![Jayum Anak Jawan standing and posing for a photo in his office with the flag of Malaysian flag in the background](/sites/ohio.edu.news/files/2024-03/Jayum_1-1.jpg)
Jayum Anak Jawan is OHIO’s Tun Abdul Razak Chair, an endowed faculty position which works to foster cross-cultural understanding of Malaysia-American perspectives. He researches, writes, and presents papers on various aspects of Malaysian politics, history, and society. Jawan is a senior professor of politics and government at Universiti Putra in Malaysia. Photo by Megan Johnson, BSVC '18
Nancy Shukri, MBA ’97, a Cabinet member who last summer assumed oversight of six federal agencies. Rohani Abdul Karim, MBA ’97, head of the governmental Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development. Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, BA ’78, BS ’78, chief of a bus operations consortium and president of the Badminton Asia Confederation. Dato’ Mahadzir Lokman, BBA ’84, a well-known entertainer.
These are only a few of the 2,500 Malaysian Bobcats to benefit from an OHIO education and, in the process, better their home country of about 31 million people—and the world.
“Close relations between Malaysia and Ohio University have been long established,” said Jayum Anak Jawan, Tun Abdul Razak Chair and professor of political science at OHIO and senior professor of politics and government at Universiti Putra Malaysia. “The University has played a significant part in human-resource training in Malaysia; alumni occupy numerous important positions,” he added.
OHIO began forging transnational alliances more than 50 years ago for two intertwined reasons, explained Vice Provost for Global Affairs and International Studies Lorna Jean Edmonds. The University wanted to help developing countries and their higher educational systems while joining an American initiative to increase knowledge of other lands. —Nick Claussen, BSJ ’92, assistant to the vice provost for global affairs at OHIO