Antropologist Dr Sarjit Singh Gill first Sikh in UPM Senate

Prof Dr Sarjit Singh Gill

By Asia Samachar Team | Malaysia |

A Sikh anthropologist made history by becoming the first Sikh to be nominated to the senate of University of Putra Malaysia (UPM).

Prof Dr Sarjit Singh Darshan Singh will serve a three-year term, effective 14 December 2021.

The senate is a university’s supreme academic body. Its core function is to regulate and superintend the teaching and discipline of the university and to promote research.

Dr Sarjit, 49, is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the university’s Department of Social and Development Sciences.

He obtained his PhD in Anthropology & Sociology Sociology from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) in 2005. He studied his MA and BA at the same university.

Since joining the academic staff of UPM in 2000, he has nurtured and developed his research interest and core expertise primarily in minority studies, specialising in the Sikh community of Malaysia.

Over the years, he has extended his interest on minority studies by studying other ethnic minority communities in the country, including Orang Asli (indigenous groups) in Peninsular Malaysia and selected native groups in Sabah and Sarawak. The main thrust of his expertise is social development of minority communities in Malaysia.

To date, he has successfully graduated 31 postgraduate students (17 as main supervisor) and 62 undergraduate students (as final year project supervisor).

SEE ALSO: 3 Sikhs promoted at Malaysia’s top university

As an anthropologist, Dr. Sarjit has considerable strength in the application of qualitative methods of data collection, analyses and report writing.

Currently, he is vice president for Asia Pacific Forum on Ethics and Social Justice (Malaysia).

At the national level, Sarjit was involved as expert reference to revise the new Malaysia Youth Policy under the Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia. He is a member of the Malaysian Institute of Integrity; executive editor for the Malaysian Journal of Youth Studies, and think-tank member of Malaysian Institute for Research in Youth Development, Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia.

In academia, his work is published under Sarjit S. Gill.

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The Sikh who almost became Vice-Chancellor of UM! (Asia Samachar, 17 Feb 2015)

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