia. Principal Investigator
Towards the Global Postgraduate: Dynamic teaching-learning environments for optimum transfer of knowledge. 2011-2012. Source : Action /Strategic Research Grant scheme, National University of Malaysia. Principal Investigator
Transnational Malaysian Fiction: Outsider-insider Perspectives. 2010-2012. Source : Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Malaysia. Principal Investigator
Developing Understanding and Appreciation of Literature and Critical Reading Concepts through Multimodal Approaches/ 2009-2010. Source : Action /Strategic Research Grant scheme, National University of Malaysia. Principal Investigator
National Social Cohesion. 2012-2015. Source : Long term Research Grant Scheme (LRGS), Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (with the Institute of Ethnic Studies, National University of Malaysia). Head of Sub-Project : Malaysian Literature in English and its role in the creation of Sustainable Interethnic Engagement in Malaysian schools.
Two Approaches To Contemporary Malaysian Arts As Agents And Expressions Of Multicultural Engagement. 2011-2012. Source : University Malaya Research Grant , University of Malaya , Malaysia. Co-investigator
Comprehending the western mind: Malaysia-Occident Constructs of knowledge and Ideology. 2004-2007. Source: Institute of Occidental Studies, National University of Malaysia. Co-investigator
Postgraduate : Postcolonial Theory and Issues , Critical Theory
Undergraduate : World Literature, Postcolonial Literatures in English, Literary Reading approaches, Comparative Literature, Global Cultures in the Digital Domain.
COMPLETED
1. Siti Nuraishah Ahmad
The Production of Knowledge on Malaya and Malaysia: Spatial Archetypes of Malaya and Malaysia in Colonial and Post-Colonial British Fiction
With Distinction
2. Ali Ahmad bin Seman
Cultural Contestations in Melanau Oral Literature
3. Bakhtiar Sabir Hama
Ideology, Stylistics and the American Dream in American Realist Drama
4. Khalil Mahmoodi
The Crises of Modernity and Iranian Cultural Identity in the Creative Works of Sadegh Hedayat
5. Marziyeh Farivar
Hegelian Master–Slave Dialectics in Selected Works of Byron
6. Shangeetha Rajah Kumaran
Malaysian Indian Writings in English: Emergent Traditions
7. Manohari A/P Rasagam
Transnational South Asian Young Adult Novels
8. Jeslyn Sharnita Amarasekera
Between Syncretic and Specular Borders: Sinhalese Perspectives of the Transnational Sri Lankan Experience
With Distinction
9. Angeline Wong Wei Wei
Inter-Ethnic Engagement and Social Cohesion in Malaysian Indie Films
10. Ramesh Loganathan
Tamil Eelam and Tamil Cultural Consciousness: Selected Diasporic and Exilic Sri Lankan Accented Tamil Films
11. P. Shobha Menon
The Role of Malaysian Literatures in English in Promoting Cultural Quotient and Inter-Ethnic Engagement Amongst Malaysian Secondary School Students
12. Dhayapari Perumal
21st Century Postcolonial Aesthetics in the Production of Asian Identities in Picture Book Apps for Children
13. Su Jianbo
Meta-Cultural Revision of Chineseness and the Shifting Dynamics of Fluid Selves in Selected Transnational Fiction
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Submitted, Awaiting Viva Voce
1. Chua Wei Yee
Intergenerational Interactions and the Modifications of Chineseness: A Confucianist Approach to 21st Century Malaysian Chinese Films
2. Ming Hao
Between Sinologism and Decoloniality: The Evolving Image of China in Peter Hessler’s Works
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In Progress
1. Anne Vanessa Vincent
Paracoloniality and the Transformation of the Imperial Eye: French Explorers in British Malaya
2. Gui Wanyue
A Literary Polysystemic Approach to Comparative Identity Constructions in Malaysian-Chinese Sinophone and Anglophone Writings
3. Li Long
Hybrid Structural Semiotics and the Mythical of Victorian China in Selected Folklore by Colonial Protestant Missionaries
4. Li Meihua
From Dismantling Techno-Orientalism and Intersectionality to Establishing Inclusivity and Diversity in SL Huang’s Trilogy of Cas Russell Series
5. Abigail Lucas
Transformative Feminist Optics of the Kala Hamsa / Black Swan Allusion: The Contemporary Malaysian Indian Heroine
6. Alicia Lucas
The Changing Persona of the Indian Father Figure in Selected Works of K.S. Maniam