Page 9 - 01/2022 PULSE@FASS e-Bulletin

Issue no. 1 | 2022

The TERRA SCHOOL: Zambia (sanitation). Most interestingly, participants
A Transdisciplinary were also given the opportunity to directly interact with

for
participants
Research Short Course some of the sessions were also held where participants
projects.
these
community
Workshops
By Associate Professor Dr Helena Varkkey were divided into groups to apply the Theory of Change
to their selected transdisciplinary research project.
The TERRA school is a short-term intensive course on
Several innovative online collaboration tools were used,
transdisciplinary research hosted by the Research Institute
including MIRO and Spatial Chat (as seen below).
for Humanity and Nature (RIHN) and Future Earth Japan.
Participants are invited on the basis of nominations by
Dr Helena's group developed a transdisciplinary project
Future Earth or RIHN members. Several researchers from
proposal focusing on the socio-economic and
Universiti Malaya have been nominated this year,
environmental tensions surrounding the Penang South
including Dr Helena Varkkey from the Department of
Island reclamation project.
International and Strategic Studies.
The TERRA SCHOOL was held entirely online with six
interactive sessions between 16 February and 4 March
2022. It provided an introduction to the principles, tools,
methodologies and practice of transdisciplinary research
with the aim of building the skills of early career
researchers to take on transdisciplinary activities.

At the TERRA SCHOOL, 'transdisciplinary' is understood as
something beyond doing research with another academic
from a different discipline. It focuses on including affected
communities in the co-creation of solutions to socio-
environmental problems. This aims to ensure the
sustainability of the applied solutions through the buy-in
of these communities, even after the researchers have left.

This year, the short course featured deep dives of case
studies of transdisciplinary research projects from
Indonesia (forest fires), Japan (waste management) and

Media Appearance: Dr Rosmadi Encourages
Political Education at Schools

Dr Rosmadi Fauzi, Associate Professor from the
Department of Geography and Senior fellow at the
Universiti Malaya Centre for Democracy and Elections
(Umcedel) was featured on Astro Awani on the 18th of
February 2022. Dr Rosmadi was part of a panel of political
experts from around the country, which aimed to address
ways of encouraging better political education for
Malaysians.

Dr Rosmadi stated that schools should be central to these
educational policies in order to better equip the younger
generation with a basic understanding of the electoral
process and of their rights as citizens. He also suggested
that electoral education needed to be given priority to
Dr Rosmadi Fauzi during his interview on Astro Awani on 'Nurturing
further nurture the country's democratic practices. Malaysian democracy"
9 | Pulse @ FASS