Bandung, UPI

Subhan Zein (PhD, Australian National University [ANU]) has been Visiting Professor at Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia (UPI) since October 2022 when he was still teaching at ANU. He is currently Professor at School of Education, Sunway University, Malaysia, and holds positions as Deputy Dean (Research Sustainability) and the University’s Head of Centre for Higher Education.

Professor Zein recently represented UPI at the 23^rd AsiaTEFL Conference as an invited Featured Speaker. The Conference was held at Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China, from 9 to 13 July 2025.

On 10 July, he delivered a report on his role as AsiaTEFL Book Series Editor-in-Chief in a Board Meeting Forum. Some highlights of the report include his formulation of AsiaTEFL Book Series Terms of Reference, encompassing organisational units, division of roles and duties, in house- and peer- reviews, proposal and manuscript development sessions, publication policy, among others. He managed to recruit an Associate Editor (Associate Professor Hyunjung Shin, University of Saskatchewan, Canada) and an Editorial Assistant (Dr. B Yuniar Diyanti, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta, Indonesia). He also recruited five more editorial board members: 1) Professor Ali al Issa, Sultan Qaboos University, Oman; 2) Professor Tariq Elyas, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia; 3) Associate Professor Bedrettin Yazan, University of Texas at San Antonio, USA (Turkish background); 4) Associate Professor Nargiza Mahmudova, Uzbekistan State World Languages University, Uzbekistan; 5) Professor Ravinder Gargesh, University of Delhi, India. His recruitment endeavour has ensured that all major regions of Asia are fully represented: South Asia, Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, Western Asia, and Central Asia.

Over the years, Professor Zein has provided detailed and constructive written feedback to authors, organised proposal and manuscript development sessions, liaised with publishers with regard to the peer review process and contract formulation, facilitated peer review, among others. His work has enabled AsiaTEFL to reach unprecedented levels of achievement of recruiting 8 book volumes (1 contracted, 1 soon to be contracted, 2 under revision, 1 under review, 3 in progress) within less than 2 years, although under the contract with Routledge he is only obligated to recruit 6 volumes within 3 years. Through networking during the AsiaTEFL Conference, he has also attracted interest from 3 more prospective contributors: Professor Ravinder Gargesh (University of Delhi, India), Professor KV Dhanapala (Colombo University, Sri Lanka), and Professor Tariq Elyas (King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia). These scholars have indicated interest in either writing or editing a book with the AsiaTEFL Book Series. Overall, with the current rate, AsiaTEFL Book Series anticipates the publication of 3-5 volumes by 2027.

AsiaTEFL colleagues are highly appreciative of Professor Zein’s work, with comments including: 1) “Congratulations on your great achievements. So proud of you” (Professor Aurelio Vilbar, the Philippines); 2) “It’s great to see the formidable accomplishments of the Book Series under your leadership” (Associate Professor Shahid Abrar al Hassan, Canada), 3) “You have done so much for AsiaTEFL, great great work. What I can do in four, five days, you can do it in one hour” (Professor Ravinder Gargesh, India), and 4) “I am so proud to see all your initiatives and accomplishments, you’re truly a young promising scholar, a true rising star of AsiaTEFL” (Professor Rubina Khan, Bangladesh).

On Saturday, 12 July 2025, Professor Zein presented his research, entitled ‘Examining World Englishes as a Language Ideological Movement: Care, Innovation, and Sustainability’. His presentation attracted nearly two dozen participants; among the audience were Professors Fuad Abdul Hamied and Nenden Lengkanawati (UPI), Xiong Tao (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, China), Aurelio Vilbar (Cebu University, the Philippines), and Obaid Hamid (the University of Queensland, Australia).

Participants commented on his presentation, including: 1) “I really liked your presentation. The manner was very engaging”, 2) “The presentation was very interesting and informative”; 3) “I think your presentation was thought provoking. I never thought of World Englishes that way, even though I knew it has ideological loading, indeed”. A few participants requested a photo session with him.

Throughout the conference, Professor Zein engaged with a number of scholars and students who were interested in his role at UPI and Sunway University and how the universities fare in terms of reputation. He explained his role at the two universities.

In particular, he elaborated on the great reputation of UPI which has now become a leading institution in Indonesia in English language education and applied linguistics studies. With the fact that Professor Didi Sukyadi, whom some of AsiaTEFL colleagues are familiar with, has recently been appointed as Rector of UPI, Professor Zein highlighted how UPI is in a promising trajectory to reach greater heights in terms of research, teaching, and overall reputation.

To those asking about Sunway University, he explained how the University, despite its relatively young age (14 years with a full-university status), has shown a tremendous trajectory in the past five years, surpassing two of the best-known Indonesian universities, Universitas Indonesia (UI) and Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), in Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking. In 2025, Sunway is ranked 401 in THE Ranking, compared to Universitas Indonesia at 801 and Universitas Gadjah Mada at 1201-1500^th .

The engagement which Professor Zein had during the conference also allowed him to work on and plan for a number of projects. These include: 1) lead Editorship of a Special Issue for the Journal of AsiaTEFL (Q1 H-index 19); 2) lead the Editorship of a Special Issue for TESOL Journal (Q1 H-index 38) focusing on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion in the Global South. Professor Peter De Costa (Michigan State University, USA) is his co-editor; 3) sole Editorship of a Special Issue for World Englishes (Q1 H-index 64), focusing on pluricentric English in Indonesia and the recent developments concerning the English language in the nation; 4) plans to work with Professor Ravinder Gargesh (University of Delhi, India) who was keen to examine the sociolinguistic situation of India using Prof Zein’s theory of superglossia which he introduced in a 2020 book, Language Policy in Superdiverse Indonesia; 5) plans to work with Associate Professor Obaid Hamid to edit a Special Issue based on his conceptualisation of English as a Southern Language; 6) plans to work with Associate Professor Kristof Savski to edit a Special Issue based on his book Language Policy in Action (Cambridge University Press).