Team profiles
Meet the Project 0100 team. For further information about their research profiles please check out their individual pages.
Prof. Dr. Bart Barendregt, Principal Investigator
Bart Barendregt is the Principal Investigator and supervisor of the project and authored the NWO proposal. He is also UNESCO chair in Anthropology of Digital Diversity.
- Profile on Leiden University Website
Reza Shaker Ardekani, Postdoc 1
Reza is the first Postdoc of the project. He will be tracing AI in Islam through the lens of big data. He asks how people in Southeast Asia in different periods of time have been talking about AI, their everyday encounters with technology and how they see AI-related futures all embedded within the context of Islam.
Reza focuses on computational and social network analysis. Employing text mining techniques, he uses a wide variety of big textual datasets, user-generated content, academic content and mainstreamed media content, e.g. scholarly papers, newspaper articles and social media posts, longitudinally in order to investigate the Southeast Asian (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore) tech-scene.
- Profile on Leiden University Website
Weiyan Low, PhD Candidate
Weiyan is one of the PhD students on the project.
Weiyan explores alternative Islamic futures and everyday technology from Malaysia's Quranic Belt. His research investigates how the adoption or rejection of emergent technology shapes or challenges alternative Islamic visions of the country. Turning attention away from Smart City and future technology narratives that are urban-centric, his research embeds itself in Malaysia’s mostly rural region under the Pan-Islamic Party (PAS) known as the Quranic Belt. Guided by PAS’ vision to remake Malaysia into an Islamic State by 2051, these territories present ideological and religious alternative-future narratives that have received little attention.
Treating the Quranic Belt as its own project in modernity, his fieldwork begins in Kelantan, a state that has been under PAS control for over 30 years. In studying how Kelantanese Muslims craft distinct performances of futurity through everyday use of emergent and traditional technologies, he asks, “what does the future feel like?”. Through collaborative research with local artists and sekolah pondok (madrasah) students, this research approaches creative methods such as street photography and film through local modes of practice and theorizing. It will also experiment with forms of artistic practice and language such as Dikir Barat (Musical call and response) and Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppetry), allowing the field to articulate itself on its own terms.
- Profile on Leiden University Website
Daphne Wong-A-Foe, PhD Candidate
Daphne is one of the PhD students on the project.
Daphne's project look at the world of AI education - an exciting realm that seeks to prepare individuals for a future that is as fascinating as it is uncertain. But what happens when cutting-edge AI technology meets the world's largest Muslim population in Indonesia? What is the role of AI in the future of education, and how do people learn about and engage with it? These are some of the intriguing questions that I will explore.
Her research will take place in the dynamic cities of Jakarta and Bandung, where the pulse of Southeast Asian AI innovation beats strong. At the oldest Islamic and public universities, a diverse student population eagerly awaits to explore the boundless possibilities of AI education. But it's not just academia where AI makes an impact in everyday life. From the bustling smart city developments to the thriving artistic scene, where creators are utilizing AI in entertainment, she will also delve into the multifaceted nature of AI in Indonesia.
Using a blend of participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and experimental non-textual techniques such as role-playing and drawing sessions, her research aims to offer a comprehensive and visual understanding of the complex and rapidly evolving world of AI in, for, and by education.
Through her research, she hopes to shed light on the possibilities and challenges of AI education in Indonesia, and its compatibility with religious values.
- Profile on Leiden University Website
James McGrail, PhD Candidate
James is one the PhD students on the project.
His sub-project examines the use of AI-dependent technologies for self-governance in Singapore. Self-governance is defined in two ways: first, as policy approaches that encourage citizens to self-regulate, and second, as citizens' attempts to define their own regulations in defiance, collaboration, and parallel to state policies.
Both aspects of self-governance are future-making projects in which AI may be utilized to assert a vision of the future. Investigating these assertions will enable an exploration of what results from the friction between different future-making projects. Do they coexist, clash, or should we not assume that they exist simultaneously at all?
Self-governance is about asking what to do. In trying to answer that question people may look to government guidelines, to their imam for religious guidance, to art for solace or even to Google. However, as large language models have grown in size and influence another option has arisen – ask an AI. This new source of authority has raised questions of authorship, authenticity and privacy.
To understand how Singaporean Muslims in tech, education, government, and the arts grapple with these emerging challenges, his project engages with them through creative methods such as electromagnetic recording and zine-making. These methods help participants engage with abstract and invisible concepts related to the future, digitalization, and the smart city.
- Profile on Leiden University Website
Yasmin Ismail, Researcher/Project Manager
Yasmin is responsible for project management communication. She also explores best practices in utilising digital technologies for research dissemination.