events

SRN Virtual Event on 26 Nov: Humanities and Social Sciences Research on Singapore

fasswebmaster Events ,

The Singapore Research Nexus (SRN) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Research Division, NUS invites you to a Virtual Event featuring recent research in the humanities and social sciences on Singapore.

Academics from NUS will present their studies on the themes of 1) Cultural Policy and Heritage, 2) Citizenship, Community, and the Public Sphere, and 3) Pedagogy, Education, and Development.

Please register early through the link below. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing instructions about joining the webinar. You are free to join and leave the webinar at a time of your convenience.

Please note that the webinar may be recorded by the Singapore Research Nexus. For enquiries, please contact us at nexus@nus.edu.sg.

Date: Thursday, 26 November 2020

Time: 10 AM to 4:50 PM (SGT)

Registration at Zoom: https://nus-sg.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IlxCcG5eR4CbHbMkDST7fw

Full Programme available here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/187NzhwQJyImvHVxJwgRVADETJVVcFtvu/view?usp=sharing

Schedule

26 NOVEMBER 2020 (Thursday)
10:00 – 10:10 REGISTRATION
10:10 – 10:15 WELCOME REMARKS
Lionel Wee | Professor and Vice Dean of Research, NUS FASS
10:15 – 12:20 PANEL 1 – CULTURAL POLICY AND HERITAGE
10:15 – 10:20 Introduction of Researchers

Priya Jaradi | Lecturer, NUS History
10:20 – 10:40 White Walls Don’t Say Much: Creative Placemaking in Singapore

T.C. Chang | Associate Professor, NUS Geography
10:40 – 11:00 Singapore Chronicles: Theatre

Robin Loon | Associate Professor, NUS English Language and Literature
11:00 – 11:20 Heritagescaping the Southern Islands of Singapore “from below”

Hamzah Bin Muzaini | Assistant Professor, NUS Southeast Asian Studies
11:20 – 11:40 Community Arts and Culture Initiatives in Singapore: Spatial Opportunities and Impacts

Zdravko Trivic | Assistant Professor, NUS Architecture
11:40 – 12:20 Q & A
12:20 – 13:20 LUNCH BREAK
13:20 – 14:55 PANEL 2 – PEDAGOGY, EDUCATION, AND DEVELOPMENT
13:20 – 13:25 Introduction of Researchers

Lee Li Neng | Lecturer, NUS Psychology
13:25 – 13:45 Getting Ahead in Singapore: How Neighborhoods, Gender, and Ethnicity Affect Enrollment into Elite Schools

Vincent Chua | Associate Professor, NUS Sociology
13:45 – 14:05 The Promise and Pitfalls of Gradeless Learning: Responses to an Alternative Approach to Grading

Chris McMorran | Associate Professor, NUS Japanese Studies
14:05 – 14:25 Research from the Generative Space of the Classroom: Balancing Time and Impact

Kamalini Ramdas | Senior Lecturer, NUS Geography
14:25 – 14:55 Q & A
14:55 – 15:10 TEA BREAK
15:10 – 16:45 Panel 3 – CITIZENSHIP, COMMUNITY, AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
15:10 – 15:15 Introduction of Researchers

Elvin Ong | Senior Tutor, NUS Political Science
15:15 – 15:35 Perceived Electoral Fairness and Media Use: Evidences from two General Elections

Weiyu Zhang | Associate Professor, NUS Communications and New Media
15:35 – 15:55 The Burdens of Ethnicity: Chinese Communities in Singapore and Their Relations with the PRC

Chong Ja Ian | Associate Professor, NUS Political Science
15:55 – 16:15 Citizenship and multilingual (homo)nationalism in Singapore’s Pink Dot discourse

Michelle M. Lazar | Associate Professor, NUS English Language and Literature
16:15 – 16:45 Q & A
16:45 – 16:50 CLOSING REMARKS
Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho | Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Research, NUS FASS

 

About the Participants

Associate Professor T. C. Chang is a tourism geographer by training, and has research interests in urban, social-cultural and tourism geographies. His research interests include Southeast Asian tourism, vernacular architecture and heritage, arts, culture, and creativity in Asian cities. A/P Chang was Assistant Dean (Alumni and External Relations, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, NUS) in 2008-2010 and Vice Dean (External Relations and Student Life, June 2010-December 2015). He was awarded the NUS Outstanding Educator Award 2006 and the Annual Teaching Excellence Award 2008.
robin loon Robin Loon is Associate Professor at the NUS Department of English Language and Literature. His current research/teaching interests include popular culture and performance, Singapore Theatre (with special focus on Singapore English Language Theatre), media, and performance.  An active participant in the Singapore English Language Theatre scene since 1991, he has also written for the local stage. His work in theatre now mainly involves dramaturgy and play-writing.

A/P Loon conceptualized and ran Singapore’s first Dramaturg Apprentice Programme at Centre 42 in 2015 and co-organized the inaugural Asian Dramaturgs’ Network Symposium in 2016, founded by Dr Lim How Ngean. In 2014, together with Casey Lim, Chiu Chien Seen, and Michele Lim, A/P Loon set up Centre 42, a up-stream content-creation centre for Singapore theatre in partnership with the National Arts Council.
Assistant Professor Hamzah bin Muzaini is a cultural geographer at the Department of Southeast Asian Studies, NUS. His primary work explores the politics of remembering and forgetting, particularly as this intersects with issues of war, heritage, landscape, and postcoloniality. While his primary work has been centred on how the heritage of the Second World War has commemorated in Singapore and Malaysia, he is also broadening this into understanding the phenomenon of cultural theme parks in East Malaysia, migrant heritage making ‘from below’ among the Moluccans in the Netherlands, and the practices and politics of heritagizing the Southern Islands in Singapore (with emphasis on St John’s, Lazarus, and Seringat Islands). He has published in internationally refereed journals and is co-author/editor of Contested Memoryscapes: the Politics of Second World War Commemoration in Singapore (2016, Routledge, with Brenda Yeoh) and After Heritage: Critical Issues of Heritage from Below (2018, Edward Elgar, with Claudio Minca).
Zdravko Trivic is Assistant Professor at the NUS Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment (SDE). He works closely with CSAC (Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities), CARE (Centre for Ageing Research in the Environment) and CFA (Centre For the Arts), NUS. His research interests include: multi-sensorial urbanism, health-supportive and ageing-friendly design, urban space in high-density contexts, creative placemaking and community participation. Dr Trivic is the author of Community Arts and Culture Initiatives in Singapore: Understanding the Nodal Approach (NY, London; New York: Routledge, 2020) and the co-author of Re-framing Urban Space: Urban Design for Emerging Hybrid and High-density Conditions (with Cho and Heng; New York: Routledge, 2016), among other publications. He is the recipient of two outstanding paper awards at the UIA 2017 Seoul World Architects Congress.
jaradi, priya Priya Jaradi is senior lecturer at the Department of History. She is Convenor for Art History, a collaboration between National University of Singapore (NUS) and the National Gallery Singapore. Former Curator at the Asian Civilisations Museum, she combines her curatorial and scholarly interests in teaching and research. Her past publications with Oxford University Press and Marg reveal her interests in art collecting and princely modernities in South Asia. Her current research for the NUS Museum examines India-Singapore museum exchange within the context of Cold War diplomacy, the Non-Aligned Movement, and decolonization. She is a recipient of the Getty Foundation Grant for 2020 and 2021. In keeping with the multi-disciplinary ethos of her past projects, Dr Jaradi hopes to grow the Faculty’s Art History Minor and inspire students to emerge as practitioners, curators, and scholars.
chua vincent Vincent Chua is Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Sociology.  He received his PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto in November 2010. His main research area is social networks with an emphasis on social capital – primarily how institutional factors such as labour markets and education affect the job search and networking practices of people. His other research area is the sociology of education.
Chris McMorran is Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Japanese Studies. A cultural geographer of contemporary Japan, his research analyzes how identity and meaning are built, practiced, experienced, and read in cultural landscapes. He has studied these processes through the lenses of tourism and labor, which has led to publications in Mobilities, Landscape Journal, Area, Tourism Geographies, and in a 2018 volume titled Rethinking Japanese Feminisms. This work will appear in the forthcoming book, Last Resort: Labor, Tourism, and Identity in Japan (University of Hawai’i Press).

A/P McMorran is also interested in the geographies of teaching and learning. Along these lines, in 2018 he was awarded a LIFT Grant ($70K) to research podcasting as a teaching and learning tool and to produce the “Home on the Dot” podcast, which takes inspiration from student research projects to analyze the multifaceted meanings of home in Singapore. In 2020, Season 3, which is devoted to stories of how Covid-19 has impacted home, began airing.
Kamalini Ramdas is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Geography. She teaches modules in social and cultural geography. Dr Ramdas is particularly interested in the spatialities of gender, sexuality, and ‘race’ and the application of social theory in geography. Her specific areas of interest include feminist care ethics, critical geographies of familyhood, and community and queer politics.
Dr Lee Li Neng is a Lecturer at the NUS Department of Psychology. He is interested in looking at how education shapes perceptions on learning and developing the youth holistically, especially in the areas of critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity. Concurrently, he is also interested in innovations and advances in education, and how technology can be utilised to provide a more personalised form of education for individuals and support the development of good teaching.
zhang weiyu Weiyu Zhang is Associate Professor at the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on civic engagement and ICTs, with an emphasis on Asia. She is the author of the book The Internet and New Social Formation in China: Fandom Publics in the Making (Routledge, 2016). Her published articles have appeared in Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Information, Communication, & Society, New Media & Society, Computers & Education, Public Understanding of Science, the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, and many other journals. She recently completed a project that develops and examines an online platform for citizen deliberation. #CivicTech #OnlineDeliberation #FanActivism
ja ian chong Chong Ja Ian is Associate Professor at the NUS Department of Political Science. The focus of his teaching and research is on international relations, especially IR theory, security, Chinese foreign policy, and international relations in the Asia-Pacific. Of particular interest to him are issues that stand at the nexus of international and domestic politics, such as influences on nationalism and the consequences of major power competition on the domestic politics of third countries. A/P Chong is author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation — China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge, 2012), which received the 2013 Best Book Award from the International Security Studies Section of the International Studies Association. He was a Harvard-Yenching Visiting Scholar in 2019-2020.
https://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/ellmml/IMG_1416.JPGedited.jpg Michelle M. Lazar is Associate Professor and Head of the NUS Department of English Language and Literature. A linguist, she specialises in critical discourse studies, gender and sexuality, media and politics, and multimodal discourse analysis. Michelle is founding editor of the Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse monograph series, is an advisory board member of the Oxford Language, Gender, and Sexuality book series, and is on the editorial boards of Critical Discourse Studies, Discourse & Society, Social Semiotics, and Gender & Language.
Dr Elvin Ong is Senior Tutor in the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. He was previously a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Institute of Asian Research (IAR) at the University of British Columbia. His primary research interests are in the politics and policies of authoritarian regimes, with specific focus on the formation of opposition coalitions contesting against a dominant incumbent. His book manuscript, Opposing Power: Building Opposition Alliances in Electoral Autocracies, is under contract with the University of Michigan Press, Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies Series.
Lionel Wee is Professor at the Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore and Vice Dean of Research at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. A linguist, he is interested in language policy (especially in Southeast Asia), the grammar of Singapore English, metaphorical discourse, and general issues in sociolinguistics and pragmatics. He has published in the Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse Studies, Language in Society, Journal of Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, and Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, among others.
ho elaine lynn-ee Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho is Associate Professor at the Department of Geography and Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), National University of Singapore. She is also Assistant Dean (Research Division) at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Her research addresses how citizenship is changing as a result of multi-directional migration flows in the Asia-Pacific. She is author of Citizens in Motion: Emigration, Immigration and Re-migration Across China’s Borders (2019, Stanford University Press). Her current research focuses on two domains: first, transnational ageing and care in the Asia-Pacific; and second, im/mobilities and diaspora aid at the China-Myanmar border. She is Editor of Social and Cultural Geography, and serves on several journal editorial boards.

 

FASS90 GALA DINNER | Looking Back, Pressing Forward

fasswebmaster Alumni, Announcements, Events, Student Life , ,

NUS FASS marked its 90th anniversary, the Dean delivered a strong performance on stage, and Guest of Honour Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister for Manpower, called for further government-academia collaboration on public policy.

From its beginnings in 1929 as part of Raffles College offering three-year diplomas in English, Economics, History and Geography, to its position today as a global top 20 provider of higher education in the Arts & Humanities and Social Sciences & Management, the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) has come a long way.

Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister of Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs, talked about the ways academia can help drive public policy and called for their greater collaboration with the government.Photo Credit: Ministry of Manpower

The Dean of FASS, Professor Robbie Goh, referenced this journey during his opening address at FASS 90th Anniversary Gala Dinner on Friday (15 November 2019) evening. “FASS began life…with the four founding majors of English, History and Geography. Its inaugural intake was 43 students,” said Professor Goh. “Fast forward 90 years…FASS takes in about 1,600 undergraduate students each, has 16 departments offering 20 majors, [and so far can count] among its alumni – a President, a Prime Minister, several Ministers and ambassadors, and other top civil servants of Singapore, along with notable CEOs, entrepreneurs, well-known actors, musicians and others who have contributed much to the world.”

Professor Goh performed for all supporters of FASS’s fundraising efforts.

Professor Goh proceeded to share details of initiatives and programmes already underway at NUS FASS with close to 300 alumni, staff, students and other supporters who packed the Empress Ballroom at Carlton Hotel in downtown Singapore to celebrate the Faculty’s 90th anniversary. These included the launch of: a new major under the Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) programme; joint and double degree programmes with overseas partners (the latest being the University of California, Berkeley); the FASS Social Incubator Programme, which sees to the provision of seed money to students working on innovative solutions to social work issues; and the “Industry Tracks” programme, which seeks to enhance the employability of FASS graduates by giving them the training, guidance and experience they need to succeed in the key industry segments most likely to hire them.

Assembled to cut FASS’s 90th Birthday cake (from left): Professor Goh; Professor Ho; Emeritus Professor Edwin Thumboo; Mr Archie Ong; Mrs Tan Suan Imm; Mr Soh Yi Da; Ms Zoey Lim, President, NUS Students’ Arts and Social Sciences Club.

Guest of Honour Mrs Josephine Teo, Minister of Manpower and Second Minister for Home Affairs, a FASS alumnus herself, shared the Government’s current approaches to helping ensure Singapore’s ageing population have sufficient funds to retire comfortably. She cited some of the major contributions the academic community has made to Central Provident Fund (CPF) policy to date, and called for further Government-academia collaboration in specific areas of research and public communications. Among her suggestions are programmes that seek to answer questions such as: How can it be ensured that the Basic Retirement Sum (BRS) of each CPF member is sufficient to cover basic expenses in the future?; How can the Government increase understanding of and promote take-up of schemes meant to enable retirees to supplement their incomes by making use of their HDB apartments?; How can older workers be incentivised to start their payouts later, so they will have higher payouts when they eventually retire?

Professor Ho Teck Hua, Senior Deputy President and Provost, NUS, sealed the FASS Leapfrog Time Capsule.

“We can make our system better through constantly looking over the horizon and planning ahead. In that sense, the CPF must remain a ‘live system’, always evolving and ever-responsive to emerging needs,” Mrs Teo said. “We hope that the academic and social science research community can join us to make it better.”Immediately following a dazzling Malay dance performance by dance group NUS Ilsa Tari, came students Wesley Wang (Year 2 Linguistics Major) and Nediva Singam (Year 4 Geography Major) sharing their experiences and lessons learnt during their respective turns in overseas exchange study programmes. They spoke in support of the launch of the new FASS Student Advancement Fund that extends further financial support for needy students.

NUS Ilsa Tari in perfect form

The proceeds of the Gala Dinner went directly to this fund, and the generosity of all donors so moved Professor Goh that he dedicated his rendition of James Taylor’s classic You’ve Got a Friend and the timeless hymn by John Newton, Amazing Grace to them. The audience returned his gesture not just with heartfelt applause.

Professor Goh, Professor Ho Teck Hua, Senior Deputy President and Provost, NUS, Singapore’s legendary poet Emeritus Professor Edwin Thumboo, illustrious Singapore educator and alumnus Mrs Tan Suan Imm, and, distinguished alumni Archie Ong and Soh Yi Da, who played key roles on the FASS 90 Gala Dinner Committee, came together to cut FASS’s 90th birthday cake.

Vernon Cornelius (of the Quests from 1960s Singapore) and his band in action

The climax of the event was the sealing of the FASS Leapfrog Time Capsule in commemoration of FASS’s 90th Anniversary. Professors Goh and Ho placed items representing the Deanery, every department, alumni, student body, along with the day’s edition of The Straits Times into the time capsule, which they set to reopen in 2079 on the occasion of FASS’s 150th anniversary. Professor Ho then sealed it by pressing a virtual button on an iPad, setting off confetti and cheers from everyone.

Joint Book Launch – Citizens in Motion: Emigration, Immigration, and Re-migration Across China’s Borders & Marrying for a Future: Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War

fasswebmaster Events, Faculty Events , , , ,
A joint book launch celebrating the release of Citizens in Motion: Emigration, Immigration, and Re-migration Across China’s Borders by Associate Professor Elaine Ho (NUS Department of Geography and FASS Research Division) and Marrying for a Future: Transnational Sri Lankan Tamil Marriages in the Shadow of War by Assistant Professor Sidharthan Maunaguru (NUS Department of South Asian Studies and NUS Department of Sociology) will be held at the Pod, NLB on Tuesday, 7th May 2019.
 
In Citizens in Motion, A/P Ho examines the migration patterns and multifaceted national affiliations of both elaine hoChinese migrants overseas and foreign migrants in China. Through interviews and ethnographic observations conducted in China, Canada, Singapore, and the China-Myanmar border, A/P Ho captures the rich diversity of contemporary Chinese migration processes. By bringing together these various experiences and national contexts, A/P Ho offers an insightful analysis of the challenges and opportunities facing nation-building and cultural diversity management mediated by the influences of migration processes.
marrying for a futureAsst Prof Maunaguru focuses on Sri Lanka in Marrying for a Future, where he argues that the social institution of marriage sidharthan maunaguruserves as a critical means of reuniting dispersed segments of Tamil communities who fled Sri Lanka during the almost 26 year civil war. This is because key agents and elements of marriage such as marriage brokers and transit places help foster connections between these fragmented communities. Importantly, the book offers an interesting take on migration issues by situating transnational marriage within the larger scholarship of forced displacement and refugees.
 
Together, A/P Ho and Asst Prof Maunaguru contribute unique approaches to studying migration and opens up possibilities for future scholarship to build on these alternative perspectives. If you are interested to hear more from the authors themselves, please RSVP to reserve your seat. The event details are as follows:
Date: Tuesday, 7th May 2019
 
Time: 6.00–8.30pm
Venue: The Pod, National Library Building
 
Organizers: Singapore Research Nexus and FASS Migration Cluster, FASS Research Division
 
Click here for additional details.
 

FASS Bookshare – 2 March (Thursday), Noon, at the RD Seminar Room on L6, AS 7

fasswebmaster Faculty Events, Research , ,

FASS Bookshare is back for 2017! Check out the Bookshare catalogue here and reserve your seats here.

Programme

11:45am-12pm: Registration and Refreshments

12-12:05pm: Lionel Wee introduces the authors and books

12:05-12:20: Khairudin Aljunied presents Muslim Cosmopolitanism: Southeast Asian Islam in Comparative Perspective

12:20-12:35: Tim Bunnell presents From World City to the World in One City: Liverpool Through Malay Lives

12:35-12:50: Jamie Gillen presents Entrepreneurialism and Tourism in Contemporary Vietnam

12:50-1:05: Q & A session

1:05: Light Bites