| Name | Research Interests |
| Assoc Prof Arul Indrasen Chib | Dr. Arul Chib pursues action-oriented research in varied cross-cultural contexts. His research agenda focuses on the impact and role of mobile phone in (a) healthcare systems in resource-constrained environments of developing countries, and (b) transnational migration to developed countries. He investigates the key factors influencing the adoption of technology for positive health outcomes, and has engaged in the design and development of healthcare technology systems spanning online and mobile platforms. He increasingly interested in issues of power, with one research trajectory focusing on the intersection of gender with technology, and the role of agency and appropriation in the achievement of goals ranging from socio-economic development, human well-being and empowerment, and societal change. He has published over 50 research articles. Global collaborations with IDRC, Red Cross Red Crescent, UNICEF, UNFPA, World Vision have led to research grants of S$ 5Mn.
At the Singapore Internet Research Center, Dr. Chib has led the SIRCA programme (established 2008), mentoring 30 emerging country researchers in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with mentoring events in Atlanta, Bangkok, Cape Town, Jamaica, Mauritius and Singapore. The SIRCA III programme is currently focused on theory-building in the area of Open Development, and runs till 2017.
Dr. Chib's contributions have led to a number of research awards, including the 2011 Prosper.NET-Scopus Award for the use of ICTs for sustainable development. This award was accompanied by a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, one of the highest honours within the European scholarly tradition. He has been awarded fellowships at Ludwig Maxmilians University and University of Southern California, and the Best Graduate Student Award of S. I. Newhouse School of Communications at Syracuse University. He serves on the editorial boards of Human Communication Research, Communication Yearbook, and Mobile Media and Communication, and is Senior Editor of The Electronic journal for Information Systems in Developing Countries.
Dr. Chib’s research in as many as nine countries has been profiled in the media ranging from the United Nations Chronicle to the Singaporean press. He has lectured at numerous global events and presented the keynote speech at the Media Health Communication Conference 2012 in Munich Germany. He is the General Conference Chair for ICTD2015, and a member of the organizing committees of the IFIP 8.6 2013 and ICTD 2012. He has been an expert speaker at events organized by UNESCO, UN-APCICT.
Dr. Chib has worked at the local level with non-governmental agencies such as INPPARES, Nyaya Health, Text to Change, Udaan, UNICEF and World Vision, securing external grants worth over S$ 5 million. Arul has lived and worked extensively in India, Indonesia, China, Peru, Singapore, Thailand, and the United States of America.
Most recently, Associate Prof Arul Chib has released the SIRCA II co-edited volume ‘Impact of Information Society Research in the Global South’ (New York: Springer; ISBN 978-981-287-380-4). The international scholarly community has taken a variety of approaches to question the impact of information society research on populations in the Global South. This book addresses two aspects-Impact of research: How is the research on ICTs in the Global South playing a role in creating an Information Society? (for example, policy formulation, implementation in practice, and shaping of public opinion), Secondly, what does the Research on Impact reveal: What is the evidence for the impact of ICTs on society? The volume brings together a multiplicity of voices from developing countries and approaches within the social scientific community to address these vital questions. |
| Prof Chew Soon Beng | Wages, wage systems and wage determination in Singapore
Industrial relations in Singapore and other countries |
| Asst Prof Chou Meng-Hsuan | Regionalism and regional integration (European Union, ASEAN)
Institutional and organisational theory
Migration and asylum policy
Research and higher education policy (knowledge policies) |
| Asst Prof Debbie Goh Pei Chin | Online and print news reporting; New media and society; Gender and communication technologies; International development and communication; Research Methods; Digital divide; Gender and information communication technologies; Media framing |
| Asst Prof Duffy Andrew Michael | Journalism in Singapore
Cross-cultural journalism education
Online journalism education |
| Asst Prof Edson C Tandoc Jr. | media gatekeeping, journalism studies, web analytics, social media, environmental journalism |
| Asst Prof Fang Xiaoping | History of medicine, health and disease in twentieth-century China
Medical anthropology and sociology in contemporary China |
| Asst Prof Genaro Castro Vazquez | Prof Genaro Castro-Vázquez areas of expertise are sociology of health, reproductive health matters, HIV/AIDS, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, sociology of education and education and migration. His current research works focus on the education for foreign children from Latin American in Japan, HIV/AIDS and disability in Japan and male circumcision and HIV/AIDS. |
| 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. |
| Asst Prof Han Sam | (1) The dynamic of religion and digital technology in contemporary American Christianity
(2) Digital-diasporic religious practices in Asia
(3) Death and mourning in the digital age
(4) The religious discourse of technology as sinful
(5) General social and cultural theory (e.g., affect theory, post-structuralism, post-modernism, psychoanalysis, network theory)
(6) Parochialism in popular representations of “genius” in media depictions of US ethnic minorities |
| Asst Prof Ho Hau Yan Andy | Primary Area of Focus:
Community Health Psychology, Qualitative Psychology, Participatory Action Research.
Research Interest:
Psychosocial Gerontology, End-of-Life and Palliative Care, Formal and Informal Caregiving, Expressive Arts and Holistic Therapy, Compassion and Mindfulness Training, Medical Humanities, Community Empowerment. |
| Prof Isaac V Kerlow | Animation Theory and Research, Computer-Aided Printmaking, Computer Animation, Digital Art, Digital Interfaces, History of Computer Animation, Interdisciplinary Studies, New Media Theory and Practice, Popular Art, Storytelling, Visual Arts, Typography, Visualization, Visual Literacy |
| Assoc Prof James Patrick Williams | Professor Williams is trained in the symbolic interactionist tradition of sociology, a social-psychological perspective that foregrounds language and meaning as key dimensions of understanding the everyday life.
Prof Williams' research focuses on two specific areas of interest: youth sub/cultures, and digital media cultures. Much of Prof Williams' publications in recent years have centered on the construction of subcultural selves/identities among young people who feel in some way separate from mainstream society. His main contributions to sociology have been theorizing (1) the role new media technologies play in facilitating the development and diffusion of subcultures and subcultural identities and (2) theorizing the social construction of subcultural authenticity. His second interest relates to the increasing salience of fantasy and digital games in everyday life. He has co-edited two books related to fantasy and video games and is interested in issues of role-identity and deviant behavior within digital environments. |
| Miss Joan Marie Kelly | Joan Marie Kelly is an Urban Ecologist, she investigates the ecosystem of the city initiating artistic connections with migrant and marginalized communities. The aim is to empower the community with the experience of creation. Kelly reinvigorates concepts of figure painting and drawing in collaborations with ethnographic methodologies. She focuses her participatory workshops on communities of lower caste women and children in India. The women and children tell their stories through drawings, knitted pieces, photographs, and audio documentaries.
Kelly applies her participatory art workshops to interdisciplinary collaborations with several researchers and communities. Collaborating changes the intension and outcome of the participatory workshops opening up whole new fields. Creativity and rudimental tools of drawing applied in different contexts with scholarly researchers has the ability to transform the intension and meaning of the scholarly work through visual language.
The interdisciplinary work is with these different fields and scholars:
1) Sustaining oral languages with three linguist working in different focus areas in Asia, by creating the first illustrated children’s books with the oral language communities.
2)Drawing as a tool for engineers to develop and record ideas.
3) The use of multi-media arts as a means to provoke communication and awareness of cultural heritage within host communities prior to tourism development. The collaboration involves Yuthasak Chatkaewnapanon from University of Chiang Mai, a Thai Tourism sociologist, and Prof. Ross Adrian Williams, a sound artist.
All of these particular sectors of society influence Kelly’s personal artwork which is inspired by urban life of South East Asia. |
| Prof John Stephen Lansing | Lansing's recent research has to do with the long-term dynamics of coupled social-ecological systems, focusing on two topics. The first has to do with emergent properties of Balinese water temple networks. Currently he is assisting the Government of Indonesia to create a new UNESCO World Heritage site to help preserve the temple networks. The second project is a comparative study of social structure, ecology, kinship, language change and the evolution of disease resistance in 69 villages on 14 Indonesian islands. Recent books include Perfect Order: Recognizing Complexity in Bali (2006) and Priests & Programmers: Technologies of Power in the Engineered Landscape of Bali (2007). Documentary films include The Goddess and the Computer (1988), a segment of The Sacred Balance (2003), Perfect Order (2006) and Voyagers on the Ring of Fire (2011). |
| Asst Prof Julien Cayla | My current research program is on the "culture of services" i.e. I want to contribute a more theoretical understanding of the cross-cultural differences shaping service interactions. There is ample evidence that cultural contexts matter in the area of services, and that services like fast-food restaurants are designed and experienced differently across cultures.
On the company side, such evidence has led service scholars to argue that internationalization is more risky for a service firm than a manufacturer of goods. Past research has also emphasized the need to customize services to suit local tastes and preferences. Generaly though, managers are given little advice about how to tailor service experiences to various markets.
In contrast in my research, I try to develop a careful analysis of service eco-systems in particular markets, proceeding from various scales of analysis.
Some of the research studies I am currently involved in:
-a study of "new services" in the Indian market
-an ethnographic study of luxury boutiques
-an ethnographic study of sommeliers and high-end restaurants in Japan, France, India and China |
| Asst Prof Kamaludeen Bin Mohamed Nasir | Sociology of Religion; Cultural Sociology; Social Theory; Deviance and Social Control; Globalization; Sociology of Youth. |
| 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 |
| Asst Prof Kristy H.A. Kang | Dr. Kang's research interests include urban studies, histories and theories of digital media arts, database cinema, animation, spatial and mobile narrative, and media and ethnic studies in the U.S. and Asia. |
| Prof Kuo Chen-Yu, Eddie | Communication policy and planning
New media and globalization
Cultural policy and national integration
Sociology of multilingualism.
Perspectives in Asian communication |
| Prof Kwok Kian Woon Anthony | Social and Political Theory; Qualitative Social Research; Social Memory; Comparative Cultural Policy (Arts, Heritage & Creative Cities); Singapore Studies; Mental Health and Illness; and Higher Education in Southeast Asia |
| Asst Prof Laavanya Kathiravelu | My research falls at the nexus of contemporary migration and cities. I am interested in how these two categories of analysis interact with each other in social and spatial terms. I explored this in my PhD looking at labour migration and city-building processes in Dubai. In my postdoctoral work, I have built on previous interests in everyday interactions and diversity by exploring how increased migration is affecting the ways in which a diverse urban population effectively co-exist. This was done in the context of a multi-sited project in three continents, and collaborating with a team of researchers, as well as film makers.
My work aims to disrupt the victimhood discourse surrounding marginalised migrants and broadens understandings of contemporary cities with a focus on more embodied and affective modes of everyday life. Friendship and social networks has been one aspect of contemporary city life that I have started developing a research focus in. My current research expands on the interests on migrants and urban areas by looking at middle class Indian migrants and new citizens in Singapore - a group that has been largely under researched but have contributed to the increase in Singapore's minority racial groupings.
In the future I hope to expand the focus of my work in keeping up the comparative element of the research. This I believe will lead to the opportunity for theory-building. I am especially committed to pushing the theory-building agenda in Asia and more broadly, the Global South. |
| Assoc Prof Lang Chin Ying, Josephine | Dr. Lang's areas of expertise are in organizational behavior, strategic management, and knowledge management. Her current research works focus on the decay of knowledge clusters, the impact of social networking sites in business, and the particularities of executive training and development. |
| Asst Prof Liew Kai Khiun | Research Interest:
1. Portrayal of Medical Discourses in East Asian Film and Television Dramas
2. Radio and Health Communications
3. Popular Music in Southeast and East Asia
4. Malayan History
5. Transnational popular culture flows-East & Southeast Asia
6. Singapore Cinema
7. Heritage and Social Media |
| Assoc Prof Lim Beng Chong | Team effectiveness, team composition, leadership, multilevel issues, decision making, social network, sensemaking |
| Assoc Prof Lim Khek Gee, Francis | religion, tourism, China, Singapore, South Asia (Nepal, Tibet) |
| Asst Prof Marijke Van Kets | Research on Cinematography
A study on the perception of cinematic technique and its influence on film language.
The research focuses on the use of cinematic technique by the director of photography when shooting a feature film. Is this juggling with technical properties: lenses, lights, speed, shutter, f-stop and so on, effective? Can cinematography influence how audiences perceive movies?
I argue that the application of cinematic technique adds additional layers of meaning, nuance and emotional context to shots and scenes along with their objective content. The study also suggests that the use of cinematographic differentials like composition, three-dimensional field and lens language, contributes to the film language. |
| Assoc Prof Md Saidul Islam | Dr. Saidul Islam has been trained in international development and environmental sociology with particular emphasis on the global agro-food system, global commodity networks/chains, global environmental governance, agrarian change, and labor and gender dimension in rural development. At the core of his research interests lies the conviction that there is a need to devise development models, consistent with local culture and knowledge, which are socially and technologically sound, environmentally and economically sustainable and friendly, culturally responsible, and have meaningful participation and trust of local communities. All these can broadly be conceived as, and expressed through, "sustainable development" or "global social/environmental justice."
As "social/environmental justice" in sustainable international development is largely an analytical core of his research interests, apart from his PhD research (Environmental governance in the global agro-food system: A study of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh), Dr. Saidul Islam also has a complementary interest in issues such as identity politics or discursive construction of identities in development discourse (Islam 2003; 2005), multiculturalism and migration (Islam and Islam 2007; Islam 2002) and the Grameen Bank as a route to pro-poor development (Islam 2006). It's relevant to note here that his article in the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs is being used as a course reading in different universities all over the world including Harvard University. He is committed to working more on other issues of social/environmental justice related to sustainable development in future.
Currently, as a principal researcher he is working on a global project-"Privatizing environmental governance: A global analysis of the effects and effectiveness of environmental certification for farmed salmon and shrimp"-that was awarded a Standard SSHRC (Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada) Grant 2007-2010. This research proposes to assess the effects and effectiveness of environmental certification and related approaches through a detailed multi-site study of how certification is being implemented for farmed salmon and shrimp. The study will cover Bangladesh and Thailand as two significant shrimp production sites; Chile and Canada as two major production sites of farmed salmon; and Japan, Canada, the United States and the European Union as the major sites of consumption.
Reference:
Islam, Md. Saidul (2002). Bangladeshi Immigrants in Toronto: Towards an Alternative Way to Meet Cultural Needs. The Journal of Social Studies, 97(July-September): 56-70.
Islam, Md. Saidul (2003). Labelling Tribals: Forming and Transforming Bureaucratic Identity in Thailand and Indonesia in a Historical Setting," Gateway, 3(9): 1-13.
Islam, Md. Saidul (2005). Muslims in the Capitalist Discourse: September 11 and its Aftermath. The Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 25(1): 3-12.
Islam, Md. Saidul (2006). From Orangi to Grameen Bank: Alternative Routes to Pro-poor Development. The Journal of Economic Observer, XV (08-09): 31-35.
Islam, S. Serajul and Md. Saidul Islam (2007). Asian Muslims' Integration in the Multicultural Mosaic of Canada. Asian Profile, 35(3):175-189. |
| Asst Prof Michael Thaddeus Tan Koon Boon | Areas of research Interest:
- Arts & Design for Health and wellbeing
- Creative Ageing
- Cultural engagement for Health and Well-being (eg Museums, Health and Wellbeing)
- Socially-Engaged Art
- Arts-based Social/ Health Research
Asst Prof Tan's research interest explores art and design practices in relation to health & Well-being, care, aging, and human flourishing. Informed by assemblage theory, he explores the role of creative practice in shaping culture of care in various care settings and the wider context of medical humanities, health communication and equality.
He is active in mapping arts and health practice locally and internationally, examining the roles and contributions of artists and designers operating in health and caring context or who are involved in socially engaged creative practices. He is also interested to explore methods to prepare artist and designer to undertake such endeavors and ways through which embodied processes can facilitate mindfulness in interpersonal interaction particularly in health and care context. As a practitioner in arts and health, he has designed and conducted art programs for the patients, staff and caregivers, in organization such as the Parkinson's Disease Society Singapore (PDSS), Singapore General Hospital, National University Hospital,Tan Tock Seng Hospital. He has previously partnered The Agency for Integrated Care in an exploratory study to examine the impact of art engagement on general wellbeing of residents at the participating nursing home.
His most recent art and health project is with the Alzheimer's Disease Association (ADA) where he developed a Art and Dementia project titled 'Let's have tea at the Museum'
Project In the News:
- The Tulip Story - Participatory Arts For Parkinson Patient and Caregiver
https://www.ttsh.com.sg/page.aspx?id=8251
Grants Awarded:
2014
- National Arts Council, Singapore, Let’s have tea at the Musuem – an art and dementia project, Principal Investigator in partnership with Alzheimer’s Disease Association (ADA), Singapore for Arts and Dementia Project.
- Research and Development Grant, The National Arts Council, Singapore, Art Engagement, Aging and Wellbeing in Nursing Home, Principal Investigator.
2012
- Agency For Integrated Care, Singapore, Arts in Healthcare Programme at Sree Narayana Mission Home,
- National Youth Council Pitch to Shine Grant, Singapore, Project Dreamcatcher 2012, Collaborator and artist mentor for Project DreamCatchers National University Hospital.
2011
- Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund (MOE ACRF) TIER 1, Singapore, Art and Design In Healthcare: A Pilot study on the significances and role of art and design to improve the quality of life of patients in Parkinson’s Disease, Principal Investigator.
2008
- Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund (MOE ACRF) TIER 1, Singapore, Shoes and social fabrics: Exploring the journeys and life-worlds of a pair of flip-flops, Principal Investigator. Collaborator Dr Caroline Knowles, Professor of Sociology, Goldsmiths College, University of London
2007
- Small Research Grant, The British Academy, UK, Shoes and social fabrics: exploring the journeys and life-worlds of a pair of flip-flops, Collaborator, visual artist in an interdisciplinary research project with Dr Caroline Knowles Professor (Sociology), Goldsmiths College, University of London. |
| Assoc Prof Ng Sok Ling, Sharon | Cross-Cultural Consumer Behavior
Branding Issues
Consumer Information Processing |
| Assoc Prof Oh Soon-Hwa | Associate Professor Oh's research interest focuses on the artist and dealer relationship. Based on her observation and experience as an emerging artist in NYC, she developed a study that explored the cultural, social, and psychological roles of the networks of relationships among artists and art world professionals. By employing a qualitative research method of case study she documents and analyzes the experiences and practices of emerging artists in NYC and in Paris, and their significant art dealers, curators, and collectors. The study identifies various roles of networks of relationships and examines in which ways their relationships contribute to the development of their creative works. She is the author of the book "From art school to art world" (2009).
Her more recent research focus lies on the interaction between Art & science, Photography & Technology. Teaching and researching on digital photography has incited her to explore and expand the boundaries of the photographic medium by collaborating with scientists in various projects in development.
In her photographic practice, her interest lies in documentary projects that deal with issues of identity, gender, and human condition. For instance, her “Girls from Mekong Delta” essay is a semi-documentary project that explores the identity and environment of young Vietnamese women from a small island nicknamed “Taiwanese Island” who intend or are pushed to marry foreigners in their quest to have a better life and to support their own family. This project was Finalist (2009) and Semi-Finalist (2007) for the prestigious Lange-Tyler Prize at the Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University.
Aesthetics
Creativity
Sociology of Arts
Studio Practice
Documentary projects
Photography Theory and Criticism |
| Asst Prof Pang Lee San Natalie | Natalie Pang obtained her Ph.D. in Information Management from Monash University in 2009, where her research was also awarded the Vice Chancellor’s Commendation for Doctoral thesis excellence and the Faculty of IT doctoral medal. Her research interests are: social informatics, collective action and information behaviour on the Internet, qualitative and mixed methods research, end-user interactions in heritage sites, and social media innovations for marginalised communities. Natalie has taught courses in social informatics and computing, information management, qualitative research methods, information behaviour, and records management. |
| Asst Prof Park Hyung Wook | History of Biomedical Science and Medicine
History of the Body
Korean Science and Medicine |
| Asst Prof Premchand Varma Dommaraju | Social demography of South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia
Marriage and divorce in Asia
Ageing in South Asia
Fertility and reproductive health |
| 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. |
| Assoc Prof Sulfikar Amir | Science and Technology Studies (STS); Technological Politics; Globalization; Nationalism; Development; Southeast Asia; Risk and Crisis; Nuclear Power; Design Studies, Resilience Studies. |
| Assoc Prof Sun Hsiao-Li Shirley | Social Reproduction, Population, Citizenship, Social Inequalities, Changing Families, Children, Science and Technology, Asia-Pacific |
| Dr Tan Joo Ean | Marriage and Family Issues; Identity and Social Change; Southeast Asia (urban); Social Demography. |
| Assoc Prof Teo You Yenn | State-society relations; the politics of welfare and family; poverty in Singapore; gender inequalities. |
| Assoc Prof Tsui-Auch, Lai Si | Dr. Lai Si Tsui-Auch specializes in institutional theory, business group studies, corporate governance reforms, state-capital relations, and the issues of trust and control within multinational corporations. |
| Asst Prof Wang Jue | Science and technology policy;
Innovation;
Entrepreneurship;
Economic development. |
| Assoc Prof Xiao Hong | social stratification, gender, cultural values, families, Chinese society, and environmental sociology |
| Asst Prof Zhan Shaohua | Economic sociology; Global development; Historical sociology; Labor migration; and China studies |
| Prof Zhou Min | Professor Zhou's main areas of research include international migration, ethnic/racial relations, ethnic entrepreneurship, the new second generation, and Asia and Asian America. |
