SINGAPORE: Open Letter on PJ Thum and Academic Freedom in Singapore

The below is an open letter from Dr. Lee Jones, Reader in International Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary College, University of London, to Charles Chong MP, Chairman of the Select Committee on Online Falsehoods.

The letter follows the sitting of the Select Committee on Online Falsehoods established by the Singapore government to investigate the issue of "fake news", its causes, consequences and potential countermeasures. The hearing caused controversy in the city state after the historian PJ Thum and activist Kirsten Han were called to give evidence at the committee, only to have their personal work histories called into question.

Following Lee's letter is a further missive signed by almost 300 academics calling into question Thum's treatment and the committee's process. For Chong's part, he has has suggested the open letter represents "a coordinated attempt, with foreign actors involved, to try to influence and subvert [Singapore's] parliamentary processes."

Dr Lee Jone's letter

Dear Mr Charles Chong MP,

I have the honor to convey to you an open letter signed by nearly 300 academic experts relating to the conduct of your parliamentary committee. The text of that letter, and the list of signatories, are below.

Although the letter was framed for academic signatories only, around 100 other concerned citizens nonetheless added their names; though I have excluded them from the list, please note that this issue has clearly caused public alarm in Singapore and beyond.

I am aware that you have already replied to our letter before we actually sent it to you. Curiously, your response reached most of our signatories through a coordinated online campaign involving what we understand to be Russian bots, which somehow identified the signatories’ email addresses and sent them messages using fake accounts based in Switzerland.

Perhaps your committee should consider investigating this strange event. We are working with computer experts to trace the origins of this bot campaign and will be happy to share the results with you, and the wider public.

In any case, unfortunately our signatories were not convinced by your pre-emptive response, which seemed to miss the point of, or seek to reframe, our letter – so please allow me to restate our fundamental points.

Your committee’s hearings were established to consider the threat from “fake news”. The committee’s interrogation of Dr Thum really had nothing to do with this, and only engaged peripherally with his written submission.

We remain convinced that Dr Thum was instead put on “show trial”, in an effort to intimidate, attack, and discredit a prominent critic of the historical narratives used by Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party.

The focus of the questioning was not about “fake news” but rather Dr Thum’s research on Operation Coldstore, and the clear objective was to disparage Dr Thum’s research and his scholarly credentials. We reject the notion that this is a legitimate use of a parliamentary inquiry.

The only possible outcome of using an inquiry in this way is to further constrain free inquiry in Singapore in defense of a preferred historical narrative. We also reiterate our statement, issued in our capacity as academic experts, that the minister involved lacks any of the qualifications necessary to judge the quality of Dr Thum’s research, and that Dr Thum’s academic standing is beyond reproach. The way he has been smeared at the parliamentary inquiry and afterwards in the state-linked media is deplorable.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Lee Jones

Queen Mary University of London

The open letter from the academic community

Dear Mr Charles Chong MP,

The undersigned are members of the global academic community concerned with the study of History and/or Singapore, or with academic freedom in Singapore more generally. We are writing to express our deep concern at your committee’s treatment of one of our colleagues, Dr. Pingtjin Thum, and the wider implications for freedom of expression and academic freedom in Singapore.

Your committee recently held public hearings into the dissemination of “deliberate online falsehoods”, also known as so-called “fake news”. In principle, we welcome this approach, an unusual one in Singapore.

While concern about the dissemination of deliberate falsehoods online is reasonable, cries of “fake news!” are also being used across the world to silence dissenting voices and restrict media freedom. It is therefore vital to take a measured and reasonable approach, and public consultations with experts and civil society groups can be one valuable way to ensure this.

However, your committee’s conduct suggests that the government of Singapore is more interested in restricting civil liberties than defending them against so-called “fake news”. Key civil society actors have been given only a few minutes to speak, after being kept waiting for hours.

Dr. Pingtjin Thum, meanwhile, was subjected to a six-hour cross-examination by a government minister. We are particularly alarmed by this. Despite declaring that your committee was not an inquiry into Operation Coldstore, the minister proceeded to interrogate Dr. Thum, treating him and his widely respected scholarship with disdain.

The clear objective was not to establish the extent of the threat from “fake news”, but to attack and discredit a prominent critic of the historical narratives used by Singapore’s ruling People’s Action Party. This is likely to have a chilling effect on freedom of expression and academic freedom in Singapore.

Genuine concern about online falsehoods, rather than mere political expediency, also implies concern for the truth. The truth is not established by government diktat, nor can it be put on trial in a parliamentary committee. Scholars seek truth through rigorous research and subjecting their findings to critical peer review by fellow experts. Dr. Thum’s work has emerged from this process, following training at two of the world’s best universities, Oxford and Harvard. The minister who interrogated Dr. Thum has not undergone any such training; he is not even qualified to undertake a peer review of Dr. Thum’s research.

If the government of Singapore is genuinely interested in discovering the truth about Operation Coldstore, there is a simple solution: open the state archives and allow historians free access to interrogate the documentary evidence.

In the meantime, we hope you will offer Dr. Thum a full apology for his unacceptable treatment by your committee, and exercise your responsibilities as chairman to ensure in future that the committee sticks to its remit and its not used to intimidate your fellow citizens.

Signed:

1. Dr Lee Jones, Reader in International Politics, Queen Mary University of London

2. Dr Michael Buehler, Senior Lecturer in Comparative Politics, SOAS, University of London

3. Dr Syed Husin Ali, Chairman, People's History Centre, Malaysia

4. Dr Stephan Ortmann, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics, City University of Hong Kong

5. Prof Bridget Welsh, Associate Professor of Political Science, John Cabot University

6. Prof Garry Rodan, Director, Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

7. Prof Edward Aspinall, Professor of Political Science, Australian National University

8. Dr Charanpal Bal, Deputy Head (Global Class), International Relations, Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta

9. Prof Gerry van Klinken, Anthropology, University of Amsterdam

10. Prof Henk Schulte Nordholt, Professor of Indonesian History, Leiden University

11. Dr Gareth Curless, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Exeter

12. Dr Desiree Lim, Postdoctoral Fellow, Stanford University

13. Prof Adriaan Bedner, Professor of Law & Society in Indonesia, Leiden University

14. Dr Tom van den Berge, Senior Researcher, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

15. Dr Nicholas Harrigan, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Macquarie University

16. Dr John Landers. Honorary Fellow, Hertford College, Oxford

17. Prof Matthew Cohen, Professor of International Theatre, Royal Holloway, University of London

18. Dr Marc Rerceretnam

19. Lorraine Yang, PhD Candidate, University of Leeds

20. Dr Nicola Pocock, Postdoctoral Fellow in Migration, United Nations University International Institute for Global Health

21. Prof Fridus Steijlen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

22. Dr Tiziana Nazio, Senior Lecturer, University of Turin

23. Prof Anne Booth, SOAS, University of London

24. Prof Chung Wai Keung, Associate Professor of Social Innovation, HKCT Institute of Higher Education, Hong Kong

25. Dr Rui Graça Feijo, Researcher in History and Politics, CES/UCoimbra, Portugal

26. Dr Xingli Giam, Assistant Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

27. Dr Angela Fedi, Associate Professor of Psychology, University of Torino

28. Dr Alberto Fidalgo Castro, Postdoctoral Researcher, Universidade de Brasília

29. Dr Rosemary Gianno, Professor of Anthropology, Keene State College

30. Olivia Canessa Davies, University of Exeter

31. Prof Meredith Weiss, Political Science, State University of New York at Albany

32. Dr Katie Attwell, Senior Lecturer in Politics, University of Western Australia

33. Prof Prasenjit Duara, Oscar Tang Professor of East Asian Studies, Duke University

34. Dr Koh Shuwen, Director, NUHS

35. Dr David Kloos, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Leiden

36. Dr Chang Qizhong, Lecturer, National Institute of Education

37. Dr Kieran James, Senior Lecturer in Accounting, University of the West of Scotland and Adjunct Lecturer, University of Fiji

38. Dr Kevin Teo

39. Dr Ng Hoi-Yu, Post-doctoral Researcher, The Education University of Hong Kong

40. Dr Elspeth Oppermann, Charles Darwin University, Australia

41. Dr Alan Poots, Researcher

42. Lucy Davis, Professor of Practice, Visual Culture and Contemporary Art, Aalto University, Finland

43. Dr Yen-ling Tsai, Associate Professor of Anthropology, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan

44. Dr Jeremy Chen

45. Dr Shzr Ee Tan, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway, University of London

46. Dr Mikyoung Kim, Visiting Research Professor of East Asian Studies, Emory University

47. Dr Kevin Chua, Associate Professor of Art History, Texas Tech University, USA

48. Dr Ethan Gan, University in Singapore

49. Dr Thomas Meaney, Einstein Forum, Potsdam, Germany

50. Ms Rachel Koh, Lasalle College of the Arts

51. Silvia Vignato, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

52. Judith Jacob, PhD Candidate, Department of International History, London School of Economics

53. Prof Carl A. Trocki, Professor of Asian Studies, Queensland University of Technology

54. Prof Mohan J Dutta, National University of Singapore

55. Dr Michael Barr, Associate Professor of International Relations, Flinders University, Australia

56. Dr Raihan Jamil, Assistant Professor, Zayed University

57. Dr David Sadoway, Geography and the Environment, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada

58. Li Yan McCurdy, PhD candidate in neuroscience, Yale University

59. Dr Adrian Heok, Executive Committee Member, FORUM-ASIA

60. Tim Briedis, PhD Candidate, University of Sydney

61. Dr Elizabeth Humphys, Scholarly Teaching Fellow, University of Technology Sydney

62. Dr Amanda Tattersall, Post-Doctoral Fellow in Geosciences, University of Sydney

63. Dr Jay Koh, Modules Supervisor, Master of Advanced Studies in Art and Society, Zurich University of the Arts

64. Dr Paul Jepson, Course Director, School of Geography and the Enviornment, University of Oxford

65. Dr Por Heong Hong, Research Fellow, University of Malaya

66. Dr Chiyo Wakabayashi, Okinawa University

67. Dr Wong Wee Nam

68. Dr Francis Loh, Emeritus Professor of Politics, Universiti Sains Malaysia

69. Dr Chen Tsung Yuan, Research Associate of Center for Southeast Asian Studies, NCCU of Taiwan

70. Dr Allan Patience, Principal Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Melbourne

71. Prof Phillip Deery, Emeritus Professor of History, Victoria University

72. Dr Claudia Astarita, Asia Institute, University of Melbourne

73. Dr Yung En Chee, Senior Research Fellow in Ecology and Conservation Science, University of Melbourne

74. Dr Julie Kimber, Senior Lecturer in History and Politics, Swinburne University

75. Dr Chen Khin Wee, Assistant Professor of Media and Communications, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Kuwait

76. Prof John Mowitt, Leadership Chair in the Critical Humanities, University of Leeds

77. Prof Ooi Can Seng, Sociology, University of Tasmania

78. Netusha Naidu, President, Imagined Malaysia

79. Lim Sok Swan, History and Heritage Programme, Penang Institute

80. Dr Su Lin Lewis, Lecturer in History, University of Bristol

81. Dr Eleftheria Pappa, Post-doctoral Researcher, University of São Paulo

82. Dr Danielle Merrett, Adjunct Lecturer, Macquarie University, Australia

83. Prof Vincent Mosco, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Queen's University

84. Dr Angela Chiu, Independent Researcher

85. Dr Chan Chee Khoon, Visiting Scholar, University of Malaya

86. Dr Iza Hussin, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, University of Cambridge

87. Mr Koh Chin Kok, Director, Voice of Hope

88. Dr Agnes Khoo, Independent Scholar

89. Dr Gerald Goh, Research Fellow, University College London

90. Pei Feng Jung, Lecturer of Foreign Languages, CCNU

91. Dr Tom Hoogervorst, Senior Researcher, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

92. Dr Céline Pierdet, Associate Professor of Geography, Université de Technologie de Compiegne, France

93. Miss Margaret Nicholson, retired Southeast Asia Librarian, University of Hull

94. Dr Jack Jin Gary Lee, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology, Oberlin College

95. Dr Dan Widjaya, Assistant Professor, University of Jogjakarta

96. Prof Kevin Hewison, Weldon E Thornton Distinguished Emeritus Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

97. Prof Cherian George, Professor of Media Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University

98. Dr Chee Heng Leng, People's History Centre, Malaysia

99. Dr Alexander Morrison, Fellow and Tutor in History, New College, University of Oxford

100. Dr Tanya Serisier, Lecturer in Criminology, Birkbeck College, University of London

101. Jacqueline Chia, PhD Candidate, York University

102. Dr Megha Kumar, Historian, Author of Communalism and Sexual Violence: The Politics of Gender, Ethnicity and Conflict

103. Dr Paul Joseph Lim, retired Professor of European-Asian Studies and International Relations

104. Shelley Wright, Instructor, Langara College, Vancouver, Canada

105. Dr Antonia Soriente, Associate Professor of Indonesian language and literature, University of Naples 'L'Orientale'

106. Dr Catherine Allerton, Associate Professor, London School of Economics

107. Prof Linda Lim, Professor Emerita of Corporate Strategy and International Business, University of Michigan

108. Prof Zaharom Nain, Director, Centre for the Study of Communications and Cultures, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus

109. Dr Patricia Lin, Professor Emeritus, Gender, Ethnicity and Multicultural Studies, California State Polytechnic

110. Dr Stevphen Shukaitis, Senior Lecturer in Culture and Organization, University of Essex

111. Dr Lily Zubaidah Rahim, Associate Professor of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney

112. Dr Naser Ghobadzadeh, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University

113. Winnifred Wong, Principal Librarian, NUS

114. Dr Alicia Izharuddin, Senior Lecturer, University of Malaya

115. Dr Gaik Cheng Khoo, Associate Professor of Film and Television, University of Nottingham Malaysia

116. Dr Sikko Visscher, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

117. Dr Hew Wai Weng, Research Fellow, National University of Malaysia

118. Dr Laurens Bakker, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Amsterdam

119. Dr Gaynor Macdonald, Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney

120. Dr Rachel Leow, University Lecturer, Faculty of History, Cambridge University

121. Christina Muehlberger, Canadian Association of University Teachers

122. Prof Terence Gomez, Faculty of Economics and Administration, University of Malaya

123. Dr Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, Professor Emeritus, University of California at Santa Barbara

124. Dr Adam Sabra, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

125. Dr Lisa Jacobson, Associate Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

126. Dr Paul Spickard, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

127. Prof Jane De Hart, Professor Emerita of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

128. Dr Ben Silverstein, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian National University

129. Prof Giuseppe Labianca, Gatton Chaired Professor of Management, University of Kentucky

130. Dr Leticia Anderson, Lecturer, Southern Cross University

131. Dr Harold Marcuse, Professor of History, University of California, Santa Barbara

132. Dr Damian Spruce, UTS

133. Dr Ngoi Guat Peng, Independent Scholar, Malaysia

134. Dr Shumei Huang, Assistant Professor, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University

135. Richard Pannell Senior Lecturer, Monash University (retired); Sujatha Pannell, public servant, Education (retired)

136. Dr Simon Soon, Senior Lecturer in Art History, Cultural Centre, University of Malaya

137. Dr Chong Wu Ling, Senior Lecturer, University of Malaya

138. Dr Lau Blaxekjaer, Researcher, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, University of Copenhagen

139. Chien-Wen Kung, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, Columbia University

140. Dr Stephanie Chok

141. A/Prof CY Hoon, Director, Centre for Advanced Research, Universiti Brunei Darussalam

142. Dr John Lowe, Senior Researcher, City University of Hong Kong

143. Dr Dominik Mueller, ILSP: LSC Fellow, Harvard Law School, Harvard University

144. Dr Jason Chaw, Computer Scientist

145. Dr Kristina Göransson, Associate Professor of Social Work and Anthropology, Lund University

146. Michael Thomson, NSW State Secretary National Tertiary Education Union, Australia

147. Dr Nick Riemer, Senior Lecturer in English and Linguistics, University of Sydney

148. Dr Sumita Mukherjee, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Bristol

149. Mr Ponsah Saleh, PhD Candidate, University of Exeter, UK

150. Professor Heather Worth, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of New South Wales, Sydney

151. Dr Show Ying Xin, Independent Scholar

152. Dr Shaun Wilson, Assoc Prof in the Department of Sociology, Macquarie University

153. Dr Th'ng Bee Fu, Assistant Professor, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman

154. Wildan Sena Utama, Lecturer, Universitas Gadjah Mada

155. Prof Jeffery Burley, Director Emeritus, Oxford Forestry Institute, Oxford University

156. Dr Harry Wu, Assistant Professor in Medical Humanities, Hong Kong University

157. Dr Tommy Wong

158. Dr Leon Rocha, Lecturer in History, University of Liverpool

159. Dr Wong Soak Koon, Retired Academic, Malaysia

160. Dr David Brophy, Senior Lecturer in Modern Chinese History, University of Sydney

161. Prof Richard Doner, Department of Political Science, Emory University

162. Prof Rachel Harrison, SOAS

163. Dr Rian Thum, Associate Professor of History, Loyola University New Orleans

164. Dr Faizah Zakaria, Postdoctoral Fellow, Cornell University

165. Dr Thanavi Chotpradit, Lecturer of Art History, Silpakorn University

166. Dr Stephen Dobbs, Associate Professor in Asian Studies, The University of Western Australia

167. Dr Vincent Wijeysingha, Kaiwhakahaere Ako, Te Wananga o Aotearoa

168. Dr Terence Lee, Associate Professor of Communication, Murdoch University

169. Iqra Anugrah, PhD Candidate in Political Science, Northern Illinois University

170. Dr Matthew Powell, Teaching Fellow in Strategic and Air Power Studies, Portsmouth Business School at the Royal Air Force Cranwell

171. Dr Ruben Gonzalez-Vicente, Leiden University

172. Dr Jason Luger, Lecturer in City and Regional Planning, UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design

173. Dr Le Thanh Hai, London, UK

174. Dr Emma Mawdsley, University of Cambridge

175. Jessie Speer, PhD Candidate in Geography, Syracuse University

176. Anustup Basu, Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

177. Dr Shaunak Sastry, Assistant Professor of Communication, University of Cincinnati

178. Dr Jennifer Monahan, Professor and Associate Chair of Communication Studies, University of Georgia

179. Srivi Ramasubramanian, Associate Prof of Communication, Texas A&M

180. Howard Sypher, Professor, Lamb School, Purdue U

181. Dr Angsumala Tamang, Adjunct Faculty, Honors College, University of South Florida

182. Dr Marc Opper, Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Virginia

183. Li Sian Goh, PhD student, University of Pennsylvania

184. Ted Striphas, Associate Professor, University of Colorado Boulder USA

185. Ryan D'Souza, PhD Candidate, University of South Florida

186. Dr Barbara F. Sharf, independent scholar and Professor Emerita of Communication, Texas A & M University

187. Dr Dana Cloud, Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Syracuse University

188. Reshmi Dutt-Ballerstadt, Professor, Linfield College

189. Ms Le Na Dinh, Researcher in Social Life, Ho Chi Minh city University of Social Science and Humanity

190. Kuan Chee Wah, PhD Student, Hong Kong Baptist University

191. Dr Denisa Kera, Senior Lecturer, Prague College

192. Shampa Biswas, Paul Garrett Professor of Political Science, Whitman College

193. Dr Raja Swamy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Tennessee

194. Dr Dyah Pitaloka, Lecturer, University of Sydney

195. Dr. Shakuntala Banaji, Associate Professor, Media and Communications, London School of Economics and Political Science

196. Simon Rousset, doctoral candidate, University of South Florida

197. Professor Chaim Noy, associate professor, Ashkelon Akademic College, Israel

198. Dr Lai Ah Eng, Adjunct Senior Fellow, National University of Singapore

199. Dr Britta Ohm, Associate Researcher, Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern, Switzerland

200. Christopher L. Miller, Professor of African American Studies and French, Yale University

201. Dr Gary L. Kreps, University Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication, George Mason University

202. Dr Vicky Ortiz, Assistant Professor of Communications Media, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

203. Dr Phaedra C. Pezzullo, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Colorado Boulder

204. Dr Kristine Clancy, Instructor of Communication Studies, Golden West College

205. Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, NYU University

206. Dr Mahuya Pal, Associate Professor, University of South Florida

207. Dr Thomas S. Jakobsen, Researcher, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

208. Dr Joel Ong, Assistant Professor in Computational Arts, York University

209. Dr Rizal G. Buendia, Independent Consultant/Researcher in Southeast Asian Studies, Wales, UK

210. Dr Choy Fah Kong, Independent Academic, Singapore

211. Max Plumpton, PhD Candidate in Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

212. Dr Paul R. Dekar, Professor Emeritus, Memphis Theological Seminary

213. Dr Alicja Kujawska

214. Dr Raven Pfister, Lecturer in Communication Studies, Cal State University Long Beach

215. Dr Kearrin Sims, Lecturer Development Studies, James Cook University

216. Dr Greg Acciaioli, Assistant Professor in Anthropology and Sociology, The University of Western Australia

217. Dr Natalie L. Sydorenko, School of Communication, University of Akron

218. Dr David Hitchcock, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada

219. Dr James McDougall, Associate Professor of history, University of Oxford

220. Dr Tauel Harper, Media and Communication, University of Western Australia

221. Dr Jill Campbell, Professor of English, Yale University

222. Emeritus Professor James Francis Warren, Murdoch University

223. Howard Lee, PhD Candidate, School of Arts and Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

224. Dr Nai Rui Chng, Research Associate, Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow

225. Allen Hicken, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan

226. Dr Patrick Meirick, Associate Professor of Communication, University of Oklahoma

227. Dr Sze Wei Ang, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong

228. Dr Christopher Chong UTAR

229. Prof Kanishka Jayasuriya, Head of Department of Politics and International Studies, Murdoch University

230. Gerry Groot, senior Lecturer, Department of Asian Studies, University of Adelaide

231. Dr Yueming Zhang, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Birmingham

232. Professor Peter Carey, Visiting Professor Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia, and Fellow Emeritus Trinity College, Oxford

233. Ooi Kok Hin, Research Affilate, Penang Institute

234. Teoh Jou Yin, Chevening Scholar, Cardiff University

235. Dr Mari Mulyani, Trustee, Oxford Project Southeast Asia

236. Dr Philip Kreager, Chair Oxford Project Southeast Asia, Senior Research Fellow in Human Sciences, Somerville College, Oxford University

237. Dr Kaysara Khatun, Researcher, Oxford University

238. Mr Sam Levy, Phd Candidate, Earth & Environment, Boston University

239. Dr Robert Yates, Teaching Fellow in Politics, University of Bristol

240. Dr Gillian Petrokofsky, Researcher, University of Oxford

241. Dr Roger Montgomery fellow LSE Asia Research Centre (retired)

242. Dr Elisabeth Kramer, Deputy Director Sydney Southeast Asia Centre, University of Sydney

243. Chatubhoom Bhoomiboonchoo, Lecturer in Law, Naresuan University, PhD candidate Western Sydney University

244. Professor Gerry Bodeker, Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology, Columbia University New York; & Member, Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

245. Dr Maszenan Abdul Majid

246. Dr Steffen Dalsgaard, Associate Professor, IT University of Copenhagen

247. Dr Constance McDermott, Senior Fellow, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford

248. Dr Maya Pasgaard, External Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Copenhagen

249. Dr Jane Messina, Associate Professor, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford

250. Dr David Bourchier, Asian Studies, The University of Western Australia

251. Ryan Pesigan Reyes, PhD Candiate, Southeast Asian Studies, Centro Escolar University

252. Dr Kaysara Khatun, Research Fellow, University of Oxford

253. Dr Rahul Krishna Gairola, The Krishna Somers Lecturer in English and Postcolonial Literature and Fellow of the Asia Research Centre, Murdoch University

254. Dr Lydia Cole, Research Assistant in Conservation Biology, University of Liverpool

255. Dr Christopher Brickhill, Author

256. Simon Szreter, Professor of History and Public Policy, Cambridge University

257. Natalia Nowakowska, Associate Professor of History, University of Oxford

258. Lucio Sousa , Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Universidade Aberta-Portugal

259. J. Sears McGee, Professor of History, UC-Santa Barbara

260. Dr Javier Solana, Lecturer in Commercial Law, University of Glasgow

261. Dr Elisabeth Schroeder-Butterfill, Lecturer in Gerontology, University of Southampton, UK

262. Hannah Knight, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

263. Dr Marcus Bajema

264. Dr Angelia Poon, National Institute of Education, NTU

265. Ang Chin Siew, PhD candidate, History, Nanyang Technological University

267. Dr Ted McCormick, Associate Professor of History, Concordia University

268. Dr Sarena Abdullah, USM, Penang, Malaysia

269. Dr Wee Yeow Chin, Associate Professor (retired), National University of Singapore

270. Dr Susan Leong, Research Fellow, Curtin University

271. Dr Simon Stevens, Lecturer in History, University of Sheffield

272. Dr Juanita Elias, Reader, Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick

273. Dr Vanessa Harding, Professor of London History, Birkbeck, University of London

274. Dr Abby Loebenberg, Honors Faculty Fellow and Lecturer, Arizona State University

275. Dr Joseph Foy, Honors Fellow, Barrett, the Honors College at Arizona State University

276. Dr Paul R Preston, Director, Lithoscapes Archaeological Research Foundation, UK

277. Dr Mark Keevers, Senior Research Fellow, University of New South Wales

278. Dr Jean Sharp, Lecturer in History, University of Bristol

279. Dr Jiaying Sim, Instructor, National University of Singapore

280. Dr Alok Gupta, Director of Data Science, Lyft

281. Dr Ma Khin Mar Mar , University of Oxford

282. Prof Harold Cook, Brown University

283. Prof Paul Anantharajah Tambyah, Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection

284. Prof Kyu Ho Youm, Jonathan Marshall First Amendment Chair, University of Oregon

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Editor: David Green