The APRU DSN Executive Committee

The APRU Doctoral Student Network is governed by an Executive Committee consisting of 10 elected Board Members with 2 years tenure, all doctoral students.  The Committee may create other positions to serve the interests of the organization. In each DSC, participants are welcome to put their candidacy for the ExCo Member.

Current ExCo and Adjunct Members

Executive Committee Members 

Ye Kyaw Thu Chairperson	Ye Kyaw Thu is a research associate at Global Information and Telecommunication Institute, Waseda University, Japan and is pursuing a doctor’s degree there. A native of Myanmar, he holds a master's of Global Information and Telecommunication Studies from Waseda University, and a bachelor's of Physics from Dagon University, Myanmar. His research interests include human-computer interaction, wearable computing, natural language processing and education for children. He has been working to find efficient and user-friendly text input interfaces for Asian syllabic languages such as Myanmar, Bangla, Khmer, Nepali and Thai. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, IEICE, IPSJ, HIS, SGRA and MCPA. Email: yekyawthu@aoni.waseda.jp
Alex Montes Vice-Chairperson	Alex Montes is a Doctoral Candidate in Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and Spanish from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research interests include Latin American literature, foundational literatures, pan-Latin American identity, and U.S. popular culture of the Cold War. His PhD research is on Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara. Alex was elected to the DSN Executive Committee at the 9th APRU Doctoral Student Conference and served as Director of Research and Development during his first term, helping to develop and launch the League of Friends academic network.
Yolinda Chan Secretary	Yolinda is a PhD candidate in the School of Law at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She obtained her postgraduate qualifications in international economic law at Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) and Bachelor of Commerce at the Unverisity of Adelaide, Australia. Her research interest focuses on the role of law on development. Her phD thesis explores the implications of globalisation on small developing countries and investigates the role and impacts of international economic laws (with a particular reference to the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services-GATS) in influencing and shaping the competing paradigms of development. Prior to her PhD studies, Yolinda worked as a trade official and diplomat, principally serving in Suva, Brussels, and Geneva.  Email: yolinda.chan@gmail.com
Jennifer-Ann Bayan Director of Research and Development	Jennifer-Ann Bayan is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Southern California.  She holds a B.S. degree from California State University, Fullerton in Biological Sciences and Genetics.  Her research at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Neurosurgical Institute in Los Angeles contributed to developing innovative therapeutic approaches to delivering chemotherapeutics to brain tumors.  Currently, her doctoral research interests are focused on the intrinsic effects of various genes on β-cell and islet mass and understanding how β-cells regenerate in order to give rise to a novel therapeutic approach to treating diabetes.  Jennifer-Ann is also actively involved in the USC Graduate Professional Student Senate, USC Pharmacy Graduate Association, USC School of Medicine Graduate Association, American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, and American Diabetes Association. Email: bayan@usc.edu
Li Chun (Walter C. Lee) Director of Communication	Walter is a PhD candidate in the School of Government at Peking University, located in Beijing, People's Republic of China (PRC). He is also a researcher in Center for Public Administration and Management at Peking University, as well as a research assistant at Chinese Academy of Personnel Science. He holds Bachelor's and Master's Degree of Management from Xiangtan University located in Hunan province of PRC. Walter Lee's current research is titled Government's Role in the Marketization of Public Service. His main research areas of interest are public service, organization and management. He also like writing some reviews of current event, enjoying music and playing badminton in his spare time. Email: lichun0893@126.com
Claire Nettleton Director of Publication
Jeet Sapkota Director of Information Management	Jeet is a PhD candidate of International Studies at the Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies (GSAPS) and also a Research Fellow at the Global Institute for Asian Regional Integration (GIARI), Waseda University. Before came to Japan to study MA in International Relations with JICA scholarships, Jeet served for the National Planning Commission of the Government of Nepal for 3 years as a Planning Officer. In his PhD research, Jeet is assessing the impacts of globalization on human quality of life (QOL) in developing countries focusing the Asia-Pacific region. Jeet was elected as the APRU-DSN ExCo Member at the 10th APRU-DSC in Kyoto, July 2009. Email: jbsnepal@gmail.com
Sohail Ahmad Director of Special Projects	Sohail is a PhD candidate in Urban Planning at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. He holds Master in Planning with specialization in Urban Planning from School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi and Bachelor of Architecture from Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India. His current research interests include planning for uncontrolled urban settlements, use of Geographical Information System and Remote Sensing in planning and incorporating climate change aspects into spatial planning. Email: architectsohail@gmail.com
Brian Bantugan Director of Special Projects	Brian is a PhD Communication student of the University of the Philippines-Diliman College of Mass Communication. He finished his Master's Degree in Broadcast Communication in the same institution. He was formerly the president of the institution's Graduate Students' Association.  He is currently the institutional research officer of St. Paul University Manila and is a member of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, Philippine Association of Communication Educators, Art Association of the Philippines, and Green Peace Asia. His research interest are in the fields of gender and men's studies, new media studies and cultural studies. Brian is now a member of the Journal Committee for APRU-DSN. Aside from teaching in the undergraduate and graduate level, he is also partly engaged in consultancy work in marketing, specifically advertising, and did volunteer pastoral and grassroots community work in the Philippines. He is editor of The North Star, the journal of St. Paul University Manila that is anchored on compassion-building research work.    Email: brianbantugan@gmail.com
Seshadri Tirunillai Web Manager

Adjunct Members

Hongping Xia Adjunct Member
Shiva Raj Adhikari Adjunct Member
Thuckavadee Sthienrapapayut (Apple) Adjunct Member (Web Designer)
Hideki Aoyma Adjunct Member Chair of 10th APRU -DSC	Hideki is a PhD student in the Graduate School of Engneering and Academic Center for Computing & Media Studies at the Kyoto University, Japan. He holds a BE and an ME in Engneering at the Kyoto University. His research interests include Recognition of User's Internal State in Human Computer Interaction, Neurocomputing and Statistical Learning. He serve as Director of Major Events for APRU DSN and he is Chair of the Organizing Committee of the 10th APRU DSC in July 2009 Email: aoyama@ccm.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp

Advisor

Naresh Kumar Agarwal Advisor

Naresh is a PhD candidate in the Department of Information Systems, School of Computing, National University of Singapore. He holds a B.A.Sc. (Computer Engineering) from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore which he joined as SIA/NOL scholar from India in 1995. His research interests include Information Searching and Retrieval from the User/Behavioral Perspective, Information Management, Knowledge Management and Human-Computer Interaction. Prior to research, he gained 6 years of diverse industry experience in multicultural environments in Singapore, USA and India. Naresh has been a debater and likes to paint in oil and watercolor in his free time. He is currently based in New York City.    Email: nareshag AT gmail DOT com    Website:  http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~naresh Blog: http://naresh.blogsome.com

Old Members

Anastasia V Kouznetsova Chair of 9th APRU Doctoral Student Conference	Anastasia is a PhD candidate in Law at Far Eastern National University, Vladivostok, Russia. She holds an MBA from Kyung Hee University, Seoul, RoK, and a J.D. and LL.M. from Far Eastern National University. Her current research is on the effectiveness of worker's rights protection by labour unions. Anastasia's areas of interest are labour and employment law, industrial relations law, and worker's rights protection. She teaches labour and employment law at Far Eastern National University. Email: anastasiakouz AT gmail DOT com
Himali Wettasinghe Fellow Member	Himali is a PhD student at University of Sydney, Australia in the Faculty of Education and Social work. She holds a MISD from University of New South Wales and a BCOM from Macquarie University. Her current research is titled Acts of Transgression and Socio Cultural Discourses. Himali's main areas of interest are domestic violence, cultural rights vs women's rights, socio-cultural discourses, repositioning and reproduction of self.
Maryam Nabavi Fellow Member	Maryam is a PhD student in the Department of Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia in Canada. Her academic and professional background has intersected in the areas of anti-oppression research, policy and activism. Her interests in cultural studies inform her research on the social, political and cultural processes of social citizenship learning across issues of identity for first generation immigrant youth in Canada. Maryam is a member of the Journal Committee for APRU DSN.  Maryam is actively involved with the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at UBC Email:  mnabavi AT interchange DOT ubc DOT ca
Raphael Funwa Iluyomade Fellow Member (Advisor)	Raphael is a PhD from the National University of Singapore. A former chairperson of DSN and the chair of the 7th APRU DSC in NUS, Singapore, he has agreed to stay on as Adviser to the Executive Committee.  Email: raphkate2 AT yahoo DOT com
Stephen R. Nagy Adjunct / Fellow Member	Stephen is a Research Associate at Waseda University’s Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies. Educated at the University of Calgary, Canada and Waseda University, Tokyo, he is also serving as the President of the Waseda University Doctoral Student Network (WUDSN) and a PhD Candidate at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies (GSAPS). His research is centered on the implications of migration to Japan, the manner integration will take place and future constructs of Japanese identity, nationality, citizenship and Japan’s ability to navigate through this process. Email: nagystephen AT hotmail DOT com
Yu Hui Adjunct / Fellow Member	Yu is a PhD candidate at the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, National University of Singapore.Email: hibiscushui AT gmail DOT com
Ahmed Imran Adjunct / Fellow Member	Ahmed is a PhD candidate and Research Assistant / Project Administrator (NCISR) at the School of Accounting and Business Information Systems, Australian National University. His research interests include ICT adoption, implementation and strategy in the public sector, ICT in Least Developed Countries (LDC) and e-government. Email: Ahmed DOT Imran AT anu DOT edu DOT au
Brian T. Sutch Adjunct Member (Webmaster)	Brian is a PhD candidate in the Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Southern California.  His current research is on in silico prediction of nucleic acid aptamers. His area of interests include computational pharmaceutics, biophysical chemistry, bioinformatics and molecular dynamics simulation. Email: bsutch AT gmail DOT com
Maria E. Bulaeva Adjunct Member
Marco Cuevas-Hewitt Adjunct Member	Marco is a PhD Candidate in Anthropology and Sociology at the University of Western Australia. His research interests principally revolve around globalisation and social movements and his work combines ethnographic, philosophical, and historical approaches. His current doctoral research concerns post-Cold War politics in the Asia-Pacific region. Marco considers himself a scholar-activist and is committed, through his research, to working towards both social and environmental justice. In his free time, he is also an avid hiker and active street artist.