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Research/Studies on Asia

This category covers:

  • East Asia
    • China
    • Japan
  • South Asia
    • India
    • Pakistan
    • Sri Lanka
  • Southeast Asia
    • Indonesia
    • Malaysia
    • ASEAN

Related Link:
Country & Area Studies, S Rajaratnam School of International Studies

NameResearch Interests
Mr Abel Perez AbadHis research interests include Sociolinguistics, Cognitive Linguistics, Sociocultural Studies, New Trends in Foreign Language Teaching and Technology Enhanced Language Learning (TELL)
Assoc Prof Adam Douglas SwitzerAdam Switzers main research interest lies in using coastal stratigraphy to define the recurrence interval of catastrophic marine inundation events (tsunami or large storms). His most significant contributions to the field include: * the first study of modern storm deposits from the Australian southeast coast; * the recognition that immature heavy mineral suites in coastal sandsheets may indicate tsunami deposition rather than storm deposition in coastal settings; * the recognition of an erosional signature of large scale washover of coastal dunes using Ground Penetrating Radar; * initial evaluation of the sedimentary processes associated with the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami on the southeast coast of India a definitive review and re-analysis of large boulder accumulations in coastal settings on the southeast Australian coast.
Dr Aileen Ng Cheng ChengAileen Ng is interested in the area of Discourse Analysis and Computer Mediated Communication in English Language teaching and learning. She has researched on the use of Information and Communication Technology for teaching Communication Skills based on Socio-cultural Theory as well as analysed the discourse of pre-workplace texts such as job application letters and resumes. Her current research interests are in religious discourse and feedback in academic writing.
Asst Prof Akshar SaxenaHealth economics; Economics of aging; Non-communicable diseases and obesity; Applied econometrics; Impact evaluation; Health sector reform and comparative health care systems Pensions and retirement.
Assoc Prof Alexander Robertson CoupeAlexander Coupe's major contributions to linguistic research have focused upon the languages of the South Asia/Southeast Asia region. In addition to documenting the grammars of minority and endangered languages – particularly those spoken in Northeast India – he has investigated evidence of contact and linguistic convergence between Austroasiatic, Dravidian, Indo-Aryan and Tibeto-Burman languages. This fieldwork-based research is driven by a desire to record and analyse the grammars of poorly understood minority languages, to determine their genetic relationships, to document them for posterity, and to collaborate with speakers to create orthographies for dictionaries and reading books. The output of this work feeds another research goal: to seek functional and diachronic explanations for the structural diversity and commonalities found in human language, and to advance knowledge in the field of linguistic typology. Specific areas of research interest include the analysis of tone systems, phonetics and phonology, the role of pragmatics in grammar, case-marking systems, morphosyntax, clause linkage, nominalization, grammaticalization, language contact and lexicography.
Asst Prof Ana Cristina Dias AlvesHer research interest lies in the intersection of Chinese Foreign Policy, economic statecraft and development cooperation in the global south, with particular reference to China’s relations with developing regions in the southern hemisphere. Over the past two decades her research has focused on China’s economic cooperation with Africa, focusing on its engagement in extractive industries, infrastructure development, economic and trade cooperation zones on the continent and more recently on knowledge transfer between China and Africa and its developmental impact. Her research interests also encompass comparative analysis, namely regarding China’s engagement in other developing regions (South America and Southeast Asia in particular), as well as comparing China’s developmental approach with that of other emerging powers in the southern hemisphere.
Assoc Prof Andrea NanettiDr 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.
Assoc Prof Anilkumar K SamtaniProf Samtani's areas of expertise are in intellectual property law and information technology law. His current research works focus on trademarks and bilateralism in intellectual property rule-making.
Prof C.J. Wee Wan-ling• Globalisation and contemporary cultural production in East and Southeast Asia • Curation and the idea of 'Asia' • Literature, theatre and contemporary visual art in Singapore • Colonialism and nationalism in English and Anglophone literatures and cultures • Cultural and Postcolonial theory • Modernity, modernism and the contemporary in Euro-America and East Asia
Prof Charles Thomas SalmonHis current research focuses on health communication, public opinion and communication campaigns, with particular emphasis on: * unintended consequences of well-intentioned efforts to promote public health and safety * the use of stigma in communication efforts to warn populations about disease * the role of public will in mobilizing support for health and environmental causes