Conversations are catalysts for change, and often these are in curated spaces which are outside the h-index tyranny of the academia. Dr Clarissa spoke about her non linear academic career and an art science approach to life. She teaches in business schools on the applied way of building things. A trained physicist with a STS background, she spoke about the ways of doing things outside the academic cv. Dr Gareth spoke about the publish or perish mindset killing the big ideas lens. The conversation was needed for me as an engineer turned migration scholar as silos in the real world would not solve problems. Dr Gareth, who is a famous editor having worked with the famed Ben Anderson, where the notion of the imagined community was needed to connect Indonesia from Aceh to Timor.
Which often begs the large question- what is the big idea that we are working on in our fields of interest? For me, what is the big idea in migration studies?
Hikayat is a one of kind bookstore where one is kind books are stocked with the best weeklies. The Malaysian bookstore and civil society spaces of discourse have been arenas of learning and growth over the last semester for me.
Change Thinker 