KUCHING – A workshop entitled “Borderlands – Exploring Commonalities and Overcoming Challenges in Sarawak” will be held at Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus on 7 February.
The one-day workshop, to be conducted from 10.00am to 3.30pm, will be led by Professor Dr Holger Briel from Xi’an Jiaotung-Liverpool University, China.
Professor Briel will share his analysis of national borders – borders that are inherited and constructed with economic, political and cultural agenda in mind, using oral history methodology as a tool. His research on border phenomena uses interviews and narratives by the communities concerned, thus creating what constitutes oral history of the community.
The workshop will focus on the shared border of Sarawak and Kalimantan. Briel will also discuss methods of conducting an oral history project at specific locations, how to best interview people, the media to use and how to conceptualise these projects as exercised in trans-border understanding.
The session, organised by Swinburne Sarawak’s Faculty of Language and Communication, is expected to attract participants from both academic and research fields, especially those who are interested in this kind of field work
research. A series of workshops and training sessions is also being planned following this introductory workshop.
Briel, Program Director, Communication Associate Professor of Xi’an Jiaotung-Liverpool University, has researched border phenomena for much of his academic career. A native of Germany, he grew up in a country itself deeply divided, which prompted him to start questioning borders and looking at different literary traditions of East and West Germany. His most recent project was on Cyprus, with funding from the European Union. The findings from the project were published in the book Oral History Work of Cyprus.
The workshop is open to members of the public, specifically members of the media, local historians, government officials and those interested in research on oral heritage. No registration fee is required and participation is limited to 30 persons only.
For more information and registration details, please email Irene Hui Chung Chang at ihcchang@swinburne.edu.my.