Dewa Pechil A Mak Yong Tale Told by Ali bin Ibrahim

Patricia Ann Hardwick is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts and a Research Fellow with the Institute of Malay Civilisations at Sultan Idris Education University. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley in Anthropology. She did her Ph.D. dissertation research on mak yong dance drama supported by a student Fulbright grant to Malaysia and graduated with a Ph.D. in Folklore & Ethnomusicology and Anthropology from Indiana University, Bloomington in 2009.

From 2009-2013, Patricia lived in Singapore with her husband and children and researched Singaporean performances of kuda kepang. Patricia was a Fellow at the Institute of Sacred Music, Yale from 2013-2014. From 2014-2016, she taught in the Anthropology department at Hofstra University and Brooklyn College in New York. From 2018-2019, she lived on Bintan island in the province of the Riau Archipelago researching the Indonesian tradition of mak yong performance supported by a Fulbright scholar grant and an American Institute for Indonesian Studies Fellowship.

Patricia's academic research has been published in Asian Ethnology, Journal of the Malaysia Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Folklore Forum, Midwestern Folklore and Music and Medicine. Patricia's current research interests include intangible cultural heritage, digital humanities, archiving and cultural sustainability. Patricia is currently leading three research grants. She is the principal investigator for a Fundamental Research (FRGS) project funded by the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education titled "Sustaining Sustainability- Fundamental Research Strategies of Resilience and Adaptive Management in Malaysian Performing Arts". She is also the leader of a grant funded by the Malaysian Department of National Heritage titled "Digitialisation of Documentation of Mak Yong Stories and Tales" and a Research Grant on Malay Civilisations and Culture titled "Malaysian Folktales for the World: Inscribing Kelantanese Mak Yong Narratives".

Fara Dayana Mohd Jufry is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Performing Arts at Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim, Perak. She holds an undergraduate degree in graphic communication and M.A. in Theatre and Drama (traditional music and theatre) from University Science Malaysia. Fara Dayana completed her Ph.D. specialising in wayang kulit Kelantan at Sultan Idris Education University. In addition to teaching, she is a wayang kulit Kelantan and gamelan practitioner with Wak Long Music and Arts Centre. She has conducted wayang kulit Kelantan workshops with both adults and children. Her passion towards educating school children in wayang kulit Kelantan has also led her to undertaking significant research in this field. Apart from that, she also conducts research on Malaysian traditional theater such as wayang kulit Kelantan and mak yong.