People

Dr Geetha Reddy - Principal Investigator

Since being awarded their PhD in 2018, Dr Reddy has developed expertise in decolonial theorising of social issues and precarity. As an editor of the Readsura Decolonial Editorial collective for three special issues published in Review of General Psychology and Journal of Social Issues, and as lead editor for the special issue “Towards a Social Psychology of Precarity” in the British Journal of Social Psychology, Dr Reddy has shaped 33 papers that address coloniality and precarity. Furthermore, as Assistant Professor of Transdisciplinarity and Sustainable Cooperation at the University of Groningen, they developed a course-based PhD programme to equip students with the skills to undertake research on societal resilience problems in the policy domains of work, care, and inclusion— research skills they will share with the rest of the core team. Dr. Reddy is also currently working on the OU Open Societal Challenge: Building Global South-South solidarities to redress inequalities (BUSSIN).

They are co-leading the fieldwork, leading the project deliverables, supervising research associates and managing the project overall.

Dr Nithiya Guna Saigaran - Co- Investigator

Dr Nithiya was awarded PhD in 2020 for her doctoral thesis “Gender Beliefs and Capability Deprivation among Malaysian Indian Women.” She was a visiting scholar on German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at Humboldt University, Berlin. She has developed expertise in women’s poverty, ethnic minorities, and capability approaches. As an early career researcher employed at Department of Indian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University Malaya, she holds specialisations in Malaysian Indians, intersectionality, Gender and social mobility, and Sociology of poverty Studies and works interdisciplinarily. She is an experienced field researcher, involved in two faculty-funded research projects that focus on the intergenerational transmission of poverty amongst Malaysian Indian women and NGOs that work with At-Risk Malaysian Indian Youth.

She is leading the multiligual translation of academic texts and managing the research collectives in Penang and Kuala Lumpur.

Enbah Nilah Sugurmar - Project Manager

Enbah Nilah is a poet and educator. She runs an intimate poetry open mic and writers’ circle called Words’ Worth in Kuala Lumpur. She graduated with a distinction in MA Comparative Literature (Africa/Asia) from SOAS, University of London under the Chevening Scholarship. Her thesis was on the literary representations of “Class Conflicts in the Assimilation of Malaysian Indians.” She was a featured reader for “Inventories of Dispossession,” a Tamil literary symposium by York University, Toronto in 2022. She also collaborated on a Tamil literary translation anthology, soon to be published by trace press (CAN) with the support of Ontario’s Anti-Racism Anti-Hate Grant. Her works can be found in the Anthology of Southeast Asian Eco-Writing (Mānoa Journal), This is Southeast Asia (AUS), Innovation for Change — East Asia, and Adi Magazine (US).

Enbah Nilah will lead the co-development of arts-based methods such as storytelling, is co-leading the fieldwork and managing the various administrative and logistical aspects of the project.

Kevin Bathman - Communications Lead

Kevin Bathman is an independent creative producer and curator who is passionate about advancing social change through creativity to create long-term social transformation. With many years of experience as a Creative and Communications specialist, Kevin has led various creative activism projects using the creative arts as a catalyst for change. He devises platforms to showcase artists and changemakers who use their craft to enrich cultural identity, explore shared values and empower communities. A Chevening scholar with an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths, Kevin has a keen interest in the exploration and study of diaspora and social movements, postcoloniality, climate justice and political art.

He is leading the digital exhibition, as well as the EXCAPE URMI launch event in Kuala Lumpur.

Leia Gomez - Social Media Manager

Leia Gomez is a final-year undergraduate student in Comparative Literature at King’s College London. She draws on her experience in editing and design from school and university publications to support advocacy efforts in women’s rights and environmental conservation in Malaysia. She has previously worked in digital advocacy via social media for All Women’s Action Society (AWAM) and RIMAU. She joined the EXCAPE-URMI team as a Research Assistant during the first phase of fieldwork in August 2024, and now manages the social media accounts for the project.

Dr Teo Sue-Ann - Policy Consultant

Teo Sue Ann is the director of the parliamentary policy advocacy department, APPGM-SDG, a secretariat of the Malaysian Parliament that localises SDGs at the parliamentary constituencies, with a multi-stakeholder engagement. Teo obtained her PhD in Religious Studies from the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Her interests are qualitative and action-based research methodology, socio-anthropology, religion and gender. She believes development often involves actions that challenge or reinforce existing social norms and stereotypes. In retrospect, the minorities and marginalised usually respond by weighing the trade-offs of debunking or reinforcing the normative societal perceptions to benefit from the development. Teo is often curious about the trade-offs and how to effectively localise SDGs and ensure no one is left behind. Sue-Ann is working together with Geetha and the research collective to produce a policy-map for NGOs and policy makers.

Dr Keshia D’silva - Post-doctoral Research Associate

Keshia D’silva is a researcher from Bengaluru, India who joined the EXCAPE URMI team as a post-doctoral research associate shortly after completing her PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Helsinki, Finland. She is energized by visions of collective liberation and transnational decolonial feminism. Her academic and non-academic writings explore the intersection of gender, class, caste, colonialism and neocolonialism. Her PhD project, funded by a four-year grant from the Kone Foundation, focused on how women and women’s issues are constructed in the advocacy campaigns of gender justice organisations in India.

The URMI Collective is comprised of 47 Malaysian Indian women — 24 based in Penang and 23 in Kuala Lumpur. They come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from late teens to early 60s. They are trained in the Photovoice method to actively collaborate as co-researchers because the project sees them as experts in their own lives. They are therefore best placed to create knowledge about the Malaysian Indian community. They have thus far gathered and shared photos of their present-day lives as well as that of their ancestors in an effort to understand the ways in which precarity and coloniality manifest for them.