Health, Identity & Misinformation: Debunk with Empathy Book Tour

As part of her Debunk with Empathy Book Tour, Wan Naszeerah, UC Berkeley public health researcher and author, brings a perspective shaped by the Nusantara, a region spanning Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, and beyond. For centuries, its people have drawn from traditional healing, Western biomedicine, and now, the digital infodemic—an overwhelming flood of information, including misinformation.

In conversation with Professor Sylvia Tiwon from UC Berkeley's Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, Naszeerah will share personal stories, cultural insights, and research on how identity and belief shape the way we understand health—and each other.

📅 Thursday, April 3, 2025

🕔 Doors open at 4:45 PM | Discussion begins at 5:15 PM

📍 Institute of East Asian Studies, 2111 Bancroft Way, 5th Floor, Berkeley, CA 94720

🎟 Free & open to the public. Please RSVP via Eventbrite.

Paperback copies of Debunk with Empathy will be available for purchase on-site, and Naszeerah will be signing copies following the discussion. Light refreshments will be available.

Sponsored by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, this event is part of Naszeerah’s Debunk with Empathy Book Tour.

Some conversations change how we see the world. A mother insisting on a remedy passed down for generations. A father refusing a doctor’s advice because “they cannot be trusted.” A friend caught in the web of medical misinformation, but you don’t know how to respond. In Debunk with Empathy, Naszeerah offers a fresh approach to these difficult conversations, blending psychology-backed strategies, real-world stories from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, and practical tools to help us communicate with those we care about most. Read more at www.Naszeerah.com/debunkwithempathy. Available on Amazon, Bookshop.org, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble and more!

About Wan Naszeerah

Wan Naszeerah is an author, public health researcher, and social impact leader dedicated to improving how we talk about health in a world flooded with digital information. Born stateless in Brunei, raised by an immigrant Malaysian mother, she became a first-generation scientist at Yale and now pursues a Doctor of Public Health at UC Berkeley while collaborating with communities across Southeast Asia’s Nusantara to address digital health literacy, misinformation, and the infodemic. Read more at www.Naszeerah.com/about-wan.

Professor Sylvia Tiwon is an Associate Professor at UC Berkeley’s Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies. She specializes in literature, gender, oral traditions, and cultural studies of Southeast Asia, with a focus on Indonesia. Her research explores national and pre-national literatures, mythologies, and socio-cultural formations.

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