Professor Sharmani Patricia Gabriel
- Adjunct Professor of Practice (7154)
- Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Biography
Sharmani Patricia Gabriel works at the intersections of literary and cultural studies, postcolonial theory, decolonial thought, diaspora, representation, and power. Her research examines how cultural narratives can challenge colonial and imperial structures across local and transnational contexts. She has held Fulbright visiting appointments at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor and Northern Illinois University in the United States, and received the Commonwealth Staff Scholarship Award, which she undertook at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. Her academic leadership includes research, editorial, and public-scholarship roles. She has served as Editor-in-Chief of SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English and holds advisory and editorial board positions for numerous journals and book series. She has delivered keynote and invited lectures at universities in Malaysia and abroad, including in Indonesia, India, Spain, Singapore, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Prior to her current appointment at Sunway University, Sharmani served as Professor of English at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.
Academic & Professional Qualifications
- PhD in English (Postcolonial Studies), University of Leeds, UK (2000)
- Master of Arts (English Literature), Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (1990)
- Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Universiti Malaya, Malaysia (1985)
Research Interests
- 1. Malaysian and Southeast Asian Literary & Other Cultural Productions
- 2. Cultural Politics of “Race” and Racialisation
- 3. Critical Heritage Studies
- 4. Environmental Humanities
Notable Publications
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. “The Nanyang as a Pluriverse: Stateless Poetics and the Diasporic Local in Anglophone and Sinophone Malaysian Literatures.” TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, (2026), Vol. 41, No. 1, 2026, pp. 1–29, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/trn.2025.10012.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. The Life in the Writing: Syed Hussein Alatas by Masturah Alatas (Book Review). Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 97, Part 2, No. 327, December 2024, pp. 140-143.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. “Racialisation in Malaysia: Multiracialism, Multiculturalism, and the Cultural Politics of the Possible.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, vol. 52, no. 4, 2021, pp. 611–633, https://doi:10.1017/S0022463421000953.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia and Bernard Wilson, eds, Orientalism and Reverse Orientalism in Literature and Film: Beyond East and West (Routledge, 2021) https://www.routledge.com/Orientalism-and-Reverse-Orientalism-in-Literature-and-Film-Beyond-East/Gabriel-Wilson/p/book/9780367615222.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia (ed.) Making Heritage in Malaysia: Sites, Histories, Identities (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) https://www.palgrave.com/9789811514937
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia and Bernard Wilson. (eds) Asian Children’s Literature and Film in a Global Age: Local, National and Transnational Trajectories, Palgrave Macmillan: London & New York, 2020.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia (with Yuan Shu). “Reading Transpacific American Literature: Empire, Space, and Representation”, Special Issue on Transpacific American Literature, SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English, Vol. 58, No. 2, 2021, pp.1-13.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. “Obituary: K.S. Maniam, 1942-2020”, Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Vol. 55, No. 2, June 2020, pp. 326-331. DOI: 10.1177/0021989420929672.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. “The Ethical Project of Cultural Translation”, Kemanusiaan: The Asian Journal of Humanities, Vol, 27, No. 2, 2020, pp. 103-121.
Gabriel, Sharmani Patricia. “The Meaning of Race in Malaysia: Colonial, Post-colonial and Possible New Conjunctures”, Ethnicities, Vol. 15, No. 6 (2015), pp. 782-809.
Achievements & Accolades
Advisory Board Member, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society (IACSS)
Editorial Board Member: E-Tropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics
International Advisory Board Member: Critical South Asian Studies
Editorial Board Member: TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia
Peer Reviewer for leading academic journals and book publishers
Jury Chair, 2027 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Best Dissertation Prize Award
Jury Member, 2025 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Best Dissertation Prize Award
Assessor, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Postdoc Mobility Grant (2025)
