Keat Gin Ooi

Keat Gin Ooi (; born 10 October 1959) is a Malaysian academician, historian and educator of Chinese descent who is a professor at the Modern History of Brunei/Borneo in Universiti Brunei Darussalam's Academy of Brunei Studies. He is specialises in the following fields: women in history, Southeast Asian history, war and conflict, indigenous historical sources, underwater archaeology, underwater cultural heritage, modern history and historiography of Borneo, Brunei history, colonial urban history, Borneo in international history.

Ooi has been a visiting lecturer and recipient of fellowships from institutions in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan. He has worked as a professional reviewer for several journals in addition to publishing with publishers such as Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Oxford, Palgrave Macmillan, and Routledge.

Early life and education Ooi Keat Gin was born on 10 October 1959, in George Town, Penang, Malaya. Ethnic Chinese in descent, his parents are Ai Gek, a housewife, and Ewe Boo, a manager of a rubber plantation. He attended Universiti Sains Malaysia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in 1983. This was followed by a Master of Arts degree from the National University of Singapore in 1991 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Hull, England, in 1995.

Career From 1983 to 1988, Ooi worked as a department head and high school history teacher in Sarawak, Malaysia. From 1989 to 1990, he was employed as a senior high school teacher in Penang. He began working at Universiti Sains Malaysia in Penang in 1991 as an assistant lecturer. From 1992 to 1995, he held the position of senior research fellow; from 1995 to 2002, he lectured; and from 2002 onward, he was an associate professor of history. In addition, Ooi worked for Leong San Tong Khoo Kongsi from 1997 to 2001 as a historian and consultant in addition to her roles as advisor, board member, and historian at the State Museum of Penang from 1996 to 2005. In addition, from 2004 to 2005, he served on the State Art Gallery committee.

Ooi was a professor at the History of Malaysia/Southeast Asia at the Universiti Sains Malaysia's School of Humanities. Since 2002, he has served as the coordinator of the Asia Pacific Research Unit (APRU-USM). He was the founding editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), which is indexed by Scopus, from 2005 until his forced retirement in 2019.

Research and publications Ooi's interest in Borneo, of some forty years' standing, began with his first trip to Kuching, Sarawak. His Borneo studies then continued at Simunjan, a region that was previously heavily communist-occupied. His research has since covered all Borneo's regions - present-day Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan, Brunei, and Kalimantan - with a concentration on the White Rajahs, British colonial control, the Pacific War, and Japan's military presence. Apart from Borneo, Ooi's scholarly pursuits encompass metropolitan areas such as George Town, Penang, and historiography, specifically in the context of secondary and university education. He is now studying international history and biographies with the goal of researching the historical personalities and regional relations of Borneo.

Books and monographs by Ooi include:

Professional and scholarly bodies Ooi belongs to a number of professional and scholarly associations, such as the Malaysian Historical Society (Penang chapter), the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies, and the Malaysian Association for the Prevention of Tuberculosis. In addition, he is a member of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society in England. Ooi is a life member of the Old Frees' Association and the Sarawak Association in England. She is also connected to the Sabah Society and the Association of South-East Asian Studies in the United Kingdom (ASEASUK). The following honours have been conferred upon him:

Honours 1997: ASEASUK Award for Best Doctoral Dissertation (1994–1996), ASEASUK

2004: Citation for Best Reference Work, Library Journal, 2004 (for Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor) 2005: Outstanding Academic Title, Choice, 2005 (for Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor) 2015: CREAM Award, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, for International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), Founder-Editor-in-Chief 2016: CREAM Award, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, for International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), Founder-Editor-in-Chief 2018: CREAM Award, Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia, for International Journal of Asia Pacific Studies (IJAPS), Founder-Editor-in-Chief

Personal life On 20 October 2002, Ooi married cardiac technologist Beh Swee Im. His interests include travel, cooking, reading, and spending time with his family, and he is interested in Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.