Dr Rizwanah Souket is Lecturer and Course Coordinator for the Minor in Public Relations in Monash University Malaysia. Her passion for teaching stems from almost two decades of teaching public relations and communication related subjects in various private and public universities in Malaysia. 

Dr Rizwanah’s doctoral research traces the public relations lineage in Malaysia and hopes to provide a concrete documented history of Malaysian public relations. She is now working on turning her dissertation into a book manuscript. Her other research strength includes the study of media effects. She has co-written several articles on media effects and is currently focused on writing a monograph completing a study on media effects and voter behaviour. Her more recent research investigates the role of women in Malaysian public relations. 

Dr Rizwanah is also an active member of the Malaysian Institute of Public Relations (IPRM) and of the Public Relations & Communications Association (PRCA) Southeast Asia. She has recently been appointed to be on the judging panel for the  PRCA SEA Awards 2020.

Dr Rizwanah’s primary research interests are in public relations (PR) and history. Her PhD research traces the history of the information offices in British Malaya and explores its evolution as a precursor to the PR sector in Malaysia. The research focuses on reconstructing and providing a clear, historical picture of the PR lineage in Malaysia. Recently she is working on the PR pioneers in the country.

She is also interested in the field of political communication, media effects and voter behaviour. Currently, she is part of a longitudinal study that focuses on studying the impact of political communication materials on voter behaviour in the Malaysian General Elections.

Dr Rizwanah is presently conducting research on the role of women in Malaysian public relations. Her study analyses the participation of women in public relations education, employment opportunities for women as PR practitioners and gaps that plague women’s participation in public relations decision-making.

In Monash University Malaysia, she teaches and coordinates the Public Relations Minor program.