Jonathan Yong Tienxhi is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at the University of Cambridge, as a recipient of the Tunku Abdul Rahman Graduate Student Scholarship.
His research interests lie at the intersection of race and ethnicity studies, Southeast Asian studies and decolonial theory. Prior to his PhD, Jonathan completed a MSc in Sociology at LSE as a Chevening scholar, and has worked as a think-tank researcher, university lecturer as well as a public-school teacher in Malaysia.
Jonathan's research project examines how different ethnic groups in Malaysia experience instances of everyday racism, as well as how they respond to and interpret these experiences. Through connecting these micro-experiences of prejudice and discrimination, with the meso and macro factors such as historical, institutional and cultural elements which exist in Malaysian society, he intends to contribute towards the construction of a theory of racism which goes beyond the usual black-white paradigm, and takes into account racial prejudice and stigma between non-black peoples of colour such as the Malays and Chinese of Southeast Asia.
