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Contributor

Stefanie Shamila Pillai

Portrait of writer and translator Stefanie Shamila Pillai
Contributor

Stefanie Shamila Pillai

Stefanie Shamila Pillai is a professor at the Faculty of Languages and Linguistics, Universiti Malaya (UM), and currently the Dean of the Social Advancement and Happiness Research Cluster at UM. Her research interests include language use in multilingual contexts. Her work on Melaka Portuguese stems from her own maternal Portuguese-Eurasian heritage. She has documented Melaka Portuguese (Papia Cristang) which is digitally archived at the Endangered Languages Archive. She has also developed materials and platforms with community representatives to encourage the use of this endangered language. These include “Beng Prende Malaka Portugues”(“Come, Let’s Learn Melaka Portuguese”), Nina Boboi (a trilingual children’s book), BibePortMal (a mobile dictionary app), Rezu cum Cantiga de Rezu (a compact disc of prayers and hymns), and microtourism programs.

Articles by Stefanie Shamila Pillai

The Voices of Contact Languages in Asia: An Introduction
By Stefanie Shamila Pillai
For multilingual writers, choosing to write in their heritage languages can be seen as an expression of agency, an active choice to communicate in a nondominant language.
Pantun
By Nironjini Pillay, Shagina Bhalan, Nadarajan Mudalier & Mahendran Pillay
We are known as the Chetti of Melaka, / Guardians of tradition and culture.
Translated from Chetti Malay by Nurul Huda Hamzah & Stefanie Shamila Pillai
MultimediaMultilingual