AWANG HASMADI AWANG MOIS

Awang Hasmadi bin Awang Mois


Room: 1.12
Phone: Ext 1137
ahasdi@fass.ubd.edu.bn

Academic Qualifications
MA (St Andrews), PGCE (Newcastle), MA (Wales), PhD (Wales)

Background

Awang Hasmadi, a Malaysian citizen, was born in Kuching, Sarawak, in 1952. After attending high schools in Sri Aman, Sibu and Miri, he was awarded a Sarawak Foundation scholarship that allowed him to join Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia in 1973, as an undergraduate majoring in Anthropology and Sociology.

For his graduation exercise Hasmadi conducted fieldwork among the Salako Dayaks of Lundu District, southwestern Sarawak, writing up his Malay-language report “Salako Adat” under the supervision of Hood M. Salleh. Awang Hasmadi graduated in 1977 and was awarded the book prize for best student in anthropology and sociology.

Shortly after graduation, Awang Hasmadi was accepted into Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s “Academic Staff Training programme” and was appointed as a tutor in the Anthropology and Sociology Department. He began his M.A. programme in 1977 and from April to November 1978 continued his field research on the Selako, using his findings for his Malay-language M.A. thesis (also under Hood’s guidance), “Adat dan Ugama Selako”, which was accepted for the M.A, degree in 1980.

In 1984 Awang Hasmadi left for Cambridge University, with dual sponsorship by Malaysia’s Public Service Department and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Here he enrolled in the Ph.D. programme, with Sir Edmund Leach and then Simon Strickland as his advisers. As part of his programme, Awang Hasmadi returned to Lundu District, southwestern Sarawak, to further his knowledge of Selako ritual practices. His research was funded this time by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and by a grant from the Cambridge University-administered “Smuts Memorial Fund”. His thesis, “Selako Worldview and Rituals: was accepted for the Ph.D. degree in 1992.

Awang Hasmadi was on the faculty of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for more than twenty years, during which he rose from tutor (1977-79) to lecturer (1980-99), and associate professor (1999-2007). He was head of the University’s Anthropology and Sociology programme from 2004 to 2007.

In addition to his service to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Awang Hasmadi has held research fellowships at the Senri Ethnological Museum in Osaka, Japan (1991), and at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore (1994). For a little over two-and-a-half years (1999-2002), he was Visiting Professor in the “Area Studies Program”, University of Tsukubu, Japan, where he taught various courses on Southeast Asian themes, while also researching the state of Islam in Japan under the University of Tsukuba’s “Foreign Professor Research Project” (2001-02).

Awang Hasmadi has been a member of the “National Committee for Oral Traditions” in Malaysia’s Federal Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sports (1979-84), the “Steering Committee”, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (1992) and the “Experts Panel for Ensiklopedia Umum Pelajar” of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka in Kuala Lumpur.

Awang Hasmadi joined UBD as a Visiting Associate Professor in 2007.
Research

Hasmadi is especially interested in the anthropological study of rituals and how they may be employed as expression, reaffirmation and maintenance of ethnic identity and power. His principal research area is in the southwestern area of Sarawak and adjacent parts of Kalimantan, where he studies the dynamic and symbiotic relationships between Selako and Lara Dayaks, as well as the relationship between both these Dayak groups and the coastal Malay people of Lundu District.
He is equally interested in the construction of ethnic identities among the two Dayak groups and in the redefinititon of the concept of “Melayu” among the coastal Malays. In addition, Hasmadi has a growing, although supplementary, research interest in Indonesian-Malaysias relations and in Islam in Japan.

Teaching

At UBD Awang Hasmadi has taught the introductory course Understanding Society and the topical courses: Social Stratification, Race, Ethnicity and Nationalism, Social Thought (classical) and Contemporary Social Thought.

Selected Publications

Graduation Exercise and Theses

1977. Adat Selako. Graduation Exercise, Dept, of Sociology & Anthropology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. vi + 182pp.

1980. Adat dan Ugama Selako. M.A, thesis, Dept, of Sociology & Anthropology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. x + 245pp.

1992. Selako Worldview and Rituals. Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Anthropology, Cambridge University. xii + 281pp.


Books

1991 (co-edited with Hood Salleh and Kamaruddin Said), Wawasan 2020: Pembentukan Bangsa Malaysia. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi. 67 pp.

1992. (co-edited with Hood Salleh and Kamaruddin Said), Mereka Yang Terpinggir: Masyarakat Terusing di Indonesia dan Orang Asli di Malaysia. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi.

1998. (co-edited with Sanib Said), Masyarakat Melayu Sarawak. Kuching: Yayasan Budaya Melayu Sarawak. xxxii + 167pp.
Chapters in Books

1986. Pribumi, Pembangunan dan Pengkaji di Sarawak. In Warga Pribumi Menghadapi Cabaran Pembangunan. Bangi: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jabatan Anthropologi dan Sociologi. 24-47.

1988. Suatu Renungan Terhadap Beberapa Cerita Lisan di Sarawak, In Wajah Sastra Sarawak, ed. Hamzah Hamdani. Kuala Lumur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. 3-13.

1992. (with M.Y. Ismail), Perkembangan Jabatan Antropologi dan Sosiologi. In Renungan Tentang Ilmu Sosial, eds. Sharifah Zaleha dan Shamsuddin Z. Sopian. Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 15-40.

1992. Pengenalan Kepada Masyarakat Selakau. In Sipol Strassman Ambun, Daftar Kata: Bahasa Malaysia-Dialek Selakau. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. xiii-ix.

1997. Hubungan Kaum dan Pencapaiannya. In Agenda Pembinaan Negara Dalam Era Kebangkitan Asia, eds. Mohd Yaakob et al. Kota Kinabalu: Institute of Development Studies (Sabah). 105-20.

2002. Exploring Selako Idioms: Rules on Courtship, Marriage and Married Life. In Cultural Adaptation in Borneo, eds. Masaru Miyamoto and Patricia Regis. Kota Kinabalu: Sabah Museum (= Monograph 7). 147-83.

2002. Globalisasi dan Kebudayaan: Pengalaman Sarawak, In Sabah dan Sarawak dalam Arus Globalisasi, eds. Mohd. Yusof & Sabihah Osman. Bangi: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. 106-118.

2003. Masyrakat Melayu Sarawak: Satu Penilaian. In Budaya Melayu Dalam Realiti Baru, eds. Adi Badiozaman Tuah et al. Kuching: Yayasan Budaya Melayu Sarawak. 15-30.

2006. Di Sebalik Laporan Media Tentang Sulawesi: Dari Ilmu Kolonial Hingga Kajian Ritual. In Kemelayuan Indonesia dan Malaysia, eds. Stanislaw Sandrapura et al. Jakarta: Departmen Kebudayaan dan Parawisata Republik Indonesia. Vol 1. 461-76.

Articles in journals

1978. Beliefs and Practices Concerning Births among the Selako of Sarawak, Sarawak Museum Journal (NS) 26: 7-13.

1981. Selako Circumcision. Sarawak Museum Journal (NS) 29: 59-72.

1984. Penyelidikan Antropologi di Sarawak: Satu Nota Ringkas. Jurnal Antropologi dan Sosiologi 12:85-91.

1984. Tinjauan Tterhadap Institusi Ngayau. Akademika 24:58-81.

1994. Rituals in Sarawak. Sarawak Museum Journal (NS) 47(68): 37-55 (= Special Issue No. 5, Part 1).

1995. Some Selako Rules on Marriage. Sarawak Gazette 112 (1534):40-42.

2002. Some Issues Affecting Muslims in Japan. Area Studies Tsukuba 20:213-40.

2002. Masyarakat dan Budaya di Kalimantan Barat. Rumpun: Melayu-Polinesia 16:57-105.

Encyclopedia Entries

1994. Adat Perkahwinan Bidayuh. Ensiaklopedia Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu.Vol. 1. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia. 97-8.
1998. Penan. Ensiklopedia Sejarah dan Kebudayaan Melayu Vol. 3. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka Malaysia. 1783-84.

Selected Recent (since 2004) Conference Papers

2004. Sains Sosial dan Pelbagai Mitos Tentang Manusia. International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities, sponsored by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universiti Kebansaan Malaysia. 10 pp.

2005. Kajian Kalimantan dan Signifikannya dalam Hubangan Malaysia-Indonesia. Ninth Indonesia-Malaysia Symposium jointly sponsored by Universiti Kebangsaaan Malaysia and Universitas Padjajaran Bandung. 18 pp.

2006. Rentap: Dari Sudut Pandangan Kolonialis dan Orientalis Brooke. National Sabah and Sarawak Historical Conference sponsored by Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu. 20 pp.