History

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East Asia History
Singapore History
Southeast Asian History

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School of Humanitites and Social Sciences

Name	Research Interests
Assoc Prof Andrea Nanetti	Dr Andrea Nanetti—as a scholar, who started his research vocation in historical studies at the advent of computer operating systems with graphical user interfaces—has always been fascinated by the exponential growth of interdependencies between artificial actions (i.e., human made) and computational operations (i.e., completed by electronic devices able to store and process data, typically in binary form, according to instructions given to them in a variable program or machine learning, which allows algorithms to learn through experience, and do things that we are not able to program). With this interest, he is proposing the theoretical need to direct traditional disciplinary knowledge toward a formal science of heritage (i.e., the treasure of human experiences), which will focus on how data and information—now encoded in complex interactions of written, pictorial, sculptural, architectural, and digital records, oral memories, practices, and performed rituals—may be inherited by machine learning algorithms. This state-of-the-art science pioneers integrated action plans and solutions in response to, and in anticipation of, the exponential growth of emerging needs in our increasingly complex human society. In practice, the research uses multidisciplinary and trans-disciplinary methods to identify case studies for interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary teamwork investigations. Since 2007, Dr Nanetti's main research project is EHM-Engineering Historical Memory (http://www.engineeringhistoricalmemory.com, since 2015 on Microsoft Azure). EHM is both an experimental methodology and an ongoing research project for the organization of historical information in the machine learning age. He first theorized it as a Visiting Scholar at Princeton University in 2007. Since his arrival at NTU in 2013, Dr Nanetti has been working on the globalisation of his research interests. Starting from his background studies on the world as seen from Venice through its chronicles and diaries (1205-1433) and world maps (e.g. Fra Mauro), he opened the range of the investigation of other coeval historiographical traditions, in Chinese, Greek, Russian, Persian, and Arab. EHM develops and tests new sets of shared conceptualizations and formal specifications for content management systems in the domain of the Digital Humanities, with a focus on how to engineer the treasure of human experiences and serve decision making, knowledge transmission, and visionarios. In practice, his research develops and applies computationally intensive techniques (e.g., pattern recognition, data mining, machine learning algorithms derived from other disciplines, knowledge aggregators, interactive and visualization solutions). From a theory point of view, EHM focuses on history of historiography and studies new ontologies for the semantic web, inspired by Derrida's notion of trace, Ginzburg's "thread and traces" theory, and last but not least Umberto Eco's semiotics (e.g., 2007 'Dall'Albero al Labirinto', published in English in 2015 as 'From the Tree to the Labyrinth'). In his long-term strategic fit at the NTU Singapore School of Art, Design and Media, Dr Nanetti is designing and engineering a new generation of knowledge aggregators for immersive spaces to test how interactive media and AI can share the century-old experiences of Arts and Humanities with Sciences. In this intellectual framework in 2017 Dr Nanetti initiated an interdisciplinary project to revitalise the social nature of learning experiences from a transcultural perspective. The project is called “Dancing over Ideas of Research”. D.A.N.C.I.N.G. identifies the knowledge aggregation process (Definition, Assumption, Notion, Concept, Interpretation, Narrative, Gamut), which uses AI in immersive spaces to augment and expand the human capacity to discuss complex ideas (i.e., ways of seeing and representing reality) and ultimately facilitate solutions to the 21st century grand challenges.
Mr Benjamin Alexander Slater	Screenwriting Craft and Practice Fiction, Narratives & Storytelling Interactive & Experiential Narratives Urban Space, Psychogeography Film Histories & Criticism Creative Writing
Prof Chan Kam Leung Alan	Chinese Philosophy and Religion; Hermeneutics and Critical Theory; Comparative Philosophy and Religion
Asst Prof Chang Yuan	Intellectual history, social thought, political philosophy.
Prof Choi Chi-Cheung	Chinese festivals and popular religion Chinese Business history South China and overseas Chinese Chinese family and lineage, genealogies.
Asst Prof Christopher Peter Trigg	The American Puritans The Radical Enlightenment Transcendentalism Political Theology Religion in American Literature
Dr Cui Feng	Translation Studies, Comparative Literature
Assoc Prof Danne Ojeda Hernandez	Her current research is devoted to the disciplinary redefinitions of Graphic Design and its implications in contemporary visual culture. It analyses antithetical aspects within the evolution of graphic design, like its communicative and allegoric nature, autonomy and social commitment, and expressivity and new media standards. The theoretical basis of this research includes binary concepts like natural/artificial, original/copy, public/private, and physical/virtual. The research is methodologically structured upon close readings of a variety of visual objects from the perspective of graphic design. These objects are discusses in connection with different sorts of conceptual platforms, like manifestos, (un)realized projects, curatorial proposals and critical reviews among others sources within today's dominant orientations in graphic design. Moreover, her areas of interest can be summarized as follow: Issues in Visual Communication/Contemporary Design, Design Theory, Art/Design and Pedagogy, Design and Science and Art and Design relations. Her areas of specializations regarding professional practice are mainly editorial and exhibition design. At NTU, Prof. Ojeda is engaged (or has been engaged) with the following projects: TIER1 [2018] by Ministry of Education (MOE) › One and Three Books. An on going pedagogical and research project. TIER1 [2013] by Ministry of Education (MOE) › D-SIGN-LAB. Research Experiments on Art, Design and Science with a focus on Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) Analysis. TIER0 [2010] Asian-Pacific Mega-exhibitions: A Critical Perspective RCC [2009] For the Sake of a Second Life: Approaches to Sustainable Design — Selection of Danne Ojeda’s works: http://www.d-file.com https://www.paperbrains.net/ https://www.vanitas-book.com —
Dr F. Perono Cacciafoco	Historical Linguistics, Etymology, Diachronic Toponymy, Historical Semantics, Onomastics, Indo-European Linguistics, Language Documentation, Descriptive Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Austronesian and Papuan Languages, Landscape Archaeology
Dr Faizah Binte Zakaria	I am currently working on a book manuscript based on my PhD dissertation, tentatively titled, "Spiritual Anthropocene: Environmental and Religious Conversions in Maritime Southeast Asia in the long 19th Century." My project uses the North Sumatran highlands as a case study to examine how mass religious conversion from animism to monotheism was catalyzed by the transformation of the environment as well as large- scale migration working as a holistic system embedded in global networks. As a postdoctoral research fellow, I will be building on this research to develop a monograph that demonstrates how religious beliefs about the natural world have a dialectical impact on environmental management due to this interconnected global network. Of central interest are the following questions: how do religious beliefs shape a maritime Southeast Asian environmentalism? Conversely, how do changes to our local environments impact religious thought? The project will also further interrogate the idea of the Anthropocene to examine how the concept goes beyond geology and material landscapes as well as time by factoring in how sacred landscapes overlay natural ones. More broadly, my research interests sits at the nexus of history and anthropology, including: world and imperial history, indigenous peoples and religions, environmental justice and sustainability, mass violence, human rights and the Anthropocene.
Asst Prof Fang Xiaoping	History of medicine, health, and disease in twentieth-century China Rural China after 1949 Modern Chinese history
Assoc Prof Goh Geok Yian	Associate Professor Goh Geok Yian's areas of expertise are: early history of Burma and Southeast Asia, premodern communication, cultural, religious and trade networks, and study of early urbanization. She currently leads a multi-year project in Bagan, Myanmar and Singapore focusing on ceramics analysis and urbanization. Her current research in Singapore deals with the analysis of materials excavated from two sites: St. Andrew’s Cathedral and Fort Canning Spice Gardens. She is also completing an English translation of a 20th-century Burmese novel by a well-known author, Ma Sandar. Geok has also plans to further her research in the study of Buddhist architecture and mural paintings of Bagan, continuing work on a project which she began in 2008.
Assoc Prof Hallam Stevens	My research focuses on the intersection between information technology and biotechnology. My first book is an historical and ethnographic account of the changes wrought to biological practice and biological knowledge by the introduction of the computer. Especially in highly computerized fields such as genomics, the computer has changed how biologists work, how biologists collaborate, and how biologists make knowledge. I am currently pursuing two ongoing research projects. The first is an attempt to develop new methods of studying scientific practice by deploying tools from performance studies. In collaboration with a performance studies scholar, I am examining spaces of biomedical work in East Asia in an effort to deepen our understanding of how such spaces fit into the economic, social, and political context of the cities in which they sit. Sites under examination include Biopolis in Singapore and BGI in Shenzhen. The second project examines the emergence of "big data." This apparently new field is quite suddenly having an immense impact on politics, the economy, and many aspects of our social world. What is really new about big data? What kinds of changes may it bring? Who will benefit? Historians of technology, in particular, are well equipped to ask and answer such important questions about this emerging phenomenon. In addition to these projects, I have just completed a general audience book that examines that provides a broad overview of the social, political, and economic effects of biotechnology. The book will be published under the title "Biotechnology & Society" in 2016 (University of Chicago Press). I am interested in supervising PhD students on topics related to the history of the life sciences, the history of information technology, and science and technology studies.
Assoc Prof I Lo-fen	Text and Image Studies Chinese Poetry and Visual Art Chinese Literary Works on Paintings Su Shi Studies Interchange of East-Asian Culture and Literature in Classical Chinese Asian Visual Culture and Aesthetics
Asst Prof Jessica Bridgette Hinchy	Areas of research interest: - Gender and sexuality in both South Asia and the British Empire - Colonialism, in particular colonial governance, law and forms of colonial knowledge - Criminal law, discourses of criminality and the criminalisation of marginalised peoples - Slavery in eighteenth and nineteenth century South Asia - History of childhood in South Asia
Asst Prof Justin Clark	Justin Clark is an historian of visual and urban culture in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Assoc Prof Kamaludeen Bin Mohamed Nasir	Sociology of Religion; Cultural Sociology; Social Theory; Deviance and Social Control; Globalization; Sociology of Youth.
Asst Prof Katherine Hindley	Old English Literature Middle English Literature Charms and Amulets History of Magic History of Medicine Manuscript Studies
Asst Prof Kei Koga	IR theory International institutions Institutional change International Security East Asian regional security Comparative regionalism US-Japan Relations ASEAN China
Asst Prof Kevin Andrew Riordan	Modernism Theater and Performance Theory Comparative and World Literatures Cinema
Prof Kingsley Bolton	Professor Bolton's research interests include English in Asia, English in higher education, language and media, the sociolinguistics of globalization, world Englishes, and other related topics. His publications include fifteen books (edited and authored), five journal special issues, and seventy journal articles and book chapters. He is Co-editor of the influential SSCI-indexed journal World Englishes (Wiley-Blackwell), founding editor of the book series Asian Englishes Today (Hong Kong University Press), and The History and Development of World Englishes (Routledge). He is also a member of the editorial board of Applied Linguistics Review, Educational Studies, English Today, English World-Wide, and the international book series Multilingual Education (Springer). He has an active and continuing publication agenda, much of which focuses on English in the Asian region and worldwide. A number of Professors Bolton's publications can be found here, http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/kbolton/
Asst Prof Koh Keng We	Asian and Comparative Business History; Maritime Trade; Southeast Asian History; Chinese Religions and Comparative Religions; Asian Migrations and Comparative Diasporas; Colonialism; Colonial Knowledge-Formation; State-formations; World History/Global History
Assoc Prof Kwan Sze Pui Uganda	Translation Studies (Translation History; Gender issues in cross cultural translation; Literary translation) Comparative Modern Sino-Japanese Literature British Sinology in the 19th Century Hong Kong Literature
Assoc Prof Laura Miotto	My research interests span the areas of: • theories, methods and design processes used in exhibitions design and spatial narratives in the context of museums and public places • understanding Exhibition Design historically and in relation to the new socioeconomic realities of Singapore and other modern Asian societies
Asst Prof Lee Sang Joon	My current manuscript project, tentatively titled 'The Asian Film Festival and the Emergence of Transnational Cinema Network in Cold War Asia' is a book-length study on the cultural history of the Asian Film Festival. This will trace the early history of the festival and explore the ways in which cold war politics, ideology, international relations, and nationalism have shaped this regional film festival, led by the Japanese film industry, in postwar Asia, and to what extent the festival had influenced the regional film industries and cultures during its first two decades, from 1953 to 1972. As part of my future research plans, I also plan to write a critical investigation of the Korean cinema renaissance in the 1990s and the beginning of the new millennium. Instead of analyzing industrial structures or scrutinizing single/multiple texts, this project, tentatively titled 'Celluloid Korea: Cinema at the End of the Century,' will examine the particular phenomenon from the perspectives that consider manifold factors; cine-club movements, the emergence of film schools, translations and interpretations of critical theories, film journals, multiplexes, and the intellectuals’ turn to the cultural industries throughout the 1990s. I will particularly address to what extent politics, new economic conditions, social changes, and nationalism have shaped Korean screen cultures and industry throughout the past two decades. In tandem with the above project, I am writing critical essays on contemporary practices of transnational media connections between Korea, Japan, and China, Korean popular culture and social media, and a new method of writing transnational film history that is especially important for regions linked by both cultural correspondences and political systems.
Asst Prof Liew Kai Khiun	1. Transnational Popular Cultural Flows 2. Heritage Studies 3. Social media cultures 4. Singapore Studies 5. Medical Humanities
Prof Liow Chin Yong, Joseph	My research interests are varied. I have worked extensively on Muslim social and political movements in Southeast Asia, as well as religion, nationalism and political violence in the region. More recently, I have taken a keen interest in broader issues of the geopolitics and geoeconomics of the Asia-Pacific region, focusing primarily on Sino-US relations and the implications of its twists and turns for the wider region.
Prof Liu Hong	Current Research Areas • China rising and implications for Southeast Asia • Chinese international migration, nationalism, transnationalism • Transnational knowledge transfer and dynamic governance in the Global South (with special reference to China, Southeast Asia and Africa) • Global talent strategies and management
Prof Michael John Kirk Walsh	My research falls under the umbrella term 'Conflict and Culture' and can be subdivided into three main categories: 1. British (and imperial) cultural production in the first two decades of the 20th century (especially in relation to the Great War) 2. Heritage in Conflict and Post-conflict Zones: Famagusta, Cyprus. 3. Twentieth century music biography (with an emphasis on protest and pacificism)
Asst Prof Michael Stanley-Baker	Chinese Medicine Chinese Religions Digital Humanities Medical Anthropology Chinese Literature and History Asian Medicines
Asst Prof Miles Alexander Powell	My areas of expertise and interest include environmental history, world history, indigenous history, the history of the North American West, and U.S. history.
Asst Prof Nanci Takeyama	Three main research interests: -Symbolic meaning of traditional forms in Asia -Preservation of Asian traditional arts and crafts, heritage management -Design for social innovation, design thinking, participatory design Areas of professional expertise: -Corporate Identity -Package Design -Typography, applied typography -Editorial Design -Information architecture -Environmental Design Important research key words: -Meaning of symbols in Asian traditions (crafts, rituals, myths) -Mandala -Cosmology
Assoc Prof Ng Woon Lam	His research interests include areas in Art Education, Scientific study of art materials, Oriental Art History and Culture, South East Asia Art, Classical Painting language in Contemporary Art and Digital Animation, Digital Painting, Design, Illustration and Fine Art. Potential researchers, Phd / MA students may contact him directly to discuss possible research collaborations or supervision. Looking for potential Phd students / Master students in Computer Science or Engineering to work with Python programming for MAYA. The program is to work for Calligraphic brushworks in 3D space. Interested potential students, please contact Asst. Prof. Ng Woon Lam : ngwoonlam@ntu.edu.sg Looking for suitable MA students to work on Fine Art related research, focusing on colors and design
Asst Prof Ngoei Wen-Qing	U.S. empire and foreign relations history Global Cold War history Decolonization in Southeast Asia Race and Diaspora Comparative colonialism and nationalism
Asst Prof Nicholas Witkowski	Dr. Witkowski is engaged in two research projects, one belonging to the ancient world of South Asia and a second which deals with contemporary South Asian religious communities. The first is a multi-stage project that draws primarily on the Buddhist law codes (Vinaya) to demonstrate the centrality of ascetic precepts (dhūtaguṇas) to the Buddhist monastery of the middle period (0-500CE) in Indian Buddhism. Dr. Witkowski's recent publications have focused on the cultures of everyday life in the Indian Buddhist monastery. A second project focuses on the ascetic practices of South Indian communities, both within India, and across Indian diaspora communities in Southeast Asia.
Asst Prof Ong Soon Keong	Chinese migration and the overseas Chinese Modern Chinese history Chinese urban history Treaty ports, especially Xiamen
Assoc Prof Park Hyung Wook	History of Biomedical Science and Medicine History of the Body History of Aging and Gertontology Korean Science and Medicine
Prof Philippe Pirotte	-Contemporary Art -Curating and exhibition making, the memory of exhibitions - History of Art in South East Asia and more particular Indonesia -Cultural implications of the 1955 Asia-Africa Conference in Bandung
Assoc Prof Qu Jingyi	Ancient Chinese Literature and History with focus on the Han, Wei, Six Dynasties & Tang periods, Chinese Literary Historiography in the West and Cultural Heritage of Chinese Education in Singapore
Assoc Prof Quah Sy Ren	Literary and Cultural Theory Theatre and Performance Studies History of Singapore Theatre
Asst Prof Richard Alan Barlow	James Joyce Irish Studies Scottish Literature and Philosophy Modernism Digital Humanities
Prof Richard Seyler Ling	I am interested in investigating the social consequences of mobile communication. This includes the use of both qualitative and quantitative methods along with the use of so-called big data to better understand how the mobile phone and mobile communication have effected social structure.
Asst Prof Scott Michael Anthony	Before joining NTU as an Assistant Professor in Public History I had been developing the Public History programmes at the University of Cambridge and the Institute of Historical Research, London. As a writer and researcher I have worked with organisations such as the Science Museum, the British Film Institute and British Airways to develop a variety of successful events, exhibitions and media campaigns. The ambition has been (and remains) to bring the work of enthusiasts, researchers and practitioners together and apply it in creative, productive and unpredictable ways. My historical research deals with the inter-relationships between art, politics and technology. My book Public Relations and the Making of Modern Britain (MUP, 2012) examined how the emergence of so-called second industrial revolution technologies (agri-science, aviation and telecommunications) provided the bureaucratic, imaginative and demographic bedrock for the development of an Empire-wide ‘public relations movement’, a movement which pioneered innovative new media practices alongside theories about the social and industrial role of information between the First World War and mid-twentieth century. I am currently working on a book about the ways in which knowledge has been visualised since the turn of the twentieth century.
Assoc Prof Stephen Teo Kian Teck	Associate Professor Stephen Teo's current research work focuses on several aspects of theoretical interest in film. Firstly, contributing to the discourse on Asian Cinema as an alternative paradigm to Hollywood as the global form, and thus to evolve a concept of Asian Cinema as a viable cinematic and media theory supporting pedagogical and creative modules. Asian cinema and the concept of national cinema are inter-related forces but it is the latter that tends to subsume the former in theoretical discourse. Teo's research work seeks a concentrated, rigorous approach to defining Asian cinema as a specialized norm of aesthetics and thematic field that can be broadly applied to Asian films produced by diverse national film industries in Asia. How do Asian cinemas transcend national interests and become an Asian Cinema as a unitary and unifying element? With Asian film industries modelling themselves on Hollywood,how can an Asian cinema stand up as an alternative model to Hollywood? A second area of Teo's reasearch interest revolves around the nature of film in relation to cultural theory and other fields of cultural interest, including literature, history and popular arts. The literary and visual contrast inherent in cinema is a striking anomaly that calls for more theoretical investigation. Teo's work has concerned itself with how historical literary works are transposed into the cinema and how historical prototypes are transfigured as cinematic personalities but retaining essential qualities. A third area of Teo's work lies in genre and auteur studies. Teo is interested in standard Hollywood genres such as the Western, the action-adventure film, the thriller, the epic, the musical, and he seeks to explore their inter-textual connections with Asian genres such as the martial arts film, the gangster action film, the melodrama, horror, and historical epic. How do auteurs transform genre? A fourth area of research interest lies in the study of emerging Asian "New Waves" in traditionally ignored film industries such as those in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. Can these Southeast Asian cinemas make a lasting impact on the discourse of Asian cinema?
Prof Tan Yew Lee, Kevin	International Law International Human Rights Constitutional Law & Theory Legal History of Singapore
Asst Prof Van Dongen Els	Research Areas Chinese intellectuals Intellectual debates in reform China (post-1978) Conceptual history and knowledge circulation Twentieth-century Chinese historiography Intellectual history of modern China Chinese diaspora and migration Diaspora policies and nationalism Education of returned overseas Chinese during the Cold War Universities for Chinese overseas in the PRC during the reform period (post-1978) For my publications, see: http://nanyang.academia.edu/ElsvanDongen Teaching Areas HH1003 Asia-Pacific in Global History: From 1800 HH3001 Historiography: Theory and Methods HH3003 Migration and Diaspora: Chinese Experiences in Comparative Perspective HH3015 In the Name of the Nation?: Nationalism in Asia HH3021 Traitors, TV Stars, and Taboos: Representing History in Contemporary China HH4012 Intellectual History of Modern China HH7090 Special Topics in History: Global Asia
Asst Prof Yeh Hui-Yuan	Biological Anthropology Archaeological Science Bioarchaeology Human migrations Population genetics Disease prediction Disease evolution Health and society Full Publications: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivy_Hui_Yuan_Yehyehuiyuan
Asst Prof Yin Ker	Yin Ker works on narratives of art beyond the Euramerican canon, in particular, images classified as "Buddhist art" and artistic productions from South and Southeast Asia. To further her understanding of art, the artist and the history of art in these areas as variable constructs, she is currently examining the historiography of art in modern times, as well as ancient notions of material culture labelled as "art" today. She is keen to rethink art beyond the dichotomies of the pre-modern versus the modern, the sciences versus the fine arts, and spiritual experience versus scientific thinking, for example.
Assoc Prof Yow Cheun Hoe	Chinese overseas and Chinese diaspora; Relations between Chinese overseas and China; Southeast Asia, particularly Singapore and Malaysia; Qiaoxiang(ancestral homeland)areas in China, particularly Guangdong and Wenzhou; Chinese education in Southeast Asia; Chinese writers and their works in Southeast Asia; New Chinese migrants in Singapore; Chinese business networks; Transnationalism.
Dr Zeliha Gul Inanc	Contemporary Religious Art and Architecture Intercultural Education for Peace and Conflict Resolution Cultural Heritage Education Refugee Studies- Higher Education Access for the Refugee Youth
Dr Zhao Yan	Research Interest Basic research The main emphasis of our research is focused on deciphering the signal transduction pathways of drug resistance and apoptosis as it pertains to in cancer biology. Using novel (TCM herbal extracts) and established chemotherapeutic agents we are currently working on the signal transduction pathways that are crucial for inducing apoptosis in cancer cells. The role of histone deacetylase, prenylation, methylation and acetylation inhibitors are currently being investigated as therapeutic agents in the treatment of a variety of cancers. In addition, putative proto-oncogenic transcription factors, like those of Kruppel-like family of transcription factors are being investigated for their role in tumorgenesis. In trying to decipher signal transduction pathways, we are currently in the process of establishing a first order transcriptional network for these transcription factors. In conjunction with expression profile analysis, we also make use of shRNA libraries, HTS (high-throughput screening) and global transcription factor binding site analysis to answer some of the basic biology underlying drug resistance and apoptosis. TCM research Anti-cancer effects of extracts prepared from Chinese herbal medicines Anti-diabetic effects of extracts prepared from Chinese herbal medicines. Toxicity and pharmacokinetic studies on herbal extracts. Established in vivo models for senile dementia and ischemia-reperfusion on rats. Patho-physiological studies on a new TCM therapy for senile dementia. Mechanistic studies on ischemia-reperfusion injury.
Asst Prof Zhou Taomo	Modern Southeast Asian History, Modern Chinese History, Economic History, Migration, International Communist Movement, Cold War, International Relations.
Assoc Prof Zhou Zhaocheng	His research area includes history and politics of Singapore, China-Southeast Asian relationship and media-politic relationship.

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