PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Asst Prof Lee Eunbi
(Communications and New Media)

Digital Archive of Red-Light Districts: Transnational Oral History of Korean Sex Workers

This study aims to create a digital archive of Korean red-light districts, focusing on the narratives of sex workers from the 1950s to the 2020s. It challenges dominant narratives by exploring how sex workers resisted state-led anti-sex work policies and urban gentrification, thereby reclaiming their agency and voices. By providing multimodal visibility to sex workers, the research contributes to the decolonization of knowledge production, offering feminist perspectives that challenge stigmatizing
representations of sex work. The project is feasible due to the PI’s preliminary research in the interdisciplinary field, established rapport with sex workers, and the availability of archival sources.

Communicating Social Sciences: Understanding and Improving Public Perceptions

Public credibility of social sciences faces challenges like biased evaluations, ‘science-in-crisis’ narratives, and artificial intelligence. These challenges matter; public perceptions of social research can shape trust in science and beliefs about health, science, and public policy. Against this background, this project investigates 1) factors on perceptions of social sciences, 2) the nature of misunderstandings and biases, and 3) the effectiveness of behavioural interventions by employing extensive survey-experiments. This project will produce novel theoretical, empirical, and practical insights for the public understanding of social research by delivering academic publications, training students, and contributing to public engagement through online seminars and op-eds.

Beliefs and Friction in the Dating and Marriage Markets

Family formation and marital patterns are key areas of study within family economics and household economics. However, the role of information asymmetry (friction) in influencing mating success is not well understood. This project explores three critical dimensions of friction in the dating and marriage markets: (1) gender-specific differences in the emphasis placed on ideal partner traits and misaligned beliefs about the preferences of the opposite sex, (2) intertemporal inconsistencies in individual mating preferences, and (3) biases in belief recall that hinder individuals’ ability to accurately define their ideal partner ex-ante. These frictions are analysed using a speed-dating exercise and a beliefs elicitation experiment, providing insights into how information gaps and behavioural factors shape marital outcomes.

Cross-linguistic and experimental investigation of conjunction structures

Syntactic dependency is restricted in certain phrases and constructions. Investigation into these locality constraints is a major driving force in syntactic theory. Among them, the Coordinate Structure Constraint refers to the fact that a question inquiring one of the conjuncts is unacceptable. Once thought to be a universal constraint, this proposed project looks into the reported exceptions to this constraint in a variety of languages with a focus on sentences with different discourse functions. Moreover, using experimental methodology, the project investigates the sensitivity to the constraint in wh-fronting and wh-in situ questions in English, Colloquial Singapore English and Chinese.

Groundwater is an important freshwater source for the rural developing world, yet our understanding of where and how much groundwater can be consumed economically and without threat to future supplies remains incomplete. This project will employ high-resolution, high-dimensional interdisciplinary data to uncover systemic inequities in groundwater access for drinking water supply and irrigated agriculture in India and help identify major bottlenecks that could be targeted through policy interventions. Agentbased models which consider hydrogeological and socioeconomic data will inform decision frameworks for future strategies to govern groundwater through energy pricing, particularly relevant for areas with limited prior experience with groundwater pumping.

Dietary Energy and the Making of Industrial China

Nowhere was it more striking to witness what environmental historians term the “Great Acceleration”— the intensive extraction and utilization of fossil fuel energy on an unprecedented scale since the mid- 20th century—than in China. However, in China’s industrialization, fossil fuel energy, if indispensable, appeared deficient and dependent; instead, the labor and dietary energy stored in laborers’ muscles mattered more. By placing food at the core of the paradigm shift in the history of energy and industrial economy, this project delves into one of the intriguing puzzles of China’s industrialization, which belatedly and yet rapidly unfolded in the 20th century.

Bio-Inspired Robotics and Octopus Cognition: Exploring Synergies in Soft Robotics and Animal Intelligence

The interdisciplinary research project aims to explore the synergy between robotics and animal cognition by investigating octopus-inspired soft robots and their potential to enhance our understanding of octopus socio-cognitive abilities. The study will assess whether octopuses can observationally learn movement patterns from bio-inspired robotic designs and evaluate their cognitive and biomechanical abilities for intentional target-throwing. Additionally, the research will examine the suitability of octopuses as biological models for underwater throwing designs in robotics. This project has the potential to significantly advance both fields by providing insights into animal cognition and informing the design of bioinspired soft robots.

Small People, Big Tales: Reclaiming History for the People without History and Names

This proposed project addresses the pressing issue of cultural survival among indigenous communities in Asia, focusing on the Gyalrong and Yugur populations in China. It seeks to explore their proactive role in shaping historical trajectories and societal changes, emphasizing their cultural resilience in facing dehumanizing modernizing forces. Through a blend of literary analysis, archival research, and historical-comparative methods, the study offers novel insights into indigenous agency and cultural preservation. By prioritizing marginal narratives and advocating for a more inclusive approach to knowledge production, this project underscores the importance of humanistic intervention and presents a viable execution plan.

Assoc Prof Lee Jungup (SSR & Social Work)

The Social Service Research Centre (SSR) is celebrating the tenth anniversary in 2025 and is co-organising a conference with TOUCH Community Services (TOUCH). This conference will bring together social service practitioners, academics and policy makers, with the aim of sharing knowledge and fostering collaboration. With the theme “Sustained Well-being in Future-ready Communities”, the two-days conference will be graced by a Guest-of-Honour (Minister) and will feature a line-up of keynote sessions, expert-led panel discussions, interactive breakout workshops, master classes, and networking meals. A post-conference proceeding will be delivered to make social and academic impact.

Intercultural mediation enables the (co-)construction and re-construction of cultural meanings in the learning of a foreign language and culture. Recent research has shown that it has an interpersonal dimension, e.g. when intercultural mediators are involved in scaffolding a learner’s culture learning. It is also essential on an intrapersonal level and facilitates the connecting and interpreting of cultural experiences and deeper reflections that lead to the critical appraisal and re-construction of one’s cultural assumptions and attitudes. The proposed qualitative study seeks to collect data mainly through journals, interviews and observations to identify the forms of mediation that occur while foreign language learners are on short-term study abroad, and to construct a comprehensive taxonomy of intercultural mediations.