Main Research Areas at NTU:

Chinese Philosophy
Ethics (Moral Philosophy)
Philosophy of Science
Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy

The word "philosophy" comes from the Greek φιλοσοφία (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom." As a discipline, philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, mind, reason, knowledge, truth, beauty, values, and the meaning of life. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of inquiry by its critical, generally systematic, approach and its reliance on rational argument. While other fields study particular kinds of things, philosophy asks how it all fits together and aims at developing a systematic worldview.

Chinese Philosophy studies philosophical traditions with Chinese roots, such as Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, and Buddhism. These philosophies are concerned with fundamental issues related to human existence, such as virtue, freedom, reason, knowledge, love, harmony, and the good life. Investigations of these subjects are for both their historical and modern significance. In contemporary times, research in Chinese philosophy is often conducted in a comparative perspective with Western philosophy (“comparative philosophy”).

Ethics (Moral Philosophy) is the philosophical study of morality. Central questions in ethics include the following: What is morality? What considerations make an action morally right or wrong? What is a good life? Research in ethics spans three subfields: meta-ethics (the study of the meaning and justification of moral beliefs), moral psychology (the study of the psychological causes underlying moral thought and action), and normative ethics (the study of morally appropriate decision-making).

Philosophy of Science is concerned with the nature of scientific investigation and knowledge. It examines the foundations, assumptions, and methods of scientific practice as well as the consequences that scientific investigation has, or ought to have, for our beliefs about the world and our way of organizing society. Some of its areas of study include scientific explanation, scientific inference, confirmation of scientific theories, scientific realism and anti-realism, the distinction between science and non-science, the nature of observation, scientific reduction, causation, scientific laws, philosophy of physics, philosophy of biology, philosophy of cognitive science, philosophy of the social sciences, and science ethics.

Social Philosophy and Political Philosophy are closely related areas of philosophical inquiry. Social philosophy studies issues related to social justice. It asks question such as, What are the characteristics of a just society? What is social fairness? Is gender equality essential to a good society? Political philosophy focuses mainly on issues related to the role and legitimacy of government. Its topics include liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of legal code by authority.

Name	Research Interests
Assoc Prof Andres Carlos Luco	My research interests fall mainly into meta-ethics, moral psychology, and social & political philosophy. I am interested in such topics as the rationality of moral action; the psychology of moral motivation; the evolution of morality; social norms; theories of well-being; distributive justice; and human rights.
Asst Prof Andrew T. Forcehimes	Metaethics Normative Ethics Political Philosophy
Asst Prof Chang Yuan	Intellectual history, social thought, political philosophy.
Asst Prof Chiang Hui Ling Michelle	Modernism Theatre of the Absurd Beckett Studies Horror Studies Philosophy of Time and Mind
Assoc Prof Christopher Holman	-history of political thought (particularly early-modern and modern) -contemporary political theory -critical theory -democratic theory -political anthropology -psychoanalysis and politics
Asst Prof Christopher Peter Trigg	The American Puritans The Radical Enlightenment Transcendentalism Political Theology Religion in American Literature
Dr Chuang Christina	Ethics, History of Ethics, Moral Psychology, Indian Philosophy
Assoc Prof Chul Heo	Chul's scholarly interests focus on the study of production culture and aesthetics of film and television with a critical cultural studies approach. In particular, he is interested in critical and aesthetic implications of the look and sound of film and television, e.g. production design and sound design. To understand production culture of film and television, he pays attention to people who make creative decisions to deal with production conventions, creative rights, constraints and possibility in their institutional contexts, and the imagined audience in production process. Research areas - Imagined Audience in Media Production - Production Culture: Convention, Aesthetics, and Style - Media and the Public Sphere - Cultural Politics of Sound and Production Design - Digital technology and Filmmaking: Data Mining and Media Production - Production Culture of South East Asian Cinema and Korean Cinema - Documentary: History, Theory, and Aesthetics Selected Creative Works Feature Films, Theatrical release nationwide. - The Return (2017, 96 min., 4K HD), Director/Writer. Narrative feature. (in Korean w/English-French subtitles), Commercial release on Dec. 7, 2017; Golden Zenith Award, the 41st Montreal World Film Festival; Ulju Mountain Film Festival; Jeonju International Film Festival; Asian Film Festival of Dallas. - Mira Story (2014/2015, 84 min., HD), Director/Writer/Producer. Documentary feature. (in Korean w/English subtitles), Commercial release on Jan. 15, 2015; Seoul Green Film Festival. - Ari Ari the Korean Cinema (2011/2012, 83 min., HDV), Director/Writer/Producer. Documentary feature. (in Korean w/English subtitles). Commercial release on Dec. 10, 2012; Busan International Film Festival, Seoul Independent Documentary Film Festival, Korean Film Festival in Bhutan; Paris Korean Film Festival Short Films - The Secret of Hanji Craft (2014/2015, 10 min., HD), Producer/Director. Short film. (in Korean w/English-French subtitles), New FIFMA programme at Empreintes, France, Sep. 12 - Dec. 31, 2017; Singuliers Objets, Plessis Robinson, France, Dec. 09 - 10, 2017; Festival de Metiers d'art, Deauville, France, July 14-17, 2017; Revelation International Fine Craft & Creation Biennial 2017, Paris, France, May 2017. - Kismet (2013, 30 min., HD), Producer/Director. (in Korean w/Turkish subtitles), Istanbul-Gyeongju World Culture Expo 2013, Istanbul, Turkey. August 31-September 22, 2013. - Constancy and Change in Korean Craft Arts (2013, 60 min., HD), Producer/Director. (in Korean w/English subtitles), Hidden Match ― An Exhibition of Korean Craft, National Museum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. November 24 - December 23, 2013; Taiwan International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo, Taipei, Taiwan. November 21-24, 2013; Milan Design Week, the Triennale Design Museum, Milano, Italy. April 9 - 14, 2013. - The Job (2006, SD). Producer. thirteen 30-min. episodes for TVK-24, Comcast cable in Southern California. (In English) - Between Two Worlds (1996/1998, 30 min., SD), Director/Writer/Producer. (In English), National broadcast on PBS in the United States, 1996. Distributed nationwide in America by UC Berkeley Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1998-2003; Rochester International Film Festival; Sinking Creek Film Festival; VideoScape Asian American Video Showcase; Busan Universiade for Digital Contents; Williams College; UC Davis Asian Pacific Film Fest; Korean American Film Festivals in San Francisco, Chicago, & NYC.
Assoc Prof Daniel Keith Jernigan	Modern and Contemporary British Literature; Modern and Postmodern Drama; Narrative Theory; Playwriting
Asst Prof Dimitris Apostolopoulos	European Philosophy Phenomenology Aesthetics Hermeneutics Philosophy of History
Dr Ella Raidel	Experimental Cinema, Sinophone Cinema, Contemporary Aesthetics, Contemporary Art, Interdisciplinary Research Urban Studies
Asst Prof Els Van Dongen	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
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.
Dr Koh Teck Seng	(1) Quantum information and quantum computation theory: - Quantum Information Processing Devices and the Quantum Internet A vision of the Quantum Internet where quantum information sent between "plugged-in" quantum computers and remote clients carried by optical fibres, require new technologies for it to work. Such long range quantum communications are affected by loss and decoherence. In the classical internet, this is overcome by classical repeaters. In the quantum internet, a quantum repeater has to work in a fundamentally different way from the classical repeater since signals cannot be replicated due to the no-cloning theorem. I study theoretical schemes for entanglement-based quantum repeaters, and entanglement distribution. I also study quantum dot spin qubit systems, in the context of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) information processing devices. I am interested in the theory of quantum noise spectroscopy, effects of noise on the fidelity of qubit operations, and mitigation strategies. (2) Science, Technology and Society: - Trust, Security and Ethics with Quantum Technologies Today, quantum cryptography in the form of quantum key distribution is routinely done. It promises unconditional security and privacy in communication, based on quantum-mechanical foundations. But, will unconditionally secure quantum communication be a hideout for criminals? Will privacy be the privilege of the haves in society? How will trust or the kind of trust in society change? Together with Dr Christina Chuang (School of Humanities) and Assoc Prof Chew Lock Yue (SPMS), we study the ethical and social implications arising from these and related questions of quantum technology. ---------- I am looking for motivated students who have basic quantum mechanics (PH2101 is a must; PH3404 is an advantage) who are interested to work on projects involving the first topic (1) Quantum Information Processing Devices and the Quantum Internet. We are also looking for students with interdisciplinary interests to work on projects involving (2) Trust, Security and Ethics with Quantum Technologies. The projects may range from physics to philosophy and ethics to computational sociology. * Physics undergraduate students looking to do an FYP with me: please contact me before the end of Year 3 Semester 2, so that we can work on a paid internship under the Odyssey research program over the special term that can lead into the FYP for Year 4. * I welcome undergraduate students from any discipline looking to do a URECA project with me. --------- Students currently working with me: 1. Mr Jeremy Lian (FYP Student: Computational Thinking in Physics) 2. Mr Woo Ying Zheng (FYP Student: Tunneling Noise in Quantum Dot Spin Qubits) 3. Mr Zaw Lin Htoo (FYP Student: Randomized Benchmarking) 4. Mr Radha Krishnan (PhD Student: Cotunneling Spectroscopy in Double Quantum Dots ; co-supervised with Asst Prof Bent Weber)
Prof Li Chenyang	Chenyang Li's research interest is primarily in Chinese philosophy. He has published extensively in classical Confucianism. His work also covers feminist philosophy, democracy, and human value.
Asst Prof Marc Gloede	Marc's research interests include: - Development of Curatorial Practices - Curating time-based media - The relation of images, technology, space, and the body - The dynamics / interferences between fields such as art/architecture, art/film, and film/architecture - Expanded Cinema - Perception of color in film and art - The impact of digital dynamics on film and art practices - Re-thinking Abstraction
Dr Melvin Chen	Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence Philosophy of the Imagination Creative Cognition Research Aesthetics Metaethics & Normative Ethics Philosophy & Literature
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 Olav Benjamin Vassend	Philosophy of science Epistemology Decision theory Foundations of statistics
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
Asst Prof Preston Huw Richards Greene	Ethics, Decision Theory
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
Prof Randy John La Polla	Sino-Tibetan Linguistics Linguistic Typology Historical linguistics (including Grammaticalization and Sino-Tibetan reconstruction) Functional Syntax (esp. Role & Reference Grammar and Systemic Functional Grammar) Pragmatics (particularly Relevance Theory) Anthropological Linguistics (Asian languages on which I have done fieldwork: Cambodian, Chinese dialects [Southern Fujian, Beijing subdialects, Shanghai, Guangzhou dialects], Dulong [1st Township, 3rd Township, 4th Township, Nujiang dialects], Qiang [Ronghong, Qugu dialects], Rawang [Mvtwang, Dvru dialects], Tagalog, Vietnamese.)
Assoc Prof Richard Alan Barlow	James Joyce Irish Studies Scottish Literature and Philosophy Modernism Digital Humanities
Asst Prof Sung Hiu Chuk Winnie	For the past few years my primary research project has been on Confucian thinker Xunzi's thought, focusing in particular on interpreting and working through the implications of Xunzi’s concept of xin (the heart/mind). I am also interested in moral psychology and issues related to self-knowledge and self-consciousness. Some smaller projects I am currently working on include hypocrisy, self-deception, loyalty, and epistemology of belief.
Assoc Prof Teru Miyake	My main field of research is Philosophy of Science.

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