Senior Lecturer | Director of Language Centre
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), Institute of Asian Studies
About
Yabit Alas is the Director of the Language Centre. He was the Head of the Malay Language and Linguistics from 2006-2008 and appointed as the Director of the Language Centre from 2009-2010. In 2011 he lead the newly setup Continuing Education Centre before being entrusted to led the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences starting in January 2012 until June 2013 before he once again lead the Continuing Education Centre starting July 2013. His area of expertise is on Comparative Linguistics specifically on the Austronesian Languages. However, his area of research is mostly on the Dusunic Languages spoken in the north Borneo. His research focussed on the origin, dispersal and classification of the Dusunic languages. He is also actively do research on Malay languages especially Standard Malay and it relevance with globalisation. Being the Malay language Council member he directly involved in the planning and implementation of the Malay language in Brunei and regionally. He published a number of articles in the Malay language local and regional journal and became the co-editor of the ‘Reflections in Borneo Rivers: Essays in Honour of Professor James T. Collins: Book I’ and ‘Reflections in Southeast Asian Seas, Essays in Honour of Professor James T. Collins: Book II.’ He lead the newly setup Borneo Studies Network whose interest is to enhance research on Borneo as well as to promote various research institutions around Borneo.