The aim of the Steering Committee of BRECIL is to ensure successful delivery of the project objectives including effective dissemination and exploitation of project results, high quality management and sustainable planning for research and development in higher education institutions.

Prof. Dr. Azirah Hashim

Executive Director
Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya

Director
Centre for ASEAN Regionalism, University of Malaya

Principal Coordinator
UM, Malaysia

Azirah Hashim is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Malaya and currently, the Executive Director of the Asia-Europe Institute and Director of the Centre for ASEAN Regionalism, University of Malaya. Prior to this, she was Dean of the Humanities Research Cluster and Dean of the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics. Her research interests include Language Contact in the Region, English as a Lingua Franca in ASEAN, Language and Law, and Higher Education in ASEAN.

She sits on the executive committee of the Asia Pacific Languages for Specific Purposes and Professional Communication Association and is currently President of the Malaysian Association of Applied Linguistics, and Vice-President of the International Association of Applied Linguistics. She has been involved in ASEAN projects on narrowing the development gap and internationalization of higher education and a number of committees at the national, regional and international level. In 2009, she was awarded the Georg Forster Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Germany and is a Fellow of the Foundation.

She leads the current Erasmus+ multi-partnered joint project on capacity building in higher education, and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence action the for Asia-Europe Institute from 2017 to 2020.

Dr. Hariharan N. Krishnasamy

Senior Lecturer, School of Languages, Civilization & Philosophy (SLCP) Universiti Utara Malaysia
Project Coordinator, UUM, Malaysia

Dr Hariharan N Krishnasamy is a senior lecturer at the School of Languages, Civilization & Philosophy (SLCP) Universiti Utara Malaysia. He is a member of the Research Committee, and a member of the Internationalization Committee (SLCP), UUM. He teaches Academic Writing, Sociolinguistics, Semantics and English for Specific Purposes. He has been involved in soft skills training programs for students (e.g. communication) and conducted courses on Intercultural Communication, Public Speaking, as well as the use of IT for teaching purposes. He has also been a mentor for trainee teachers and lecturers in various fields. His research interests include Small Group Communication, Public Speaking and the use of IT in the classroom. Currently, he is supervising PhD and Masters students from various ASEAN countries.

UUM’s main role in this project is on the dissemination and exploitation of information technology to systematically conduct research. BRECIL provides an opportunity for UUM and its team to tap on advances in the field of IT to introduce an array of technological tools to help in doing research. Furthermore, UUM looks forward to work collaboratively with all the partners in BRECIL so that all stakeholders under the Erasmus grant can better utilize the various technological tools to meet the needs of researchers.

Prof. Dr. Jens Allwood

SCCIIL Interdisciplinary Center & Division of Cognition and Communication
Department of Applied IT, University of Gothenburg
Project Coordinator, GOTH, Sweden

Professor Allwood has led a number of Swedish Research Links projects, involving capacity building in South Africa, Nepal and Malaysia. He has been an external examiner for the University of Malaya for many years. He has initiated and developed a number of candidate, master and Ph.D. programs in Sweden (in linguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive science and communication, especially intercultural communication) and he has been actively involved, as professor and chairman of department in the Bologna process of curriculum adaptation in the EU. He has been consultant professor for the development of programs of education also at the universities of Borås and Jönköping, where he was coordinator for the Research platform for Communication and Learning. He has been the Swedish PI of a number of EU projects (e.g. PLUS, TREE, European Intercultural Workplace EIW, Medics on the Move, and SSPNet) and has coordinated many other externally financed research projects. He has long experience in supervising Ph.D. students in Sweden and internationally.

Prof. Dr. Ronald Holzhacker

Faculty of Spatial Science, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
Project Coordinator, GRON, the Netherlands

Prof. dr. Ronald Holzhacker, University of Groningen, the Netherlands, is Professor of Comparative Multilevel Governance and Regional Structure in the Faculty of Spatial Science, Department of Spatial Planning and Environment, and the Faculty of Arts, Department of International Relations and International Organization. He holds a PhD from the University of Michigan in political science, and a JD from the University of Minnesota Law School. He is broadly interested in questions of governance, human rights, and the interaction between civil society organizations and institutions in political systems. He is founding Director of the Groningen Research Centre for Southeast Asia and ASEAN (SEA ASEAN) located in Groningen and Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia.

He leads an inter-disciplinary team of scholars and 18 PhD researchers engaged in theoretically driven comparative research focused on governance, societal impact, and sustainable society in Southeast Asia. He is published in such journals as Law & Policy, Comparative European Politics, Journal of European Integration, European Union Politics, Nations and Nationalism, Party Politics, Journal of Legislative Studies, and the Asia Pacific Journal of Public Administration. He is co-editor of numerous books over the past decade, most recently Decentralization and Governance in Indonesia (New York: Springer 2016).

He is currently finishing two volumes as co-editor Challenges of Governance in Southeast Asia (New York: Springer 2018) and National and Regional Approaches to the Sustainable Development Goals in Southeast Asia and ASEAN (Leiden, Singapore 2018).

Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers

Professor of International Management, University of Applied Languages SDI Munich/Germany
Project Coordinator, UAL/SDI, Germany

Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers studied political science and economics with a focus on International Relations and completed his PhD on German – Thai relations. Andreas has many years of practical management experience in the areas of sales organization, sales management, leadership of strategic projects and business development in Southeast Asia, with a remarkable yield impact. As a long-time member of Deutsche Bank AG Vietnam Executive Board, he was responsible for successful market intelligence and opening up of new markets.

As Vice Chairman of the European Chamber of Commerce (Euro Cham) and Board Member of the German Business Association Vietnam (GBA), Andreas established profitable business contacts with decision makers in business, lobbying organisations and politics. His many contacts in Southeast Asia, especially in Thailand and Vietnam, make him an expert on the entire ASEAN region. Since 2014, Andreas is Full Professor for Business Administration and International Management at the University for Applied Languages in Munich. His main area of research is the relations between ASEAN and EU. He is also appointed commercial judge at Munich District Court. In Munich, Andreas is Chapter Initiator of the German-Malaysian Business Round Table www.gmrt.de.

Dr. Latsanyphone Soulignavong

Faculty of Letters, National University of Laos
Project Coordinator, NUOL, Lao PDR

Latsanyphone Soulignavong, a lecturer of English, has been teaching English at the Department of English, Faculty of Letters (FLE), the National University of Laos (NUOL) for over two decades. Her major is English language teaching, testing, evaluation and school organization and administration. She also used to work as the head of the Research Division at the Faculty of Letters before taking her Ph.D. in 2014. During her time as the head of the Division, she had a chance to assist the University of Malaya (UM) to work on Training of the Trainers (ToT) research collaboration project to build the capacity of researchers in Social Sciences through knowledge sharing and cultural exchanges.

She holds her M.A. in Educational Administration from the Flinders University in Australia and M.A. in English Language Education from Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC), Hiroshima University, Japan. She also holds her Ph.D. in Educational Science, Specialty area in School Organization and Administration from Minho University in Braga, Portugal. The FLE as well as the National University of Laos got a chance to be one of the partner Universities in Laos within the BRECIL.

The NUOL has the main role in dissemination and exploitation of BRECIL project. This provides NUOL opportunity to gain understanding and knowledge in term of social science research and research governance at the university level. This matches to the mission of the NUOL to become the center of the research university in Laos. This would bring more benefits for the academics who are the heart of the university to improve the quality of higher education.

Bounthieng Vongsouangtham

Office of International Affairs, Souphanouvong University, Lao PDR
Project Coordinator, SU, Lao PDR

Ms. Bounthieng Vongsouangtham is an articulate qualified English teacher with several years of experience in teaching English to different levels of English learners in heterogeneous classes. She works in the International Relations Office and was appointed as the Head of the Cooperation Division; she has worked as a coordinator for ASEAN and EU projects. She is strongly interested in conducting research including English proficiency development, reducing English-speaking anxiety, materials development, and teaching methods. Bounthieng was also a Community of Practice (CoP) member since 2015 and a member of the TESOL International Association since 2017.

She is the Coordinator of Erasmus+ project at the Souphanouvong University, Luang Prabang province, Lao PDR.