Biographies of presenters at the 2008 GTReC International Conference
Introduction - Biographies - Conference papers - Acknowledgements
Virginie Andre
Virginie Andre is a PhD candidate and researcher with the Global Terrorism Research Centre at Monash University. Ms Andre’s research is focusing on the framing of separatist terrorism in Southern Thailand. Related areas of research are security, disarmament, conflict resolution, ethnonationalism, separatism, democracy and military, especially in Thailand and Southeast Asia. Between 2007 and 2008, Virginie conducted fieldwork in Thailand and met with key actors who are shaping an understanding of the conflict in Southern Thailand. She has also worked with NGOs in Thailand on conflict resolution issues. Before coming to Monash University, she was project officer for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) in Brussels, and worked for the Asia-Europe Foundation in Singapore.
Muhammad Bakashmar
Muhammad Bakashmar is a Researcher and Convenor for the Master of Counterterrorism Studies at the Global Terrorism Research Centre, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. Dr Bakashmar holds a Bachelor and a Master Degree in Political Science from the International Islamic University of Malaysia and a PhD in Politics from Monash University. In his academic career, he has served as a Lecturer at the IIUM Malaysia (2000-2004), Monash University (since 2006) and the University of Melbourne (2008). His research interests include terrorism and counter-terrorism studies, Islam and Islamism, Southeast Asian politics, and security and governance in East Africa. His publications include “Winning the Battles, Losing the War? An Assessment of Counterterrorism in Malaysia”, Terrorism and Political Violence (2008) and (with Pete Lentini) “Jihadist Beheading: A Convergence of Technology, Theology, and Teleology”, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism (2007).
Kamala Dash
Kamala Kanta Dash is a PhD candidate at the Monash Asia Institute, Monash University. He completed his MPhil in International Relations at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. As an Australia-India Council Fellow in 2007 he visited several universities and presented papers. He has worked with the Hindu Newspaper in Education as a life skills trainer and conducted hundreds of workshops. Mr Dash’s PhD research involves a comparative study of counter-terror policing and police-community engagement in Delhi and Victoria. His other areas of interest are Modern Indian History, Indian Foreign Policy (India-Australia Relations) and Indian philosophy (Yoga).
Bob East
Bob East graduated with honours in international relations from the University of Southern Queensland in 2006. His dissertation title was Negotiating for Peace: The Bangsamoro and the Government of the Republic of Philippines. He is presently in the final stages of his doctoral candidature at the same university. His PhD dissertation is titled “Redefining Domestic Counterinsurgency, Post 2001, Sulu Province, Republic of Philippines”, and is under examination. Mr East’s publications include: “The Bangsamoro: Fighting for Freedom during the War on Terror: the Muslim Independence Movement of the Southern Philippines”(2005); “The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF): a Profile of Determination”(2006); and “The Abu Sayyaf. Terrorism in Sulu Province, Republic of Philippines: or a convenient Presence”(2008).
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is a Research Fellow at the National Centre of Excellence for Islamic Studies at Melbourne University, Australia, and Chairman of the Centre for Research and Dialogue, Mogadishu, Somalia. Mr Ibrahim is a Monash University graduate who has worked in the information and communication technology industry for over 20 years in Australia, Asia Pacific and the Middle East. He is now an independent researcher, with a keen interest in the use of information technology for development, and the role of NGOs and civil societies in developing countries. He has shifted his technical skills into research and use around issues relating to globalization and the 21st century. He is an active blogger on a variety of subjects, including the link between the Gulf States’ Sovereign wealth fund and Islamic movements in the Horn of Africa and the Middle East, the source of radical and violent ideas in religions, the challenges of the new world order in dealing with liberation theology, and the role of ethics and morality in building a just society.
Sayed Khatab
Sayed Khatab is a Senior Researcher at the School of Political and Social Inquiry and Global Terrorism Research Centre, Monash University. His research interests include the Middle East, Islamic political thought, fundamentalism, theory of government, Islamic law and politics, democracy in Islam, human rights, and counter-terrorism related issues. Dr Khatab has published widely in several reputed journals. His recent books include The Political Thought of Sayyid Qutb: The Theory of Jahiliyyah (London: Routledge, 2006); The Power of Sovereignty: The Political and Ideological Philosophy of Sayyid Qutb (New York: Routledge, 2006); and with Gary D. Bouma Democracy in Islam (New York: Routledge, 2007). His latest book, Al-Qa‘ida’s Political Tactics: Theology and Ideology, isscheduled for publication by Ashgate Publishers in March 2010. Dr Khatab has also developed a new theopolitical and intellectual interpretive framework of the Islamic thought on Sovereignty and issues related to counterterrorism, democracy and international relations. His publications have generated comprehensive discussions worldwide and contributed to global debates about democracy in Islam, radicalisation and counterterrorism related issues. Dr Khatab’s book Democracy in Islam (Routledge 2007) is widely seen as a ‘challenge to Islamic extremists’. The Turkish translation of this book was released in October 2009 by Elips Kitab, a leading Turkish publisher.
Pete Lentini
Pete Lentini (BA, Rhode Island; PhD,Glasgow) is Director and Co-Founder of the Global Terrorism Research Centre (GTReC), Monash University, and the Founder and Inaugural Convener of the Master of Counter-Terrorism Studies program. His research interests include neojihadism, counter-terrorism and radicalisation in Australia, political violence and reconciliation in Chechnya, comparative extremisms and apocalyptic traditions. He previously lectured at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, Birmingham University and the Central European University (Prague Campus). He has published in leading peer reviewed journals and edited collections on terrorism and extremism, cultural and subcultural politics, and Russian politics, and he edited Elections and Political Order in Russia (1995) and (with Marika Vicziany and David Wright-Neville) Regional Security in the Asia Pacific: 9/11 and After (2004). At present he is completing a volume Neojihadism: Towards a New Understanding of Terrorism and Extremism? (forthcoming, Edward Elgar). Dr Lentini has previously served as an Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Arts, and Head and Deputy Head of School of the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. Monash has also presented him with awards and commendations for teaching, postgraduate supervision, and professional service in community- and industry-based research and scholarly engagement. He is currently co-investigator on a four-year Australian Research Council Linkage Grant project (with other GTReC academics and members of Victoria Police, Australian Federal Police, and the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and Department of Justice, State Government of Victoria), researching radicalization, counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation in an Australian context.
Julian Millie
Julian Millie is ARC Fellow, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. Dr Millie’s major research interest is the Islamic culture of Indonesia in general, and cultural production connected with religious gatherings in particular. He completed undergraduate study in Indonesian language and culture at Monash University, Melbourne, and also holds a graduate diploma in Arabic from the University of Melbourne. Between 2001 and 2005 he was a PhD researcher in the Research School of Asian, African and Amerindian Studies (CNWS), Leiden University, the Netherlands. He successfully defended his thesis at that university in February of 2006. In April of 2007, Dr Millie commenced a three year Australian Research Council Fellowship for the project entitled ‘Preaching Islam in Indonesia: Publics, Performers and Politics’. His most recent book is Splashed by the Saint: Ritual reading and Islamic sanctity in West Java (KITLV Press, 2009).
Ela Ogru
Ms Ogru completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) and Masters by research in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University. Her main areas of research have been around identity, nationalism, minorities, religion and religious violence, looking at Turkey and Australia. She is currently a PhD candidate at Monash University, researching Citizenship, Identity Politics and Social Inclusion/Exclusion: The Experiences of Youth from the Horn of Africa in Australia. Since 2007, Ms Ogru has been working as a researcher, centre officer and tutor for the Global Terrorism Research Centre, School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University. She also contributes to projects run by the Centre for Islam and the Modern World, and for the School of Historical Studies, also at Monash.
Douglas Pratt
Douglas Pratt (BA (Auck & Waik) MA(Auck) BD(Otago) LTh(Hons)(NZ) PhD(St And.) and DTheol(Melbourne Coll. of Divinity)) is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, University of Waikato, New Zealand, an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow of the School of Social and Political Inquiry (Global Terrorism Research Centre) at Monash University, Australia, and the New Zealand Associate of the Monash-based UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations – Asia Pacific. Dr Pratt is also an Associate of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics (CSRP) at the University of St Andrews, Scotland and has been a Visiting Lecturer in Christian–Muslim Relations at University of Birmingham, England (2004), and a Visiting Research Fellow at Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, and guest lecturer in Issues in Interfaith Relations for the Faculty of Theology at the University of Oxford, England (2005-6). Dr Pratt is currently the Book Review Editor of the international UK-based journal Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations (Routledge – Taylor & Francis). An ordained Anglican Priest andCanon Theologian Emeritus of the WaikatoDiocese in New Zealand, Dr Pratt washonoured by the Federation of IslamicAssociations of New Zealand in 2007 with an inauguralHarmony Award for meritorious service tothe Muslim community. His more recent published works include Civilisational Dialogue and the Philosophy of Religion (2009); Faith to Faith: Issues in Interreligious Engagement (2008); The Challenge of Islam: Encounters in Interfaith Dialogue (2005), and he has co-authored with Gary Bouma and Rod Ling Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific: National Case Studies (2010).
Zachary Russell
Mr Russell is currently a doctoral candidate in Sociology, the School of Political and Social Inquiry, at Monash University. His research project is a a quantitative social-psychological investigation of acculturation and ethnic relations amongst and within the Chinese and Anglo-Australian populations of Australia, employing a new discrepancy-based model of psychological acculturation- the Interactive Acculturation Concordance Model (IACM)- as its framework. Over the course of his academic career, he has studied in the United States (University of Nebraska at Omaha), the Netherlands (Universiteit Utrecht), and Australia (Monash University). His research interests overlap heavily with migration studies, including nationalism and racism, intergroup and interethnic relations, acculturation and adaptation, identity and identification, and multiculturalism and pluralism as political theories. Mr Russell has also conducted quantitative research on political reactions to terrorism amongst US opinion leaders, and has continuing interests in research on the broad topic of terrorism- especially where this intersects with questions of ethnicity and multiculturalism.
Andrew T. H. Tan
Andrew Tan is Associate Professor and Convenor for International Studies at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Supported by the Strategic Priority Fund, he does research full-time on defence and security issues. He was previously Senior Lecturer in Defence Studies, King’s College London, and taught at the Joint Services Command and Staff College, Watchfield, UK. Educated in Singapore, Cambridge and Sydney, his advice on security issues is sought by governments, armed forces, universities and research institutes. His many journal articles and book reviews have appeared in leading internationally refereed academic journals. He has written or edited ten books. His books include: Security Perspectives of the Malay Archipelago (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar), A Political and Economic Dictionary of South-East Asia (London: Europa), The Politics of Terrorism (London: Routledge), A Handbook of Terrorism and Insurgency in Southeast Asia (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar) and
The Politics of Maritime Power (London: Routledge). His forthcoming books are: The Global Arms Trade (London: Routledge, 2009) and US Strategy Against Global Terrorism: How it Evolved, Why it Failed and Where it is Headed (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Rachel Woodlock
Rachel Woodlock, M.Islam.Std., is a doctoral candidate in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, studying issues surrounding the social inclusion of Muslim Australians. Rachel’s other research interests include conversion, religious pluralism, Muslim feminism, and heterodox Islamic religious movements. Her most recent publication is the chapter "Islamic Beliefs and Practices" in the Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia, edited by James Jupp (Port Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press, 2009). During 2007 and 2008 she completed two research projects sponsored by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, one looking at the hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians in Sydney, the other mapping political attitudes among Muslims in Melbourne. She also writes for the Faith column of the Sunday Age.
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Radicalisation Crossing Borders: New Directions in Islamist and Jihadist Political, Intellectual and Theological Thought and Practice GTReC Conference 2008