ANNUAL REPORT 2013
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
1
ARI’s logo depicts rice grains in star-like
formation. Rice has been the main staple
food for many of Asia’s peoples since the
15th century. It forms the basis of communal
bonds, an element of ritual in many Asian
societies, and a common cultural thread
across nations and societies. Rice cultivation,
as one of the major agricultural activities
in Asia, has implications for population,
sustainability and ecology. In symbolic as
well as material ways, rice touches upon
many of the key socio-economic and cultural
issues in Asia, and is fitting emblem of the
Asia Research Institute.
The leaves symbolise
the sustainability and
environmental issues facing
Asia. The arrangement of the
leaves highlights the close
interdependency of countries
within Asia.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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CONTENTS
03
1.0 VISION AND MISSION
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
10
2.0 MANAGEMENT
11 3.0 ARI COMMITTEES
Message from Chair of International Advisory Board
International Advisory Board
Message from Chair of Management Board
6.0 EVENTS
66
67
70
70
71
71
7.0 COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Conferences and Workshops
ARI Seminar Series
Study Groups and their Seminars
Cluster Seminars
Other Events
Management Board
Director’s Foreword
Steering Committee
Administrative Staff
14 4.0 RESEARCH PERSONNEL
16Director
16
Deputy Director
16
Research Leaders
16
Principal Research Fellows/(Senior) Research Fellows
18
Postdoctoral Fellows
18
Other Joint Appointments/Secondments
19
Research Assistants/Associates
19
Visiting Research Professors/(Senior) Research Fellows
21
Assistant Professor on FASS Writing Semester Scheme
2
48 49
60
62
63
65
22 5.0 RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES
23
Research Clusters
39
Aceh Project
40
Asian MetaCentre for Population and Sustainable Development Analysis
42
State Boundaries, Cultural Politics and Gender Negotiations in Commercially Arranged International Marriages in Singapore and Malaysia
44
Migrating Out of Poverty Research Programme Consortium
46
Casino Mobilities: Labour Migration, Global Consumption and Regulation in Singapore
47
External Funded Projects
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Asia Trends Series
Public Lectures
Newsletters and Reports
Media Coverage
Digital and Social Connectivity
72
8.0 PUBLICATIONS
73Books
78
ARI-Springer Asia Series
79
Asian Population Studies
80
ARI Working Paper Series
81
Articles and Book Chapters
90
91
91
9.0 ARI RECOGNITION
93
94
95
96
100
101
10.0 SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE
AND GRADUATE STUDIES
Awards and Honours
Keynotes and Plenaries
Graduate and Other Teaching at NUS
Asian Graduate Forum
Asian Graduate Student Fellowships
Research Scholarships
ARI Internship Programme
102 11.0 EXTERNAL RELATIONS
103 MOU/External Funding Received
106 International Visits
106Visitors
1.0
VISION
To be a world-leading hub for research on Asia
MISSION
Inspiring new knowledge and transforming
insights into Asia
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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2.0
MANAGEMENT
4
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
MANAGEMENT 2.0
MESSAGE FROM CHAIR
OF INTERNATIONAL
ADVISORY BOARD
PROFESSOR TOMMY KOH
Chairman
International Advisory Board
I congratulate the Director
and all members of the Asia
Research Institute for another
successful year in 2013. ARI
has proven to be resilient and
relevant by adapting well to the
changing landscape of research
and tertiary education. It has
established itself as a leading
centre in the world of critical
scholarship on Asia.
I am particularly heartened to see
the Institute forging ahead with its
interdisciplinary and cross-cluster
approach in knowledge creation and
sharing. For instance, its Metacluster
hosted a lecture by the Nobel Laureate
in Physics, Professor Anthony Leggett, on
the topic of “Does the Everyday World
Really Obey Quantum Mechanics?” It
was made accessible and well-received
by the audience comprising mainly of
humanities and social science scholars
not only through the speaker’s choice
of language but also by a deliberate
exploration of philosophical themes in
quantum mechanics and connecting
them to the Eastern traditions of thought.
Another prominent example is the newly
promoted research focus on “Disaster
Governance” which is a theme of great
importance given the dramatic climate
changes affecting our world today. This
new project is fostered jointly by the
Asian Urbanisms Cluster, the Science,
Technology, and Society Cluster and the
Metacluster. A large grant application
is being lodged with the Ministry of
Education and the engagement will reach
out beyond academia to international
organisations such as the United
Nations, USAID, and various national
environmental disaster centres. Through
this initiative, ARI strives to make NUS
and Singapore a key centre of research,
education and training on disaster
governance within a pan-Asian context.
Indeed, ARI’s move towards greater
international collaboration is most
obvious with its busy preparation this
year for the hosting of the large-scale
inaugural AAS (US Association for Asian
Studies)-in-Asia conference entitled Asia
in Motion: Heritage and Transformation,
scheduled for July 2014. The large-scale
event will consist of 80 panels, involving
350 speakers from 28 countries and ARI
is expecting as many as 500 people to
register for the event.
support base. After many rounds of multiparty discussion, ARI has succeeded
in securing a large endowment for
the Muhammad Alagil Distinguished
Professorship in Arabia Asia Studies.
This is a major step forward for ARI to
have the research capacity to promote
inter-Asian studies relating to the historic
and contemporary relations between
the Arabian Peninsula and Asia. Prof Ho
Eng Seng, Professor of History, Cultural
Anthropology and Islamic Studies at the
Duke University in the United States will
be the first recipient of the Distinguished
Professorship, spending about two
months of residency in ARI for each of the
next five years. I am most delighted to
have taken part in the official launching
of this meaningful and prestigious ARI
professorship on 3 January 2014.
I am confident that ARI under the
directorship of Professor Prasenjit Duara
and his team will continue on its steady
path towards moulding the Institute into
being the intellectual leader of studies
on Asia and we can expect more exciting
events and impactful research for the
coming year.
While having continuous financial
support from NUS University Hall is of
critical importance, ARI has also been
putting in effort to expand its funding
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
5
MANAGEMENT 2.0
INTERNATIONAL
ADVISORY BOARD
CHAIRMAN
BOARD MEMBERS
Prof Tommy Koh
Rector, Tembusu College,
Chairman, Centre for International Law,
National University of Singapore,
and Ambassador-at-Large,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Prof Tani Barlow
Director, Chao Centre for Asian Studies,
Rice University, USA
Prof Craig Calhoun
Director, The London School of Economics
and Political Science, UK
EX OFFICIO
Prof Prasenjit Duara
Director, Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore
Prof Srirupa Roy
Professor and Chair of State and Democracy
and Director, Centre for Modern Indian Studies,
University of Göttingen, Germany
Prof James Scott
Sterling Professor of Political Science and Anthropology,
and Director, Agrarian Studies, Yale University, USA
Prof Takashi Shiraishi
Professor, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies (CSEAS),
Kyoto University, Japan
6
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
MANAGEMENT 2.0
MESSAGE FROM
CHAIR OF
MANAGEMENT BOARD
PROFESSOR CHONG CHI TAT
Chairman
Board of Management
In its 11th year, ARI continues
to attract scholars from all over
the world to come under one
roof within the NUS Bukit Timah
campus to collaborate, synergise
and contribute towards research
on Asia. Moving into its second
decade, ARI remains on course in
its commitment to be a vibrant,
world-class Institute.
ARI research activities are grouped
under seven thematic research clusters.
A sample of cluster-based activities is
the Cultural Studies Cluster that hosted
the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
Conference (IACS) 2013 with close to
400 participants on the theme “Beyond
the Cultural Industry”. The Religion
and Globalisation in Asian Contexts
Cluster took charge of this year’s InterAsia Roundtable on the event theme of
“Religion and Development in China:
Innovations and Implications”. The
Asian Migration Cluster was particularly
successful with its segment of ARI Asia
Trends 2013 on the topic of transnational
domestic workers. Similarly, the Asian
Urbanism Cluster pulled together a wideranging group of local and international
collaborators to stage a combined
international conference and workshop
on Asian Urbanisms in Theory and
Practice: The Future of the Vernacular
City. The Changing Family in Asia Cluster
not only contributed towards event
organisation but also put much effort
into publications, including launching a
new monthly research brief entitled Asian
Family Matters.
Emergent Forms of Life and Practice,
putting Singapore, NUS and ARI on the
global map as the primary Asian centre
for the study of biomedicine and society.
Its other landmark event was the hosting
of the international conference AsiaPacific STS Network, attracting over 160
delegates.
Apart from the usual activities on
research fieldwork and writing, event
organisation, and publications, there was
one other notable development in 2013.
As a follow-up to the recommendations
of the ARI External Review Committee
of the previous year, ARI conducts an
exercise of a thorough review of each
Research Cluster once every three years,
particularly pertaining to membership
composition, research direction,
performance, leadership and succession.
This measure will contribute towards a
further strengthening of ARI, helping
it to reflect and craft responses to new
developments on the horizon. I wish
to commend the entire ARI team of
researchers and administrators under the
leadership of Professor Prasenjit Duara
for their effort in continuously striving for
higher levels of achievement.
As one of the youngest, the Science,
Technology, and Society Cluster is
maturing well with the completion of its
flagship grant project Asian Biopoleis:
Biotechnology and Biomedicine as
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
7
MANAGEMENT 2.0
MANAGEMENT
BOARD
CHAIRMAN
BOARD MEMBERS
Prof Chong Chi Tat
Director, Institute of Mathematical Sciences,
National University of Singapore
Prof Andrew Harding
Director, Centre for Asian Legal Studies,
National University of Singapore
EX OFFICIO
Prof Heng Chye Kiang
Dean, School of Design and Environment,
National University of Singapore
Prof Prasenjit Duara
Director, Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore
Prof Tan Tai Yong
Vice-Provost (Student Life), Office of the Provost,
National University of Singapore
Prof Wang Gungwu
Chairman, East Asian Institute,
National University of Singapore
Dr Wang Hui
Director, Division of Research Administration,
Office of the Deputy President (Research and Technology),
National University of Singapore
Prof Bernard Yeung
Dean, NUS Business School,
National University of Singapore
8
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
MANAGEMENT 2.0
DIRECTOR’S
FOREWORD
PROFESSOR PRASENJIT DUARA
Director, Asia Research Institute
Concurrently, Director of Research, Humanities and Social Sciences,
Office of the Deputy President (Research and Technology),
Raffles Professor of Humanities, and Professor of History
2013 in ARI saw a stepping up
of our activities in conferences,
research and publications.
Several new themes or foci
emerged in our research
activities during this year.
Thus the Asian Migration
Cluster which has developed
a vast database of migration
materials, papers and books
over the years, undertook a
leadership role in theorising
the topic of “mobilities”. Its
flagship conference in 2013
was appropriately entitled
Theorising Mobilities in/from
Asia. Meanwhile, three other
ARI Clusters of Asian Urbanisms,
Religion and Globalisation
in Asian Contexts, as well
as Science, Technology, and
Society, developed a new
initiative entitled “Disasters
in Asia: Locality, Knowledge
and Governance.” Involving
collaboration with the Australian
National University and others,
this project aims to position ARI
as a hub in the study of disasters
in Asia.
Another emergent overlapping theme
is “new media and social movements”
which straddles Cultural Studies, Asian
Urbanisms and Asian Migration. New
themes in the Changing Family in Asia
Cluster include “transnationalism and
gender hierarchies” as well as the
growing phenomenon of “living alone”
in Asia. The Metacluster which is involved
in the new projects –especially Disaster
Governance – also continued with its
research project on Asian connections in
the emergence of modern science.
In the midst of its high-speed drive
to become one of the world’s best
centres of research on Asian societies,
ARI received a wake-up call. The
rapid increase in research activities,
conferences, seminars, publications, and
visitors accompanied by a similarly rapid
rise in the application numbers for all our
categories of researchers was slowed by
the realisation that our sources of funding
had not kept up with the rising costs
of these activities. In particular, sharply
increased housing costs in Singapore and
NUS rentals had affected our budgeting
and this had led us to review our
priorities in two ways.
First, we decided in 2013 to temporarily
reduce the numbers of visiting
researchers, including senior fellows as
well as postdoctoral fellows. Second,
we are seeking sources of greater
external funding, especially for the new
initiatives outlined above. In particular,
we are trying to increase the size of
our endowment. One of the efforts
undertaken through much of 2013 was
rewarded on 3 January, 2014, when
ARI was the recipient of the largest
grant endowed to it in its brief history,
the Muhammad Alagil Distinguished
Professorship in Arabia Asia Studies.
We also have increased the number
of collaborations with very high-level
global organisations which are cofunding prestigious events that will
bring greater recognition to ARI while
requiring relatively low levels of financial
commitments on our part. Moreover,
during 2013, a good number of our staff
was engaged in preparing for the US
Association for Asian Studies’ inaugural
conference of AAS-in-Asia which will
be held in July 2014 together with ARI
and FASS. The new ARI strategy is to
leverage upon our enhanced reputation
to continue to grow in strength.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
9
MANAGEMENT 2.0
STEERING
COMMITTEE
DIRECTOR
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
Prof Prasenjit Duara
Assoc Prof Huang Jianli
(From 1 January 2013)
Dr Kumiko Kawashima
(Till 31 December 2013)
(SENIOR) RESEARCH FELLOWS
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
(AS SECRETARY)
RESEARCH LEADERS
Prof Chua Beng Huat
Prof Michael Douglass
Assoc Prof Gregory Clancey
Assoc Prof Michael Feener
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Prof Jean Yeung
Dr Maureen Hickey
(Till 1 September 2013)
Ms Verene Koh
Dr Michelle Miller
(Till 8 January 2013)
Dr Rita Padawangi
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Wu Keping
(Till 31 December 2013)
ADMINISTRATIVE
STAFF
Verene Koh Hwee Kiang
MBA (National University of Singapore)
Associate Director
Norsahida Bte Mohamad Salleh
(Till 6 February 2013)
Management Assistant Officer
Vernice Tan Ser Nee
BA (Murdoch University)
Senior Executive (Human Resources)
Noorhayati Bte Hamsan
Management Assistant Officer
(Finance)
Sharon Ong
BFA (RMIT/Lasalle-SIA College
of the Arts)
Executive (Events/PR)
Kristy Won Tien Min
BSc (University of London)
Senior Executive,
and Secretary to Director
Kalaichelvi Sitharthan
Graduate Diploma
(Southern Cross University)
Management Assistant Officer
(Human Resources)
Valerie Yeo Ee Lin
Diploma (Singapore Polytechnic)
Management Assistant Officer
(Events/PR)
Henry Kwan Wai Hung
Diploma (Singapore Polytechnic)
Specialist Associate (IT)
Jonathan Lee Ming Yao
BA (State University of New York
at Buffalo)
Management Assistant Officer
(Events/PR)
10
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
3.0
ARI COMMITTEES
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
11
ARI COMMITTEES 3.0
ARI
COMMITTEES
Members of ARI actively contribute to the running of the Institute in various ways,
including through their participation in committees.
In the year 2013 the following committees took up responsibility for various aspects
of work involved in the running of ARI as a resource for research on the Asian region
for researchers from around the world and graduate student researchers.
ASIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS
COMMITTEE WITH SUMMER
INSTITUTE AND GRADUATE
STUDENTS FORUM
ARI PHD SCHOLARSHIPS
PROGRAMME
PUBLICATIONS COMMITTEE
(WORKING PAPER SERIES)
Prof Jean Yeung (Chair)
Dr Michelle Miller (Chair)
Dr Michelle Miller (Chair)
Ms Kristy Won
Assoc Prof Tim Bunnell
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist
(Till 24 June 2013)
CONFERENCE AND RESEARCH
GRANTS COMMITTEE
Assoc Prof Liang Yongjia
(Till 15 July 2013)
Assoc Prof Titima Suthiwan
Assoc Prof Huang Jianli (Chair)
(From 1 January 2013)
Dr Nausheen Anwar
Dr Jonathan Benney
(Till 10 April 2013)
Prof Chua Beng Huat
Prof Brenda Yeoh
Dr Kumiko Kawashima
Ms Kristy Won
Dr Maria Platt
Ms Valerie Yeo
Dr Zhang Juan
LIBRARY COMMITTEE
Dr Philip Fountain
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Philip Fountain (Chair)
Dr Shawna Tang
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Li Haibin
(From 1 September 2013)
Mrs Kalaichelvi Sitharthan
Dr Malini Sur
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Zhong Yijiang
(Till 4 September 2013)
Ms Norsahida Bte Mohamad Salleh
(Till 6 February 2013)
12
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Dr Jonathan Benney
(Till 10 April 2013)
Dr Maureen Hickey
Dr Peter Marolt
Dr Zhang Juan
Dr Nausheen Anwar
(From 18 March 2013)
Dr Tamra Lysaght
(From 1 September 2013)
Ms Tharuka Prematillake
(From 1 September 2013)
Ms Valerie Yeo
ARI COMMITTEES 3.0
NEWSLETTER AND OUTREACH
COMMITTEE
Dr Peter Marolt (Chair)
(Till 1 April 2013)
Dr Rita Padawangi (Chair)
(From 2 April 2013)
SEMINAR COMMITTEE
WEBSITE COMMITTEE
Prof Jean Yeung (Chair)
Dr Maria Platt (Chair)
Prof Chua Beng Huat
Dr Marco Garrido
(From 1 September 2013)
Assoc Prof Tim Bunnell
Assoc Prof Michael Feener
Ms Sharon Ong
Ms Valerie Yeo
Dr Andrea Acri
(Till 1 February 2013)
Dr Jerome Whitington
Dr Jonathan Benney
(Till 10 April 2013)
Dr Asha Rathina-Pandi
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Lee Hyun ok
(Till 7 August 2013)
Dr Wu Keping
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Wu Keping (Chair)
Dr Thum Ping Tjin
Mrs Kalaichelvi Sitharthan
Dr Lee Hyun ok
(Till 7 August 2013)
Dr Zhang Juan
Ms Sharon Ong
(Till 31 December 2013)
Dr Zhang Juan
Dr Cho Kyuhoon
(From 18 July 2013)
Mr Jonathan Lee
Dr Sharon Quah
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Eric Kerr
(From 18 July 2013)
SOCIAL AND STAFF WELFARE
COMMITTEE
Ms Noorhayati Bte Hamsan
Dr Tinn Honghong (Chair)
(Till 1 August 2013)
Mr Henry Kwan
Dr Tabea Bork-Hüffer (Chair)
(From 1 September 2013)
FIRE SAFETY COMMITTEE
(From 8 April 2013)
Dr Suzanne Naafs
(From 18 July 2013)
Dr Sally Liu
(From 1 September 2013)
Mr Henry Kwan
GREEN COMMITTEE
Ms Valerie Yeo
Dr Ravi Rajan
(From 1 September 2013)
Dr Maureen Hickey
Ms Saharah Abubakar
Ms Kristy Won
Ms Sharon Ong
Ms Vernice Tan
(From 1 September 2013)
Ms Noorhayati Bte Hamsan
Mr Jonathan Lee
Ms Li Hongyan
Mr Henry Kwan
Mr Henry Kwan (Chair)
Dr Peter Marolt
Ms Sharon Ong
Ms Valerie Yeo
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
13
4.0
RESEARCH PERSONNEL
14
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
RESEARCH
PERSONNEL
The Asia Research Institute aims
to be the hub for high-quality
social science and humanities
research on Asia, and attracting
high quality researchers is
paramount to the success of
the Institute. The increasing
number of applications for
fellowships with its various
research programmes each
year is a clear indication of ARI
becoming the preferred choice
for researchers and academics.
ARI received an increasing
number of applications each year
over the last five years for the
medium and short term visiting
researchers, from about 180
applications received in 2008
to more than 500 applications
received in 2013. This is a clear
indication of ARI becoming the
preferred choice for researchers
working on Asia.
Since 2005, ARI has brought to NUS a mix
of well-established scholars and younger
researchers from the region who wish to
spend research time in the Institute and
interact with the best in their fields. The
Institute also attracts many established
scholars on paid sabbatical leave from
their home institutions to spend time
conducting research and establishing
connections in ARI and NUS. Scholars
who joined under the sabbatical scheme
in 2013 are listed in the following section
on visiting research professors/(senior)
research fellows.
The research personnel in ARI are
diverse; they vary in terms of research
foci, nationalities, international
experience, and duration of
appointments. ARI further maintains
a good balance between established
scholars and those who are at the start of
promising careers.
The research personnel are led by
distinguished research leaders, each
heading a research cluster. Most of
the research leaders are tenured
faculty members, part-seconded on
joint appointments from their home
departments in NUS, while the others
have been recruited after exhaustive
international searches.
ARI awards two-year principal/(senior)
research fellowships to well-established
researchers as well as researchers in
early career stages. The research leaders
and (senior) research fellows provide
the stability and experience necessary
for implementing longer-term plans of
the Institute, while other shorter-term
members add agility and vibrancy to the
ARI community.
A high proportion of appointees in
ARI are visiting fellows who are mostly
established scholars on leave from their
home institutions, and are recruited
internationally on a competitive basis.
They assume short-term visiting
fellowships ranging from three months up
to a year.
Postdoctoral fellows are appointed
through an annual international
competition. The postdoctoral
fellowships engage promising young
scholars in their research fields, allowing
them space and time to build up their
research and publishing capacities
in their early career development.
Outstanding performers often succeed in
securing tenure-track positions in NUS or
other universities worldwide.
In 2013, ARI continued to interact with
the faculties of NUS in different ways.
Apart from co-organising events and
collaborating in research, the FASS
Writing Fellowship scheme, designed
to enable assistant professors to devote
six months primarily to completing
publications needed for tenure review,
awarded writing fellowships to assistant
professors in the faculty to spend time
writing in ARI.
A proportion of ARI’s research staff
was appointed on the basis of external
funded programmes or projects. Two
research project grants awarded by
the NUS Global Asia Institute provided
full or partial support for four research
assistants/associates. The Global Asia
Institute also funded a research assistant
at ARI. A continuing research programme
grant for the Migrating Out of Poverty
Research Programme Consortium,
funded by the UK Department for
International Development (DFID)
through the University of Sussex provided
full or partial support for three research
assistants and a research associate. A
grant for a project on migration and
Chinese families partially supported the
appointment of a postdoctoral fellow and
another for a project on China children
provided for the appointment of a
postdoctoral fellow. Last but not least, a
postdoctoral fellow partially self-funded
her fellowship at ARI through an external
grant awarded to her by the Humboldt
Foundation.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
15
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
DIRECTOR
Duara, Prasenjit, Professor. BA
(Delhi), MA (Delhi), M.Phil (Jawaharlal
Nehru), PhD (Harvard). Director since
1 January 2011; Historical Sociology
of Asian Connections Metacluster
Research Leader from April 2011; joint
appointment with Department of
History, FASS, and concurrently Director
of Research, Humanities and Social
Sciences, Office of the Deputy President
(Research and Technology), NUS. History
of China and more broadly of Asia in the
twentieth century; historical thought and
historiography.
DEPUTY DIRECTOR
Huang Jianli, Associate Professor.
BA (Hons) (NUS), PhD (ANU). Deputy
Director since 1 January 2013; joint
appointment with Department of
History, FASS, and concurrently Research
Associate at the East Asian Institute,
NUS. History of Republican China from
the 1910s to 1940s, student political
activism, local governance, and Chinese
diaspora, in particular the relationship
between China and the Chinese
community in Singapore.
RESEARCH LEADERS
Chua Beng Huat, Professor. BSc (Acadia),
MA (York), PhD (York). Cultural Studies
in Asia Cluster Research Leader since
1 January 2004; joint appointment
with Department of Sociology, and
concurrently Head, Department of
Sociology, FASS. Public policy research
in Singapore, politics in Southeast Asia;
consumerism across Asia.
Clancey, Gregory Kevin, Associate
Professor. BA (Hons) (Oxford), MA
(Boston), PhD (MIT). Science, Technology,
and Society Cluster Research Leader
since 1 August 2009; joint appointment
with Department of History, FASS.
History and anthropology of science
and technology; architecture and cities;
natural disaster; Japan.
16
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Douglass, Clyde Michael, Professor.
BA (California), MA (Hawai’i), PhD
(California). Asian Urbanisms Cluster
Research Leader since 1 August 2012;
joint appointment with Department of
Sociology, FASS, from 12 June 2012.
Liveable cities (the environment, personal
well-being, and social-cultural life);
globalisation, the public city and public
space; international migration and the
globalisation of households in Pacific
Asia; the environment and the urban
transition in Asia; trans-border intercity
networks in East Asia; filmmaking for
social research and planning.
Feener, Michael, Associate Professor.
BA (University of Colorado at Boulder),
MA (Boston), PhD (Boston). Religion and
Globalisation in Asian Contexts Cluster
Research Leader since 1 February 2009;
joint appointment with Department
of History, FASS, from 28 June 2006.
Intellectual and cultural history of Islam in
the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Yeoh Saw Ai, Brenda, Professor. BA
(Hons) (Cambridge); MA (Cambridge),
PhD (Oxford). Asian Migration Cluster
Research Leader and Asian MetaCentre
Principal Investigator since February
2000; joint appointment with Department
of Geography, and concurrently Dean,
FASS. The politics of space in colonial
cities; heritage issues and tourism
studies; place histories and landscape
studies; the geography of gender, with
particular reference to women and
migration; global cities, transnationalism
and diaspora.
Yeung Wei-Jun, Jean, Professor.
BA (Soochow), MA (Illinois State),
PhD (Alberta). Changing Family in
Asia Cluster Research Leader from 1
November 2011; joint appointment with
Department of Sociology, FASS, since
15 July 2008. Intergenerational studies,
family and children’s well-being and
policies, poverty, fatherhood, and China’s
economic and demographic transition.
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH FELLOWS/
(SENIOR) RESEARCH FELLOWS
Anwar, Nausheen Hafeeza, BA (CUNY),
MIA (Columbia), PhD (Columbia).
Research Fellow since 1 January
2013. Politics of urban development,
governance and globalisation; linkages
between structural-political violence,
gender, poverty/inequality and improved
access to public services; urban land
markets and pro-poor housing issues;
state and non-state practices and
community participation in global city
formation; migration, security and
citizenship.
Bala, Arun, BSc (University of Singapore),
MA (University of Singapore), MA
(Sussex), PhD (Western Ontario). Senior
Research Fellow from 1 December
2011. Civilisations and modern science;
deployment of neo-Lakatosian model
for scientific method, involving the
consilience of research programmes,
to explain how reservoirs of knowledge
from different Asian traditions came to
be epistemologically incorporated in the
making of modern science.
Benney, Jonathan David, BA
(Melbourne), PhD (Melbourne). Research
Fellow from 1 January to 10 April 2013.
Legal and rights activism in China; rise
and fall of “rights defence” (weiquan)
movement; changing role of the lawyer in
China; the party-state’s response to legal
activism; use of new media in activism.
Bush, Robin, BA (South Carolina),
MA (Ohio), PhD (Washington). Senior
Research Fellow since 5 December 2011.
Interfaces between Islam, politics, and
development, particularly in Indonesia
and Southeast Asia.
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
Chen Haidan, BA (Shenyang), MA
(Zhejiang), PhD (Zhejiang). Research
Fellow from 1 December 2012 to 30 July
2013; joint appointment with Tembusu
Residential College. Governance
of biomedical research in China, in
particular stem cell translational research,
biobanks, and biomarkers; bioethics;
biopolitics of science and technology;
sociology of health and illness;
biomedical innovation.
Cho Soung Soo, Philip, BS (MIT), MA
(Pennsylvania), PhD (Pennsylvania).
Research Fellow since 7 July 2011; joint
appointment with Tembusu Residential
College. Influence of popular religion
on the development of Chinese science,
technology and medicine in late-imperial
China and early-modern Europe;
contemporary developments in science
and technology in China in the context
of global technological systems, data
networks and models.
Das, Dhiman, MPhil (Jawaharlal Nehru),
PhD (City University of New York).
Research Fellow since 16 January 2013.
Health economics and public policy.
Fountain, Philip Michael, BA
(Wellington), MSc (Wellington), PhD
(ANU). Senior Research Fellow since 1
November 2013. Emerging engagements
between “religion” and international aid
and development.
Hickey, Maureen Helen, BA
(Washington), MA (Washington), PhD
(Washington). Research Fellow since
6 September 2012. Migration and
development; internal migration in
Thailand; gender, masculinity and
migration; labour migration and shifting
political identities.
Ji Yingchun, BA (Nanjing), MA (Victoria),
PhD (California, Chapel Hill). Research
Fellow since 21 August 2012. Social
demography, family sociology and
medical sociology.
Jung Sun, BA (Toledo), MA (Griffith), PhD
(Melbourne). Research Fellow since 26
September 2011. South Korean popular
cultures and online youth cultures.
Kawashima, Kumiko, BA (New South
Wales), PhD (ANU). Research Fellow since
1 January 2013. International mobility,
youth, labour and identity in postindustrial contexts.
Lai Ah Eng, B.Soc.Sci (Universiti Sains
Malaysia), M. Phil (Sussex), D.Phil
(Cambridge). Senior Research Fellow
from 3 January 2007 to 30 June 2013.
Migration and multiculturalism; migration
and family; multiculturalism and social
cohesion, ethnicity, culture and religion;
family and gender; local histories and
heritages.
Lee Hyun ok, BA (Yonsei), MA (Sussex),
MS/PhD (Cornell). Research Fellow from
1 January to 7 August 2013. Gender
relations in the political economic
changes.
Liang Yongjia, BA (Wuhan), MA (Wuhan),
PhD (Peking). Senior Research Fellow
from 16 July 2009 to 15 July 2013.
World renunciation; Esoteric Buddhism;
territorial cults and Chinese intellectual
tradition.
Marolt, Peter Wolfgang, PhD (Southern
California). Research Fellow since 17 May
2010. Social theory, urban and cultural/
political geographies, and related
post-disciplinary studies pertaining to
globalisation, the Internet, and China.
Lysaght, Tamra Maree, BBus
(Newcastle), BSc (Newcastle), PhD
(Sydney). Senior Research Fellow
since 1 December 2012. Ethical and
sociopolitical issues surrounding
translation mental health research, whole
genome sequencing, reproductive
tissue donation and stem cell science,
governance models for experimentation
in biomedical innovation.
Miller, Michelle Ann, MA (Northern
Territory), PhD (Charles Darwin).
Research Fellow since 1 April 2010.
Decentralisation; minority rights; the
politics of Islamic law; urban-rural
relations; and conflict-related issues in
Indonesia.
Naafs, Suzanne, BA (Leiden), MA
(Leiden), PhD (Erasmus). Research Fellow
since 1 January 2013. Youth studies,
development studies and cultural
anthropology, with a geographical focus
on Indonesia.
Padawangi, Rita, MA (NUS), MA (Loyola
– Chicago), PhD (Loyola – Chicago).
Senior Research Fellow since 1 January
2013. Public space, urban heritage;
sociology of architecture and the
built environment; social movements
and politics of space; environmental
sociology in the city; environmental
resource governance.
Platt, Maria Wendy, B.App.Sci (Hons)
(Deakin), PhD (La Trobe). Research Fellow
since 1 July 2012. Marriage, gender and
Islam within Indonesia and the Southeast
Asian context.
Sen, Ronojoy, BA (Calcutta), MA (South
Carolina), PhD (Chicago). Senior Research
Fellow since 1 August 2013; joint
appointment with Institute of South Asian
Studies, NUS. Religion, state and civil
society in India.
Thum Ping Tjin, BA (Oxford), MSt
(Oxford), PhD (Oxford). Research Fellow
since 1 January 2013. Postdoctoral
Fellow from 9 July to 31 December 2012.
Transnational movements between
Southeast Asian port cities.
Tinn Honghong, BA (National Taiwan),
MA (National Taiwan), PhD (Cornell).
Research Fellow from 1 January to
August 2013. Historical relationships
between the digital electronic computing
technology, development discourse
underlying the Cold War; international
exchanges of scientific and technological
expertise.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
Whitington, Jerome, BA (Texas), MA
(California, Berkeley), PhD (California,
Berkeley). Research Fellow since 3 August
2011; joint appointment with Tembusu
Residential College. Climate change and
energy; ASEAN policy initiatives; East
Asian approaches to carbon markets and
greenhouse gas management.
Wasson, Robert James, BA (Hons)
(Sydney), PhD (Macquarie). Principal
Research Fellow since 1 July 2013.
Flood risk in monsoon Asia; landscape
change; role of land use and climate
change in landscape change; catchment
management systems; extreme
hydrologic events in the Australian and
Asian tropics.
Bork-Hüffer, Tabea, PhD (Cologne).
Since 2 January 2013; and concurrently
Fellow at the Alexander-von-Humboldt
Foundation, Bonn. Changing
geographies of migration, health and
urban spaces in the 21st century.
Chang Yufen, PhD (Michigan). Since 1
July 2013. Cultural sociology, comparative
historical sociology, nationalism, social
movements, literature, religions, East
Asia, and overseas Chinese.
Cheung Ka-lok, Adam, PhD (Chinese
University of Hong Kong). Since 1
November 2012. Household division of
labour, domestic outsourcing, marital
conflict, and domestic violence.
Wu Keping, BA (Peking), MA (Boston),
PhD (Boston). Senior Research Fellow
since 1 January 2013. Religion and
development in contemporary China;
anthropology of Christianity, ethnic
and religious pluralism in Southwest
China; conversion and Buddhism in
contemporary Southeast China.
Cho Kyuhoon, PhD (Ottawa). Since 3
June 2013. Conceptualisation of the
category “religion” in modern Korea,
public role of Buddhism and Christianity
in a globalised Korea, religious system
of North Korea, and religion as an
alternative communication system in
modern global Asia.
Zhang Juan, MA (NUS), PhD (Macquarie).
Research Fellow since 1 January
2013. Borders and boundary-making;
contemporary Chinese subjectivity;
everyday practices in post-socialist
conditions.
Elinoff, Eli Asher, PhD (California,
San Diego). Since 16 December
2013. Citizenship, emerging political
practices, notions of sustainability, and
contestations over urban development in
Thailand.
Zhong Yijiang, BA (Beijing International
Studies), MA (Toronto), PhD (Chicago).
Research Fellow from 1 January to
4 September 2013. Religion and
modernity in East Asia from the thematic
perspectives of authority, epistemology
and space.
Garrido, Marco Antonio Zialcita,
PhD (Michigan). Since 1 July
2013. Relationship between urban
fragmentation and political polarisation
in Metro Manila, Philippines.
POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
Acri, Andrea, PhD (Leiden). From 2 April
2012 to 1 February 2013. Sanskrit and Old
Javanese languages and textual criticism,
with special focus on Śaiva sources from
both South and Southeast Asia.
Kerr, Eric Thomson, PhD (Edinburgh).
Since 15 July 2013. Issues that arise in the
intersection between epistemology and
the philosophy of technology.
Li Haibin, PhD (Sydney). Since 2 January
2013. Resilience, parenting, self-concept,
and Chinese migrant children.
Lin Qianhan, PhD (Oxford). Since 8
October 2012. Parental migration and
effects on the development of children in
China.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Liu Liangni, Sally, PhD (Auckland).
Since 10 June 2013. Areas of migrant
transnationalism; especially Chinese
migratory transnationalism in New
Zealand and Australia.
Quah Ee Ling, Sharon, PhD (Sydney).
Since 3 June 2013. Singaporean
divorcees; subjective experience of
Singaporean divorced individuals.
Rathina-Pandi, Asha, PhD (Hawai’i).
Since 3 June 2013. Dynamic relationship
between space, technology (Internet and
new media), and society; focusing on
minority populations, social justice and
equality, and democratisation.
Saxer, Johannes Martin, PhD (Oxford).
From 9 May 2011 to 8 May 2013. Effects
of China’s rapid growth, its strategic
decisions to secure influence and natural
resources in adjacent countries, and its
efforts to prevent unrest.
Sur, Malini, PhD (Amsterdam). Since
3 June 2013. Partition studies and
emerging political formations at
militarised borders, with a focus on South
Asia.
Tang Ser Wei, Shawna, PhD (Sydney).
Since 3 June 2013. Convergence of
postcolonial theory, transnational feminist
studies and queer theory in engaging
questions of modernity, globalisation,
sexuality, gender, citizenship, state and
nationalism.
OTHER JOINT APPOINTMENTS/
SECONDMENTS
Bunnell, Timothy, Associate Professor,
BA (Nottingham), PhD (Nottingham).
Joint appointment with Department
of Geography, FASS, since 1 July 2009.
Landscape symbolism and national
identity; politics of urban infrastructure
development; network conceptions of
landscapes, places and the city; Malay
communities beyond the “Malay World”.
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
Coopsman, Catelijne, Lecturer. BA
(Maastricht), MA (Oxford), PhD (Oxford).
Joint appointment with Tembusu
Residential College since 17 September
2012. Social and cultural dynamics of
knowledge production and technological
innovation in the domain of eye
research; cultivation of local talent for the
biomedical research sector; articulation
of expertise in neuroscientific studies of
Buddhist meditation.
Dean, Kenneth, Visiting Research
Professor. BA (Brown), MA (Stanford),
PhD (Stanford). Joint appointment with
Department of Chinese Studies, FASS,
from 1 June to 2 September 2013.
Nanyang Chinese in modern Chinese
history, history of religion in China; daoist
studies, comparative study of Chinese
regional history, Henghua temple
networks in Southeast Asia; Singapore
Chinese temples.
Fischer, Michael M. J., PhD (Chicago).
Visiting Research Professor from 1
January to 30 June 2013. Anthropological
methods for the contemporary world
with special attention to the interface
between science and technology and
anthropology; anthropology of the
biomedical sciences and technologies;
anthropology of media circuits, with foci
of regional attention on the Middle East,
South and Southeast Asia.
Graham, Connor Clive, Lecturer. BA
(Nottingham), PhD (Melbourne). Joint
appointment with Tembusu Residential
College since 17 September 2012.
Information systems; science, technology,
and society; and human-computer
interaction.
Tan Ai Hua, Margaret, Lecturer.
BFA (RMIT/Lasalle-SIA College of
the Arts), MA (London), PhD (NUS).
Joint appointment with Tembusu
Residential College since 1 December
2012. Intersections of body with space,
technology and culture.
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS/
ASSOCIATES
Abubakar, Saharah, B.Soc.Sci (NUS), MA
(NUS). Research Associate since 10 July
2007. Social networks and resilience of
divorced Malay mothers.
Anver, Mohammed Shamraz, BComp
(NUS). Research Assistant from 14
June 2010 to 31 August 2013. Artificial
Intelligence for sediment prediction;
historical and cultural aspects of
biotechnology in Asia.
Baey Hui Yi, Grace, BA (Western
Ontario), MA (Queen’s). Research
Assistant since 30 December 2010.
Labour migration issues in Southeast
Asia; borders and boundary-making;
identity politics; international political
economy.
Chandrasekaran, Muthukumar, BE
(Anna). Research Assistant from 2 January
to 31 December 2013. Analytics, data/
text/web mining and machine learning.
Ee Jie, Miriam, BSc (University College
London), MA (Melbourne). Research
Assistant from 16 February 2012 to 15
April 2013. Economic development,
socio-economic differentials, ageing, and
migration in Southeast Asia.
Escoffier, Nicolas Rene, MSc (Lyon II),
PhD (NUS). Research Associate since 1
July 2013. Relationship between speech
and music cognition, cognitive and
neural underpinnings of musical and
vocal communication of emotions.
Gan Luhui, BA (Nanyang Technological
University). Research Assistant from 11
July 2012 to 31 July 2013. Export variety
and human capital distribution; and
sequential Monte Carlo method.
Hamid, Wajihah, MA (Sussex). Research
Assistant since 1 November 2013.
Migration, South Asian diaspora and
transnationalism.
Lai Uin Rue, Cynthia, BA (Malaya),
M.Soc.Sci (Malaya). Research Assistant
from 8 November 2010 to 23 October
2013. Population planning; estimating
and projecting urbanisation and city
growth.
Lam Choy Fong, Theodora, B.Soc.
Sci (Waikato), BA (NUS), M.Soc.Sci
(NUS). Research Associate since 15
November 2005. Transnational migration,
population, gender, geographical
education.
Li Hongyan, BA (NUS), MSc (Nanyang
Technological). Research Assistant
since 9 June 2011. Perceptions
and representations of deviancy;
problematisation of social anxieties.
Ng Xinyi, Esther, B.Soc.Sci (Hons) (NUS).
Research Assistant since 1 July 2013.
Study of children’s views on health, food
and activity.
Prematillake, Tharuka Maduwanthi,
BA (RMIT). Research Assistant since
1 October 2012. Media and health
reporting, women and children, cross
cultural communications, religion and
globalisation, labour migration and
international relations.
VISITING RESEARCH
PROFESSORS/(SENIOR) RESEARCH
FELLOWS
Baas, Michiel, PhD (Amsterdam). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 2 January
to 1 April 2013. Highly skilled (Indian)
migration to Singapore, especially in
terms of connections to space and place.
Blackburn, Anne Margaret, PhD
(Chicago). Visiting Senior Research
Fellow from 14 January to 30 June 2013.
Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia,
with special interest in Buddhist monastic
culture and Buddhist participation in
networks linking Sri Lanka and mainland
Southeast Asia before and during
colonial presence in the region.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
19
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
Brooks, Irene Ann, PhD (London).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
(Sabbatical) from 21 December 2012
to 20 June 2013. Cultural theory and
cultural economy in an Asian context;
contemporary social theory and its
application within an Asian context;
interrelationship between cultural
economy, consumption and the State in
Asia and the US.
Callahan, William Arthur, PhD (Hawai’i).
Visiting Research Professor (Sabbatical)
from 3 September 2012 to 2 September
2013. Culture and politics in China and
Asia, and domestic and international
politics.
Chan Eng Bin, Felicia, PhD
(Nottingham). Visiting Senior Research
Fellow (Sabbatical) from 8 April to 7
July 2013. Construction of national
imaginaries in cross-cultural, diasporic
and multilingual cinemas (primarily
East and Southeast Asian films);
cosmopolitanism and cultural practices,
such as film festivals.
Cheah, Pheng, PhD (Cornell). Visiting
Research Professor from 27 August 2012
to 26 August 2013. World literature
from different parts of the postcolonial
world (Southeast Asia, Africa and the
Caribbean), and globalisation and human
rights with special reference to Southeast
Asia.
Chou, Pokan, PhD (Chicago). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 1 July to 30
September 2013. Formation of Chinese
Buddhism through the re-organisation
of Buddhist doctrines and practice;
Buddhist scriptures by Chinese Buddhist
elites.
du Cros, Hilary Louise, PhD (Monash).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 1
October to 31 December 2013. Urban
cultural tourism and the youth of Asia.
20
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Du Yongtao, PhD (Illinois).Visiting Senior
Research Fellow (Sabbatical) from 2
October 2012 to 1 January 2013. Late
imperial China, in particular, subjects
related to locality, spatial mobility, and
geographical knowledge.
Hoang, Lan Anh, PhD (East Anglia).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
since 22 November 2013. Migration,
development, family and gender in
Vietnam and Southeast Asia.
Huynh, Toni Tu, PhD (Binghamton).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from
1 July to 30 September 2013. African
women and their views of mobility in the
context of China-Africa relations; African
women’s experiences in China and their
views of China.
Iveković, Rada, PhD (Delhi). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 6 February
to 5 June 2013. Epistemological issues
and translation.
Joseph, George Gheverghese, PhD
(Manchester). Visiting Senior Research
Fellow from 16 January to 15 April 2013.
Circulation of ideas in mathematics within
an Asian context.
Kathirithamby-Wells, Jeyamalar, PhD
(London). Visiting Senior Research Fellow
since 31 December 2013. Southeast Asian
historical inter-connections in natural
resource extraction, utilisation and trade,
and environmental implications for postcolonial nation building.
Keeler, Ward William, PhD (Chicago).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 30
May to 29 August 2013. Gender, social
relations, and music and performing arts
in Burma and Indonesia.
Khan, Tabassum, PhD (Ohio). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow since 9
December 2013. Emergent identities of
Indian Muslim youth within contexts of
economic liberalisation and neoliberal
globalisation.
Kim Sung Kyung, PhD (Essex). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow (Sabbatical)
from 15 January to 30 June 2013. Asian
film studies; cultural geography; Asian
popular culture; political economy of
cultural industry in Asia; mobility in Asia;
North Korean defectors.
Lahiri-Dutt, Kuntala, PhD (Burdwan).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 5
August to 4 November 2013. Researching
natural resources through a feminist lens;
community issues in natural resource
management; challenges around water
and the extraction of minerals.
Larson, Wendy Ann, PhD (California).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
(Sabbatical) from 3 January to 2 July
2013. Modern Chinese literature and film;
negotiations of Chinese filmmakers and
writers with the conditions of modernity
and post-modernity.
Lavin, Maud, PhD (CUNY). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow (Sabbatical) from
4 January to 3 April 2013. Aesthetics
of androgyny, cuteness, and covering
in the representation and production
of contemporary Asian femininities
circulating in the media landscape.
Lim Bee Yin, Joanne, PhD (East
London). Visiting Research Fellow since 7
October 2013. Discourses on media and
globalisation; politics and implications
of (new/social) media within Asian
transformations (identities, cultures and
state politics), youth engagement and
participatory culture in Southeast Asia.
Lim Song Hwee, PhD (Cambridge).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
(Sabbatical) from 15 April to 14 July
2013. Transnational Chinese and East
Asian cinemas, films and cultural identity,
gender and sexuality studies, and
postcolonial and diaspora studies.
RESEARCH PERSONNEL 4.0
Lindquist, Johan, PhD (Stockholm).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow
(Sabbatical) from 25 September 2012
to 24 June 2013; Visiting Research
Professor from 25 June to 24 September
2012. Forms of labour recruitment and
brokerage that are shaping contemporary
transnational migrant mobility from
Indonesia to countries across Asia and
the Middle East.
Mankekar, Purnima, PhD (Washington).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from
28 June to 15 September 2013.
Interdisciplinary theories of affect;
transnational cultural studies; feminist
theory and sexuality studies; postcolonial
theory.
Mehta, Nalin, PhD (La Trobe). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 19
March 2012 to 30 September 2013;
joint appointment with Institute of
South Asian Studies, NUS. Changing
political economy of Indian television
and its social implications; and the
transformation of the Congress Party
and Indian politics over the past three
decades.
Meulenbeld, Mark R. E, PhD (Princeton).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 28
May to 27 August 2013. Various aspects
of Daoism; Daoist ritual as represented in
canonical sources, local gazetteers, and
vernacular narratives.
Park, Hyunjoon, PhD (Wisconsin).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from
30 September to 29 December 2013.
Educational stratification and family in
cross-national comparative perspective,
focusing on South Korea and Japan.
Peterson, William Dwight, PhD
(Texas). Visiting Senior Research Fellow
since 2 December 2013. Communitybased performance in the Philippines,
transnational/transcultural flows and
spectacle, religion and performance,
theatre in Singapore.
Phelps, Nicholas Alfred, PhD
(Newcastle-upon-Tyne). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow (Sabbatical)
from 8 January to 7 April 2013.
Economic development implications
and geographical organisation of
multinational companies.
Sim Siang Choon, Gerald, PhD
(Iowa). Visiting Senior Research Fellow
(Sabbatical) from 24 June to 23 August
2013. American cinema, national cinema,
critical theory, and film studies.
Pieke, Frank Nikolaas, PhD (California).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 2
July to 25 August 2013. Contemporary
Chinese society and politics, the
changing role of the Chinese Communist
Party, Chinese international migration,
foreign immigrant groups in China.
Strand, David Gregory, PhD (Columbia).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from
15 May to 14 August 2013. Modern
Chinese and Asian urban history; political
leadership and public life in early 20th
century China; parks and green spaces
in global perspective; and cosmopolitan
and republican ideas at the turn of the
19th-20th centuries.
Pillai, Shanthini, PhD (NUS). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 1 April to 30
June 2013. Diaspora and transnationalism
in literary and cultural texts with particular
reference to the global South Asian
diaspora.
Thambiah, Shanti, PhD (Hull). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow from 15 April
to 14 July 2013. Gender, migration and
identity; gender and work; families in flux
and gender relations, gender and public
policies.
Rajan, Ravi, PhD (Oxford). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow since 2 July 2013.
Political economy and intellectual history
of environment-development conflicts;
expertise and environmental governance;
environmental basis of poverty.
Thazhathupadathil, Gopalan Suresh,
PhD (Jawaharlal Nehru). Visiting Research
Fellow from 9 January 2012 to 8 January
2013. Critical globalisation studies and
the comparative political economy of
India and China.
Riemenschnitter, Andrea M., PhD
(Göttingen). Visiting Senior Research
Fellow (Sabbatical) from 10 April to 9
July 2013. Modern and contemporary
Chinese cultural history (late Ming to
present), theories and methodology of
cultural analysis, processes of cultural
flow and exchange, Chinese transnational
and translation studies, theories and
mythologies of/in modernity, theatre and
performance studies.
van Bruinessen, Martin, PhD (Utrecht).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from
18 September 2012 to 17 September
2013. Politics; history; philology; nonfundamentalist transnational Islamic
movements active in various parts of Asia,
including the Naqshbandiyya Haqqaniyya
and the Fethullah Gülen movement.
Sheel, Ranjana, PhD (Banaras Hindu).
Visiting Senior Research Fellow from 15
May to 14 August 2013. Social history and
women’s studies with a focus on India,
gendered changes in property rights,
marriage forms and associated rituals,
role of the state; both in colonial and
independent India, and their implications
on dowry and related problems.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ON FASS
WRITING SEMESTER SCHEME
Sasges, Gerard, PhD (California). At ARI
from 1 July to 31 December 2013; from
Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
FASS. Diffusion and reception of alcohol
distilling, marketing, and distribution
technologies in Vietnam during the
colonial and post-colonial periods.
Shen Yipeng, PhD (Oregon). Visiting
Senior Research Fellow since 3 July 2013.
Mass nationalism in post-socialist China.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
21
5.0
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES
AND ACTIVITIES
Credit: magicinfoto / Shutterstock.com
22
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
RESEARCH
CLUSTERS
The research clusters in ARI each focuses on research and analysis of
a particular feature of Asian society. There are currently seven
clusters in ARI and they serve as platforms to bring people together
in a collective effort to produce useful interactions. Individual
scholars in clusters also have independent areas of interest which
may overlap and flow between clusters.
The Institute constantly explores new
potential areas of research for ARI,
leading to the incorporation of important
emergent areas of inquiry. Two such new
research areas are Disaster Governance
in Asia, a theme common to the Asian
Urbanisms, Religion and Globalisation,
and Science, Technology and Society
clusters. Another is the area of “new
media and social movements” which
straddles Cultural Studies, Asian
Urbanisms and Asian Migration.
A number of scholars from NUS and
beyond contribute as cluster associates.
The “Open” cluster serves as a platform
for hosting researchers conducting work
on topics related to Asia that fall outside
of designated clusters. The full diversity
and heterogeneity of work carried out at
ARI are reflected in its members and its
publications.
There are also two active reading
groups in ARI, the Asian Connections
Reading Group and the Religion and
Development Reading Group, hosted by
the Asian Connections metacluster and
the Religion and Globalisation in Asian
Contexts cluster respectively. Members
of the reading groups meet regularly to
examine texts and share ideas related to
their interests.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
23
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
ASIAN
MIGRATION
PROF BRENDA S.A. YEOH
The Asian Migration research cluster continues to deepen critical scholarship on Asian migration by
exploring new knowledge frameworks through which to understand the complex and diverse linkages
between global change and transnational mobility, both within and beyond Asia. Cluster members
explore a broad range of human mobilities and interconnectivities, including transnational flows of
professional, managerial and entrepreneurial elites; contract migrant workers filling low-waged niches
in the urban economy, international students, and marriage migrants. Transnational modes of migration
– of varying degrees of permanence and transience – have become a compelling force not only in
increasing diversity in Asian cities, but also transformed the social, economic and demographic fabric of
source areas.
The cluster’s leading role in pushing
forth new theoretical insights on
Asian mobilities was energised by its
flagship conference for 2013, Theorising
Mobilities in/from Asia, which provided
a critical forum for migration scholars
from within and beyond the region to
explore novel ways of conceptualising
different mobile practices, rhythms, and
rationalities that characterise Asia on the
move. An earlier conference in August
2013, Migration Infrastructure in Asia and
the Middle East, trained the analytical
spotlight on the concept of “migration
infrastructure” as a way of thinking about
new regimes of transnational migration
across Asia and the Middle East that
are characterised by growing demands
for documentation and stringent
immigration controls. The cluster was
also active in organising several panels
at the International Convention of Asian
Scholars, Macau, in June 2013.
Cluster members continue to be busy
with analysing data and publishing
papers from three large, recently
24
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
completed projects: the Wellcome Trust
funded project Children and Migrant
Parents in Southeast Asia (CHAMPSEA)
which examines migration, gender
dynamics and the impact on left-behind
children’s health and well-being in four
Southeast Asian countries; the MOE Tier
2 project on State Boundaries, Cultural
Politics and Gender Negotiations in
Commercially Arranged International
Marriages in Singapore and Malaysia;
and the Migrating Out of Poverty project
on Financing Migration, Generating
Remittances, and the Building of
Livelihood Strategies: A Case Study of
Indonesian Migrant Women as Domestic
Workers in Singapore. The CHAMPSEA
team published a number of journal
papers including a special issue of the
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal on
Child Health and Migrant Parents in
South-East Asia: Risks and Resilience
among Children, while International
Marriage project members have papers
published or accepted in Third World
Quarterly, Geoforum, Asian Ethnicity,
the Asian and Pacific Migration Journal
and Citizenship Studies. Publications
produced by the Migrating Out of
Poverty team included a working
paper and an upcoming policy brief
on migration and domestic work in
Singapore. The cluster also began
work on two new research projects –
Casino Mobilities: Labour Migration,
Global Consumption and Regulation
in Singapore funded by an NUS HSS
research grant, and Migration and
Precarious Work: Negotiating Debt,
Employment and Livelihood Strategies
Amongst Bangladeshi Migrant Men
Working in Singapore’s Construction
Industry, funded under the Migrating Out
of Poverty Consortium.
More recently, the cluster has stepped
out to explore different channels of
communication to engage the wider
public on pertinent migration issues in
Asia. Alongside its annual public lecture,
Here Today and Tomorrow: Transnational
Domestic Workers and the Decent Work
Agenda in Asia, organised as part of
the ARI ASIA TRENDS 2013 series, the
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
cluster hosted a short film screening
and photo exhibition featuring the story
of Ristanti Ningrum, an Indonesian
domestic worker who recently returned
home after 10 years of work in Singapore
to set up a children’s library for her village
community in Desa Bader, Dolopo,
East Java. Invited speakers included
prominent NGO practitioners and
award-winning director, Mr Anthony
Chen, whose debut film Ilo Ilo won the
prestigious Caméra d’Or at the 2013
Cannes Film Festival. The event attracted
over 200 attendees including academics,
students, civil society representatives,
policymakers, and the media. In
continuing to build ARI’s visibility and
networks, we are looking forward to
organising institutional panels at the
Association for Asian Studies (AAS)-inAsia conference in Singapore in July
2014.
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Dr Dhiman Das: Health economics and
public policy
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh (Research
Leader): The politics of space in colonial
cities; heritage issues and tourism
studies; place histories and landscape
studies; the geography of gender, with
particular reference to women and
migration; global cities, transnationalism
and diaspora
Dr Michiel Baas: Highly skilled (Indian)
migration to Singapore, especially in
terms of connections to space and place
Ms Grace Baey: Labour migration in
Southeast Asia; recruitment practices;
gender and migration; identity politics;
international political economy
Dr Tabea Bork-Hüffer: Changing
geographies of migration; health and
urban spaces in the 21st century
Prof Ann Irene Brooks: Cultural theory
and cultural economy in an Asian
context; contemporary social theory and
its application within an Asian context;
the interrelationship between cultural
economy, consumption and the State in
Asia and the US
reap several publications stemming from
previous conferences including a special
issue of Geoforum (on Householding
in Transition: Emerging Dynamics in
“Developing” East and Southeast Asia)
and two edited volumes, Migration and
Diversity in Asian Contexts (ISEAS Press)
and Return: Nationalizing Transnational
Mobility in Asia (Duke University Press).
The cluster continues to focus on high
quality publications, stemming from both
individual and collaborative research. This
year, apart from a range of papers from
individual and collective projects, we
Ms Miriam Ee: Economic development;
socio-economic differentials; ageing;
migration in Southeast Asia
Dr Maureen Helen Hickey: Migration
and development; internal migration
in Thailand; gender, masculinity and
migration; labour migration and shifting
political identities
Dr Huynh Toni Tu: African women and
their views of mobility in the context of
China-Africa relations; African women’s
experiences in China and their views of
China
Dr Kumiko Kawashima: International
mobility, youth, labour and identity in
post-industrial contexts
Dr Kim Sung Kyung: Asian film studies;
cultural geography; Asian popular
culture; political economy of cultural
industry in Asia; mobility in Asia; North
Korean defectors
Dr Lai Ah Eng: Migration and
multiculturalism; migration and family;
multiculturalism and social cohesion;
ethnicity, culture and religion; family and
gender; local histories and heritage
Ms Theodora Lam: Transnational
migration, children’s geographies,
gender, geographical education
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist: Forms of
labour recruitment and brokerage that
are shaping contemporary transnational
migrant mobility from Indonesia to
countries across Asia and the Middle East
Dr Sally Liu Liangni: Areas of migrant
transnationalism; especially Chinese
migratory transnationalism in New
Zealand and Australia
Ms Esther Ng Xinyi: Labour migration in
Southeast Asia; gender studies; culture;
inequality
Prof Frank Pieke: Contemporary
Chinese society and politics; the
changing role of the Chinese Communist
Party; Chinese international migration;
foreign immigrant groups in China
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Dr Maria Platt: Marriage, gender and
Islam within Indonesia and the Southeast
Asian context
Dr Malini Sur: Partition histories;
transnational flows; emerging political
formations at militarised borders, with a
focus on South Asia
Assoc Prof Shanthi Thambiah: Gender,
migration and identity; gender and work;
families in flux and gender relations,
gender and public policies
Dr Zhang Juan: Borders and boundarymaking, subjectivity, mobility and
contemporary Chinese cultural politics
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Assoc Prof Michael Ewing-Chow
Faculty of Law, NUS
Dr Esther Goh
Department of Social Work, NUS
Dr Elaine Ho
Department of Geography, NUS
Assoc Prof Ho Kong Chong
Department of Sociology, NUS
Assoc Prof Shirlena Huang
Department of Geography, NUS
Dr Lai Ah Eng
University Scholars Programme, NUS
(From 1 July 2013)
Assoc Prof Eric Thompson
Department of Sociology, NUS
Prof Wang Gungwu
East Asian Institute, NUS
Dr Sallie Yea
Humanities and Social Studies Education,
Nanyang Technological University
26
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
ASIAN
URBANISMS
PROF MIKE DOUGLASS
The Asian Urbanisms cluster (AUC) continued to advance basic and applied research on Asia’s diverse
urban experiences along three major lines of inquiry: (1) The Vernacular City as living urban heritage
and participatory citymaking in Asia’s diverse contexts of modernisation and globalisation; (2) Spaces of
Hope through grassroots initiatives for alternative development that often arise from a milieu of urban
discontents in an age of digital media technologies; and (3) Disaster Governance in the context of Asia’s
rapid urban transition and global climate change.
Research on the Vernacular City directs
attention to both historically inherited
urban structures and living culture as they
are expressed through place-making
and local production of urban spaces by
people who reside in the city. In addition
to collaborations with other programmes
at NUS, such as the FASS Cities
Research Cluster and the Future Cities
Lab, this research theme has engaged
international collaborators that include
the International Institute for Asian
Studies (IIAS) and the Urban Knowledge
Network Asia (UKNA) in Leiden, National
Taiwan University in Taipei, Ewha
Womans University in Seoul, and NGOs
in Indonesia. The combined international
conference and workshop titled Asian
Urbanisms in Theory and Practice: The
Future of the Vernacular City held in
July brought together more than 50
scholars to discuss and draft a longterm agenda for collaborative research,
which is now being implemented and
will include several international team
visits to the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio
beginning in 2014. AUC staff organised
this conference, while the Future Cities
Lab, NUS FASS Cities Research Cluster,
and UKNA funded it. For the Eighth
International Convention of Asia Scholars
(ICAS 8) in Macau in June 2013, AUC
together with the NUS Department
of Sociology organised a panel on
Localizing Cosmopolis in a Global Age:
The City at the Grassroots in East &
Southeast Asia. Working with colleagues
in other countries, cluster members also
organised the International Conference
on Cultural Strategies and Urban
Regeneration: Policy Innovations from the
Grassroots funded by the Korea Research
Institute for Human Settlement, held in
September in Anyang, South Korea.
Spaces of Hope research proceeded
in 2013 through key conferences,
roundtables, publications and
community outreach. The conference
on Violence, Insurgencies, Deceptions:
Conceptualizing Urban Life in South Asia,
held in May, brought together scholars
to critically assess underlying causalities
of violence in South Asia while also
searching for promising directions for
peaceful resolutions. A parallel research
project on Mera Karachi Mobile Cinema
was also developed with colleagues in
Pakistan. By using mobile cinema and
cell phone videos to reach marginalised
and ethnically stratified communities, this
project has worked towards generating
dialogues among people to develop
mutual understandings that cross social,
cultural and religious boundaries.
AUC also collaborated in the Workshop
on Friendship and the Convivial City
organised with FASS Cities and the Max
Planck Foundation. As an allied Spaces
of Hope activity, several AUC members
currently participate in the MOE Tier
2 funded multi-disciplinary research
on Aspirations, Urban Governance,
and the Remaking of Asian Cities
organised through FASS Cities. The
project examines the conditions and
consequences of community and
institutional aspirations in 15 cities across
7 different countries in Asia.
A key dimension linking the rise of urban
contestations to alternative development
initiatives in Asia and throughout the
world is the widespread availability of
digital media technologies, particularly
hand-held devices with global research.
In this light, the project on Cyber China:
Making Space for Change continued
in 2013 with a focus on online-offline
interactions in urban China (and Taiwan).
This is working toward a sole authored
book.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Disaster Governance and Asia’s Urban
Transition saw the beginning of extensive
research collaborations from the latter
half of 2013. The longer-term objective
is to build on existing capacities at NUS
and other institutions to make Singapore
a centre of excellence in research,
education and training in disaster
governance.
Asia was held in early November, with
participation of university based scholars
and international organisations such as
the United Nations, USAID, UNICEF, and
many environmental disaster centres from
Australia, China, Germany, Japan, the
Philippines, and Thailand. A follow-up
workshop sponsored by Pacific Affairs, a top
tier journal, will take place in January 2014.
AUC’s signature conference on Disaster
Governance: The Urban Transition in
With a focus on mega-urban regions,
AUC also worked with United Nations
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Dr Peter Marolt: Urban and culturalpolitical geographies, particularly studies
pertaining to activism, the Internet, and
public space in (urban) Asia
Prof Mike Douglass (Research Leader):
Disaster governance, globalisation,
liveable cities, grassroots activism,
households in global migration,
transborder inter-city networks, urban
poverty and the environment, urban
planning
Dr Nausheen Hafeeza Anwar: South
Asian urbanism/urban development and
migration/immigration with a focus on
Pakistan and the Indian Ocean
Assoc Prof Tim Bunnell: Urban networks,
with particular interest in the “travel” of
Asian cities in urban theory and planning
practice
Prof Chua Beng Huat: Comparative
studies in public housing policy and
urban planning
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Dr Michelle Miller: Disaster
governance, autonomy/decentralisation,
democratisation and conflict
management in Indonesian cities
Assoc Prof Daniel Goh
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Rita Padawangi: Public space, urban
heritage; sociology of architecture and
the built environment; social movements
and politics of space; environment
sociology in the city
Dr Eli Asher Elinoff: Citizenship,
emerging political practices, notions of
sustainability, and contestations over
urban development in Thailand
Dr Asha Rathina-Pandi: Minority
populations, social justice and equality,
and democratisation in Malaysia, digital
media and political change
Dr Marco Garrido: Relationship between
urban fragmentation and political
polarisation in Metro Manila, Philippines
Prof David Gregory Strand: Modern
Chinese and Asian urban history; political
leadership and public life in early 20th
century China; parks and green spaces
in global perspective; and cosmopolitan
and republican ideas at the turn of the
19th and 20th centuries
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh: Transnational
migration; gender and migration
Prof Stephen Cairns
Future Cities Lab, Singapore-ETH Centre
Assoc Prof Hilary Louise du Cros: Urban
cultural tourism and the youth of Asia
28
By the end of 2013, Disaster Governance
had moved beyond the cluster through
the cooperation of other clusters,
including the Metacluster and Science,
Technology, and Society, to greatly
increase its potential contribution to ARI
and NUS.
Dr Nalin Mehta: The changing political
economy of Indian television and its
social implications; the transformation
of the Congress Party and Indian politics
over the past three decades
Prof Nicholas Phelps: Economic
development implications and
geographical organisation of
multinational companies
Prof Gavin Jones: Determinants of
urbanisation and studies of mega-urban
regions in Southeast and East Asia
organisations in Korea and Japan on
disaster governance related to new UN
Rio +20 programmes on sustainable
development.
Dr Chang Jiat Hwee
Department of Architecture, NUS
Assoc Prof Ho Kong Chong
Department of Sociology, NUS
Prof Jane M. Jacobs
Yale-NUS College
Dr Joo Yu Min
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
NUS
Dr Magne Knudsen
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Kelvin Low
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Misha Petrovic
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Pow Choon Piew
Department of Geography, NUS
Assoc Prof Johannes Widodo
Department of Architecture, NUS
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
CHANGING
FAMILY IN ASIA
PROF WEI-JUN JEAN YEUNG
In 2013, the Changing Family in Asia cluster focused on (1) publications from previous conferences,
(2) initiating a family cluster monthly research brief entitled Asian Family Matters, and (3) exploring
new frontiers for research and (4) securing new external funding.
Work from previous cluster conferences
have resulted in several major
publications – a book by Springer
Publishing and two special issues in high
impact international refereed journals
have appeared, and a third special
issue is forthcoming. These publications
are path breaking in family research,
providing systematic examination
on important yet uncharted research
territories about Asian families and how
they differ or parallel western societies.
We are starting to see the impact of the
Changing Family cluster’s contributions
to the field of family demography.
The Asian Fatherhood volume in the
Journal of Family Issues is the first ever
collection that explores Asian fathers’
behaviour and fatherhood ideology
and compares them to those in western
countries. The Transitioning to Adulthood
in Asia volume in The ANNALS of the
American Academy of Political and
Social Science examines systematically
challenges faced by young Asians when
transitioning to adulthood. In the new
Springer book Economic Stress, Human
Capital, and Families in Asia: Research
and Policy Challenges, authors examine
the extent to which economic stresses,
caused by events such as financial
crises, natural disaster, family death or
dissolution, are influencing Asian family
and children well-being and how policy
measures could be used to help families
address economic hardships. A new
special journal issue, resulting from the
Marriage in Asia conference co-organised
in November 2012 by the cluster and the
Scientific Group on “Marriage Transition
in Asia” of the Asian Population
Association, will appear in the Journal
of Family Issues in 2014. There are many
more publications by individual staff
listed in the chapter on Publications.
On staffing, the cluster currently has
a vibrant interdisciplinary group with
members from Sociology, Demography,
Economics, Anthropology, and
Educational Psychology. In addition,
we hosted two Senior Visiting Research
Fellows – Associate Prof Ranjana Sheel
from Banaras Hindu University, India,
and Associate Prof Hyunjoon Park of the
University of Pennsylvania.
The cluster continued to host
international conferences, ARI ASIA
TRENDS 2013, and many research
seminars this year (see in the chapter on
Events). Associate Prof Hyunjoon Park
delivered a well-attended Asia Trends
lecture in October this year on the
advantages and disadvantages of the
educational system of East Asian school
systems, focusing particularly on Korean
school systems. He used high quality
empirical data from multiple countries
to debunk the myth that the Korean
educational system, as other systems in
East Asian, creates students who are not
creative.
In March, a conference, Transnationalism,
Gender Hierarchies and Masculinity in
Asia, was held. In December, another on
Living Alone: One Person Households
in Asia was held co-sponsored by two
FASS clusters – the Family, Children and
Youth Cluster and the Health Cluster.
Both conferences gathered a group of
distinguished scholars to examine these
topics in the context of more than ten
Asian countries. Publication plans are
underway. Two more conferences to be
held in 2014 are currently in the planning
stage, one on youth aspirations and the
social economic realities they face as they
transition to adulthood, and the other on
one-parent families and children’s wellbeing.
Cluster members work on their individual
or collaborative projects on a wide range
of topics including youth in Indonesia,
divorce in Singapore, domestic violence
in Hong Kong, marriage patterns and
elderly care in China, family decision
making behaviour in India, parenting
behaviour and children’s cognitive
development in China, and school to
work transition in China. In addition,
cluster members also continued to work
on several larger research projects.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
29
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Work on two other large externally
funded projects, with a matching fund of
S$350,000 from MOE – one on Chinese
Children’s Socio-psychological Wellbeing, the other on Internal Migration
and Family Relationships in China – has
also proceeded in full force. A new
collaborative project with UCLA and
Hong Kong UST on Mainland-Hong Kong
comparison of cross-border migration
has also been initiated. Finally, a proposal
on intergenerational transfer and age at
retirement in China and India was funded
by the Global Asia Institute in 2013. ARI
research grants were awarded to Dr
Dhiman Das, Dr Ji Yingchun, Dr Li Haibin,
and Prof Jean Yeung, and Dr Sharon
Quah has submitted a project proposal
for funding to the Singapore Family
Research Network.
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Assoc Prof Park Hyunjoon: Educational
stratification and family in cross-national
comparative perspective, focusing on
South Korea and Japan
Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung (Research
Leader): Intergenerational studies,
family and children’s well-being and
policies, poverty, fatherhood, and China’s
economic and demographic transition
Dr Adam Ka-lok Cheung: Household
division of labour, domestic outsourcing,
marital conflict, and domestic violence
Dr Dhiman Das: Health economics and
public policy
Dr Ji Yingchun: Social demography,
family sociology and medical sociology
Dr Li Haibin: Resilience, parenting, and
self-concept
Dr Lin Qianhan: Parental migration and
development of children in China
Dr Suzanne Naafs: Lower middle class
youth and their education-to-work
transitions on the Indonesian island of
Java
30
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Cluster members were very active in
attending international conferences this
year such as those held by the Population
Association of America, International
Sociological Association, International
Union for Study of Population, and the
American Sociological Association.
In March this year, two activities were
initiated by the cluster members. First,
a monthly research brief entitled Asian
Family Matters was started to feature the
good work of the cluster members and
Dr Sharon Quah Ee Ling: Singaporean
divorcees; subjective experience of
Singaporean divorced individuals
Assoc Prof Ranjana Sheel: Gender
equity and women’s empowerment from
a historical perspective
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh: The politics of
space in colonial cities; heritage issues
and tourism studies; place histories
and landscape studies; the geography
of gender, with particular reference to
women and migration; global cities,
transnationalism and diaspora
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Assoc Prof Angelique Chan
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Premchand Dommaraju
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Nanyang Technological
University
share with the research communities.
Secondly, cluster members started a
monthly reading group jointly organised
with the FASS Family, Children, and
Youth cluster, in which cluster members
and attendees from the university share
readings and discuss issues related to the
changing family in Asia.
In sum, the Changing Family in Asia
cluster is healthy and robust in all
facets – in staffing, intellectual impact
and achievements, and in garnering
substantial external financial support.
Prof Gavin Jones
J Y Pillay Comparative Asia Research
Centre, NUS (From 3 October 2013)
Dr Erin Kim Hye-Won
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
NUS
Dr Maznah Mohamad
Department of Malay Studies, NUS
Dr Shirley Sun Hsiao-Li
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Nanyang Technological
University
Dr Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan
School of Social Sciences,
Singapore Management University
Dr Teo You Yenn
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Nanyang Technological
University
Assoc Prof Thang Leng Leng
Department of Japanese Studies, NUS
Dr Yap Mui Teng
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
NUS
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
CULTURAL
STUDIES IN ASIA
PROF CHUA BENG HUAT
The highlight of events in 2013 for the Cultural Studies in Asia research cluster is the hosting of the
2013 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society international conference, with the theme of Beyond The Cultural
Industry. Taking more than one year in preparation, with co-funding from ARI, the Faculty of Arts and
Social Sciences (FASS), NUS, and the Singapore Tourism Board, the five-day event took place on 1-5 July;
the first two days of the conference was dedicated to graduate students and the remaining three days
a conference for scholars. Dividing the conference into two parts provided a comfortable environment
for graduate students to share their research work and network, without the intimidating presence of
senior academics. Reflecting the growing field of Cultural Studies in Asia, participants came from the US,
Canada, Europe, Australia and of course, different parts of Asia.
Prof Chua Beng Huat, who is also
co-executive editor of the Inter-Asia
Cultural Studies journal, delivered
the keynote address for the graduate
students’ conference, with the theme of
“Inter-referencing Asia” in comparative
research. More than eighty students
presented works in progress from
their MA and PhD research. Professors
Meaghan Morris (University of Sydney
and Distinguished Adjunct Professor
of Cultural Studies, Lingnan University,
Hong Kong, and Chair, Inter-Asia Cultural
Studies Society), Tejuswini Niranjana
and Ashish Rajadhyaksha (Centre
for the Study of Culture and Society,
Bangalore, India), Melani Budianta
(University of Indonesia) and Kuan-Hsing
Chen (National Chiao Tung University,
Taiwan), attended various panels to
provide guidance and comments for the
graduate students. They formed a closing
panel for this part of the conference
that provided responses on disciplinary,
theoretical, methodological and practical
matters observed during the students’
presentations.
ARI Director, Prof Prasenjit Duara,
gave the welcome address at the main
conference. The opening keynote was
delivered by Prof Lily Kong, former ARI
Director and currently, Vice-Provost
(Academic Personnel), NUS. Speaking
directly to the conference theme, she
provided a wide ranging survey of
the current state of the field in both
academic and policy research on cultural
industry. Prof Koichi Iwabuchi, Director,
Monash Asia Institute (Melbourne), gave
a short commentary. The proceeding
was chaired by Prof Meaghan Morris.
The closing keynote was delivered by
Prof Thongchai Winichakul, former ARI
Principal Research Fellow. He provided a
masterly analysis of the “hyper royalty”
phenomenon in contemporary Thai
politics. Three plenary sessions were
held. Between the keynotes and plenary,
sixty-seven panels with more than 200
papers were presented, covering a
very wide range of topics. Among the
presenters were many former fellows
of the Cultural Studies in Asia research
cluster, making the occasion as a reunion
of ARI alums.
By coincidence, the cluster had brought
together several East Asia film scholars,
particularly on Chinese cinema. They
included: Prof Wendy Larson (University
of Oregon) who was preparing a
manuscript on the Chinese filmmaker
Zhang Yimou; Prof Pheng Cheah
(University of California, Berkeley), who
was preparing a manuscript on three
filmmakers, Taiwanese/Malaysian Tsai
Ming Liang, Jia Zhangke of China, Fruit
Chan of Hong Kong, and Associate Prof
Lim Song Hwee (Chinese University of
Hong Kong), editor of the Journal of
Chinese Cinema who had just completed
a book on the “slowness” of Tsai Ming
Liang’s films. In addition, we had Dr
Felicia Chan (University of Manchester),
working on cosmopolitanism in film
and Dr Gerald Sim (Florida Atlantic
University) who was researching the work
of the late Malaysian filmmaker, Yasmin
Ahmad. Both Dr Chan and Dr Sim, being
Singaporeans, also conducted research
on Singapore cinema. This coincidental
gathering of so many film scholars,
with overlapping research interests,
created a very exciting environment
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
31
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
and productive exchanges for all. Dr
Lim Song Hwee presented his research
on Tsai Ming Liang as a public seminar
in the ARI Asia Trends Series, an ARI
outreach programme, in collaboration
with the National Library Board. Prof
Pheng Cheah provided a commentary,
followed by an active question and
answer session from the audience. Finally,
in conjunction with the research focus on
Chinese cinema, ARI co-sponsored an
international conference on Producing
Chinese Cinemas in the 21st Century,
organised by Dr Lim Song Hwee, with
funding from the Leverhulme Trust, UK,
and held at the Singapore Management
University.
The Cultural Studies in Asia research
cluster will continue to consolidate its
position as a critical centre for the study
of East Asia Pop Culture in the coming
year but will also expand into other areas
of research, especially in new media and
cyber culture.
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Assoc Prof Purnima Mankekar:
Interdisciplinary theories of affect,
transnational cultural studies, feminist
theory and sexuality studies, postcolonial
theory
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Prof Chua Beng Huat (Research Leader):
East Asian pop culture; multiculturalism
Dr Felicia Chan: Construction of
national imaginaries in cross-cultural,
diasporic and multilingual cinemas
(primarily East and Southeast Asian films),
cosmopolitanism, cultural practices
Prof Pheng Cheah: Theory and practice
of cosmopolitanism
Dr Sun Jung: South Korean popular
cultures and online youth cultures, social
media
Prof Wendy Larson: Modern Chinese
literature and film, Chinese culture
under the conditions of modernity and
postmodernity
Prof Maud Lavin: Genders, sexualities,
mass media, and transnational digital
circulation
Dr Joanne Lim: Media and globalisation,
youth engagement and participatory
culture in Southeast Asia
Dr Lim Song Hwee: Transnational
Chinese and East Asian cinemas, cinema
and cultural identity, gender and sexuality
studies, and postcolonial and diaspora
studies
32
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Dr William Peterson: Communitybased performance in the Philippines,
transnational/transcultural flows and
spectacle, religion and performance,
theatre in Singapore
Assoc Prof Shanthini Pillai: Diaspora and
transnationalism in literary and cultural
texts, with particular reference to the
global South Asian diaspora
Dr Shen Yipeng: Mass nationalism in
post-socialist China
Dr Gerald Sim: American cinema,
national cinema, and critical theory
Dr Shawna Tang: Convergence of
postcolonial theory, transnational feminist
studies and queer theory in engaging
questions of modernity, globalisation,
sexuality, gender, citizenship, state and
nationalism
Dr Thum Ping Tjin: Transnational history
of maritime Southeast Asia
Dr Brenda Chan
Independent Scholar
Prof Philip Holden
Department of English Language and
Literature, NUS
Dr Liew Kai Khiun
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication
and Information, Nanyang Technological
University
Dr Deborah Shamoon
Department of Japanese Studies, NUS
Assoc Prof Stephen Teo
Wee Kim Wee School of Communication
and Information, Nanyang Technological
University
Prof C.J.W.-L. Wee
School of Humanities and Social
Sciences, Nanyang Technological
University
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
RELIGION AND
GLOBALISATION IN
ASIAN CONTEXTS
ASSOC PROF MICHAEL FEENER
The Religion and Globalisation cluster is dedicated to exploring reconfigurations in the understandings
and experiences of “religion” in diverse Asian contexts. Particular attention is given to the dynamic
interactions of secularisation and religion in the modern period, as well as to related issues of the
invocation of authority and tradition in contemporary discourse and practice. In terms of coverage,
the cluster works to facilitate studies of significant developments in major established religions such as
Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, as well as in more localised indigenous traditions and new religious
movements across Asia, broadly conceived.
This year has been an extremely busy
year for the cluster, featuring a series
of key events that have generated
momentum for the Religion and
Development in Asia (RADA) project. In
March we held a seminar on Religion,
Secularity, and the Public Sphere in
East and Southeast Asia which was cosponsored by the University of Tokyo
Center for Philosophy. This was followed
in April by a one-day symposium on
Missionaries and Democracy in Asia
which explored the cascading effects
religious movements can have on
wider social processes. In June we held
a cluster seminar entitled Interfaith
Approaches to Development that
focused on the interfaith initiatives of
both government and non-government
actors in Singapore. In early August,
cluster member Dr Philip Fountain
represented the cluster and coorganised an event at Oxford University,
entitled The Service of Faith: Christian
Entanglements with International
Development. This symposium
represented an interdisciplinary
conversation with some of the foremost
thinkers in the UK and Europe on issues
of Christianity and development.
The cluster’s flagship event entitled
Religion and the Politics of Development
was held in late August. This international
conference brought together leading
scholars, practitioners, and policymakers
to explore the nexus of religion,
development, and politics in Asia.
Featuring four leading keynote speakers,
over 18 academic presentations and 2
five-member practitioner panels, the
two-day conference resulted in a lively
and provocative conversation, whose
emergent themes will be published
in a forthcoming edited volume. This
conference was co-sponsored by the
Henry Luce Foundation. Immediately
following this conference, the cluster held
a one-day closed-door design workshop
with 20 of the most senior scholars and
practitioner participants, during which
the cluster presented and sought input
on its Religion and Development in Asia
(RADA) project. This input was then
channelled into an MOE Tier 2 funding
application, which was submitted the
following month. Lastly, in October
the cluster hosted the 2013 Inter-Asia
Roundtable on the topic of Religion
and Development in China: Innovations
and Implications which over the course
of two days brought together a select
group of scholars from China and around
the world for lively and stimulating
discussions of the rapidly changing
social roles of religion in the world’s most
populous nation.
In addition to the above-mentioned
events, the cluster has actively
maintained its Religion and Development
reading group, with meetings on a
near-monthly basis throughout the
year. The group has discussed eight
key works in 2013, including Claiming
Society for God: Religious Movements
and Social Welfare (Nancy J. Davis and
Robert V. Robinson); Life in Crisis: The
Ethical Journey of Doctors without
Borders (Peter Redfield); and The Great
American Mission: Modernization and
the Construction of an American World
Order (David Ekbladh). Over the course
of the year, the group has explored
development approaches taken by
different religious traditions – Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc., as
well as how different sub-sectors of
development (humanitarian response,
disaster response, overseas development
assistance, philanthropy, and charity)
engage with religious actors and with
religiosity within their own institutions.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
33
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Assoc Prof Michael Feener (Research
Leader): Cultural and intellectual history
of Islam; law and society; religion and
development
Dr Andrea Acri: Hinduism and Indian
philosophies, Sanskrit and Old Javanese
languages and literatures, intellectual
history of the Indic world
Prof Anne M. Blackburn: Buddhist
monastic culture and Buddhist
participation in networks linking Sri Lanka
and mainland Southeast Asia before and
during colonial presence in the region
Prof Martin van Bruinessen: Politics,
history and philology; non-fundamentalist
transitional Islamic movements in Asia
Dr Robin Bush: Islam and politics in
Indonesia; changing roles of mass-based
religious organisations; religious and
development/social justice
Dr Cho Kyuhoon: The conceptualisation
of the category “religion” in modern
Korea; the public role of Buddhism and
Christianity in a globalised Korea; the
religious system of North Korea; and
religion as an alternative communication
system in modern global Asia
Prof Kenneth Dean: Temples and
communities
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Dr Philip Fountain: Emerging
engagements between “religion” and
international aid and development
Dr Tabassum Ruhi Khan: Emergent
identities of Indian Muslim youth within
contexts of economic liberalisation and
neoliberal globalisation
Assoc Prof Liang Yongjia: World
renunciation; esoteric Buddhism;
territorial cults; Chinese intellectual
tradition
Dr Mark Meulenbeld: Various aspects of
Daoism; Daoist ritual as represented in
canonical sources, local gazetteers, and
vernacular narratives
Dr Ronojoy Sen: Religion, state and civil
society in India
Dr Wu Keping: Religion and
development in contemporary China;
anthropology of Christianity, ethnic
and religious pluralism in Southwest
China; conversion and Buddhism in
contemporary Southeast China
Dr Zhong Yijiang: Religion and
modernity in East Asia, from the thematic
perspectives of authority epistemology
and space
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Dr Julius Bautista
Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
NUS
Assoc Prof Gary Bell
Faculty of Law, NUS
Dr Patrick Daly
University Scholars Programme, NUS
Dr Zeliha Gul Inanc
Department of History, NUS
Dr Arif A. Jamal
Faculty of Law, NUS
Dr Jeremy Kingsley
Tembusu College, NUS
Assoc Prof Vineeta Sinha
Department of Sociology, NUS
Assoc Prof John Whalen-Bridge
Department of English Language and
Literature, NUS
Assoc Prof Robert D. Woodberry
Department of Political Science, NUS
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
SCIENCE,
TECHNOLOGY,
AND SOCIETY
ASSOC PROF GREGORY CLANCEY
In its fourth full year of operation, the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) research cluster completed
its “flagship” three-year grant project, Asian Biopoleis: Biotechnology and Biomedicine as Emergent
Forms of Life and Practice (co-funded by the Ministry of Education and the NUS Humanities and Social
Sciences Research Fund). As intended, the project has put Singapore, NUS, and ARI on the global map
as the primary Asian centre for the study of biomedicine and society. By the end of 2013, the project
had produced 27 publications, seven more than the number originally promised to the grantors. These
include special issues of three international journals, with a fourth planned for 2014. Additional papers
remain in the pipeline.
The appointment of Dr Tamra Lysaght,
formally a grant collaborator in the NUS
Medical Faculty, as a Senior Research
Fellow in the STS cluster, is another
legacy of the project, as is the ongoing
training of two doctoral students,
supervised by cluster members or
affiliates, one of whom will be the first
to receive a joint PhD from NUS and the
University of Edinburgh.
The landmark STS cluster event in 2013
was the hosting of a major international
conference at NUS University Town,
attracting over 160 delegates. The
Asia-Pacific STS Network (APSTSN)
invited us to organise their bi-annual
conference, which we combined with
two ARI workshops (on biomedicine and
climate change) to showcase our research
to a regional and global audience. This
was the first large academic conference
to take place on the new University
Town campus and was co-sponsored by
Tembusu College. Dr Jerome Whitington
took the lead in organising the event,
closely assisted by Drs Chen Haidan and
Tinn Honghong. Dr Whitington was also
elected Singapore representative to the
APSTSN.
Our handling of the APSTSN Conference
sufficiently impressed a visiting
delegation from the Society for the
History of Technology (SHOT) that the
organisation voted to trust us with their
own annual conference in 2016. SHOT
is one of the “big three” organisations
in the field of STS, the others being the
Society for the Social Study of Science
(4S) and the History of Science Society
(HSS). The 2016 Singapore event will
be their first annual conference to take
place in Asia. If the APSTSN Conference
marked the emergence of ARI as the
leading STS research centre in Asia,
the SHOT Conference will cement our
reputation globally.
In the spring a delegation from the STS
cluster was invited by the Needham
Research Institute, Cambridge, to
present a special seminar on our Asian
Biopoleis project, in conjunction with
the dedication of a new wing funded by
the Singapore-based Lee Foundation.
Singapore’s ambassador to the UK
officiated the seminar.
Prof Michael M. J. Fischer (Andrew
W. Mellon Professor of Humanities at
MIT) joined us for a six-month joint
appointment as Visiting Research
Professor and Ngee Ann Kongsi
Distinguished Visiting Fellow at
Tembusu College. Fischer is one of the
world’s foremost theorists in cultural
anthropology, and is making an extended
study of Singapore’s biopolis.
Cluster Leader Gregory Clancey
was engaged for a second year as a
consultant to the Division of Human
Health of the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA). Among his roles was
co-convenor of the May expert meeting
Radiation, Health, and Society: PostFukushima Implications for the Training
of Health Professionals in Vienna. In
November he also co-convened (and
gave a keynote) at the first STS-related
conference to take place in Fukushima
prefecture, sponsored by the IAEA and
the Fukushima Medical University. As a
result of this project Clancey was also
invited to give a keynote in Tokyo (at the
East Asia STS Network Conference) and
a paper at Nagasaki University. He has
been invited to present another paper at
Hiroshima University in early 2014.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
35
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Toward the end of the year the STS and
Asian Urbanisms cluster joined forces
to write a new Tier 2 Grant Proposal
entitled Governing Compound Disasters
in Urbanizing Asia. The point-man on the
STS side was Dr Eric Kerr, newly-arrived
from Edinburgh. The proposal, for close
to S$1,000,000, has been submitted
and is currently under consideration.
Members of the STS cluster also
attended and delivered papers at a major
conference on the same topic sponsored
by the Asian Urbanisms cluster. The two
clusters hope to cooperate closely on this
increasingly important theme in the years
ahead.
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Prof Michael Fischer: Anthropological
methods for the contemporary world
with special attention to the interface
between science and technology and
anthropology; anthropology of the
biomedical sciences and technologies;
anthropology of media circuits
Assoc Prof Gregory Clancey (Research
Leader): History and anthropology of
science and technology; architecture and
cities; natural disaster and the concept of
emergency; modern Japan
Mr Shamraz Anver: Artificial intelligence;
health communications; participatory
video; experiential learning
Mr Muthukumar Chandrasekaran:
Analytics, data/text/web mining and
machine learning
Dr Chen Haidan: Bioethics, the
biopolitics of science and technology,
sociology of health and illness, and
biomedical innovation
Dr Philip Cho: History of science;
popular religion and ritual in the
development of science, technology, and
medicine in late-imperial China and earlymodern Europe; contemporary technical
development in China in the context
of global technological systems, data
networks, and models
Cluster Affiliate Dr John DiMoia
published the monograph Reconstructing
Bodies: Biomedicine, Health, and
Dr Connor Graham: Information
systems; human-computer interaction;
social studies of work and technology;
digital heritage, death, dying and afterlife
Dr Eric Kerr: Philosophy of science and
technology, petroleum engineering in
South East Asia
Dr Tamra Lysaght: Contested
science and emergent technologies,
experimentation in biomedical innovation
Assoc Prof Ravi Rajan: Political
economy and intellectual history of
environment–development conflicts;
expertise and environmental governance;
environmental basis of poverty
Dr Catelijne Coopmans: Social and
cultural dynamics of knowledge
production and technological innovation
in ophthalmology and vision research
Dr Margaret Tan: Pervasive/wearable
computing history and aesthetics;
philosophies of technology and critical
theory in new media; performance,
installation, and new media arts history
and practice; feminist history/theory in
art, science and technology
Mr Nicolas Rene Escoffier: Cognitive
neuroscience, speech and music
cognition, link between religious
practices and cognition
Dr Tinn Honghong: History of electronic
computing; history of science and
technology in Taiwan; technology and
gender
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Nation-Building in South Korea since
1945 (Stanford University Press, 2013),
the research for which was partly funded
by the Asian Biopoleis grant project,
in which he collaborated. Cluster
Affiliate Dr John Van Wyhe published
Dispelling the Darkness: Voyage in the
Malay Archipelago and the Discovery of
Evolution by Wallace and Darwin (World
Scientific, 2013).
Dr Jerome Whitington: Climate
change and green energy development
as sites for exploring human futures;
environmental anthropology, Laos and
South East Asia
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Dr Catelijne Coopmans
Tembusu College, NUS
(Till 30 June 2013)
Dr John Paul DiMoia
Department of History, NUS
Dr Axel Heinz Gelfert
Department of Philosophy, NUS
Dr Connor Graham
Tembusu College, NUS
(Till 30 June 2013)
Dr Denisa Kera
Communications and New Media
Programme, NUS
Assoc Prof John Phillips
Department of English Language and
Literature, NUS
Dr John van Wyhe
Department of Biological Sciences, NUS
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
METACLUSTER:
HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY
OF ASIAN CONNECTIONS
PROF PRASENJIT DUARA
The goal of exploring Asian Connections derives from current research that shows that countries in East,
Southeast and South Asia, and more recently West Asia, are becoming increasingly interconnected and
interdependent. These connections have stimulated research not only on contemporary developments
but also the ignored or forgotten histories of these relations. Today these nations are beginning to
derive benefits and to face challenges from this emergent or re-emergent region which needs to be
grasped by a new historical and sociological paradigm that goes beyond “methodological nationalism”
and area studies.
In 2013 the Metacluster met every month
as a reading group drawn from social
scientists, historians and area studies
specialists in both ARI and the Faculties.
We isolated several themes that showed
the role that population, economic,
cultural and scientific exchanges, and
empires, trade and religions, played in
connecting the different parts of Asia
in the second millennium. In particular
these readings also facilitated a deeper
understanding of the comparative versus
connected perspectives on history to be
explored through close collaboration
with the participants in the Religion and
Globalisation in Asian Contexts cluster.
In February the Metacluster conducted
a workshop in collaboration with the
Canadian Situating Science Cluster – a
multi-university partnership on history
and philosophy of science – to explore
scientific exchanges across the Asian
region in the millennium preceding
the modern era, and its implications
for comparative and connective
understanding of the history of science.
This collaboration with the Canadian
Situating Science Cluster is now being
widened through the inclusion of
Australian partnership forged with the
Center for Dialogue in La Trobe University
with a forthcoming workshop in 2014.
The Metacluster organised a talk in
January by the Nobel Laureate in Physics,
Sir Anthony Leggett, on the theme Does
the Everyday World Really Obey Quantum
Mechanics? Couched in language
accessible to humanities scholars it was
well received by an audience some of
whom were also interested in exploring
the ways in which certain philosophical
themes in quantum mechanics can be
illuminatingly connected to Eastern
traditions of thought. The theme of
exploring Asian connections to modern
science also featured in the workshop
Understanding The Mind: Exploring New
Partnerships organised by the Metacluster
with the US-based Mind and Life Institute
in November, in partnership with YaleNUS College, to explore academic
collaborations to expand understanding
the mind by paying closer attention to
contemplative psychological techniques
in Asian religious traditions.
Other Metacluster events over the year
included seminars that explore from a
connectivist and comparative perspective
topics such as hybridity, moral economy,
subjectivity, religious ethics and the
mathematical zero. These seminars
continue interests developed in the past
and will be pursued in the future in the
process of articulating the paradigm of
Asian connections that informs the core
orientation of the Metacluster.
The Asian connections perspective
was extended in a novel direction this
year with the growing awareness that
disasters in Asia are increasing in both
frequency and magnitude, and that
they can have pan-Asian impacts. Under
the rubric Disasters in Asia: Localities,
Knowledge, and Governance members
of the Metacluster have worked with
scholars in the Asian Urbanisms, Religion
and Globalisation in Asian Contexts,
and Science, Technology, and Society
clusters to fashion an approach that
simultaneously honours the particular
perspectives of each cluster but provides
the beginnings of an overall conceptual
framework.
A Metacluster planning workshop
entitled Flood Risk in Monsoon Asia:
Hazard and Vulnerability in the Past and
Future involved scholars from NUS, India
and Thailand. A follow-up workshop in
Chiang Mai focused on documentary
sources from which histories of floods
and flood vulnerability can be derived.
These histories will complement ongoing
research that constructs flood histories
from the sediments left by floods. A
similar workshop is planned in India in
February 2014.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
37
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
RESEARCH CLUSTER MEMBERS
Prof Prasenjit Duara (Research Leader):
Social and cultural history; problems
of development; nationalism and
imperialism; religion; historical thought;
social theory
Dr Arun Bala: Exploration of how a
new-Lakatosian model for scientific
method, involving the consilience of
research programmes, can be deployed
to explain how reservoirs of knowledge
from different Asian traditions came to
be epistemologically incorporated in the
making of modern science
Prof William Arthur Callahan: Interplay
of culture and politics in China and
Asia, and overlap of domestic and
international politics
Assoc Prof Michael Feener: Intellectual
and cultural history of Islam in the Middle
East and Southeast Asia
Prof Rada Iveković: Epistemological
issues and translation
Dr George Gheverghese Joseph:
Circulation of ideas in mathematics within
an Asian context
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Dr Peter Marolt: Urban and culturalpolitical geographies; post-disciplinary
studies pertaining to environmental
activism, the Internet and (urban) Asia
RESEARCH CLUSTER ASSOCIATES
Dr Martin Saxer: Effects of China’s rapid
economic growth, its strategic decisions
to secure influence and natural resources
in adjacent countries, and its efforts to
prevent unrest
Dr Jack Fairey
Department of History, NUS
Prof Robert James Wasson: Flood risk
in monsoon Asia; role of land use and
climate change in landscape change;
catchment management systems;
extreme hydrologic events in the
Australian and Asian tropics
Dr Daniel Goh
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Zhang Juan: Borders and boundarymaking, contemporary Chinese
subjectivity, and everyday practices in
post-socialist conditions
Dr Zhong Yijiang: Religion and
modernity in East Asia from the thematic
perspectives of authority, epistemology
and space
Dr Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied
Department of Malay Studies, NUS
Dr Kurtulus Gemici
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Manjusha Nair
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Misha Petrovic
Department of Sociology, NUS
Dr Tansen Sen
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, NUS
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
ACEH
PROJECT
Over the past eight years, ARI has taken a number of research and development initiatives in response
to the catastrophic damage wrought by the earthquake and tsunami of 26 December 2004. Singapore
was the first country to provide emergency assistance to Aceh following the tsunami, serving as the
vanguard of the largest international aid effort ever organised.
have occurred there. Over the course
of the past year, they have continued to
pursue their own individual studies and
field research in Aceh, and they have
produced several publications based on
this work, including a new monograph
by the ARI Aceh Project Coordinator,
Michael Feener, titled Shari’a and Social
Engineering: The Implementation of
Islamic Law in Contemporary Aceh,
Indonesia (Oxford University Press).
We have also created a special “Aceh
Section” of the online ARI working
papers series. There are currently seven
papers published in this series, and more
are planned for publication over the
coming year.
In March 2006, Dr Kuntoro
Mangkusubroto, Director of the
Indonesian governmental Body for
the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation
of Aceh and Nias (BRR) invited Prof
Anthony Reid and ARI to organise The
First International Conference on Aceh
and Indian Ocean Studies, which was
held in Banda Aceh in February 2007.
Preparation for this conference was led
by an ARI team comprised of Prof Reid,
Associate Prof Michael Feener and Dr
Patrick Daly. The conference served to
consolidate momentum for reinvigorating
academic work on and in Aceh. This led
to the establishment of an International
Centre for Aceh and Indian Ocean
Studies (ICAIOS) in Banda Aceh. ARI’s
founding Director, Prof Anthony Reid and
Religion Cluster Research Leader Michael
Feener currently sit on its International
Board of Directors. The cooperation
between ARI and ICAIOS continues,
particularly through the ongoing series
of biennial conferences – the most
recent of which was held in June 2013 at
Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, with keynote
addresses given by Michael Feener (ARI/
NUS) and Prof Mary-Jo Good of the
Harvard Medical School.
PROJECT MEMBERS
Dr Michelle Miller: Decentralisation and
post-conflict governance
Dr Patrick Daly
University Scholars Programme, NUS
PROJECT ASSOCIATES
Dr Saiful Mahdi
International Centre for Aceh and Indian
Ocean Studies
Assoc Prof Michael Feener
(Coordinator): Islamic law in
contemporary Aceh
Dr Philip Fountain: Religion and postdisaster reconstruction
As years pass since the tsunami and
the end of the conflict in Aceh, the
scholars associated with ARI’s Aceh
project continue to monitor the situation
on the ground and to produce critical
analyses of the long-term effects of the
dramatic social transformations that
Dr Caroline Brassard
Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy,
NUS
Prof Anthony Reid
Australian National University
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
39
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
ASIAN METACENTRE FOR
POPULATION AND SUSTAINABLE
DEVELOPMENT ANALYSIS
Headquartered at the Asia Research Institute (ARI), NUS, in Singapore, the Asian MetaCentre for
Population and Sustainable Development Analysis (AMC) was established in 2000 with funding from
The Wellcome Trust’s major Awards for a Centre of Excellence in Asia. AMC was constituted through
a collaborative effort between ARI, NUS; the College for Population Studies (CPS) at Chulalongkorn
University, Thailand, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria. The
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health (NCEPH) at the Australian National University
joined as a principal collaborator in 2002. AMC’s research foci includes: population-developmentenvironment-health interactions at the regional level, rapid urbanisation, urbanism and health in
Asia, and demographic change, migration and the “Asian family”, and their impacts on social and
psychological wellbeing.
research proposals and subsequently
publish research papers and books.
The series of conferences, workshops
and seminars organised through the
Asian MetaCentre had thus served as a
platform for strengthening demographic
research and the analysis of population
dynamics in the Asian context in relation
to health and wellbeing.
One of AMC’s major aims is to
improve the synergy between existing
population studies centres around Asia
through an internet platform, training
courses, topical workshops, support
for project development and a general
enhancement of the interaction among
scientists working on population,
health and sustainable development. It
brings together Asian centres, fostering
international collaborations and skills
transfer. It also aims to consolidate
the Asian Population Network (APN),
organise relevant workshops, provide
training for skills development, develop
high quality proposals, engage in
40
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
The CHAMPSEA team continues to yield
a string of high quality publications in
2013 using the rich quantitative and
qualitative datasets from the project
on Child Health and Migrant Parents in
Southeast Asia.
Key members of the team also met in
Singapore in July with funding awarded
by the Singapore Ministry of Education
Academic Research Fund Tier 1 (R-109000-156-112) to discuss publication plans
and to work on the proposal for a followup longitudinal study for the CHAMPSEA
project.
Publications by the CHAMPSEA team in
2013 include:
Graham, E. and B. S. A. Yeoh (2013).
Special Issue on Child Health and
Migrant Parents in South-East Asia. Asian
and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3).
Graham, E. and B. S. A. Yeoh (2013).
Introduction: Child health and migrant
parents in South-East Asia: Risk and
resilience among primary school-aged
children. Asian and Pacific Migration
Journal, 22(3), 297-314.
Graham, E. and L. P. Jordan (2013). Does
having a migrant parent reduce the risk
of undernutrition for children who stay
behind in South-East Asia? Asian and
Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3), 315-348.
Asis, M. M. B. and C. Ruiz-Marave (2013).
Leaving a legacy: Parental migration and
school outcomes among young children
in the Philippines. Asian and Pacific
Migration Journal, 22(3), 349-376.
Jampaklay, A. and P. Vapattanawong
(2013). The subjective well-being of
children in transnational and non-migrant
households: Evidence from Thailand.
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3),
377-400.
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Jordan, L. P., E. Graham, and D. V.
Nguyen (2013). Alcohol use among very
early adolescents in Vietnam: What
difference does parental migration make?
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3),
401-420.
Lam, T., M. Ee, L. A. Hoang, and B. S.
A. Yeoh (2013). Securing a better living
environment for left-behind children:
Implications and challenges for policies.
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3),
421-445.
Sukamdi and A. M. Wattie (2013).
Tobacco use and exposure among
children in migrant and non-migrant
households in Java, Indonesia. Asian and
Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3), 447-464.
Adhikari, R., A. Jampaklay, A.
Chamratrithirong, K. Richter, U.
Pattaravanich, and P. Vapattanawong
(2013). The impact of parental migration
on the mental health of children left
behind. Journal of Immigrant and
Minority Health, online first, DOI 10.1007/
s10903-013-9809-5.
Yeoh, B. S. A. and T. Lam (2013).
Transnational migration in Southeast
Asia and the gender roles of left-behind
fathers. ARROW for Change, 19(1), 8-9.
http://arrow.org.my/publications/AFC/
v19n1.pdf
Lam, T., B. S. A. Yeoh and L. A. Hoang
(September, 2013). Transnational
migration and changing care
arrangements for left-behind children
in Southeast Asia: A selective literature
review in relation to the CHAMPSEA
study (ARI Working Paper Series No.
207). Asia Research Institute, Singapore.
Available online at http://www.ari.nus.
edu.sg/docs/wps/wps13_207.pdf
PROGRAMME MEMBERS
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
(Principal Investigator)
Ms Theodora Lam
(Research Associate)
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
41
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
STATE BOUNDARIES,
CULTURAL POLITICS AND
GENDER NEGOTIATIONS IN
COMMERCIALLY ARRANGED
INTERNATIONAL MARRIAGES
IN SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA
This research was funded by an MOE Tier 2 research grant from May 2008 to August 2011. Its aim was
to understand the phenomenon of international marriages and the dynamics of marriage migration
within the Asian region. Through an examination of the processes through which these international
marriages occur and the circumstances, researchers involved attempt to unpick circumstances and
social forces that are both enabling and restricting to the actors in their decision making process. The
nature, role and function of the state, individual agency, as well as the matchmaking industry were also
interrogated in the context of international marriage.
In 2013, the research team continued to
analyse data and produce publications
that pay specific attention to an array
of issues relating to social capital,
citizenship rights, gender and sexuality,
racialisation and social exclusion,
(im)mobility, transnational family
strategies and global householding,
the “commercialisation” of intimacy,
“entrepreneurial marriage” and the social
production of migrant (il)legality. These
engaged discussions are materialised in
a number of published and forthcoming
articles below:
Yeoh, B. S. A., H. L. Chee, T. K. D. Vu, and
Y. E. Cheng (2013). Between two families:
The social meaning of remittances
for Vietnamese marriage migrants in
Singapore. Global Networks, 13(4): 441458.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Yeoh, B. S. A., H. L. Chee, and T. K. D. Vu
(2013). Commercially arranged marriage
and the negotiation of citizenship rights
among Vietnamese marriage migrants
in multiracial Singapore. Asian Ethnicity,
14(2): 139-156.
Yeoh, B. S. A., H. L. Chee, and G. H. Y.
Baey (2013). The place of Vietnamese
marriage migrants in Singapore: Social
reproduction, social “problems” and
social protection. Third World Quarterly,
34(10): 1927-1941.
Yeoh, B. S. A., H. L. Chee, and T. K. D.
Vu (2013). Global householding and
the negotiation of intimate labour in
commercially-matched international
marriages between Vietnamese
women and Singaporean men.
Geoforum. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
geoforum.2013.09.012
Brickell, K. and B. S. A. Yeoh (2013).
Geographies of domestic life:
“Householding” in transition in East and
Southeast Asia, Geoforum. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.007.
Chee, H. L. and B. S. A. Yeoh (2012).
Becoming a commercial marriage broker
in Malaysia, Asia Pacific Memo, no.
133, posted on 22 February, available
at: http://www.asiapacificmemo.ca/
becoming-a-commercial-marriagebroker-in-malaysia
Chee, H. L., B. S. A. Yeoh, and R. Shuib
(2012). Circuitous pathways: Marriage as
a route toward (il)legality for Indonesian
migrant workers in Malaysia. Asian and
Pacific Migration Journal, 21(3): 317-344.
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Chee, H. L., B. S. A. Yeoh, and R. Shuib
(2012). In-between (il)legality and
legitimacy: Marriages between foreign
workers and citizens in Malaysia. In DooSub Kim (ed) Cross-Border Marriage:
Global Trends and Diversity. Seoul: Korea
Institute for Health and Social Affairs
(KIHASA).
Chee, H. L., B. S. A. Yeoh, and T. K. D. Vu
(2012). From client to matchmaker: Social
capital in the making of commercial
matchmaking agents in Malaysia. Pacific
Affairs, 85(1): 91-115.
Yeoh, B. S. A. and T. Lam (2012).
Migration and diverseCity: Singapore’s
changing demography, identity and
landscape. In D. W. Haines, K. Yamanaka,
and S. Yamashita (eds) Wind over Water:
Rethinking Migration in an East Asian
Context (pp. 60-77). New York: Berghahn.
Cheng, Y. E., B.S.A. Yeoh, and Zhang, J.
(forthcoming). Still “breadwinners” and
“providers”: Singaporean husbands,
money, and masculinity in transnational
marriages. Gender, Place and Culture.
Chee, H. L., C. W. Lu, and B. S. A. Yeoh
(forthcoming). Ethnicity, citizenship and
reproduction: Taiwanese wives making
citizenship claims in Malaysia. Citizenship
Studies, 18(8).
RESEARCH TEAM
EXTERNAL COLLABORATORS
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
(Principal Investigator)
Dr Rashidah Shuib
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Prof Gavin Jones
(Co-Principal Investigator)
Dr Vu Thi Kieu Dung
Independent Scholar
Dr Chee Heng Leng
(Senior Research Fellow)
Dr Melody Chia-Wen Lu
(Research Fellow)
Dr Zhang Juan
(Research Fellow)
Dr Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam
(Research Assistant)
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
MIGRATING OUT OF POVERTY
RESEARCH PROGRAMME
CONSORTIUM
Migrating out of Poverty is an international research programme consortium (RPC) funded by the United
Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID, or UK Aid). It focuses on the relationship
between migration and poverty, with the aim of maximising the development impacts of migration
whilst minimising the costs and risks of migration for the poor. A key facet of the Consortium is the
communication of research through policy engagement and capacity building initiatives directed at
delivering high quality research evidence into policy and practice.
The Consortium is coordinated by the
University of Sussex, led by CEO, Prof L.
Alan Winters, and Research Director,
Dr Priya Deshingkar. It has five core
partners located across different regions
in Asia and Africa: the Asia Research
Institute (ARI) in Singapore; the Refugee
and Migratory Movements Research
Unit (RMMRU) in Bangladesh; the Centre
for Migration Studies (CMS) in Ghana;
the African Centre for Migration and
Society (ACMS) in South Africa; and the
African Migration and Development
Policy Centre (AMADPOC) in Kenya. As
a core partner, ARI’s role is to manage
and facilitate the Consortium’s work
within Southeast Asia through a range of
research, communications, and capacitybuilding initiatives.
In 2013, the project team at ARI
undertook several projects under the
auspices of the Consortium. The first
regional project (RP1) entitled Financing
Migration, Generating Remittances, and
the Building of Livelihood Strategies:
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
A Case Study of Indonesian Migrant
Women as Domestic Workers in
Singapore began in 2012. RP1 drew
upon quantitative and qualitative
methodologies to highlight the
perspectives of Indonesian domestic
workers embarking on migration as a
livelihood strategy for poverty alleviation.
The first global project (GP1; or Global
Quantitative Project) drew upon surveys
with 1,200 households in the central
Javanese city of Ponorogo. The aim
of GP1 was to probe the relationship
between migration and poverty, and
identify the mediating factors that shape
the impacts of migration on poverty
alleviation. The surveys focused on
issues concerning migration, remittances
and wellbeing. In April 2013, the ARI
team conducted a fieldwork-training
workshop in conjunction with the Centre
for Population and Policy Studies at
Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta,
Indonesia. This three-day workshop
provided fieldworkers with an overview
of the project, as well as practical and
ethical skills for administering the survey
in Ponorogo.
A subsequent global project (GP2; or
Global Qualitative Project) began in
the latter half of 2013. Consisting of
an additional 50 follow-up interviews
with current and returned migrants
from the Ponorogo region (set to be
conducted in early 2014), GP2 focuses
on individuals engaged in construction,
domestic and factory work. These are
occupations that have emerged in the
context of economic growth, persistent
inequalities and declining agriculture
and where conglomerations of those
who are socially excluded and poor are
over-represented. Research on these
occupations will generate a significant
body of evidence on forms of migration
that are important to the poor and
relevant for the Consortium. Another
regional project (RP2) entitled Migration
and Precarious Work: Negotiating Debt,
Employment and Livelihood Strategies
amongst Bangladeshi Migrant Men
working in Singapore’s Construction
Industry was initiated in late 2013.
Drawing on quantitative and qualitative
methodologies, the project aims to
understand the financial and social costs
of migration for Bangladeshi migrant
men working in Singapore’s construction
industry, and issues of precarity that
contribute to job uncertainty and
insecurity amongst these workers.
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
Since its inception, the project team has
consulted a range of organisations in our
efforts to engage key stakeholders and
conduct policy-oriented research that
is relevant to ongoing discussions on
migration issues in the Southeast Asian
region. In particular, the team has worked
closely with Transient Workers Count
Too (TWC2), a local non-governmental
organisation that advocates for the
rights and welfare of migrant workers
in Singapore, in developing the
project’s research instruments, as well
as in the coordination of its fieldwork.
In November 2013, the team organised
a closed-door policy roundtable
discussion to reflect upon the findings
of RP1. The roundtable held at ARI
drew upon the perspectives of different
stakeholders on migration issues in
EVENTS
PROGRAMME MEMBERS
Surveyor’s Training Workshop
21-23 April 2013, Centre for Population
and Policy Studies, Gadjah Mada
University, Yogyakarta Indonesia
Convenors:
Dr Maria Platt and Dr Silvia Mila Arlini
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
(Principal Investigator)
ARI ASIA TRENDS 2013 Lecture and
Visual Exhibition
“Here Today and Tomorrow:
Transnational Domestic Workers and the
Decent Work Agenda in Asia”
12 August 2013, NTUC Centre,
Training Room Level 8
Convenors:
Prof Brenda Yeoh and Ms Grace Baey
Closed-door Policy Roundtable
Discussion
12 November 2013, Asia Research
Institute, NUS
Convenors:
Prof Brenda Yeoh, Dr Maria Platt,
and Ms Grace Baey
Singapore, including academics, senior
policy makers, business practitioners,
as well as key representatives from civil
society organisations. A policy brief
has been developed as an outcome
of the discussions, which outlines
key recommendations for enhancing
the existing regulatory framework for
Singapore’s domestic work industry.
Dr Maria Platt
(Co-Investigator)
Ms Grace Baey
(Co-Investigator)
Dr Silvia Mila Arlini
Dr Dhiman Das
Ms Theodora Lam
Ms Khoo Choon Yen
Ms Miriam Ee
(Till March 2013)
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
45
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
CASINO MOBILITIES:
LABOUR MIGRATION, GLOBAL
CONSUMPTION AND REGULATION
IN SINGAPORE
Casino Mobilities is a new project launched by the Asian Migration Cluster on 1 April 2013. It
investigates Singapore’s newly opened casino resorts as unique sites of mobility and interconnectivity.
This is the first academic research in the Singapore context that looks into the complex linkages of
transnational mobilities of labourers and consumers, the emerging casino economy in Asia, and the
transforming regulatory regime in Singapore. This research is fully funded by the NUS-HSS grant for two
years (2013-2015) with a project value of S$199,867.50.
In 2013, the research team initiated
collaborations with Singapore’s two
Integrated Resorts, where mega
casinos are a key feature, and the
official governing bodies including
the Casino Regulatory Authority, the
National Council on Problem Gambling
(NCPG), and the Ministry of Social
and Family Development. Researchers
involved in this project carried out
PROJECT TEAM
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
(Principal Investigator)
Dr Zhang Juan
(Research Fellow)
Dr Esther Goh
(Collaborator)
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
detailed background studies on regional
economies, industry outlooks, national
policies, regulatory frameworks, and
media and public discourses. The
research team has also started conducting
in-depth interviews with employees and
visitors to the casinos, both local and
transnational, and carrying out participant
observations at NCPG, family centres, and
self-organised community groups to gain
first-hand understanding on issues related
to problem gambling.
In June 2013, members of the research
team participated in an international
conference (ICAS 8) in Macau to present
initial findings and to consolidate
collaboration with researchers based in
the University of Macau (UM). The ARI
research team will continue dialogue
with UM researchers and engage in
Dr Melody Chia-Wen Lu
(Collaborator, University of Macau)
Ms Esther Ng
(Research Assistant)
academic exchange activities in the next
two years. The research team has also
offered two internship opportunities
under the NUS Undergraduate Research
Opportunity Project scheme, and trained
two undergraduate students with regard
to conducting independent research.
In 2014, the project team expects to
complete fieldwork and data analysis,
and to start the process of writing and
publishing. Plans are also being made
for conferences, meetings and possible
roundtable discussions involving both
local and overseas collaborators. The
project team aims to share research
findings and discussion outcomes through
publications and consultations, and to
engage with the public through various
forms of participation in NCPG and
community groups.
RESEARCH PROGRAMMES AND ACTIVITIES 5.0
EXTERNAL FUNDED
PROJECTS
Bork-Hüffer, Tabea
Principal Investigator in project on
“Formation and Change of Migrants’
Notion of Place Under the Influence
of Information and Communication
Technologies and Glocalization. The
Example of German Expatriates in
Singapore”, S$120,000 funded by the
Alexander-von-Humboldt Foundation,
1 January 2013-31 December 2014.
Bunnell, Tim
Principal Investigator in project on
“Aspirations, Urban Governance, and the
Remaking of Asian Cities”, Daniel Goh
and Eric Thompson (Co-PIs); Michelle
Miller, Peter Marolt, Rita Padawangi,
Kelvin Low, Vineeta Sinha, Jamie Gillen,
Elaine Ho (Collaborators), S$634,997
funded by Academic Research Council,
Ministry of Education (ARC, MOE),
Singapore, for AcRF Tier 2, 2013-2015.
Cho, Philip
Principal Investigator in project on
“Religion’s Impact on Human Life:
Integrating Proximate and Ultimate
Perspectives”, £50,000 funded by the
John Templeton Foundation Grant,
1 September 2012-31 August 2015.
Principal Investigator in project on
“Mapping the Technological and Cultural
Landscape of Scientific Development
in Asia”, Kan Min-Yen and Benjamin
Sovacool (Co-PIs), S$250,000 funded
by the Global Asia Institute, NUS,
1 November 2010-31 December 2013.
Clancey, Gregory
Principal Investigator in project on
“Asian Biopoleis: Biotechnology and
Biomedicine as Emergent Forms of
Life and Practice”, Ryan Bishop (Co-PI),
Edison Tak-Bun Liu, John W. Philips,
Catelijne Coopmans, John P. DiMoia,
Axel Gelfert, Denisa Kera, Karen Winzoski
(Collaborators), total of S$1,000,000
awarded by the Academic Research
Council, Ministry of Education (ARC,
MOE), Singapore, for AcRF Tier 2
funding, and by DHSS Grant, 2010-2013.
Feener, Michael
Principal investigator in project
on “Religion and the Politics of
Development”, Robin Bush, Philip
Fountain and Wu Keping (Co-PIs),
US$35,000 funded by the Henry Luce
Foundation (USA), Research Grant
from the Initiative on Religion and
International Affairs, February-October
2013.
Tan Ai Hua, Margaret
Co-Director of Art/Science Residency
Programme 2013, S$43,240.00 funded
by Marina Bay Sands Pte Ltd for the
2013 Art/Science Residency, 1 August-31
December 2013.
Yeoh S.A., Brenda
Principal Investigator in project on
“Casino Mobilities: Labour Migration,
Global Consumption and Regulation in
Singapore”, S$199,867.50 awarded by
Humanities and Social Sciences Grant,
April 2013-March 2015.
Principal Investigator in project on
“Transnational Migration in Southeast
Asia and the Health of Children Left
Behind”, Theodora Lam (Collaborator),
S$79,800 awarded by the Academic
Research Fund Tier 1, June 2013-May
2014.
Principal Investigator in project on
“Migrating out of Poverty Research
Programme Consortium”, approximately
£116,688 awarded by Department for
International Development (DFID),
UK, through the University of Sussex
for the inception phase from June
2010-September 2011, and approximately
£500,000 for 6 years from October 2011
to September 2017.
Yeung Wei-Jun, Jean
Principal Investigator for project on
“China’s Internal Migration, Family
Relations, and Youth Development”,
S$250,000 awarded by Lippo Pte Limited,
with matching fund of S$250,000 from the
Singapore Ministry of Education, since
April 2011.
Co-Principal Investigator for project
on “Creating a Life course Panel from
Birth to Early Adulthood”, Stafford F.
(PI), US$3,862,490 funded by National
Institute of Health, USA, 8 January 201031 July 2014.
Principal Investigator for project on “Age
of Retirement and Intergenerational
Transfer in China and India: Implications
for Human Capital and Labor Market”,
Feng, Q. (Co-PI), S$168,000 funded
by Global Asia Institute, NUS, March
2013-February 2015.
Co-Principal Investigator for project on
“Consequences of Internal and Crossborder Migration in China for Children:
A Mainland-Hong Kong Comparison”,
Wu Xiaogang (Co-PI), HK$1,150,000
funded by Hong Kong Research Grants
Council, January 2012-December 2014.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
47
6.0
EVENTS
48
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
EVENTS 6.0
CONFERENCES
AND WORKSHOPS
ARI continues working on its objective “to be a place of encounters between the region and the world”
by hosting seminars, workshops and conferences aimed at the generation and exchange of ideas.
During the year 2013, the Institute organised about 26 conferences and workshops. These conferences
were driven by ARI’s research fellows and postdoctoral scholars. The participants came from diverse
academic communities in Singapore and throughout the world.
Invisible Connection: Syncretism and Esotericism between
Asia and the West in the Modern Era
Jointly organised with the Office of Research, Humanities &
Social Sciences, NUS
10 Jan 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus, Singapore
Convenors: Prof Prasenjit Duara, Prof Janet Hoskins and
Assoc Prof Michael Feener
Esotericism developed as a special tradition of knowledge
that only a select few could master. But as it emerged from the
confines of institutional knowledge, it also developed a special
relationship with the accommodative and syncretistic Oriental
religions. The relationship has long been associated with ideas
of invisible connections that can be discovered within the self
through particular techniques, forms of self-cultivation or ritual
practice.
Replaying the Past: Performances of Hindu Textual Heritage
in India and Bali
Jointly organised with the Religion Cluster at FASS, NUS
31 Jan – 1 Feb 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Dr Andrea Acri and Dr Andrea Pinkney
This day-long workshop reassessed the rich motif of syncretism
for religion scholarship today by critically examining the
relationship between syncretism and religious boundaries, in
the context of both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic religions.
Discourses about religious mixing are often described as
syncretism, which is both a way of describing the permeability
and fluidity of religious traditions and a way of evaluating these
combinations. The term developed in the context of Abrahamic
religions where religions had perceptible boundaries, and may
not be as useful for Asian religions where these boundaries
are harder to determine. It has come into wider usage in
the modern era, with world religions defined as “isms” and
regulated by scriptures, clergy, temples and institutions.
Esotericism developed in part as a reaction against the
separation of religions into “isms”, and against the increasingly
limited place given to religion, as it was separated off from
science, medicine, divination/prediction and other entities.
This event, that assembled 17 scholars from around the world
specialising in India-studies and Bali-studies, highlighted the
necessity of applying a trans-local perspective to the study
of the long and deep links between the Hindu cultures and
societies of India and Bali.
There was discovery of shared traditions, and divergences and
development of shared traditions in both settings. There was
a general consensus that exposure to traditions from the other
side of the fence enabled us to see familiar traditions in a new
light, and to discover something about ourselves in the process.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
The keynote speech was delivered by Dr McComas Taylor
(ANU, South Asia Program) and seven formal panels were
convened, namely Contemporary Performances of the Past,
Premodern Hindu Texts in (Post)Modern Bali, New Perspectives
on Yoga, Hindu Texts in Song, Hindu Texts through Narrative,
New Lives of the Epics in India and Bali, and Balinese Narrative
in Historic and Aesthetic Perspectives.
These bodies of work will be published as journal special issues
in two of the foremost international journals in the field of
Hindu Studies: the International Journal of Hindu Studies and
the Journal of Hindu Studies.
Orders and Itineraries: Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian
Networks in Southern Asia, c. 900-1900
Co-sponsored with the Religion Cluster at the FASS, NUS
21 – 22 Feb 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Assoc Prof Michael Feener and Prof Anne M.
Blackburn
This workshop brought together 18 speakers from Sri Lanka, the
Philippines, Europe, North America, Australia, and Singapore.
For many in the room, this was the first chance to investigate
comparatively the history of religious orders (corporate
structures of ritual and interpretive specialists).
It hoped to stimulate conversation about the viability of
“orders” as a focal category for the study of mobile religious
specialists, their institutions, and their networks. Moreover,
it aimed to develop a comparative perspective on the
periodisation of orders’ institutional forms and activities,
seeking to discern whether temporal patterns are visible
within and/or across religious traditions in terms of how
mobile religious specialists are institutionalised, integrated
into new local settings, and participate in text production and
communicative technologies.
About 8-10 papers from the workshop, focused on Buddhist
and Islamic “orders” and ranging across the period between
the 14th century and the early 20th century, will be published.
This provides a deeper temporal context within which to
analyse events and processes characteristic of “early modern”
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
and colonial periods. The similarities and contrasts between
the Buddhist and Islamic cases, and the particularly productive
connections between these selected papers, will generate a
strong and well integrated edited volume.
Reassessing Ritual in Southeast Asian Studies
Jointly organised with the Centre for Southeast Asian Studies
(CSEAS) at Kyoto University, Japan
25 – 26 Feb 2013, Kyoto University, Japan
Convenors: Assoc Prof Michael Feener, Prof Yoko Hayami,
Prof Carol Hau
Scholars working across diverse disciplines in the humanities
and social sciences are developing new explorations of the
ways in which ritual practice can serve to reconfigure human
relationships even in the face of powerful trajectories of
secularising modernity. This workshop aimed to build upon
these broader conversations to rethink the ways in which the
study of ritual might come to inform new research in Southeast
Asian Studies. In his opening address, ARI Director Prof Duara
presented some of the work of his own current research as well
as on overview of some of the ongoing conversations at ARI in
both the Religion Cluster, and the Metacluster. These lines of
conversation were further developed in presentations by other
colleagues who have been involved with these discussions at
ARI, including Assoc Profs Michael Feener and Daniel Goh,
Dr Julius Bautista, and Prof Janet Hoskins. To this were added
some exciting new perspectives from both the Japanese
scholars (Profs Ryoko Nishii and Yoko Hayami, Assoc Prof Mario
Lopez, Asst Prof Tatsuki Kataoka, and Dr Yasuko Yoshimoto)
selected by our hosts in Kyoto, as well as others invited to the
event from further afield (Prof John Holt and Assoc Prof Justin
McDaniel from the United States, and Mr Sehat Ihsan from
Indonesia).
The Bright Dark Ages: Comparative and Connective
Perspectives
Jointly organised in association with Situating Science,
Canada, and University of Iceland
27 – 28 Feb 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Prof Prasenjit Duara and Dr Arun Bala
EVENTS 6.0
This workshop brought together 15 paper presenters from
Singapore, India, China, Southeast Asia, North America and
Europe to investigate how to globalise historical sociology and
philosophy of science by including the content and contexts
of Asian science – especially the Chinese, Indian and IslamicArabic traditions. It was inspired by the recognition that the
millennium between the sixth and sixteenth centuries, often
characterised as the dark age of European science, was also
the bright age of Asian science when seminal advances in
many areas of science were made. The workshop examined
how comparative and connective perspectives have shaped
our understanding of the historical sociology and philosophy
of science not only in the Asian civilisations (Chinese, Indian,
Islamic-Arabic) but also early modern Europe.
Palgrave Macmillan has expressed in principle interest in the
project since it complements an earlier volume of chapters
based on conference papers entitled Asia, Europe and
the Emergence of Modern Science: Knowledge Crossing
Boundaries (ed. Arun Bala, Palgrave: 2012).
The workshop has also generated considerable international
institutional interest for future collaborations with ARI. The La
Trobe University Center for Dialogue in Australia, through the
initiative of the keynote speaker, Prof Andrew Brennan, has
already offered a seed-fund of A$10,000 for a joint workshop
with ARI, and in making this the start of a series of future
collaborations.
religious and the secular, and argue that the public sphere is the
very terrain where the public power of the state is deployed to
ensure the proper formation of its national-citizens by shaping
what they believe as truth. This debate reflects a primary
concern with religion and the state as manifested in European
and North American context. This conference was an attempt
to engage the conversations on religion, secularity and the
public sphere from the specific sites of East and Southeast Asia.
The goals were to problematise social-political conditions and
generate new ways to understand state-society relations in
these regions.
Thirty two presenters and panel chairs from the various
disciplines of anthropology, history, religious studies, area
studies, philosophy, and economics, and participants
contributed valuable disciplinary insights to the problems of
religion, secularity and the public sphere in generating possible
ways of thinking beyond the current, Western-derived paradigm
of secularisation.
Transnationalism, Gender Hierarchies and Masculinity in Asia
Jointly organised with the Migration Research Cluster
at FASS, NUS
11 – 12 Mar 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Dr Lee Hyun ok, Dr Zhang Juan and
Assoc Prof Eric Thompson
Religion, Secularity, and the Public Sphere in East and
Southeast Asia
Jointly organised with the University of Tokyo Center
for Philosophy Contemporary Philosophy in the Age of
Globalization, Japan
7 – 8 Mar 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Dr Zhong Yijiang and Assoc Prof Liang Yongjia
The papers presented in this workshop mainly addressed the
issue of masculinity and men’s experiences in the contexts
of heterosexuality, migration and transnationalism with the
case studies of Filipino seafarers, Thai migrant taxi drivers,
Bangladesh migrant workers in Singapore, South Asian migrants
in the gulf, young Vietnamese men in the changing Vietnamese
economy, masculinity in the global sex industry in Vietnam,
formerly indentured labour in Nepal, pregnancy of Indonesian
female domestic workers, cross border marriage of men in
Singapore and Korea, and commercial surrogacy in India.
The ongoing debate about the secular public sphere reaches
to the core of the issue of the foundation of modern political
power. Scholars upholding liberal democracy insist on a
normative, privatised definition of religion in their efforts to
sustain the secular, rational public sphere. Critiques of this
approach question the viability of the distinction between the
Across the sessions, discussions were focused around the
questions: how masculinities are constructed under particular
conditions, including particular contexts of migration and
regimes of neo-liberal commodification and value?; how men’s
experiences are embedded or disembedded vis-à-vis traditional
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
or newly emergent assemblages of gender, power, economics
and cultural ideals? It was a precious opportunity to discuss the
possibility of theorising masculinities and men’s experience in
the transnational context. Presented papers can be grouped
into two major contexts: 1) the experience of labour and labour
migration; 2) the intimate relationship including sexuality and
familial relationship.
Violence, Insurgencies, Deceptions: Conceptualizing Urban
Life in South Asia
6 – 7 May 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenor: Dr Nausheen H. Anwar
Symposium on Missionaries and Democracy in Asia
12 Apr 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Dr Philip Fountain and Dr Robin Bush
The main purpose of the workshop was to generate a dialogue
on and to explore and compare issues of violence, insurgencies
and deception as these relate to the changing dynamics of
urban life across South Asia, and the mechanisms of change
viewed at multiple scales with particular attention to aspects of
political citizenship.
This symposium investigated the connections between
missionaries and political formations, and particularly
democracy, in Asia. Papers were interested in mission activity
undertaken primarily by Christian and Muslim traditions. The
forum was one of dynamic debate about the various possible
relationships. The initial impetus for the symposium was a
provocative article published by Robert Woodberry, an NUS
faculty member from the Political Science department.
The symposium was conceptualised as continuing a series of
conferences convened by the Religion and Globalisation cluster,
under the leadership of Assoc Prof Michael Feener, to engage
with themes of “religion and development”. As such, while
the symposium was a one-off event it was also intentionally
from the outset designed to tie into a series of other initiatives
and a wider research programme. Of particular note were the
synergies between the Missionaries and Democracy symposium
and the Religion and Development Reading Group, hosted by
ARI and organised by Dr Robin Bush and Dr Philip Fountain.
The symposium was an important boost to the momentum in
the research agenda around these themes.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
In exploring the relationship between violence and the
politically ambivalent spaces of urban life in South Asia, the
participants focused on structural themes and processes
ranging from the material practices of governance that
undermine and/or mediate relationships between people
and places, to the role of law, media and gender relations
in new engagements of citizenship, as well as changes in a
city’s built environment in the context of an everyday, postwar militarisation. Certain presenters used the lens of art
and cinema to question and debate the role of violence and
everyday realities in the South Asian city.
The speakers came from a range of countries including India,
Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Canada, UK, US, Australia and
Singapore. Vibrant discussion took place between the panel
members, discussants and members of the audience around
the role of violence and deception in South Asian cities, which
are home to a large proportion of the world’s urban population
and to many of the most populous cities.
EVENTS 6.0
IACS Graduate Conference 2013: Cultural Studies
Transcending Borders
1 – 2 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
IACS Conference 2013: Beyond the Cultural Industry
3 – 5 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
Both events are organised by the Inter-Asia Cultural Studies
Society (IACS), and is hosted by ARI, and FASS, NUS; with
support from the Singapore Tourism Board
Convenors: Prof Chua Beng Huat and Assoc Prof Daniel P.S.Goh
Kong, India and Singapore. The closing keynote by Prof
Thongchai Winichakul provided a masterly analysis of the
“hyper royalty” phenomenon in contemporary Thai politics.
Two other plenary sessions were held: one on “Culture of
Emergency”, with case studies from Indonesia, Korea and India;
another dedicated to the examination of the writings of Prof
Chua Beng Huat, the founding coexecutive editor of the InterAsia Cultural Studies journal and Cultural Studies in Asia cluster
research leader at ARI.
Between keynotes and plenary sessions were 67 panels with
more than 200 papers, covering a very wide range of topics in
Cultural Studies in Asia. Among the panel organisers and paper
presenters were many former members of the Cultural Studies
in Asia research cluster.
Reflecting the growing field of Cultural Studies in Asia,
conference participants came from the US, Canada, Europe,
Australia and different parts of Asia. The graduate students’
conference (1-2 July) began with Prof Chua Beng Huat’s keynote
speech. More than eighty graduate students presented papers
of their master and doctoral dissertation work. Profs Meaghan
Morris (University of Sydney; Lingnan University, Hong Kong;
and IACS Society Chair), Tejaswini Niranjana and Ashish
Rajadhyaksha (Centre for the Study of Culture and Society,
Bangalore), Melani Budianta (Universitas Indonesia), and KuanHsing Chen (National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan) attended
various presentations and gave comments to the students.
The Professors formed the closing plenary panel and spoke on
disciplinary, theoretical, methodological and practical matters
in response to the students’ presentations. The question and
answer session that followed saw discussions on “what is
cultural studies” and “where is cultural studies heading”.
The 3-day main conference (3-5 July) opened with Prof Prasenjit
Duara’s welcome address and the opening keynote address
by Prof Lily Kong which provided a wide ranging survey of the
current state of the field in both academic and policy research.
Prof Koichi Iwabuchi (Monash Asia Institute, Melbourne) gave
a short commentary. A plenary session followed, examining
contemporary developments of the cultural industry in Hong
Producing Chinese Cinemas in the 21st Century
Funded by The Leverhulme Trust, UK; jointly organised and
sponsored by the University of Exeter, UK, the School of Social
Science of Singapore Management University; with support
from ARI, and the Asian Film Archive, Singapore
1 – 2 Jul 2013, Singapore Management University
Convenor: Dr Lim Song Hwee
This conference was part of a larger project (funded by the
Leverhulme Trust, UK) on “Chinese Cinemas in the 21st Century:
Production, Consumption, Imagination” led by the Dr Lim
Song Hwee. The study of Chinese cinema has tended to focus
on analysis of film texts and on issues of history and politics
of the region. This project proposes, instead, to examine
historical, socio-cultural, economic and political issues through
the material conditions of production and consumption (for
example, questions of censorship and sponsorship), and the
role of imagination in the making and viewing of films.
This conference brought together the Leverhulme scheme’s
seven Network Partners from across the world and Singaporebased academics into a dialogue with film archivists, filmmakers
and producers from Singapore and Malaysia. Participating
archivists included Karen Chan of the Asian Film Archive and
Eric Chin, Director of the National Archives of Singapore.
Participating filmmakers included, from Malaysia, Woo Ming
Jin, Liew Seng Tat and Yeo Joon Han, and, from Singapore, Eva
Tang, Sherman Ong, Chai Yee Wai and Eugene Lee. The events
also featured film screenings, including the recently restored
Moon Over Malaya (1957). An edited volume for the Leverhulme
project is being planned for publication in 2015/16.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
Asian Urbanisms in Theory and Practice: The Future of the
Vernacular City
Jointly organised with the FASS Cities Research Cluster, Urban
Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA), and the Future Cities Lab
1 – 2 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, University Town
Convenors: Prof Mike Douglass, Dr Rita Padawangi and Assoc
Prof Tim Bunnell
Held at the Future Cities Lab at NUS, this roundtable and
workshop brought together more than 30 scholars in the region
to deliberate over major issues and to present research on
the cities in Asia. The first day was devoted to a Roundtable
presentation and discussion of concept papers on 3 themes:
the Idea of the City; Cities by and for the People, and the
Future of Cities. Agreements were reached on the draft of a
visionary statement tying the three themes together to provide
the foundation for a long-term research programme organised
through the Urban Knowledge Network Asia at the International
Institute for Asian Studies (Leiden). On the second day selected
on-going research was presented, on the vernacular city in
Ahmedabad, Beijing, Tianjin, Taipei, Singapore and Jakarta,
which together contributed to discussions of how to ground
theory in the complexities, diversities, and richness of cities in
Asia. The success of this meeting has led to plans for several
annual network meetings at the Rockefeller Centre in Bellagio,
the first of which will be in April 2014.
On the second evening of the workshop, the organisers
held the second annual City Possible Film Festival open to
participants and free to the public at a popular art house. An
overflow audience saw independent films from Asia and Latin
America on everyday forms of city making by and for residents,
and open discussions followed.
from 22 countries. Keynote speakers included noted historian
Warwick Anderson and Daiwie Fu, Taiwan’s top STS scholar. We
also hosted a major session on the Fukushima nuclear accident
organised by Dr Rethy Chhem, the director of medicine at the
International Atomic Energy Agency. ARI’s funding support
made possible a sponsored workshop organised by Jerome
Whitington titled Imaginative Environments: Technology and
Climate Change across the Humanities and Social Sciences,
with involvement by Kim Fortun, Sulfikar Amir, Helen Verran and
Togo Tsukahara among others.
Through the ARI-based Asia Biopoleis grant (PI, Greg Clancey),
the NUS Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund
supported the third workshop for the purpose of fulfilling the
obligations of the grant. The Asian Biopoleis workshop included
presentations by Profs Aihwa Ong, Greg Clancey, Michael M. J.
Fischer, and Assoc Prof John Phillips among others. Prof Bruce
Seely and Prof Emerita Francesca Bray, currently President and
Vice-President of the Society for the History of Technology
(SHOT), and Assoc Prof Suzanne Moon, editor of Technology
and Culture, sponsored panels and made a roundtable
presentation with the objective of hosting a future SHOT annual
meeting at NUS.
Geographies of Aspiration: Urban Places, Constitutive
Connections and Methodological Innovations
Jointly organised with the Cities Research Cluster of the
FASS, NUS; and the cities@manchester at University of
Manchester, UK
22 – 23 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
Convenors: Assoc Prof Tim Bunnell, Prof Kevin Ward,
Prof Mike Douglass and Dr Rita Padawangi
Asian Biopoleis III
16 – 17 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, University Town
Convenors: Assoc Prof Gregory Clancey, Dr Chen Haidan and
Mr Shamraz Anver
The first of three workshops funded by the MOE Tier 2 research
grant on “Aspirations, Urban Governance and the Remaking of
Asian Cities”, this event brought together collaborators in the
project with six members of the cities@manchester initiative at
the University of Manchester, UK. Pairs of presenters over the
two days considered three overarching questions: what kinds
of urban lives and places do city dwellers aspire to? where
do these aspirations come from? and, how do we go about
studying them? In line with the wider goals of the Tier 2 project,
this gave rise to discussion of how relational understandings
of cities might increasingly extend beyond networks of policymakers – giving more attention to the lived experiences,
aspirations and capacities of ordinary urbanites – and of the
kinds of methodological innovations that are necessary to make
such research possible.
With about 150 presentations, Knowing, Making, Governing was
the largest event ever hosted by the ARI Science, Technology,
and Society research cluster (see http://apstsn2013.com). The
conference was attended by approximately 160 participants
The workshop provided time and space for ARI and FASS
faculty members involved in the research grant on urban
aspirations to share empirical findings from their respective
research sites with each other as well as with urban scholars at
Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network
(APSTSN) Biennial Conference 2013: Knowing, Making,
Governing
Jointly organised with the STS Research Cluster at FASS,
and Tembusu College, NUS; with funding support from the
Humanities and Social Sciences Research Fund, NUS
15 – 17 Jul 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, University Town
Convenors: Dr Jerome Whitington, Assoc Prof Greg Clancey, Dr
Chen Haidan, Assoc Prof Axel Gelfert and Dr Tinn Hong Hong
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EVENTS 6.0
the University of Manchester. In addition to garnering critical
feedback on work in specific cities, the event brought into view
relational comparative dimensions of urban Asia.
The Service of Faith: Christian Entanglements with
International Development
Jointly organised with the Ertegun Graduate Scholarship
Programme in the Humanities, University of Oxford, UK
16 Aug 2013, University of Oxford, UK
Convenors: Dr Philip Fountain and Mr Tobias Tan
This symposium built upon emerging anthropological and
theological research on the entanglements between Christianity
and development. It further expanded the horizons of scholarly
debate by attending to both theologies and practices. We
opened new lines of enquiry by asking: How have interactions
between Christianity and development reshaped each other?
What are the genealogical and historical connections between
various Christian traditions and the values, formations and
practices of mainstream international development? What
tensions have arisen between Christian and development (and
within Christian development) actors and what do these reveal
about the nature of development today? What directions
should anthropological and theological analysis take in future
research on development?
Short provocations by leading scholars from anthropology
and theology facilitated a broad-ranging interdisciplinary
conversation which opened new spaces for rethinking analytical
frameworks and moved the debate about Christianity and
development into new questions and arenas. The presenters
included Philip Quarles Van Ufford (Vrije Universiteit), Brian
Woolnough (Oxford Center of Mission Studies), Benjamin
Kirby (Leeds), Maia Green (Manchester), Paula Clifford (former
Christian Aid), Afe Adogame (Edinburgh), and David Mosse
(SOAD). The sessions were chaired by Graham Ward, Masooda
Bano, and Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, all from Oxford, and
exceptionally well attended, with a capacity crowd of 60 in
attendance.
Migration Infrastructure in Asia and the Middle East
Jointly funded by ARI and The Forum for Asian Studies,
Stockholm University.
22 – 23 Aug 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist, Dr Xiang Biao and
Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Building upon the project’s initial focus on migrant labour
brokers, the workshop attempted to develop discussions
concerning the “middle space” of migration – that concerning
recruitment and transport – by using migration infrastructure
as a starting point for conceptualising transnational migration
across Asia and the Middle East. The convenors argued that
transnational migration is increasingly managed through
infrastructural development as opposed to the control of bodily
movement per se. More specifically, migration infrastructure
suggests an approach that engages with the services and
facilities that make migration possible in the context of an
increasingly complex relationship between state and market.
The workshop brought together eleven scholars from around
the world working on transnational labour migration from
countries such as China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines,
and Singapore, and primarily to the Middle East. Focusing on
topics such as airports, transport, databases, documents, and
architecture, the presenters offered empirically rich papers
that allowed for the creation of a problem space centred on
migration infrastructure.
By co-hosting the conference, ARI’s Religion and Development
in Asia (RADA) project received invaluable publicity in the UK.
It also facilitated numerous networking opportunities, not only
among those working in Asia but also particularly with scholars
focused on Africa. This has given RADA extra resources to draw
upon as it continues to develop its research programme.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
Religion and the Politics of Development: Priests,
Potentates and “Progress”
Jointly funded by the Henry Luce Foundation
28 – 29 Aug 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, University Hall
Convenors: Dr Robin Bush and Dr Philip Fountain
The event was well-attended, attracting an audience of over
100 people, including scholars from multiple disciplines
and universities in the region, practitioners from a range of
development and humanitarian organisations also spanning the
region, civil servants, and students. It began with introductory
remarks by the organisers, calling attention to recent shifts
in the geo-politics of development assistance and the power
imbalances that still mark the fight against poverty. The
organisers called for an introduction of analysis of “religion” in
conversations on the politics of poverty, and discussions of ways
in which development and religion are mutually constitutive.
Across the two days of the conference, a number of key themes
emerged as prevalent talking points. One of these was the
broad disjunction between many scholars, who felt there was
a “resurgence” of interest in religion in development studies
and social science more broadly, and some practitioners
who were more ambivalent about engagement with religion.
Another frequent theme was the lack of data or evidence on
how engagement with religion affects development outcomes,
and vice-versa – how engagement with development shapes
religious institutions and identities. A third point of discussion
was the complex and varied relationship between the state and
religion in differing historical and political contexts, and ensuing
implications for citizen welfare.
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Friendship and the Convivial City
Jointly organised with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of
Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Germany; and Cities Research
Cluster at FASS, NUS
5 – 6 Sep 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
Convenors: Dr Laavanya Kathiravelu and Assoc Prof Tim Bunnell
This workshop was conceptualised with the aim of bringing the
concept of friendship as a form of social relation and interaction
into the study of diverse and multicultural cities, reflecting a
growing concern with migrant populations and the implications
of “strangers” in crowded urban societies. Following Amin’s
Land of Strangers (2012), we conceived of friendship networks
as social ties that make possible a functioning, yet convivial,
society of strangers. Friendships, in this sense, are seen as
tangible ways in which the larger “urban unconscious” can be
felt, linking the intimate sphere of private lives and relationships
with a public urban commons.
In the workshop we brought the geographical literature around
the politics and spatiality of quotidian encounter together with
more sociological understandings of relationships, networks
and ties built on trust, respect and reciprocity. This was in order
to initiate a research agenda around the social and spatial
configurations of friendship, which have implications for urban
dwellers’ experiences of city life, and open up potentialities
for new ways of living together with diversity. Composed of
research from Africa, Latin America, across Asia and the Middle
East, the papers from this workshop make contributions to
contemporary understandings of everyday encounters in
the diverse city, as well as further debates on the potential
convivialities of dense urban spaces.
EVENTS 6.0
Flood Risk in Monsoon Asia: Hazard and Vulnerability in the
Past and Future
24 – 25 Sep 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenor: Prof Robert Wasson
This project brought together researchers from Chiang
Mai University, H. N. B. Garhwal University (Srinagar), the
Physical Research Laboratory, CEPT University (Gujarat), the
Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore), NUS Department
of Geography, CRISP, ISAS and ARI. A research plan was
formulated, and research questions identified in the areas of:
Histories of Flood Threats; Histories of Vulnerability to Large
Floods; Generalisability of flood risk, hazard and vulnerability
assessment in the future. The project was organised into three
“Cells”: The Chiang Mai Cell led by Prof Wasan Jompakdee;
The Srinagar Cell led by Prof Yaspal Sundriyal; The Singapore
Cell led by Profs Alan Ziegler and Bob Wasson. Each “cell” will
report on progress every six months in an electronic newsletter.
Fieldwork continues at the two main research sites in Thailand
and India, and a meeting was held with the Institute of Disaster
Management in Delhi. Finally two very large floods have
been identified to help policy makers focus their attention for
planning purposes, and two NUS researchers are currently at
the Physical Research Laboratory in India where they are dating
flood sediments from Thailand.
INTER-ASIA ROUNDTABLE
Religion and Development in China: Innovations
and Implications
Organised by Religion and Globalisation in Asian Contexts
Cluster
17 – 18 Oct 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Dr Wu Keping and Assoc Prof Michael Feener
This year’s Inter-Asia Roundtable is organised by the Religion
and Globalisation Cluster on the theme of “Religion and
Development in China.” Over the past thirty years, China
experienced a simultaneous burst of religious revival and
economic boom. On the one hand, wealth floods into the
construction and rebuilding of religious spaces. On the other,
the widening gap between the rich and poor, metropolitan
centres and rural margins has increased the needs for
development projects that are able to re-distribute the wealth
to a certain degree. As the Chinese government sheds some
of its burdens of social welfare provision, it leaves room for
other social actors to participate in the field of delivering
social services. Among those actors who find themselves in the
new space of public engagement, religions not only provide
valuable social capital for identifying the needy, organising
volunteers and distributing goods, but also provide salient
spiritual and cultural meaning for people’s actions. Not only do
religious individuals and institutions invent new ways of giving,
mobilising and organising people, individuals adopt new ways
of adhering to religions, and local and central government have
to forge new ways of managing or collaborating with religious
organisations.
This Roundtable examined such contemporary innovations
in the field of religion and development in China in order to
understand the implications for the reconfiguration of religious
groups, renegotiation of state-religion-society relationship,
and the reshaping of new kinds of subjectivities in China. This
two-day roundtable brought together 18 scholars from different
continents to discuss five papers addressing issues of the state,
the problems of scale, the implications of urbanisation as well as
two case studies (one on Islam, one comparatively on Buddhism
and Christianity). The edited volume which includes both the
papers and discussions will be available in Spring 2014.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
Understanding the Mind: Exploring New Partnerships
6 Nov 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, University Town
Convenor: Dr Arun Bala
Disaster Governance: The Urban Transition in Asia
7 – 8 Nov 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
Convenors: Prof Mike Douglass and Dr Michelle Miller
ARI organised this workshop to discover and develop the
potential for future partnerships and exchanges between the
NUS community and members of the US-based Mind and
Life Institute. The workshop aimed to forge new partnerships
crossing disciplinary and cultural divides that would be
informed by more embracing integrated perspectives. In
particular it was designed to investigate the possibility of
bringing together rigorous first person experiences rooted
in contemplative practices with the third person studies of
cognitive and affective sciences. Scholars from the Mind and
Life Institute trained as physicists, neuroscientists, Buddhist
monks and philosophers, with academics from diverse
disciplines in NUS and the wider community came together in
discussion focused on Francisco Varela’s methodology of neurophenomenology which attempts to integrate the deepest
insights of the contemplative traditions with those of cognitive
science.
This international conference, sponsored by ARI, brought
together 25 speakers focusing on disaster governance in urban,
peri-urban and rural contexts of twelve countries in Asia. The
event focused on how Asia’s urban populations deal with
disaster and its threat from a governance perspective, with
governance understood as a process of social decision-making
involving government, civil society and private enterprise.
Remaining mindful of the blurred boundaries and frequent
areas of overlap between “anthropogenic” and “natural”
disasters in urban contexts, our presenters took “disaster” to
denote any event that causes widespread destruction. Our
central concern at the conference was with how the structures
and processes of urban governance are working to develop
more effective and inclusive initiatives to manage and prevent
these large-scale destructive events.
The event attracted more than seventy scholars from a wide
array of disciplines in NUS including philosophy, history and
English language in the humanities, psychology, sociology and
economics in the social sciences, neurology and medicine,
and even the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology and the
Department of Computer Science. The ensuing discussion
was lively and animated and has led to deeper interest in
consolidating the attempt to forge shared research projects.
In view of this Prof Arthur Zajonc, Director of Mind and Life
Institute, will be returning to Singapore in April 2014 to explore
the possibility of establishing the institute’s Asia centre here
that will complement its US-based centre and its European
centre in Switzerland.
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The conference included two keynote speeches by Prof
Anthony Reid on “Twentieth Century Urbanism in a Tectonically
Dangerous Zone” and by Dr Mike Digregorio on “How a
Grassroots Analysis of Extreme Climate Events can Reveal the
Failures of Technically Driven Strategies for Urban Climate
Change Adaptation.” The first North American Ambassador to
ASEAN, David Carden, also delivered opening remarks.
EVENTS 6.0
Theorising Mobilities in/from Asia
14 – 15 Nov 2013, NUS Kent Ridge Campus, AS7
Convenors: Prof Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Mr Lin Weiqiang
This worskhop was attended by about 90 participants, which
included speakers and chairpersons, members of the public, as
well as colleagues from NUS and other universities. The event
hosted a total of 29 papers, as well as a keynote speech by Prof
Tim Cresswell (Northeastern University, USA), over two days.
The 29 papers were divided up into nine panels or themes, and
included topics that straddled both migration studies (a key
strength at ARI) and transport studies. Some notable themes
included mobilities, imaginaries and symbolisms; manufacturing
aeromobilities; urban mobilities; mobile practices and
cosmopolitanisms; migration agencies and regimes; and
mobilities and borders. Each of these was intended to explore
a particular dimension of the emerging “new” mobilities
paradigm, but with an added twist of theorising the subjectmatter from the perspective of “Asia”. The aim was to thus
de-centre the logics of mobilities from their usual AngloScandinavian (and to a lesser extent American) concerns, and
this objective was achieved to a large extent by papers which
specifically examined mobility systems in a cross-regional/
translocal manner.
Attendees of the conference were generally appreciative that
such a diversity of viewpoints in mobilities had been drawn
together in a single event – a rare endeavour that could be
likened to the decennial Centre of Mobilities Research Global
Conference at Lancaster, UK, last held in September 2013.
Living Alone: One-person Households in Asia
Jointly supported by the Family, Children and Youth Cluster,
and the Health Cluster at FASS, NUS
5 – 6 Dec 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors: Prof Wei-Jun Jean Yeung and
Dr Adam Ka-lok Cheung
By 2020, it is estimated that four out of the top ten countries
with highest number of one-person households in the world will
be in Asia. The increasing number of one-person households
for both young adults and elderly warrants special attention as
they are the two groups with the highest propensity to live in
a one-person household. This group of population may be at
higher risk of financial stress or social isolation. This conference
advances theoretical and empirical knowledge on the formation
of one-person households in Asia and their implications for
individual well-being and intergenerational relations. This
two-day conference brought together 30 local and overseas
speakers and chairpersons from the United States, Netherlands,
France, New Zealand, and other Asian countries and 40
participants.
Presenters examined the trends and determinants of oneperson households in Asian countries as well as the well-being
of those who live alone. Based on data from censuses, surveys,
or in-depth interviews, these studies used either quantitative
or qualitative methods to investigate the main theme of this
conference in East Asia (Mainland China, Japan, South Korea,
Taiwan, Hong Kong), Southeast Asia (Singapore, Myanmar,
Thailand, Vietnam), South Asian (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka,
Pakistan, Nepal) and West Asia (Iran).
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
ARI SEMINAR
SERIES
The Asia Research Institute Seminar Series features seminars that vary in scope and are able to appeal
across various academic disciplines. Seminars are usually scheduled on a Tuesday afternoon from 4:00 to
5:30 pm at the NUS Bukit Timah Campus.
15 Jan 2013
Migrants’ Health Seeking Practices in
Guangzhou, China: Understanding the
Nexus between Reflexivity, Rules and
Constraints
Dr Tabea Bork-Hüffer,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
05 Mar 2013
Who Wants Clean Recruitment? Young
Men and the Competition for Jobs in
Heavy Industries in Cilegon, Banten,
Indonesia
Dr Suzanne Naafs,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
22 Jan 2013
Constructing the Way of the Gods
(Shinto): Religion and Science in Early
Modern Japan
Dr Zhong Yijiang,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
19 Mar 2013
Governing the Citizen-consumer:
Citizenship, Reflexivity and the State –
A Case Study of the Introduction of
Casinos into Singapore
Prof Ann Brooks,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
29 Jan 2013
Non-traditional Wife with the
Traditional Husband: Gender Attitudes
and Husband-to-Wife Violence in
Hong Kong
Organised with the FASS Family, Children
and Youth Cluster, NUS
Dr Adam Ka-lok Cheung,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
19 Feb 2013
Whither Integration? Singapore’s Social
Fabric at a Crossroad
Dr Leong Chan-Hoong,
Institute of Policy Studies, NUS
26 Feb 2013
Within and Beyond: Urban Policy
Mobility in a Decentralized Indonesia
Prof Nicholas Phelps,
Bartlett School of Planning, University
College London, UK
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
21 Mar 2013
P.R.C. Idol Li Yuchun and Androgyny
Prof Maud Lavin,
School of the Art Institute of Chicago,
USA, and Asia Research Institute, NUS
26 Mar 2013
Special Zone Amnesia: Re/forming the
China-Vietnam Borderlands
Dr Zhang Juan,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
02 Apr 2013
“I am Well-cooked Food”: The
Surviving Strategies of North Korean
Female Border-crosser and Possibilities
of Empowerment
Dr Kim Sung Kyung,
Sungkonghoe University, Korea,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
03 Apr 2013
Talk and Film Screenings on Datong:
The Great Society, and 2 or 3 Things
about Kang Youwei
Jointly organised with Department
of Chinese Studies, and the Office of
the Deputy President (Research and
Technology), NUS
Mr Evans Chan, Hong Kong
16 Apr 2013
Generational Cohort and Value
Orientations: The Case of Chinese
Childrearing Expectations
Assoc Prof Xiao Hong,
Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore
23 Apr 2013
Humanitarian Subjects in Post-conflict
and Post-tsunami Aceh, Indonesia
Dr Jesse Hession Grayman,
Harvard University, USA
30 Apr 2013
An Abode of Islam: Religious and
Political Authority in Eastern Indonesia
Dr Jeremy Kingsley,
Tembusu College, NUS
21 May 2013
Monks on the Move: Towards a
Connected History of Bay of Bengal/
Gulf of Siam Buddhisms, 1100-1500
Prof Anne Blackburn,
Cornell University, USA,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
EVENTS 6.0
28 May 2013
India at the Dawn of the Gunpowder
Age: Technology, Diplomacy, and the
Changing Balance of Power
Prof Richard Eaton,
University of Arizona, USA
04 Jun 2013
ROUNDTABLE - Interfaith Approaches
to Development
Dr Mathew Mathews and Ms Danielle
Hong, NUS
Mr Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib,
MUIS Academy
Mr Ajit Hazra,
World Vision International
11 Jun 2013
China Dreams: 20 Visions of the Future
Prof William A. Callahan,
Asia Research Institute, NUS,
and University of Manchester, UK
25 Jun 2013
From To Live to Hero: Zhang Yimou
and the Politics of Culture
Prof Wendy Larson,
University of Oregon, USA,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
30 Jul 2013
Economic Crisis and Asian Cinema in
the Neoliberal Era
Dr Rosalind Galt,
University of Sussex, UK
Assoc Prof Gerald Sim,
Florida Atlantic University, USA,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
06 Aug 2013
Postcolonial Literature as World
Literature: World Heritage
Preservation and the Unworlding of
the Subaltern World in Amitav Ghosh’s
The Hungry Tide
Prof Pheng Cheah,
Asia Research Institute, NUS,
and University of California – Berkeley,
USA
13 Aug 2013
The Seeds of Change: The Role of
Civil Society and State Bureaucracy in
Combating Child Labor in the Hybrid
Cottonseed Industry in India
Ms Priyam Saharia,
University of Kentucky, USA
29 Oct 2013
Crossing the Bay of Bengal:
The Making and Unmaking of
an Asian Region
Dr Sunil Amrith,
Birkbeck College – University of London,
UK
20 Aug 2013
Relating (to) the Chinese Past: Why
Ritual is Important for Local History
Dr Mark Meulenbeld,
University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
12 Nov 2013
Global Queering and the Queer
“Asia” Critique: The Case of “Modern”
Singapore and Singaporean Lesbians
Dr Shawna Tang,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
10 Sep 2013
Critical Islam: Perspectives on the
Middle East and Asia
Jointly organised with Middle East
Institute, NUS, and MUIS Academy
Singapore
Dr Carool Kersten,
King’s College London, UK
19 Nov 2013
The Roots of Citizen Concern and
Welfare in India: The National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS) in Andhra Pradesh
Assoc Prof Rahul Mukherji and
Dr Himanshu Jha,
South Asian Studies Programme, NUS
Prof Ebrahim Moosa,
Duke University, USA
Prof Ziauddin Sardar,
Middlesex University, UK
Dr Nazry Bahrawi,
Middle East Institute, NUS
17 Sep 2013
Commemorating 50 Years of The
Independence of Singapore: Merger,
Acquisition, or Takeover? The Enduring
Consequences of Operation Coldstore
in Singapore
Dr Thum Ping Tjin,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
26 Nov 2013
Opiate of the Masses with Chinese
Characteristics: Recent Chinese
Scholarship on Socialism and the
Future of Religion
Dr Thomas David DuBois,
Australian National University
03 Dec 2013
Gangsters and Masters: Connivance
Militancy in Contemporary Malaysia
Dr Sophie Lemière,
Research Institute on Contemporary
Southeast Asian Studies (IRASEC-CNRS)
08 Oct 2013
Extracting Peasants from the Fields:
Rethinking Contemporary Commodity
Rushes
Dr Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt,
The Australian University,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
STUDY GROUPS AND
THEIR SEMINARS
While ARI seminars are designed to address a wide academic audience, ARI also acts as host to a variety
of study groups, bringing together NUS scholars and others to discuss interdisciplinary issues. There
are five country-based study groups that provide the nucleus for scholars working on particular areas
or themes. The members include our own research staff working in collaboration with other faculty
members, and the convenors may vary from year to year. This is a listing of the seminars organised by
each of the study groups in 2013.
STUDY GROUP ON INDONESIA
Convenors:
Dr Michelle Miller,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
Dr Douglas Kammen,
Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
NUS (Till 31 July 2013)
Dr Andrew Marc Conroe,
University Scholars Programme, NUS
(From 1 August 2013)
09 Jan 2013
From Java to Jaffna: Indonesian Exiles,
Soldiers and Scribes in Sri Lanka
Dr Ronit Ricci,
Australian National University
07 Feb 2013
The Dynamics of Controls on
Government Power:
Between the Courts and Independent
Accountability Institutions in Indonesia
Dr Melissa Crouch,
Faculty of Law, NUS
23 May 2013
The Generation of Memory and
Authority: “Communist Children”
in New Order and Post-new Order
Indonesia
Dr Andrew Conroe,
Department of Sociology, and University
Scholars Programme, NUS
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
06 Jun 2013
Heirs to the Vernacular Millennium:
History through Javano-Balinese
Manuscript Cultures, ca. 1400–1600 AD
Dr Andrea Acri,
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore
13 Jun 2013
Conceptualizing Indonesian Migration:
Labor Recruitment, Neoliberalism,
and Neopatrimonialism in a Changing
Landscape
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist,
Asia Research Institute, NUS, and
Stockholm University, Sweden
11 Jul 2013
Can the Ciliwung Be “Saved”?
Jakarta’s Use of and Preferences for
Its Most Significant River
Mr Derek Vollmer,
Singapore-ETH Centre’s Future Cities
Laboratory
16 Jul 2013
Faith, Moral Authority, and Politics:
The Making of Progressive Islam in
Indonesia
Jointly organised with the Religion and
Globalisation Cluster, ARI
Dr Alexander R. Arifianto,
University of Notre Dame, USA
18 Jul 2013
Rethinking Vertical Kampung in Jakarta
Dr Rita Padawangi,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
24 Oct 2013
Education in Post-new Order Indonesia
(A Documentary Screening)
Dr Alpha Amirrachman,
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore
31 Oct 2013
The Impact of Decentralisation on
Regional Development: The Indonesia
Case
Dr Adiwan Aritenang,
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore
05 Nov 2013
Being Comfortably Muslim and
Transgender in Indonesia:
Reflections on Resistance from a
Transgender Islamic Boarding School
Dr Sylvia Tidey,
University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
EVENTS 6.0
STUDY GROUP ON MALAYSIA
Convenors:
Assoc Prof Maznah Mohamad,
Department of Malay Studies, NUS
Assoc Prof Goh Beng Lan,
Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
NUS
Dr Asha Rathina-Pandi,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
(From 1 August 2013)
28 Nov 2013
Makkal Sakthi (People’s Power):
HINDRAF Protest Rally and Its Impact
on Minority Politics in Malaysia
Dr Asha Rathina-Pandi,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
13 Dec 2013
Dayak Power in Sarawak Politics:
The End of Dayakism?
Jointly organised with the Department of
Malay Studies, NUS
Prof James Chin,
Monash University, Malaysia, and Institute
of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore
17 Dec 2013
New Agents of Change: A
Comparative Study on Social Media
and Youth Activism between Malaysia
and Singapore
Dr Joanne Lim,
University of Nottingham, Malaysia, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
STUDY GROUP ON PHILIPPINES
Convenor:
Dr Julius Bautista,
Department of Southeast Asian Studies,
NUS
08 May 2013
Race, Labor, and Movement:
Philippine Musical Mobilities from the
1920s to the Present
Ms Anjeline de Dios,
Department of Geography, NUS
Mr Fritz Schenker,
University of Wisconsin – Madison, USA
21 Aug 2013
The “Position” of the Tsinoys in
Philippine Society Today: History,
Challenges, Future
Jointly organised with the Department
of Southeast Asian Studies, NUS
Assoc Prof Richard T. Chu,
University of Massachusetts, USA
25 Oct 2013
People of God, People of the Nation:
Official Catholic Discourse on
Nationalism and Nation
Prof Jose Mario C. Francisco,
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
STUDY GROUP ON INDOCHINA
Convenors:
Dr Jerome Whitington,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
(Till 31 July 2013)
Dr Zhang Juan,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
Dr Chang Yufen,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
(From 1 August 2013)
STUDY GROUP ON MYANMARTHAILAND
Convenors:
Dr Maitrii Victoriano Aung Thwin,
Department of History, NUS
Dr Titima Suthiwan,
Centre for Language Studies, NUS
CLUSTER SEMINARS
ASIAN MIGRATION CLUSTER
29 Apr 2013
Roundtable Discussion on Figures of
Southeast Asian Modernity
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist,
Asia Research Institute, NUS, and
Stockholm University, Sweden
Dr Jerome Whitington,
Asia Research Institute, and Tembusu
College, NUS
Dr Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied,
Department of Malay Studies, NUS
08 Jul 2013
Neither Up nor Down:
China’s Spatial Imaginary Shifting
towards the Post-Alteric?
Dr Louisa Schein,
Rutgers University, USA
15 Aug 2013
International Mobility and Local
Emplacement: Everyday Place-Making
Practices of Skilled Migrants in Oslo,
Norway
Dr Micheline van Riemsdijk,
University of Tennessee, USA
30 Aug 2013
A Search for a Place to Call Home:
Negotiation of Home, Identity and
Senses of Belonging Among New
Zealand’s New Migrants from the
People’s Republic of China (PRC)
Jointly organised with the FASS
Migration Cluster, NUS
Dr Liangni Sally Liu,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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EVENTS 6.0
ASIAN URBANISMS CLUSTER
05 Aug 2013
A Walk in the Park: Singapore’s
Green Corridor in Light of Manhattan’s
High Line
Jointly organised with FASS Cities
Research Cluster, NUS
Prof David Strand,
Dickinson College, USA, and Asia
Research Institute, NUS
12 Dec 2013
Creating New Models of Travel
Behavior for Independent Asian Youth
Urban Tourists
Assoc Prof Hilary du Cros,
University of New Brunswick, Canada,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
CHANGING FAMILY IN ASIA
CLUSTER
15 Mar 2013
Television and International Family
Change
Jointly organised with FASS Family,
Children and Youth Cluster, and
Department of Sociology, NUS
Assoc Prof Rukmalie Jayakody,
Pennsylvania State University, USA
19 Apr 2013
Behind the Academic Curtain: How to
find Success and Happiness with a PhD
Jointly organised with FASS Family,
Children and Youth Cluster, and
Department of Sociology, NUS
Prof Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
26 Apr 2013
Family Complexity and
Intergenerational Relations
Jointly organised with FASS Family,
Children and Youth Cluster, and
Department of Sociology, NUS
Prof Frank F. Furstenberg, Jr.,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
20 Jun 2013
Family based Citizenship of Marriage
Migrants: (Re)defining the Citizenship
and the Social Reproduction in South
Korea
Dr Lee Hyun ok,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
11 Dec 2013
Memes, Memory and Altered Spaces:
Contents, Conditions and Possibilities
of Youth Expressions in Cyberspace
Dr Joanne Lim,
University of Nottingham, Malaysia, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
01 Aug 2013
Can Protest Promote Regime Support
in China?
Prof Tang Wenfang,
University of Iowa, USA, and East Asian
Institute, NUS
RELIGION AND GLOBALISATION
IN ASIAN CONTEXTS CLUSTER
07 Aug 2013
Marriage, Money and Gender: Indian
Immigrants in Singapore
Assoc Prof Ranjana Sheel,
Asia Research Institute, NUS, and
Banaras Hindu University, India
10 Oct 2013
Political Demography: The Turbulent
Intersection between Demographic
Forces and Political Pressures
Jointly organised by J Y Pillay
Comparative Asia Research Centre, and
FASS, NUS
Dr Michael S. Teitelbaum,
Harvard Law School, USA, and Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation
CULTURAL STUDIES IN ASIA
CLUSTER
24 April 2013
Be of Good Cheer: 20th Century
Optimism in China and the United
States
Prof Wendy Larson,
University of Oregon, USA, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
29 May 2013
Neoliberal Senses of History in Recent
South Korean Films
Dr Jecheol Park,
Department of English Language and
Literature, NUS
30 Oct 2013
Counter-memories, and the Internet
Literature into the New Millennium
Dr Shen Yipeng,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
18 Mar 2013
Islamisms or Post-Islamism? Cultural
and Political Perspectives
Prof Susanne Schröter,
Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
Dr Dominik Müller,
Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany
28 May 2013
The Gender Paradox:
KAMMI Women and the Appeal of
Conservative Islam
Assoc Prof Nancy J. Smith-Hefner,
Boston University, USA
10 Jul 2013
Another Type of Transnational Islam:
Neo-Ottoman Ventures in Europe
and Asia
Prof Martin van Bruinessen,
Asia Research Institute, NUS, and
Utrecht University, Netherlands
19 Sep 2013
From Borderland to Heartland:
An Explanation of the Shift of the
Buddhist Center from India to China
Prof Chou Po-kan,
Foguang University, Taiwan, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
26 Sep 2013
Islamic Charities and the Renaissance
of an Ethical Moral Economy
Prof Rajeswary Ampalavanar Brown,
Royal Holloway College, University of
London, UK
EVENTS 6.0
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND
SOCIETY CLUSTER
12 Apr 2013
Science, Policy Networks and Regional
Climate Planning in an Ecology of
Games
Dr Ryan McAllister,
Georgetown University, USA
METACLUSTER: HISTORICAL
SOCIOLOGY OF ASIAN
CONNECTIONS
20 Feb 2013
Authority and Regional Conflict
Management: Southeast Asia between
China and the United States
Assoc Prof Evelyn Goh,
Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
04 Apr 2013
The Enormity of Zero
Dr George Gheverghese Joseph,
University of Manchester, UK, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
18 Apr 2013
Anātman, Subjectivity and Sovereignty
Prof Rada Iveković,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
27 Jun 2013
Farewell to the Sublime? Postmonumental Landscapes in the Poetry
of Leung Ping-kwan and Xi Chuan
Prof Andrea M. Riemenschnitter,
University of Zurich, Switzerland, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
OPEN CLUSTER
25 Apr 2013
Remote Pathways: The Non-peripheries
at the Edge of Nation States
Dr Martin Saxer,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
07 Oct 2013
Soiled Blood: The Quest for Purity and
the Perceived Dangers of Hybridity in
Malaysia
Prof Alberto Gomes,
La Trobe University, Australia
OTHER EVENTS
30 Jan 2013
A Storytelling Performance Based on
Valmiki’s Ramayana
Jointly organised with FASS Religion
Cluster, NUS
Dr Ananth Rao,
Australian National University
02 Feb 2013
Ramayana: A Story Telling Performance
Jointly organised with the Asian
Civilisations Museum, Singapore
Dr Ananth Rao,
Australian National University
17 Apr 2013
Opening the Flatpack: Ethnography,
Art, and the Billy Bookcase
Collaboration with the Department of
Communications and New Media, NUS
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist,
Asia Research Institute, NUS, and
Stockholm University, Sweden
Mr John D. Freyer,
Interdisciplinary Artist
8 May 2013
Audio-visual Presentation:
Cultural Heritage of Sufi Nizamuddin
Aulia in South Asia
Jointly organised with the NUS Museum,
and South Asian Studies Programme,
NUS
Mr Yousuf Saeed,
Film Maker, New Delhi
18 Jun 2013
Nation Remains, Mountains and Rivers
Destroyed? A Cultural Perspective on
China’s Environmental Issues
Organised by swissnex Singapore; in
partnership with University of Zurich,
Switzerland
Prof Andrea M. Riemenschnitter,
University of Zurich, Switzerland, and
Asia Research Institute, NUS
02 Jul 2013
The CityPossible II Film Festival
Jointly organised with FASS Cities
Research Cluster, NUS, Urban Knowledge
Network Asia (UKNA) and the Future
Cities Lab, Singapore
Prof Mike Douglass,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
Dr Rita Padawangi,
Asia Research Institute, NUS
08 Jul 2013
Film Screening & Discussion on Health
and Healing Beyond the East/West
Divide: Shamans, Herbs and MDs
Prof Louisa Schein,
Rutgers University, USA
16 Oct 2013
DOCUMENTARY SCREENING –
The Eastern Shore of Dianchi:
Urbanization and Protest in
Contemporary China
Prof Zhu Xiaoyang, and Mr Li Weihua,
Peking University, China
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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7.0
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
ARI is committed to sharing research knowledge with
the larger community in Singapore and worldwide.
Its outreach efforts are made simultaneously on three
fronts – locally, regionally and internationally –
in various forms carried out throughout the year.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
COMMUNITY OUTREACH 7.0
ASIA TRENDS SERIES
ASIA TRENDS is an ARI flagship public outreach event that is now proudly into its eleventh year. One
aim of this annual series of lectures is to bridge the perceived gap between the academia and the
general public by providing a platform for sharing research expertise and for community interaction
through lively question-and-answer sessions. The programme showcases how some of the work of ARI’s
research clusters have dovetailed with the concerns and needs of the Singapore society at large as well
as how conscious efforts have been put to relate Singapore to the rest of Asia, especially in terms of
significant regional trends developed in recent years. The locations of events are deliberately chosen to
maximise public contact. For 2013, three of the lectures were held at the main National Library building,
one at the NTUC Centre and another at the Bishan Public Library.
Confucian China in a Changing World Order
15 Apr 2013, National Library Board, Singapore
Organised by Metacluster on Asian Connections; and in
collaboration with the National Library Board, Singapore
Prof Roger T. Ames, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA,
and Department of Philosophy, NUS
Assoc Prof Tan Sor Hoon, Department of Philosophy, NUS
The 2013 series began with this lecture by Prof Roger T. Ames,
Visiting Professor with the Department of Philosophy, NUS.
The talk was attended by more than seventy participants. Also
featuring Associate Prof Tan Sor Hoon as discussant and Prof
William Callahan as chairperson. The lecture questioned the
impact of Confucianism – a philosophy that begins from the
primacy of relationality and which has been actively promoted
domestically and internationally – on the future world culture,
given the rise of China in the world economic and political
order. With a host of problems confronting humanity that
ranges from climate change to gross income inequalities, the
lecture explored whether the prevailing cultural order long
dominated by a powerful liberalism will be challenged by the
revival of interest in Confucianism.
Tsai Ming-liang and a Cinema of Slowness
19 Jun 2013, National Library Board, Singapore
Organised by Cultural Studies in Asia Cluster; and in
collaboration with the National Library Board, Singapore
Dr Lim Song Hwee, University of Exeter, UK,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
Prof Pheng Cheah, Asia Research Institute, NUS,
and University of California-Berkeley, USA
In his lecture, Dr Lim Song Hwee, Visiting Senior Research
Fellow with the Cultural Studies in Asia Cluster addressed the
notion of “cinematic slowness” and the relationship between
a cinema of slowness and the wider socio-cultural “slow
movement”. Together with Prof Pheng Cheah as discussant
and chaired by Prof Chua Beng Huat, the lecture analysed and
privileged stillness and silence in cinematic production. In an
age of unrelenting acceleration of pace both in film and in life,
this talk invited the audience to pause and listen, to linger and
look, to drift and meander, to contemplate and wander, and
above all, to take things slowly and to smell the roses.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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COMMUNITY OUTREACH 7.0
Here Today and Tomorrow: Transnational Domestic Workers
and the Decent Work Agenda in Asia
12 Aug 2013, NTUC Centre, Singapore
Organised by Asian Migration Cluster; with funding from the
Singapore Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier
1; and the Migrating Out of Proverty Research Programme
Consortium
Dr Maruja M.B. Asis, Scalabrini Migration Center, Philippines
Dr Noorashikin Abdul Rahman, Transient Workers Count Too
(TWC2), Singapore
Mr Anthony Chen, Fisheye Pictures, Singapore
In this lecture, Dr Asis discussed trends in transnational
domestic worker migration, notable developments in the multilevel governance of this specific category of migrant workers,
the significance of ILO Convention 189 (Domestic Workers
Convention), and concluded with reflections on future trends,
challenges and possibilities to bring about a decent work
environment for domestic workers.
Her lecture was complemented by commentaries from two
Singapore-based commentators: Dr Noorashikin Abdul
Rahman, board member and treasurer of Transient Workers
Count Too (TWC2); and Mr Anthony Chen from Fisheye
Pictures, whose movie Ilo Ilo portraying the intimate relationship
between a young boy and his maid in Singapore won the
Camera d’Or award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The
lecture also featured a 15-minute film and a photo exhibition
from “Reading Across Worlds” by Mss. Bernice Wong, Ng
Yiqin, and Grace Baey. The audience for this occasion was
overwhelming, with more than two hundred participants from
various civil society organisations, businesses, universities and
colleges, as well as public sector officials in attendance.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Demystifying Stereotypes on Asian Education Systems
23 Oct 2013, National Library Board, Singapore
Organised by Changing Family in Asia Cluster; and supported
by NLB Public Libraries Singapore
Assoc Prof Hyunjoon Park, University of Pennsylvania, USA,
and Asia Research Institute, NUS
Assoc Prof Jason Tan, National Institute of Education,
Singapore
Korean Foundation Associate Prof Hyunjoon Park, Visiting
Senior Research Fellow with the Changing Family in Asia
Cluster, shared his empirical research findings centring on
the controversial questions about the Japanese and Korean
educational systems: Do the highly standardised ways of
education make outstanding students mediocre? Are the
educational systems of Japan and Korea ineffective in nurturing
creativity and critical thinking? To what extent are students’
successes a result of private tuition? Bringing these issues closer
to home, he also discussed the implications of his findings
for other Asian countries, such as Singapore. Jason Tan who
is currently Associate Prof in Policy and Leadership Studies at
the National Institute of Education in Singapore served as the
discussant and Prof Jean Yeung from ARI chaired the lively
question-and-answer session.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH 7.0
“Male Modernity”, Puritanism, and the Southeast Asian City
5 Nov 2013, National Library Board, Singapore
Organised by Asian Urbanisms Cluster;
and in collaboration with the National Library Board, Singapore
Prof Anthony Reid, Australian National University
Prof Jane M. Jacobs, Yale-NUS College, Singapore
We were honoured to have the founding director of ARI,
currently Prof Emeritus Anthony Reid at the Australian National
University, to return for a visit to deliver this lecture. Prof
Jane M. Jacobs from Yale-NUS College of Singapore was the
discussant, chaired by Prof Michael Douglass from ARI.
The talk took off from his previous scholarly works which
emphasised pre-modern Southeast Asia’s unusually balanced
gender pattern, with females attaining parity social status
and even dominant role in business. His lecture reviewed the
awkward encounter in the late 19th and early 20th century
when this pattern clashed with the incoming exceptionally
male, puritan, and alien model of modernity in government,
business and religion. Patriarchy and Puritanism indeed gained
additional momentum with rapid urbanisation after 1950 and
he thus posited the fascinating question of whether Southeast
Asia could nevertheless eventually retain its relatively balanced
gender pattern in face of these pressures. In this present age
when gender, sexuality and modernity are hot-buttoned issues,
this Asia Trends presentation with a broad historical perspective
provided an excellent platform for community reflections.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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COMMUNITY OUTREACH 7.0
PUBLIC LECTURES
As part of its public outreach initiative, ARI organises public lectures to reach out to the greater
Singapore and regional community. The lectures are presented by distinguished scholars of Asian affairs,
including scholars visiting ARI in various capacities.
The lectures provide up-to-date analysis and assessments of contemporary issues and long-term trends,
not only to decision makers but also to all who are concerned and seek to be informed about regional
and world events.
17 Jan 2013
Does the Everyday World Really Obey
Quantum Mechanics?
Nobel Laureate Sir Anthony Leggett,
University of Illinois, USA
Held at NUS Kent Ridge Campus,
University Hall
12 Mar 2013
Religion’s Impact on Human Life:
Integrating Proximate and Ultimate
Perspectives
Prof David Wilson, Binghamton
University, USA
Prof Harvey Whitehouse, Oxford
University, UK
Held at NUS Kent Ridge Campus,
University Hall. Jointly organised with
the Global Asia Institute, and Tembusu
College, NUS
12 Oct 2013
ARI-MBRAS Lecture – Malaya and New
Paths to Nationhood
Prof Wang Gungwu, East Asian Institute,
NUS
Held at NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Jointly organised with the Malaysian
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
(MBRAS), in conjunction with the 50th
Anniversary of Malaysia
NEWSLETTERS AND REPORTS
ARI launched its first issue of ARI Newsletters in March 2003
as a medium to share the Institute’s exciting developments
with a broader constituency. Since 2013, the ARI Newsletter
is published twice a year in the months of March and
September. The newsletter continues to be an outreach tool
to local, regional, and global readership of close to 7,000
subscribers. Present and past issues of the newsletter, which
are all accessible on ARI’s website, highlight research work
of individual researchers, academic publications, keynote
speeches, reading groups, ARI events, as well as awards and
recognition won by staff members.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Similarly, the ARI Annual Report starting from its 2002/2003
issue to this latest 2013 issue is published in print and uploaded
on ARI’s website. The report gives our stakeholders and other
interested parties an update of the Institute’s developments
and achievements for the past year.
Academic reports such as the ARI Working Paper Series and
specific-themed Aceh Working Papers Series, and selected
conference reports and proceedings are also available on ARI’s
website for knowledge-sharing. Such academic reports have
been highly accessed by the community.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH 7.0
MEDIA COVERAGE
ARI researchers have also been active in sharing their expertise
and expert views in the media. In 2013, there were at least 16
media reports of interviews of ARI researchers by local and
international presses and media, published editorials by ARI
researchers and their appearance in public affairs broadcasts
as guest speakers. There are currently 68 (and growing) records
of media activities of ARI researchers and these are accessible
from the ARI website.
DIGITAL AND SOCIAL
CONNECTIVITY
ARI has been using the internet platform for many of its
outreach activities and to share research findings. Its ARI
website (www.ari.nus.edu.sg) provides up-to-date information
about its research programmes, events and publications,
among others. It also serves as a rich resource for research on
Asia studies. The website is regularly revamped or redesigned
to enhance its ease of navigation, quality of information and
design.
Since February 2009, ARI has been using its ARI Facebook
group as a communication platform to keep its members
updated of the latest developments in ARI such as
announcements of upcoming events, new fellowships and new
publications. It has also become a popular and effective tool
for connecting among ARI members, students, alumni, and the
public who are interested in ARI happenings.
extend its outreach. Selected webcasts of ARI lectures and
seminars are posted on YouTube. 40 videos have been posted
since April 2010.
ARI also participates in the NUS iTunes U, a collaborative
initiative between Apple and NUS launched in August 2010, in
uploading its webcasts, podcasts and working papers onto NUS
iTunesU. Users worldwide who are interested in these materials
are able to download them to their iPhones and iPad to listen/
read on the go, or download them to their computers.
ARI continues to explore new avenues of social media to further
enhance its social connectivity with its various local, regional
and international stakeholders.
Since 2010, the Institute has been exploiting the popular mediasharing platforms such as YouTube and iTunesU to further
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
71
8.0
PUBLICATIONS
A total of 15 publications in the form of edited volumes and
special issues of journals were successfully published in 2013
as a result of workshops and conferences held and sponsored
by ARI between 2004 – 2011. The average length of time between
event and publication was about three years. In addition,
11 monographs, jointly-authored books and edited volumes
were published by ARI scholars and another 15 such
publications were published by ARI alumni.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
BOOKS
The disciplines and specialities of ARI members are remarkably diverse, a diversity which is reflected in
the books they produce. Books published in 2013 are detailed below. In some cases, the terms of ARI
appointees are shorter than the period required for seeing a book through to publication, and in such
instances, two codes are used:
* Published during the period of the ARI appointment but based largely on earlier work
+ Published after the member has left ARI, but based on work wholly or partly done in ARI
Barker, Joshua; Harms, Erik; and
Lindquist, Johan (eds)
+Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity
University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2014
(Available in March 2013)
Bunnell, Tim; Parthasarathy, D.; and
Thompson, Eric C. (eds)
Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural,
Urban and Contemporary Asia
Benney, Jonathan
Defending Rights in Contemporary China
Routledge/Asian Studies Association of
Australia (ASSA), East Asian Series, 2013
Callahan, William A.
*China Dreams: 20 Visions of the Future
Oxford University Press, New York, 2013
Bräuchler, Birgit
+Cyberidentities at War: The Moluccan
Conflict on the Internet
Berghahn, New York, 2013 (translated from
German by Jeremy Gaines, with a new epilogue
by the author)
Chong Siow Ann and Lysaght, Tamra
(guest eds)
Special Issue: Mental Health Casebook
Asian Bioethics Review, 5(3), 2013
ARI-Springer Asia Series 3
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, London and
New York, 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Rural-Urban
Networks in Asia: Re-Spatializing Cultural and
Political Imaginaries, 25-26 February 2010)
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
73
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Clancey, Gregory and Graham, Connor
(guest eds)
Feener, Michael R.
East Asian Science, Technology and Society:
An International Journal, 7(1), 2013
Oxford University Press, 2013
Special Issue: Asian Biopoleis: Practice,
Place, and Life
Formichi, Chiara (ed)
Religious Pluralism, State and Society in Asia
Routledge Religion in Contemporary Asia Series
Routledge, London & New York, 2014
(Available in September 2013)
(from ARI organised workshop Placing Religious
Pluralism in Asian Global Cities, 5-6 May 2011)
Harris, Ian
+Buddhism in a Dark Age: Cambodian Monks
Under Pol Pot
University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2013
Shari`a and Social Engineering: The
Implementation of Islamic Law in
Contemporary Aceh, Indonesia
Goh, Daniel P. S. and Bunnell, Tim (eds)
Symposium on Recentering Southeast Asian
Cities
International Journal of Urban and Regional
Research 37(3), 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Global Urban
Frontiers: Asian Cities in Theory, Practice and
Imagination, 8-9 September 2010)
Jeffrey, Robin and Doron, Assa
+Cell Phone Nation
Hachette, New Delhi, 2013
Finucane, Juliana and Feener, Michael R. (eds)
Proselytizing and the Limits of Religious
Pluralism in Contemporary Asia
ARI-Springer Asia Series 4
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, London and
New York, 2014 (Available in October 2013)
(from ARI organised workshop Proselytizing and
the Limits of Religious Pluralism in the Era of
Globalization, 16-17 September 2010)
Graham, Connor; Gibbs, Martin; and Aceti,
Lanfranco (guest eds)
Special Issue: Death, Afterlife, and Immortality
of Bodies and Data
The Information Society, 29(3), 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Afterlife
and Death in a Digital Age: Asian Perspectives,
26-28 May 2011)
Kayoko, Fujita; Shiro, Momoki; and Reid,
Anthony (eds)
+Offshore Asia: Maritime Interactions in
Eastern Asia before Steamships
ISEAS for Nalanda Sriwijaya Centre Series,
Singapore, 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Northeast
Asia in Maritime Perspective: A Dialogue with
Southeast Asia, 29-30 October 2004)
74
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Kusno, Abidin
Liang Yongjia (guest ed)
University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, 2013
China: An International Journal, 11(2), 2013
(from ARI organised workshop Religious Revival in
the Ethnic Areas in China, 25-26 August 2011)
+After the New Order: Space, Politics,
and Jakarta
Special Issue: Religious Revival of Ethnic China
Liew Kai Khiun and Brenda Chan (guest eds)
+Special Issue: The Internet and the
Engendering of Transnational Alternative
Soundscapes in the Asia-Pacific – Introduction
to the Symposium on Popular Music and the
Internet in Asia
Asian Journal of Communication, 23(4), 2013
Marsden, Magnus and Hopkins, Benjamin (eds)
+Beyond Swat: History, Society and Economy
Along the Afghanistan-Pakistan Frontier
Columbia University Press, 2013
Miksic, John N. and Goh Geok Yian (eds)
Ancient Harbours in Southeast Asia: The
Archaeology of Early Harbours and Evidence
of Inter-regional Trade
SEAMEO SPAFA, Bangkok, 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop The
Archaeology of Early Harbours and Evidence for
Inter-regional Trade, 14-15 June 2004)
Miller, Michelle A. and Bunnell, Tim (guest eds)
Special Issue: Decentralized Governance and
Urban Change in Asia
Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop
Decentralization and Urban Transformation in
Asia, 10-11 March 2011)
Mohamad, Maznah and Wieringa, Saskia E.
(eds)
Pall, Zoltan
Perera, Nihal and Tang Wing-Shing (eds)
Sussex Academic Press, Eastbourne, UK, 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Domestic
Violence in Asia: The Ambiguity of Family in the
Private-Public Domain, 7-8 October 2010)
Amsterdam University Press, 2013
Routledge, New York, 2013
Family Ambiguity and Domestic Violence in
Asia: Concept, Law and Process
Lebanese Salafis between the Gulf and
Europe: Development, Fractionalization and
Transnational Networks of Salafism in Lebanon
+Transforming Asian Cities: Intellectual
Impasse, Asianizing Space, and Emerging
Translocalities
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
75
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Rinaldo, Rachel
Savage, Victor R. and Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
Oxford University Press, 2013
Marshall Cavendish Editions, Singapore, 2013
+Mobilizing Piety: Islam and Feminism in
Indonesia
Singapore Street Names: A Study of
Toponymics
Saxer, Martin
+Manufacturing Tibetan Medicine. The
Creation of an Industry and the Moral
Economy of Tibetanness
Berghahn, New York; Oxford, 2013
Suryadarma, Daniel and Jones, Gavin W. (eds)
Education in Indonesia
ISEAS, Singapore, 2013
Turner, Bryan S.
+The Religious and the Political: A
Comparative Sociology of Religion
Cambridge University Press, 2013
Turner, Bryan S. and Mohamed Nasir,
Kamaludeen (eds)
+The Sociology of Islam. Collected Essays of
Bryan S. Turner
Ashgate, Farnham, 2013
van Bruinessen, Martin
Rakyat Kecil, Islam dan Politik
Gading, Yogyakarta, 2013
van Bruinessen, Martin (ed)
Contemporary Developments in Indonesian
Islam: Explaining the “Conservative Turn”
ISEAS, Singapore, 2013
Wee, Lionel; Goh, Robbie B. H.; and Lim,
Lisa (eds)
The Politics of English: South Asia, Southeast
Asia and the Asia Pacific
John Benjamins, Amsterdam; Philadelphia, 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop The Politics
of English in Asia: Language Policy and Cultural
Expression, 4-5 August 2009)
76
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Whalen-Bridge, John and Kitiarsa,
Pattana (eds)
Buddhism, Modernity, and the State in Asia:
Forms of Engagement
Winichakul, Thongchai
+Democracy with the Monarchy above Politics
Fa Diew Kan Publication, Bangkok, 2013
Return: Nationalizing Transnational Mobility
in Asia
Yeoh, Brenda S. A.
Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore:
Power Relations and the Urban Built
Environment
Duke University Press, Durham, 2013
(from ARI organised Conference on Return
Migration in Asia: Experiences, Ideologies and
Politics, 31 July-1 Aug 2008)
NUS Press, Singapore, 2013
Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean; Alipio, Cheryll; and
Furstenberg, Frank F. (guest eds)
Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean and Yap Mui Teng (eds)
Special issue: Transitioning to Adulthood in
Asia: School, Work, and Family Life
The ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 646(1), 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Transitioning to
Adulthood in Asia: Marriage, Fertility and Labour
Force Participation, 7-8 July 2011)
+Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-Body of
a Nation
Read Publication, Bangkok, 2013
(Thai edition with new author’s introduction;
translated by Puangthong Pawakaphan, Ida
Arunwong, and Ponglert Phongwanan)
Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2013
(from ARI co-organised International Workshop
on Buddhism and the Crisis of Nation-States in
Asia, 19-20 June 2008)
Xiang, Biao; Yeoh, Brenda S. A.; and Toyota,
Mika (eds)
Winichakul, Thongchai
Yeung, Wei-Jun Jean (guest ed)
Special Issue: Asian Fatherhood
Journal of Family Issues, 34(2), 2013
(from ARI co-organised workshop Fatherhood
in 21st Century: Research, Interventions, and
Policies, 17-18 June 2010)
Economic Stress, Human Capital, and Families
in Asia: Policy and Research Challenges.
Quality of Life in Asia Series 4
Springer, London and New York, 2013
(from ARI co-organised International Conference
on Economic Stress, Human Capital, and Families
in Asia: Research and Policy Challenges, 3-4 June
2010)
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
77
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
ARI-SPRINGER
ASIA SERIES
EDITORS-IN-CHIEF
MIGRATION SECTION
CITIES SECTION
Chua Beng Huat, Robbie B. H. Goh,
Lily Kong, and Prasenjit Duara,
National University of Singapore
Section Editor:
Brenda Yeoh,
National University of Singapore
Section Editor:
Timothy Bunnell,
National University of Singapore
RELIGION SECTION
Associate Editors:
Dick Bedford, University of Waikato
Xiang Biao, Oxford University
Rachel Silvey, University of Toronto
Associate Editors:
Abidin Kusno and Michael Leaf,
University of British Columbia
houses globally and publishes across a
wide range of media including academic
books, reference works, journals,
CD-ROMs, databases and online
publications. ARI’s partnership with
Springer in the Asia book series offers a
peer-refereed avenue for the publication
of exciting new scholarship on Asia, and
it ensures that this scholarship is readily
available worldwide to institutions as well
as individual scholars. The series presents
leading research on Asia in three main
sections: Religion, Migration, and Cities.
Nguyen-Marshall, Van; Drummond, Lisa
B. Welch; and Bélanger, Danièle (eds)
(2012). The Reinvention of Distinction:
Modernity and the Middle Class in Urban
Vietnam.
Section Editor:
Michael Feener,
National University of Singapore
D. Parthasarathy,
Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Associate Editors:
Nico Kaptein, Leiden University
Joanne Waghorne, Syracuse University
Kenneth Dean, McGill University
Scholarship on Asia, particularly on
the rapidly developing and complex
nations and regions in East, Southeast
and South Asia, has seen many exciting
developments in recent years, due
not only to significant events in Asia
but also to the emergence of new
research methodologies, theoretical
orientations, scholarly paradigms, and
multi-disciplinary approaches and
collaborations. As an institute dedicated
to research on Asia, in one of Asia’s
best universities, and networked with
prominent Asia scholars in other leading
universities, ARI has played a central
role in these crucial innovations in Asia
scholarship.
Springer is one of the leading academic
publishers in the world. It has publishing
78
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
The books in the series are:
Sinha, Vineeta (2011). Religion-State
Encounters in Hindu Domains: From the
Straits Settlements to Singapore.
Bunnell, Tim; Parthasarathy, D.; and
Thompson, Eric C. (eds) (2013). Cleavage,
Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban
and Contemporary Asia.
Finucane, Juliana and Feener, Michael R.
(eds) (2014). Proselytizing and the Limits
of Religious Pluralism in Contemporary
Asia.
For more information, visit the
website: www.springer.com and http://
www.ari.nus.edu.sg/publications.
asp?pubtypeid=22
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
ASIAN POPULATION
STUDIES
EDITOR
Gavin Jones,
National University of Singapore
Associate Editor
Premchand Varma Dommaraju,
Nanyang Technological University
Editorial Committee
Angelique Chan,
National University of Singapore
Wolfgang Lutz,
International Institute for Applied
Systems Analysis, Austria
Vipan Prachuabmoh,
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Brenda S.A. Yeoh,
National University of Singapore
Asia Population Studies is an ARI journal
that publishes original research on
matters related to population in this
large, complex and rapidly changing
region, and welcomes substantive
empirical analyses, theoretical works,
applied research and contributions to
methodology. Topics covered include
all branches of population studies
ranging from population dynamics such
as the analysis of fertility, mortality and
migration (from both technical and social
perspectives) to the consequences of
population change. Heading each issue
is a commentary on a topical issue by a
noted demographer.
Beginning with the first issue of Vol. 6,
2010, the journal has been abstracted
and indexed in Thomson Reuters’
Current Contents®/Social and Behavioral
Sciences, Journal Citation Reports/Social
Sciences Edition, Scopus, and the Social
Sciences Citation Index®.
Some articles published in 2013:
Fertility Changes in Central Asia Since
1980
Thomas Spoorenberg
Education Fever and the East Asian
Fertility Puzzle: A Case Study of Low
Fertility in South Korea
Thomas Anderson and Hans-Peter Kohler
How Fast is the Population Ageing in
China?
Yinhua Mai, Xiujian Peng, and Wei Chen
Adult Male Mortality in India: An
Application of the Widowhood Method
Nandita Saikia, Abhishek Singh, and
Faujdar Ram
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
79
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
ARI WORKING
PAPER SERIES
The ARI Working Paper Series (ARI WPS)
has published 211 academic research
papers online. Paper submissions are
invited from a worldwide pool of scholars
working on Asia and are peer-reviewed
before being approved for publication. In
2013, a total of 17 papers were published
and all are downloadable as full text
documents in Adobe Acrobat pdf format
free of charge at: www.ari.nus.edu.sg/
publications/ariwps.htm.
Series
PublicationTitle
No.Date
Author(s)
WPS 195
Jan 2013
Kheut: Revisiting, Recasting and Reinterpreting Northern Thai
Architectural Taboos
Andrew Alan Johnson
WPS 196
The Population of Southeast Asia
Gavin W. Jones
WPS 197
Feb 2013
The Saemaul Undong: South Korea’s Rural Development Miracle
in Historical Perspective
Mike Douglass
WPS 198
Mar 2013
“Forging New Malay Networks”: Economy and Aspirations in
the Malaysian Diaspora
Johan Fischer
WPS 199
China’s Higher Education Expansion and Social Stratification
Jan 2013
Apr 2013
Wei-Jun Jean Yeung
WPS 200
May 2013
Power and Political Culture in Cambodia
Trude Jacobsen
Martin Stuart-Fox
WPS 201
May 2013
Ram B. Bhagat
Gavin W. Jones
Population Change and Migration in Mumbai Metropolitan
Region: Implications for Planning and Governance
WPS 202
Jun 2013
Urban Inter-Referencing Within and Beyond a Decentralized
Indonesia Nicholas A. Phelps
Tim Bunnell
Michelle Ann Miller
John Taylor
WPS 203
Planning Karachi’s Urban Futures
Nausheen H. Anwar
“Itsara” (Freedom) to Work?: Neoliberalization, Deregulation
and Marginalized Male Labor in the Bangkok Taxi Business
Maureen Hickey
Jun 2013
WPS 204
Jul 2013
WPS 205
Aug 2013
Exploring the Reverse Causational Effect of Fertility on the
Infant Mortality Decline in India
P. Arokiasamy
Srinivas Goli
Mohd Shannawaz
WPS 206
Aug 2013
Sovereignties, Buddhisms, Post-1989: An Epistemological
Conundrum in Rising Asia
Rada Iveković
WPS 207
Sep 2013
Transnational Migration and Changing Care Arrangements
for Left-behind Children in Southeast Asia: A Selective Literature
Review in Relation to the CHAMPSEA Study
Theodora Lam
Brenda S.A. Yeoh
Lan Anh Hoang
WPS 208
Sep 2013
Southeast Asia in the Suishu: A Translation of Memoir 47
with Notes and Commentary
William Aspell
WPS 209
Oct 2013
The Transformation of Child Labor in Andhra Pradesh,
India: Lessons for State-NGO Collaboration
Priyam Saharia
WPS 210
Oct 2013
The Urbanization of Natural Disasters: Toward a Multi-scalar
Approach to Disaster Governance in Asia
Mike Douglass
WPS 211
Nov 2013
“The Fundamental Issue is Anti-colonialism, Not Merger”:
Singapore’s “Progressive Left”, Operation Coldstore, and the
Creation of Malaysia Coldstore, and the Creation of Malaysia
Thum Ping Tjin
80
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
ARTICLES AND
BOOK CHAPTERS
Acri, Andrea
Reorienting the past: Performances of
Hindu textual heritage in contemporary
India (co-authored with A. M. Pinkney).
International Journal of Hindu Studies,
17(3), 223-230.
Modern Hindu intellectuals and
ancient texts: Reforming Śaiva Yoga in
Bali. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en
Volkenkunde, Journal of the Humanities
and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and
Oceania, 169(1), 68-103.
Alipio, Cheryll
Domestic violence and migration in the
Philippines: Transnational sites of struggle
and sacrifice. In M. Mohamad and S. E.
Wieringa (eds), Family ambiguity and
domestic violence in Asia: Concept, law
and process. Eastbourne, UK: Sussex
Academic Press, pp. 95-117.
Young men in the Philippines: Mapping
the costs and debts of work, marriage,
and family life. Special issue on
Transitioning to adulthood in Asia: School,
work, and family life. The ANNALS of the
American Academy of Political and Social
Science, 646(1), 214-232.
Introduction: Transitioning to adulthood
in Asia: School, work, and family life
(co-authored with J. Yeung W.). Special
issue on Transitioning to adulthood in
Asia: School, work, and family life. The
ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 646(1), 6-27.
Baey, Grace Hui Yi
The place of Vietnamese marriage
migrants in Singapore: Social
reproduction, social “problems” and
social protection (co-authored with B.
S. A. Yeoh and Chee H. L.). Third World
Quarterly, 34(10), 1927-1941.
Balooni, Kulbhushan
Governance for private green spaces in
a growing Indian city (co-authored with
K. Gangopadhyay and B. M. Kumar).
Landscape and Urban Planning, 123,
21-29.
Bandyopadhyay, Sekhar
Rabindranath Tagore, Indian nation and
its outcasts. Harvard Asia Quarterly, 15(1),
28-33.
India-New Zealand relations in the new
century: A historical narrative of changing
perceptions and shifting priorities. India
Quarterly, 69(4), 317-333.
Bork-Hüffer, Tabea
Interlinkages of global change, national
development goals, urbanization
and international migration in China.
The example of African Migrants in
Guangzhou and Foshan (co-authored with
B. Rafflenbeul, F. Kraas, and Z. Li). In F.
Kraas, S. Aggarwal, M. Coy, & G. Mertins
(eds), Megacities: Our global urban
future. London and New York: Springer,
pp. 135-150.
Bräuchler, Birgit
Cultural solutions to religious conflicts?
The revival of tradition in the Moluccas,
Eastern Indonesia. In T. A. Reuter and
A. Horstmann (eds), Faith in the future:
Understanding the revitalization of
religions and cultural traditions in Asia.
Leiden: Brill, pp. 39-61.
Bunnell, Tim
City networks as alternative geographies
of Southeast Asia. TRaNS: Trans-regional
and -national Studies of Southeast Asia,
1(1), 27-43.
Urban-rural connections: Banda
Aceh through conflict, tsunami and
decentralization (co-authored with M. A.
Miller). In T. Bunnell, D. Parthasarathy,
and E. C. Thompson (eds), Cleavage,
connection and conflict in rural, urban
and contemporary Asia. ARI-Springer Asia
Series 3. London and New York: Springer
Dordrecht Heidelberg, pp. 83-98.
Encountering KL through the “travel” of
UMPs. In G. del Cerro Santamaría (ed),
Urban megaprojects: A worldwide view.
Bingley: Emerald Press, pp. 57-75.
Urban landscapes. In N. Johnson,
R. Schein, and J. Winders (eds), The
Wiley-Blackwell companion to cultural
geography. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp.
278-289.
Recentering Southeast Asian cities (coauthored with Goh D. P. S). International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research,
37(3), 825-833.
Problematizing the interplay between
decentralized governance and the urban
in Asia (co-authored with M. A. Miller).
Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 715-729.
Urban development in a decentralized
Indonesia: Two success stories? (coauthored with M. A. Miller, N. A. Phelps,
and J. Taylor). Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 857876.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
81
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Jim Blaut and the trajectories of tropical
geography (co-authored with Ong C. E.
and J. D. Sidaway). Singapore Journal of
Tropical Geography, 34(3), 285-291.
Antecedent cities and inter-referencing
effects: Learning from and extending
beyond critiques of neoliberalisation.
Urban Studies, October 14, 2013. DOI:
10.1177/0042098013505882.
Callahan, William A.
Assessing Chinese national identity: The
debate inside China. In G. Rozman (ed),
Asia’s uncertain future: Korea, China’s
aggressiveness, and new leadership. Joint
U.S.-Korea Academic Studies, 24(2013),
69-82.
China’s harmonious world and postwestern world orders: Official and citizen
intellectual perspectives. In R. Foot (ed),
China across the divide: The domestic
and global in politics and society. New
York: Oxford University Press, pp. 19-42.
Cheah, Pheng
The biopolitics of recognition: Making
female subjects of globalization.
Boundary 2, 40(2), 81-112.
The world is watching: The mediatic
structure of cosmopolitanism. Special
issue on Cosmopolitanism and the new
news media. Journalism Studies, 14(2),
219-231.
The material world of comparison.
In R. Felski and S. S. Friedman (eds),
Comparison: Theories, approaches, uses.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University
Press, pp. 168-190.
Political bodies without organs: On
Hegel’s ideal state and Deleuzian
micropolitics. In J. Vernon and K. Houle
(eds), Hegel and Deleuze: Together again
for the first time. Evanston: Northwestern
University Press, pp. 97-114.
World as picture and ruination: On Jia
Zhangke’s Still Life as world cinema. In
C. Rojas and E. Chow (eds), The Oxford
handbook of Chinese cinemas. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, pp. 190-208.
82
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
To open: Hospitality and alienation. In T.
Claviez (ed), The conditions of hospitality:
Ethics, politics, and aesthetics on the
threshold of the possible. New York:
Fordham University Press, pp. 57-80.
The physico-material bases of
cosmopolitanism. In S. R. Ben-Porath and
R. Smith (eds), Varieties of sovereignty
and citizenship. Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, pp. 189-210.
Acceptable uses of people. In M.
Goodale (ed), Human rights at the
crossroads. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, pp. 210-225.
Chee Heng Leng
Commercially arranged marriage and
the negotiation of citizenship rights
among Vietnamese marriage migrants in
Singapore (co-authored with B. S. A. Yeoh
and T. K. D. Vu). Asian Ethnicity, 14(2),
139-156.
Between two families: The social meaning
of remittances for Vietnamese marriage
migrants in Singapore (co-authored with
B. S. A. Yeoh, T. K. D. Vu, and Y. Cheng).
Global Networks, 13(4), 441-458.
The place of Vietnamese marriage
migrants in Singapore: Social
reproduction, social “problems” and
social protection (co-authored with B. S.
A. Yeoh and G. H. Y. Baey). Third World
Quarterly, 34(10), 1927-1941.
Global householding and the negotiation
of intimate labour in commerciallymatched international marriages between
Vietnamese women and Singaporean
men (co-authored with B. S. A. Yeoh and
T. K. D. Vu). Geoforum. DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.09.012.
Chen Haidan
Stem cell governance in China: From the
perspective of co-production. Journal
of Dialectics of Nature, 35(2), 112-117 (in
Chinese).
Unruly objects: Novel innovation
paths and their regulatory challenge
(co-authored with C. Haddad and H.
Gottweis). In A. Webster (ed), The global
dynamics of regenerative medicine: A
social science critique. Basingstoke,
Hampshire; New York, NY: Palgrave
Macmillan, pp. 88-117.
From global bioethics to ethical
governance of biomedical research
collaborations (co-authored with A.
Wahlberg et al.). Social Science and
Medicine, April 2013. DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2013.03.041.
Cheung, Adam K-l.
Economic insecurity and husband-to-wife
physical assault in Hong Kong: The role
of husband’s power motive (co-authored
with S. Y. P. Choi). In W. J. Yeung and M.
Yap (eds), Economic stress, human capital,
and families in Asia: Policy and research
challenges. Quality of Life in Asia Series
4. London and New York: Springer, pp.
105-127.
Cho Kyuhoon
The re-construction of religion in the
modern Korean education. Proceedings
of the 11th ISKS International Conference
on Korean Studies. Osaka, Japan:
International Society for Korean Studies,
pp. 819-839.
Chua Beng Huat
Social media and cross-border cultural
transmissions in Asia: States, industries,
and audiences (co-authored with
S. Jung). International Journal of
Cultural Studies, October 2013. DOI:
10.1177/1367877913505168.
Planned demi-monde and its
aestheticisation in Singapore. In J. De
Kloet and L. Scheen (eds), Spectacle
and the city. Amsterdam: Amsterdam
University Press, pp. 27-42.
A framework for audience study
of transnational television. In R.
Parameswaran (ed), The international
encylopedia of media studies. Chicester,
UK: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 276-299.
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Aesthetics of the pathetic: The portrayal
of the abject in Singaporean cinema (coauthored with Wong M.). Access: Critical
Perspectives on Communication, Cultural
and Policy Studies, 31(2), 67-78.
Exploring spaces of hope in our cities:
In conversation with Professor Michael
Douglass (co-authored with G. Jose).
Asian Journal of Social Science, 41, 91103.
Clancey, Gregory
Asian biopoleis: Practice, place, and life
(co-authored with C. Graham, R. Bishop,
and M. M. J. Fischer). Special issue on
Asian Biopoleis: Practice, Place, and
Life. East Asian Science, Technology and
Society: An International Journal, 7(1), 1-6.
Globalizing the household in East Asia. In
D. Hoerder and A. Kaur (eds), Proletarian
and gendered mass migrations: A
global perspective on continuities and
discontinuities from the 19th to the 21st
centuries. Leiden: Brill, pp. 65-82.
Collins, Francis L.
Teaching English in South Korea: Mobility
norms and higher education outcomes in
youth migration. Children’s Geographies.
DOI: 10.1080/14733285.2013.851064.
Cook, Joanna
Directive and definitive knowledge:
Experiencing achievement in a Thai
meditation monastery. In N. J. Long
and H. Moore (eds), The social life of
achievement. New York and Oxford:
Berghahn, pp. 103-119.
Das, Dhiman
Impact of changes in medicare payments
on the financial condition of nonprofit
hospitals. Journal of Health Care Finance,
40(1), 11-39.
Effects of welfare reform on illicit drug
use of adult women (co-authored with
H. Corman, D. M. Dave, and N. E.
Reichman). Economic Inquiry, 51(1), 653674.
Douglass, Mike
Decentralizing governance in a
transborder urban age: East Asia and
the Busan–Fukuoka “Common Living
Sphere”. Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 731-758.
The future of cities in a post-national
urban age in Asia: Corporate globopolis
versus vernacular cosmopolis. EWHA
Journal of Social Sciences, 29, 101-149.
The new village movement in Korea
in historical perspective and current
meaning. In I. Yi and T. Mkandawire (eds),
Lessons from the Korean Development
Model. Seoul: KOICA, Chapter 7 (in
Korean).
Duara, Prasenjit
Viewing regionalisms from East Asia
(co-authored with S. Conrad), Regions
and Regionalisms in the Modern World.
American Historical Association pamphlet
series. Washington DC.
Kindai sekaishi ni okeru taminzoku kokka:
Chugoku no shaken [The multi-national
nation in modern world history: The
Chinese experiment], Gurobaru hisutori
no naka no shingai kakumei [The 1911
Revolution in global history]. Tokyo:
Namiko shoin.
Histoire et concurrence des temps
[History and competitive temporalities].
Vingtième siècle. Revue d’histoire, 1(117),
26-41.
Feener, Michael R.
Adat dan idealisme dalam pemikiran
hukum Mohammad Koesnoe. In J. A.
Kurniawan (ed), Mohammad Koesnoe
dalam pengembaraan gagasan hukum
Indonesia. Jakarta: Epistema Institut, pp.
139-156.
Hand, heart and handphone: State shari`a
in the age of the SMS. Contemporary
Islam, 7(1), 15-32.
Official religions, state secularisms and
the structures of religious pluralism.
In J. Finucane and M. R. Feener (eds),
Proselytizing and the limits of religious
pluralism in contemporary Asia. London
and New York: Springer Dordrecht
Heidelberg, pp. 1-16.
Fischer, Johan
Global Muslim markets in London. In G.
Marranci (ed), Studying Islam in practice.
London and New York: Routledge, pp.
164-180.
Formichi, Chiara
Mustafa Kemal’s abrogation of the
Ottoman Caliphate and its impact on
the Indonesian Nationalist Movement.
In M. al-Rasheed, C. Kersten, and M.
Shterin (eds), Demystifying the caliphate:
Historical memory and contemporary
contexts. London; New York: Hurst
Publishers, Columbia University Press, pp.
95-116.
Religious pluralism, state and society
in Asia. In C. Formichi (ed), Religious
pluralism, state and society in Asia.
London: Routledge, pp. 1-10.
Fountain, Philip
The myth of religious NGOs:
Development studies and the return
of religion. International Development
Policy: Religion and Development, 4, 9-30.
On having faith in the MDGs: A response
to Marshall. International Development
Policy: Religion and Development, 4, 41-46.
Anthropological theologies:
Engagements and encounters (coauthored with Lau S. W.). The Australian
Journal of Anthropology, 24(3), 227-234.
DOI: 10.1111/taja.12048.
Toward a post-secular anthropology. The
Australian Journal of Anthropology, 24(3),
310-328. DOI: 10.1111/taja.12053.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
83
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Graham, Connor
Introduction: Death, afterlife, and
immortality of bodies and data (coauthored with M. Gibbs and L. Aceti).
Special issue on Death, Afterlife, and
Immortality of Bodies and Data. The
Information Society, 29(3), 133-141.
Asian biopoleis: Practice, place, and life
(co-authored with G. Clancey, R. Bishop,
and M. M. J. Fischer). Special issue on
Asian biopoleis: Practice, place, and
life. East Asian Science, Technology and
Society: An International Journal, 7(1), 1-6.
Harris, Ian
Buddhism in Cambodia. In O. Abenayaka
and A. Tilakaratne (eds), 2600 Years
of Sambuddhatva: Global journey
of awakening. Colombo: Ministry of
Buddhasasana and Religious Affairs;
Government of Sri Lanka, pp. 201-212.
Buddhism and politics. In Buddhism
and the future world: The international
conference to commemorate the 100th
birth anniversary of the great patriarch
Sangwol Wongak. Seoul: Wongak
Buddhist Research Institute, pp. 255-303.
Buddhism in Cambodia since 1993. In
S. Pou, G. Wade, and M. Hong (eds),
Cambodia: Progress and challenges since
1991. Singapore: Institute for Southeast
Asian Studies, pp. 320-336.
Hoskins, Janet Alison
Trance dancers or interlocutors of the
immortals? Gender and Vietnamese
spirit mediums in contrasting traditions.
In Reassessing Ritual: Conference
Proceedings. Kyoto University Center for
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Huang, Julia C.
From diasporic to ecumenical: The
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Malaysia. In J. Finucane and M. R.
Feener (eds), Proselytizing and the limits
of religious pluralism in contemporary
Asia. London and New York: Springer
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The gender of charisma: Notes from a
Taiwanese Buddhist NGO. In C. Lindholm
(ed), The anthropology of religious
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York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 101-116.
Hughes-Freeland, Felicia
Introduction. Anthrovision, 1(2). Available
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Embodied perception and the invention
of the citizen: Javanese dance in the
Indonesian state. In S. Trnka, C. Dureau,
and J. Park (eds), Senses and citizenships:
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Japanese-Indonesian hybridity? The
case of Didik Nini Thowok’s Bedhaya
Hagoromo. In M. A. Md Nor (ed), Dancing
mosaic: Issues on dance hybridity.
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Cultural
Centre University of Malaya & National
Department for Culture and Arts, Ministry
of Communication, Information and
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Ji Yingchun
Negotiating marriage and schooling:
Nepalese women’s transition to
adulthood. Special issue on Transitioning
to adulthood in Asia: School, work, and
family life. The ANNALS of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science,
646(1), 194-213.
Johnson, Andrew
Moral knowledge and its enemies:
Conspiracy and kingship in Thailand.
Anthropological Quarterly, 86(4), 10591086.
Progress and its ruins: Ghosts, migrants
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Anthropology, 28(2), 299-319.
Naming chaos: Accident, precariousness,
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spirit cults. American Ethnologist, 39(4),
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Jung, Sun
K-pop beyond Asia: Performing transnationality, trans-sexuality, and transtextuality. In J. A. Lent and L. Fitzsimmons
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New York and London: Routledge, pp.
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Social media and cross-border cultural
transmissions: States, industries
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Chua B. H.). International Journal
of Cultural Studies, October 2013.
DOI:10.1177/1367877913505168.
Social distribution: K-pop fan practices
in Indonesia and the “Gangnam
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with Shim D-B.). International Journal
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Ambivalent cosmopolitan desires:
Newly arrived Koreans in Australia and
community websites. Continuum, 27(2),
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Kawashima, Kumiko
Ajia taiheiyō ni mukau nihonjin jakunen
rōdōsha” [Young Japanese workers who
leave for the Asia Pacific]. Hito No Idō
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Temporary labour migration and care
work: The Japanese experience (coauthored with M. Ford). Journal of
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PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Kerr, Eric T.
Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
Group knowledge attributions and
collective visions. Social Epistemology
Review and Reply Collective, 3(1), 5-13.
Liang Yongjia
Introduction: Religious revival of ethnic
China. Special issue on Religious Revival
in Ethnic Areas of China. China: An
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Meaning. In E. T. Kerr and S. d’Alfonso,
The philosophy of information: A simple
introduction. The π research network.
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book-pi-intro/meaning.
Turning Gwer Sa La festival into intangible
cultural heritage: State superscription
of popular religion in Southwest China.
Special issue on Religious Revival
in Ethnic Areas of China. China: An
International Journal, 11(2), 58-75.
Truth. In E. T. Kerr and S. d’Alfonso, The
philosophy of information: A simple
introduction. The π research network.
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book-pi-intro/truth.
Knowledge. In E. T. Kerr and S. d’Alfonso,
The philosophy of information: A simple
introduction. The π research network.
http://www.socphilinfo.org/teaching/
book-pi-intro/knowledge.
Lam, Theodora
Securing a better living environment for
left-behind children: Implications and
challenges for policies (co-authored with
M. Ee, L. A. Hoang, and B. S. A. Yeoh).
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3),
421-445.
Transnational migration in Southeast
Asia and the gender roles of left-behind
fathers (co-authored with B. S. A. Yeoh).
ARROW for Change, 19(1), 8-9.
Migration and “divercities”: Challenges
and possibilities in global-city Singapore
(co-authored with B. S. A. Yeoh). In
M. N. C. Poon (ed), Engaging society:
The Christian in tomorrow’s Singapore.
Singapore: Trinity Theological College,
pp. 41-58.
Lavin, Maud
Pink writing: P. R. C.-based publishing
on queer and post-queer issues.
Intersections, Issue 33, December 2013.
Available online at http://intersections.
anu.edu.au/issue33/lavin.htm.
Hierarchical plurality: State, religion
and pluralism in Southwest China. In C.
Formichi (ed), Religious pluralism, state
and society in Asia. London: Routledge,
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Developmentism, secularism, nationalism
and essentialism: The challenge of PR
China’s ethnic policy. In Zhao L. (ed),
China’s social development and policy.
London: Routledge, pp. 186-204.
Liew Kai Khiun
Vestigial pop: Hokkien popular music and
the cultural fossilization of subalternity in
Singapore. Sojourn, 28(2), 272-298.
New media and new politics with
old cemeteries and disused railways:
Advocacy goes digital in Singapore. Asia
Journal of Communication, 23(6), 605-619.
Rewind and recollect: Activating
dormant memories and politics in
Teresa Teng’s music videos uploaded
on YouTube. International Journal of
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K-pop dance trackers and cover dancers:
Global cosmpolitanization and local
spatialization. In Kim Y. (ed), The Korean
wave: Korean media goes global. London:
Routledge, pp. 165-180.
Lin Qianhan
Lost in transformation? Employment
trajectories of China’s Cultural Revolution
cohort. Special issue on Transitioning
to adulthood in Asia: School, work, and
family life. The ANNALS of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science,
646(1), 172-193.
Lindquist, Johan
Introduction: Southeast Asian figures of
modernity (co-authored with J. Barker and
E. Harms). In J. Barker, E. Harms, and J.
Lindquist (eds), Figures of Southeast Asian
modernity. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i
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Indonesia (co-authored with J. Barker). In
J. Barker, E. Harms, and J. Lindquist (eds),
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Introduction: Figures of urban
transformation (co-authored with J. Barker
and E. Harms). City & Society, 25(2), 159172.
An interview with James Siegel. Public
Culture, 25(3), 559-573.
Beyond anti-anti Trafficking. Dialectical
Anthropology, 37(2), 319-323.
Rescue, return, in place: Deportees,
victims, and the regulation of Indonesian
migration. In Xiang B., B. S. A. Yeoh, and
M. Toyota (eds), Return: Nationalizing
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Field agent (Petugas lapangan). In J.
Barker, E. Harms, and J. Lindquist (eds),
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Un-localized and un-globalized
subculture: English language
independent music in Singapore (coauthored with Tan S. E.). In A. Fung
(ed), Asian popular culture: Global (dis)
continuity. London: Routledge, pp. 113138.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
85
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Liu Liangni, Sally
A search for a place to call home:
Negotiation of home, identity and sense
of belonging among New Zealand’s
new Chinese migrants from the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). Emotion, Space
and Society. Available online at
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/
article/pii/S1755458613000030.
Lu, Melody Chia-Wen
South Korea and the returning Korean
Chinese (co-authored with Shin H.). In
Xiang B., B. S. A. Yeoh, and M. Toyota
(eds), Return: Nationalizing Transnational
Mobility in Asia. Durham: Duke University
Press, pp. 162-178.
Lysaght, Tamra
Oversight for clinical uses of autologous
adult stem cells: Lessons from
international regulations (co-authored
with I. Kerridge, D. Sipp, G. Porter, and B.
J. Capps). Cell Stem Cell, 31(6), 647-651.
Global bionetworks and challenges in
regulating autologous adult stem cells
(co-authored with I. Kerridge, D. Sipp, G.
Porter, and B. J. Capps). American Journal
of Medicine, 126(11), 941-943.
Broadening the scope of debates around
stem cell research (co-authored with A. V.
Campbell). Bioethics, 27(5), 251-256.
Underplayed ethics and the dilemmas of
psychiatric care (co-authored with Chong
S. A.). Special issue on Mental Health
Casebook. Asian Bioethics Review, 5(3),
173-175. DOI: 10.1353/asb.2013.0042.
Ethics commentary. Special issue on
Mental Health Casebook. Asian Bioethics
Review, 5(3), 283-288. DOI: 10.1353/
asb.2013.0035.
Disclosing incidental findings in mental
health research. Special issue on Mental
Health Casebook. Asian Bioethics Review,
5(3), 271-273. DOI: 10.1353/asb.2013.0053.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Marolt, Peter
Rethinking virtual/physical boundaries.
Localities, 3, 11-32 (in English); 101-120 (in
Korean).
Morris, Meaghan
Media and popular Modernism around
the Pacific War: An inter-Asian story.
Memory Studies, 6(3), 359-369.
Miller, Michelle A.
Urban-rural connections: Banda
Aceh through conflict, tsunami and
decentralization (co-authored with T.
Bunnell). In T. Bunnell, D. Parthasarathy,
and E. C. Thompson (eds), Cleavage,
connection and conflict in rural, urban
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Series 3. London and New York: Springer
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Naafs, Suzanne
Youth, gender and the workplace: Shifting
opportunities and aspirations in an
Indonesian industrial town. Special issue
on Transitioning to adulthood in Asia:
School, work, and family life. The ANNALS
of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, 646(1), 233-250.
Decentralizing Indonesian city spaces
as new “centers”. International Journal
of Urban and Regional Research, 37(3),
834-848.
Problematizing the interplay between
decentralization and the urban in Asia
(co-authored with T. Bunnell). Pacific
Affairs, 86(4), 715-729.
Urban development in a decentralized
Indonesia: Two success stories? (coauthored with T. Bunnell, N. A. Phelps,
and J. Taylor). Pacific Affairs, 86(4), 857876.
Parthasarathy, Devanathan
Rural, urban, and regional: Re-spatializing
capital and politics in India. In T. Bunnell,
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rural, urban and contemporary Asia. ARISpringer Asia Series 3. London and New
York: Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg, pp.
15-30.
Perera, Nihal
Asianizing Asian cities: Spatial stories,
local voices, and emerging translocalities. In N. Perera and W. Tang (eds),
Transforming Asian cities: Intellectual
impasse, asianizing space, and emerging
translocalities. New York: Routledge, pp.
243-261.
Mohamad, Maznah
Domestic violence: An introduction to the
debates (co-authored with S. E. Wieringa).
In M. Mohamad and S. E. Wieringa (eds),
Family ambiguity and domestic violence
in Asia: Concept, law and process.
Eastbourne, UK: Sussex Academic Press,
pp. 12-28.
Critical vernacularism: Multiple roots,
cascades of thought, and the local
production of architecture. In N. Perera
and W. Tang (eds), Transforming Asian
cities: Intellectual impasse, asianizing
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York: Routledge, pp. 78-93.
Malaysia’s domestic violence law: An epic
passage, and the clash of gender, cultural
and religious rights. In M. Mohamad and
S. E. Wieringa (eds), Family ambiguity
and domestic violence in Asia: Concept,
law and process. Eastbourne, UK: Sussex
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In search of Asian urbanisms: Limited
visibility and intellectual impasse (coauthored with W. Tang). In N. Perera and
W. Tang (eds), Transforming Asian cities:
Intellectual impasse, asianizing space,
and emerging translocalities. New York:
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PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Platt, Maria
Everyday politics of (in)formal marital
dissolution in Cambodia and Indonesia
(co-authored with K. Brickell). Ethnos:
Journal of Anthropology, July 2013. DOI:
10.1080/00141844.2013.801505.
Rathina-Pandi, Asha
Civic space and political mobilization:
Cases in Malaysia and Thailand (coauthored with K. Balassiano). The Journal
of Development Studies, 49(11), 15791591. DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2013.828834.
Reid, Anthony
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Translation of Jacob van Neck’s 1602
account of Patani. In P. Jory (ed), Ghosts of
the past in Southern Thailand: Essays on
the history and historiography of Patani.
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Introduction: Maritime interactions in
Eastern Asia (co-authored with M. Shiro).
In F. Kayoko, M. Shiro, and A. Reid (eds),
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Roy, Anjali
Distribution and exhibition of Hindi films
in Singapore. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies,
14(4), 635-643.
Black beats with a Punjabi twist. Popular
Music, 32(2), 241-257.
Filming the Bhangra music video. In B.
Shope and G. Booth (eds), Popular music
in India: Partying with the elephant.
London: OUP, pp. 142-159.
Band le gandri: Unpartitioned memory
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Buddhist Scriptures and the International
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Bibliotheca Codicologica Nipponica VI.
Tokyo.
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Bollywood’s new transnational tribes. In R.
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Sianturi, Dinah
Naming the ruins: Toward a Southeast
Asian poetics of landscape. Axon,
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Simpson, Tim
Scintillant cities: Glass architecture,
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Qissa and the popular Hindi cinema. In L.
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Söderström, Ola
Loose threads: The translocal making of
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Saxer, Martin
Between China and Nepal: TransHimalayan trade and the second life of
development in Upper Humla. CrossCurrents: East Asian History and Culture
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Sen, Ronojoy
Going beyond mere accounting: The
changing role of India’s Auditor General.
The Journal of Asian Studies, 72(4), 801811.
Shi Zhiru
From bodily relic to Dharma relic stūpa:
Chinese materialization of the Aśoka
legend in the Wuyue period. In J.
Kieschnick and M. Shahar (eds), India in
the Chinese imagination: Myth, religion,
and thought, 1st ed. University of
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The architectural and religious functions
of Baoqieyin Dhāranị̄ Sūtra manuscripts at
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Song Jiyoung
“Smuggled refugees”: The social
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Tan Sor Hoon
Balancing conservatism and innovation:
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Thum Ping Tjin
Flesh and bone reunited as one body:
Singapore’s Chinese-speaking and their
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Wade, Geoffrey
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
87
PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Wasson, Robert J.
Caesium-137 in Southeast Asia: Is there
enough left for soil erosion and sediment
redistribution studies? (co-authored
with T. Furuichi). Journal of Asian Earth
Sciences, 77, 108-116.
Earth is (mostly) flat: Apportionment of
the flux of continental sediment over
millennial time scales (co-authored with J.
A. Warrick, J. D. Milliman, D. E. Walling,
J. P. M. Syvitski, and R. E. Aalto). Geology
Forum, Geological Society of America.
DOI:10.1130/G34846C.1.
A 1000-year history of large floods in
the Upper Ganga catchment, central
Himalaya, India (co-authored with Y. P.
Sundriyal, S. Chaudhary, M. K. Jaiswal,
P. Morthekai, S. P. Sati, and N. Juyal),
Quaternary Science Reviews, 77, 156-166.
Wieringa, Saskia
Domestic violence: An introduction to the
debates (co-authored with M. Mohamad).
In M. Mohamad and S. E. Wieringa (eds),
Family ambiguity and domestic violence
in Asia: Concept, law and process.
Eastbourne, UK: Sussex Academic Press,
pp. 12-28.
Domestic violence in the harmonious
Asian family and the enforcement of
heteronormativity in India and Indonesia.
In M. Mohamad and S. E. Wieringa (eds),
Family ambiguity and domestic violence
in Asia: Concept, law and process.
Eastbourne, UK: Sussex Academic Press,
pp. 78-94.
Wu Keping
Performing the charismatic ritual: A
Catholic Charismatic movement in
Massachusetts. In C. Lindholm (ed), Social
movement of the spirit: the Cross-cultural
study of charisma. Palgrave McMillan, pp
33-56.
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ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Xiang Biao
Introduction: Return and the reordering of
Transnational Mobility in Asia. In Xiang B.,
B. S. A. Yeoh, and M. Toyota (eds), Return:
Nationalizing transnational mobility in
Asia. Durham: Duke University Press, pp.
1-20.
Compulsory return as labor-migration
control in East Asia. In Xiang B., B. S.
A. Yeoh, and M. Toyota (eds), Return:
Nationalizing transnational mobility in
Asia. Durham: Duke University Press, pp.
83-99.
Yeoh S.A., Brenda
The control of “sacred space”: Conflicts
over the Chinese burial grounds in
colonial Singapore, 1880-1930. Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies, 22(2), 282-311.
[Reprinted in O. White (ed) (2013), The
rise and fall of modern empires, (Volume
I); Social organisation. Surrey: Ashgate,
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“Upwards” or “Sideways”
cosmopolitanism? Talent/labour/marriage
migrations in the globalising city-state
of Singapore. Migration Studies, 1(1),
96-116.
Chinese migration to Singapore:
Discourses and discontents in a
globalizing nation-state (co-authored
with W. Lin). Asian and Pacific Migration
Journal, 22(1), 31-54.
Between two families: The social meaning
of remittances for Vietnamese marriage
migrants in Singapore (co-authored with
Chee H. L., T. K. D. Vu, and Cheng Y. E.).
Global Networks, 13(4), 441-458.
Commercially arranged marriage and
the negotiation of citizenship rights
among Vietnamese marriage migrants
in multiracial Singapore (co-authored
with Chee H. L. and T. K. D. Vu). Asian
Ethnicity, 14(2), 139-156.
Introduction: Child health and migrant
parents in South-East Asia: Risk and
resilience among primary school-aged
children (co-authored with E. Graham).
Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3),
297-314.
Securing a better living environment for
left-behind children: Implications and
challenges for policies (co-authored with
T. Lam, M. Ee, and L. A. Hoang). Asian
and Pacific Migration Journal, 22(3), 421445.
Global householding and the negotiation
of intimate labour in commerciallymatched international marriages between
Vietnamese women and Singaporean
men (co-authored with Chee H. L. and T.
K. D. Vu). Geoforum. DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.09.012
Geographies of domestic life:
“Householding” in transition in East
and Southeast Asia (co-authored with K.
Brickell). Geoforum. DOI: http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2013.10.007.
Transnational migration in Southeast
Asia and the gender roles of left-behind
fathers (co-authored with T. Lam). ARROW
for Change, 19(1), 8-9.
Rapid growth in Singapore’s immigrant
population brings policy challenges:
Ongoing issues, challenges, and social
change (co-authored with W. Lin).
Conversations in Integration. Cities of
Migration, 29 May 2013 [Extracted from
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2012, http://www.migrationinformation.
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PUBLICATIONS 8.0
Singapore: From postcolonial plural
society to globalising city-state (coauthored with Cheng Y. E.). In P. Spoonley
and E. Tolley (eds), Diverse nations,
diverse responses: Approaches to social
cohesion in immigrant societies. Kingston,
ON: Queen’s University School of Policy
Studies and McGill-Queen’s University
Press, pp. 193-214.
Migration and “divercities”: Challenges
and possibilities in global-city Singapore
(co-authored with T. Lam). In M. N.
C. Poon (ed), Engaging society: The
Christian in tomorrow’s Singapore.
Singapore: Trinity Theological College,
pp. 41-58.
The place of Vietnamese marriage
migrants in Singapore: Social
reproduction, social “problems” and
social protection (co-authored with Chee
H. L. and G. H. Y. Baey). Third World
Quarterly, 34(10), 1927-1941.
Yeoh Seng Guan
Actually existing religious pluralism
in Kuala Lumpur. In C. Formichi (ed),
Religious pluralism, state and society in
Asia. London & New York: Routledge, pp.
153-172.
Producing localities and nationhood
in a globalizing Southeast Asian city.
Localities, 2, 161-200.
Yeung Wei-Jun, Jean
College expansion policy and social
stratification in China. Chinese
Sociological Review, 45(4), 54-80. DOI:
10.2753/CSA2162-0555450403.
Transitioning to adulthood in Asia:
Courtship, marriage, and work: An
introduction (co-authored with C.
Alipio). Special issue on Transitioning
to adulthood in Asia: School, work, and
family life. The ANNALS of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science,
646(1), 6-27.
Coming of age in times of change:
Transition to adulthood in China. Special
issue on Transitioning to adulthood in
Asia: School, work, and family life. The
ANNALS of the American Academy of
Political and Social Science, 646(1), 149171.
Asian fatherhood: An introduction.
Special issue on Asian fatherhood.
Journal of Family Issues, 34(2), 141-158.
Hoping for a phoenix: Shanghai fathers
and their daughters (co-authored with Xu
Q.). Special issue on Asian fatherhood.
Journal of Family Issues, 34(2), 182-207.
Economic stress, human capital, and
families in Asia: Research and policy
challenges. In W. J. Yeung and M. Yap
(eds), Economic stress, human capital,
and families in Asia: Policy and research
challenges. Quality of Life in Asia Series 4.
London and New York: Springer, pp. 1-21.
Economic stress and health among
rural Chinese elderly (co-authored with
Z. Xu). In W. J. Yeung and M. Yap (eds),
Economic stress, human capital, and
families in Asia: Policy and research
challenges. Quality of Life in Asia Series
4. London and New York: Springer, pp.
131-149.
Implications of the college expansion
policy for China’s social stratification. In
D. Besharov and K. Baehler (eds), Chinese
social policy in a time of transition.
London: Oxford University Press, pp.
249-269.
Zhong Yijiang
Kannazuki: Shinto and authority
construction in early Modern Japan.
Gendai Shiso, 41(16), 174-186 (in
Japanese).
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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9.0
ARI RECOGNITION
90
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
ARI RECOGNITION 9.0
AWARDS AND HONOURS
Dr Tabea Bork-Hüffer was awarded the
National Prize for the Best Dissertation
Thesis in Human Geography by the
Verband der Geographen an Deutschen
Hochschulen (VGDH) or the Association
of Geographers at German Universities
on 4 October 2013. Her dissertation title
is Migrants’ Health Seeking Actions in
Guangzhou, China. Individual Action,
Structure and Agency: Linkages and
Change.
Assoc Prof Michael Feener received the
ODPRT Grant for Research Excellence
from the Office of the Deputy President
(Research & Technology), NUS, in 2013,
which is awarded to the top 20% of
the researchers of the Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences based on research
performance in the preceding year.
Dr Malini Sur’s Jungle Passports and
Metal Fences. Living on the Border
between Northeast India and Bangladesh
(2012) was long listed for the International
Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS)
PhD Prize 2013 in the Social Sciences
category.
Dr Shawna Tang was appointed Deputy
Editor of International Sociology, a highly
ranked peer reviewed journal of the
International Sociological Association, on
3 June 2013.
Prof Jean Yeung Wei-Jun was
appointed, as of January 2013, editorial
board member of Journal of Marriage
and Family, Journal of Family Issues, and
Encyclopedia for Quality of Life. She was
also appointed editorial board member
of Demography, as of May 2013.
KEYNOTES AND PLENARIES
Bunnell, Tim
“Emerging and other Asias: Regional
Diversity and Hierarchies of Academic
Attention”, Non-emergent Asias,
Association of American Geographers
Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, USA, 12
April 2013.
“Transborder and Global Issues: Best
Practice and Policy Transfer in an Era of
Globalization”, International Conference
on Regional Development, Department
of Urban and Regional Planning,
Diponegoro University, Semarang,
Indonesia, 20-21 November 2013.
Bush, Robin
“Muhammadiyah and Disaster Relief”,
EuroSEAS International Conference,
Lisbon, Portugal, 2-5 July 2013.
Chua Beng Huat
“Inter-referencing Southeast Asia: From
Mimicry to Resonance”, Inter-Asia
Cultural Studies International Graduate
Students Conference, NUS, 1-2 July 2013.
“Market and the Undoing of Home in
Singapore”, International Sociological
Association, RC 43 (Housing and Built
Environment) Conference, Amsterdam,
10-12 July 2013.
“Consumption in Asia: After the New
Rich Generation”, Consumption, Lifestyle
and Asian Modernities, Royal Melbourne
Institute of Technology, Australia, 3-4
November 2013.
Douglass, Mike
“Spatial Justice and the Urban Ecology:
Slums, Corporatization and Chronic
Flooding in Jakarta”, International
Conference: Towards Spatial Justice in
Jakarta, Tamuranegara University, Jakarta,
25-27 January 2013.
“Metropolitan Governance in South
Korea”, Governance of Mega Cities
Regions: International Workshop. Centre
for Policy Research, New Delhi, 4-5
February 2013.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
91
ARI RECOGNITION 9.0
“Capacity Building Needs For Water
Governance vis-á-vis Current Practices
in Asia”, Working Group 3, Building
Capacities for Adapting to Climate
Change in Water Management. Expert
Consultation on Knowledge and Capacity
Needs for Sustainable Development in
the Post Rio Era, Incheon, South Korea,
6-8 March 2013.
“Integrated Regional Planning for
Sustainable Development in Asia:
Innovations in the Governance of
Metropolitan, Rural-Urban, and
Transborder Riparian Regions”, UNCRD
Expert Group Meeting
on Integrated
Regional Development Planning,
United Nations Centre for Regional
Development, Nagoya, JAPAN, 28- 30
May 2013.
“Cities by and for the People”,
International Workshop on Asian
Urbanisms in Theory and Practice: The
Future of the Vernacular City, Create,
Future Cities Lab, NUS, 2 July 2013.
“Public Space, Public City,” International
Workshop on Hanoi Public City, Hanoi
Women’s Museum, Vietnam, 25 July 2013.
“The Urbanization of Natural Disasters:
Toward a Multi-scalar Approach to
Disaster Governance in Asia”, Workshop
on Governance Capacity and Natural
Disasters: Enhancing Preparedness,
Response and Rebuilding, East West
Centre, Honolulu, Hawai’i, 26-28 August
2013.
“The Vernacular City and its Creative
Milieu: Grassroots Innovations in Urban
Regeneration in Asia”, International
Conference on Cultural Strategies and
Urban Regeneration: Policy Innovations
from the Grassroots, Korea Research
Institute for Human Settlement, Anyang,
Korea, 25 September 2013.
“Livable Cities for Human Flourishing:
Grassroots Strategies for Creative Cultural
Life and Urban Prosperity”, Social Science
Symposium on Community Wellness
and the Future of Cities, Ewha Womans
University, 27 September 2013.
92
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
“Creative Communities – Urban
Kampung by and for Residents”, Gaung
Bandung –“Kampung Wajah Kota”,
Ikatan Mahasiswa Arsitektur Gunadharma,
Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia,
6 October 2013.
Feener, Michael
“What is the Meaning of ‘Social
Recovery’?” International Conference
on Aceh and Indian Ocean Studies IV,
Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Indonesia, 9-10
June 2013.
“The Urbanization of Environmental
Disasters: Livable Cities = Resilient
Cities”, International Conference on
Resilient Cities – Beyond Mitigation,
Preparedness, Response, and Recovery,
The Department of Urban and Regional
Planning, Institute of Technology
Surabaya, Indonesia, 8 October 2013.
Wasson, Robert J.
“Beyond the Usual: Climate Change,
Catastrophe, and the Solid Earth”,
Emplacing Climate Change:
Reconstructions of Changing
Environmental Realities, NUS, 6
November 2013.
“The Political Ecology of Flooding in
Mega-Urban Regions in Asia: Seeking
Spatial Justice through Participatory
Disaster Governance in Jakarta”,
International Conference on Challenges
of Extended Mega Urban Regions: The
Changing Face of South East Asia and
the World, Putrajaya, Malaysia, 19-21
November 2013.
“Livability as a Process of City Making
– In Search of Progressive Cities in a
Global Urban Age in Asia”, International
Conference on The Future Cities and the
Quality of Life – Community Wellness and
Livability: Qualitative Indicators of Livable
Cities through Life Cycle Perspectives,
Ewha University, Seoul, 13 December
2013.
Duara, Prasenjit
“Network Asia: Futures of the Past”, Is
Asia One? Towards an Asian Art History,
Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore, 14
September 2013.
“Narratives of Community”, People,
Ports and Places: The Narrative of Indian
Communities in Southeast Asia Inaugural
IHC Seminar, Indian Heritage Centre,
Singapore, 20 September 2013.
“Network Asia: China and its Asian
‘Routes’”, 7th Asian Political and
International Studies Association (APISA)
Annual Convention, Ankara, Turkey, 25
October 2013.
“Too Little, Too Much, Too Polluted:
Acute and Chronic Water Disasters in the
Himalayan and Tibetan Region”, Disaster
Governance: The Urban Transition in Asia,
ARI, NUS, 8 November 2013.
Wu Keping
“Rebuilding Religions in China: Social
Service Provision of Buddhist and
Protestant Groups”, Inter-Asia Roundtable
on Religion and Development in China,
ARI, NUS, 17-18 October 2013.
Yeoh S.A., Brenda
“Multiple Mobilities and Categorical
Instabilities: Feminized Migrations in the
Global City-State of Singapore”, Institute
of Australian Geographers Conference
2013 (IAG), The University of Western
Australia, Perth, 1-4 July 2013.
“Mobile Subjectivities and Categorical
(In)stabilities: Migrant ‘Workers’ and
Foreign ‘Wives’ in the Global City-state
of Singapore”, Asian Migration and the
Global Asian Diasporas Conference, City
University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 6-7
September 2013.
Yeung Wei-Jun, Jean
“Asian Contexts of Fatherhood
Research”, International Conference on
Caring and Working Fathers, Stockholm
University, Sweden, 29 April 2013.
“Transitioning to Adulthood and
Intergenerational Relations in Asia”,
Institute of Social Research, Fudan
University, Shanghai, China, 9 December
2013.
10.0
SUPPORT FOR
UNDERGRADUATE AND
GRADUATE STUDIES
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
93
SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
GRADUATE AND
OTHER TEACHING AT NUS
In 2013 ARI researchers, mostly those on
joint appointment with their respective
faculties in NUS, contributed to the
University in the following teaching and
supervisory roles:
Bork-Hüffer, Tabea: Department of
Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, taught GE5216 Geography and
Social Theory.
Bunnell, Tim: Department of Geography,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
taught GE2204 Cities in Transition; and
GE4213 Cultural Analysis.
Supervised 3 PhD students, Department
of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences.
Member of thesis committee for 5 PhD
students, Department of Geography,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Chua Beng Huat: Department of
Sociology, taught SC4101 Reflections on
a Sociological Education.
Supervised 2 honours and 2 PhD
students, Department of Sociology,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Supervised 4 PhD students, Cultural
Studies in Asia Programme (Sociology),
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Member of thesis committee for 1 PhD
student, Department of Sociology,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences; and
3 PhD students, Cultural Studies in Asia
Programme (Sociology), Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences.
94
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Douglass, Mike: Department of
Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, taught SC4225 Sociology of
Cities and Development Planning in Asia;
SC6770 Graduate Research Seminar
(PhD); and SC5770 Graduate Research
Seminar (Master).
Supervised 1 honours student and
member of thesis committee of 1PhD
student, Department of Sociology,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Duara, Prasenjit: Supervised 1 MA
student, Department of History, Faculty
of Arts and Social Sciences.
Member of thesis committee for 1 PhD
student, Department of History, Faculty
of Arts and Social Sciences.
Feener, Michael: Department of History,
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences,
taught HY3246 History of Muslim
Southeast Asia; and HY6770 Graduate
Research Seminar.
Co-supervised 1 PhD student,
Department of Architecture, School of
Design and Environment.
Lysaght, Tamara: Member of thesis
committee for 1 PhD student, Centre for
Biomedical Ethics, Yong Loo Lin School
of Medicine.
Marolt, Peter: Supervised 1 PhD student
for GE6660 Independent Study Module,
Department of Geography, Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences.
Wasson, Robert J.: Tembusu College,
taught GEM2902 Climate Change.
Co-supervised 2 PhD students,
Department of Geography, Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences.
Wu Keping: Supervised 1 BA student
under the Undergraduate Research
Opportunity Programme (UROP),
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts
and Social Sciences.
Yeoh S.A., Brenda: Department of
Geography, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, taught GE3237 Geographies of
Migration.
Supervised 3 MA and 4 PhD students,
Department of Geography, Faculty of
Arts and Social Sciences.
Yeung Wei-Jun, Jean: Department of
Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences, taught SC6312 Families
in Transition; and SC3222 Social
Transformations in Modern China.
Supervised 4 PhD students, Department
of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social
Sciences.
SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
ASIAN GRADUATE
FORUM
8th Asian Graduate Forum on
Southeast Asian Studies
22-26 Jul 2013, NUS Bukit Timah Campus
Convenors:
Dr Michelle Miller (Chair)
Dr Nausheen Anwar
Dr Jonathan Benney
Dr Kumiko Kawashima
Assoc Prof Johan Lindquist
Dr Kay Mohlman
Dr Maria Platt
Assoc Prof Titima Suthiwan
Dr Zhang Juan
ARI’s annual Summer Institute and
Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian
Studies has now become an institution.
Increasing numbers of postgraduate
students from around the world, and
particularly from other parts of Asia,
are applying to attend this week-long
programme of activities. The first two
days focus on developing graduate
student understandings of academia
and relevant skills, through roundtable
discussions with faculty, focused
practical seminars and breakout groups.
This is followed by a three-day long
presentation of papers on various aspects
of Southeast Asian studies. This gives
graduate students an opportunity to
present their work, often for the first
time in an international forum and also
to communicate and interact, as they
mature into the next generation of
academic leaders.
The Graduate Forum is linked with the
Asian Graduate Student Fellowship
Programme (see the next section),
which brings more than 30 graduate
students working on Southeast Asia to
Singapore each year for a two and a half
month period of research, mentoring
and participation in an academic writing
workshop. Those presenting papers at
the Graduate Forum include ARI’s Asian
Graduate Students, as well as graduate
students from Singapore, elsewhere in
Asia and other parts of the world. The
unifying factor is that the research is on
Southeast Asia.
A total of 70 papers were presented at
this year’s forum in three parallel sessions
over the three days. The diversity of
themes can be seen from viewing the
headings of the 20 different panels.
Examples include: Urban Space, Borders,
Health and Care, Contested Histories,
Migration, Constructing Religious
Identity, Recreating Heritage and Film
and Theatre. As usual, there were times
when some of the audience wished
they could be in two places at once,
but parallel sessions are the only way to
accommodate so many papers within the
time constraints.
Three keynote speakers lent depth and
interest to the programme. Prof Pheng
Cheah from the University of California
at Berkeley spoke on “The Biopolitics of
Recognition: Making Female Subjects of
Globalization”; Assoc Prof Teo You Yenn
of the School of Humanities and Social
Sciences at Nanyang Technological
University spoke on “Differentiated
Deservedness: Governance Through
Familialist Social Policies in Singapore”,
and Prof Eric C. Thompson from the
Department of Sociology at NUS
addressed key issues in “Academic
Fields and Scholarly Networks in Global
Academia.”
The Graduate Forum concluded with a
field trip to Gardens by the Bay, followed
by dinner.
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
ASIAN GRADUATE
STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS
The Asian Graduate Student Fellowships are offered to
graduate students from Asian countries working in the
Humanities and Social Sciences on Asian topics, and allows the
recipients to be based at NUS for a period of two and a half
months. The aim of the fellowship is to enable scholars to make
full use of the wide range of resources held in the libraries of
NUS and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, with access
to mentors. They have access to writing classes, as well as
other “academic bootcamp” activities, such as how to make
academic presentations and write proposals. The graduate
students take up their appointments from May to July each
year.
As part of their programme at ARI, Asian Graduate Students
are also given an opportunity to present a synopsis of their
research at ARI’s annual Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian
Studies and to describe how their stay at NUS has contributed
to their intellectual development. This enables the students to
receive feedback and additional resources from the academic
community here during their time at ARI.
4-YEAR STATISTICS FOR THE ASIAN GRADUATE STUDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAMME
2013201220112010
Country
Applications ShortlistedApplicationsShortlisted ApplicationsShortlisted ApplicationsShortlisted
Received Received Received Received
Bangladesh 2 12
Cambodia 611 122
China6 15255
East Timor
India
312 6 14 1
Indonesia 33115911359407
Iran1
Japan
111
Khmer
1
Korea
211
Laos
1 12 2
Malaysia
31456443
Myanmar 2
2
12
2
Nepal
Pakistan
Philippines 989 384185
Sri Lanka
Taiwan2
2
Thailand
9 510 6119115
Uzbek
Vietnam
10411 4103 6 3
Total
80351153388359433
96
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
ASIAN GRADUATE STUDENTS 2013
Name
Institution
1
Adrian Perkasa
2
MA Candidate, Faculty of Cultural Science,
History of heritage conservation in Majapahit
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
capital city site in Trowulan
MA Candidate, Archaeological Studies
Maritime trade, ceramics, historical
Program, University of the Philippines- Diliman
archaeology, and Islamic culture
3
MA Candidate, Literary Cultural Studies,
Nesology; study of archipelagic formations;
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Southeast Asia, and Philippines
4
MA Candidate, Center for Religious and
Local culture, identity and the everyday
Cross-cultural Studies, (CRCS) Gadjah
practices of religion
Mada University, Indonesia
5
Andrea Natasha Kintanar
Research Topic
Anne Christine A. Ensomo
Anwar Masduki
Arwut Teeraeak
6
Boonpisit Srihong
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Arts, Provision of English language education in
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Thailand in the first half of the 19th century
MA Candidate, Faculty of Arts, History of newspapers and printed matters
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
Industry in Singapore and South East Asian
“sea-port” seaport’s countries; influence of
mass media to inland country
7
Doni Jaya
MA Candidate, Faculty of Humanities, Annotated translation on novel The Other
University of Indonesia
Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory into
Indonesian
8
MA Candidate, Department of Anthropology,
Cultural conflict between Malayan and Dayak
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
Kanching’k in West Kalimantan
9
MA Candidate, Archaeological Studies
Social differentiation in a 6th – 8th century jar
Edlin Dahniar Al-Fath
Ena Angelica C. Luga
Program, University of the Philippines-Diliman
burial site in Catanauan, Quezon, Philippines;
presence and distribution of beads as grave
goods
10 Hoang Thi My Nhi
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Literature, Social and cultural development in three
Vietnam National University
Indochina countries, particularly in the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam (CLV) Development
Triangle
11 Honey B. Tabiola
MA Candidate, Department of English,
Pedagogical appropriation and resistance of
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
teachers and students in ELT development
aid projects
12 I Made Arsana Dwiputra
Role of state in constructing religion (rituals)
MA Candidate, Center for Religious and
Cross-cultural Studies, Graduate School of
in Bali; intersection between religion, politics
Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia
and violence
13 Jessie G. Varquez, Jr.
MA Candidate, College of Social Sciences
Relationship between humans and a specific
and Philosophy, University of the Philippines-
plant resource locally known as lumbiya
Diliman
(Metroxylon sagu)
14 Karen Anne Sun Liao
MA Candidate, Department of Sociology,
International migration (in Asia), Chinese
Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines
Filipino studies, media studies, cultural heritage, transnational lifestyles of Filipino highly skilled migrants in Singapore
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
Name
Institution
Research Topic
15 Kathleen Mariska Azali
MA Candidate, Literary and Cultural Studies,
Cultural studies, media, design, literacy,
University of Airlangga, Indonesia digital humanities, space and place, civic
engagement, and open access
16 Katubi
PhD Candidate, Faculty of Humanities
Endangered languages in Alor, East Nusa
(Linguistics and Oral Tradition), University of
Tenggara, Indonesia; Kui people; Lego-lego
Indonesia
as an oral tradition; expression of ancestral
experience and their maintenance in ecology
Islam in Southeast Asia and philology
17 Khairul Ashdiq bin Basri
MA Candidate, History and Civilization
Department, International Islamic University
of Malaysia
18 Kong Sopheak
MA Candidate, Development Studies,
Royal University of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Agricultural economics; climate change
adaptation on rice production, environmental
impacts assessment, farmer water user
community, payment for environmental
services
19 Nathathai Chansen
MA Candidate, Faculty of Architecture,
Vernacular architecture, historic preservations,
Silapakorn University, Thailand
and cultural identity in built forms
20 Nay Lin Aung
MA Candidate, Sustainable Development,
Role of civil society in democratisation
Faculty of Social Sciences,
process in Myanmar; Dawei Special Economic
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Zones (SEZ)
21 Nguyen Hanh Nguyen
MA Candidate, Hanoi School of Public Health,
Women’s health; reproductive health, quality
Vietnam
and accessibility of reproductive health care,
and violence against women
22 Nguyen Tien Dung
Vietnam’s foreign trade and Early Modern
PhD Candidate, Faculty of History, University of Social Sciences and Humanities,
Southeast Asian History, late 19th century to
Vietnam National University
early 20th century Southeast Asian countries’
history of ideas
23 Olivia Kristine D. Nieto
MA Candidate, Theater Arts Program, Community and the public sphere as related
University of the Philippines-Diliman
to theatre
24 Oscar Tantoco Serquiña, Jr. MA Candidate, Comparative Literature
Program, University of the Philippines-Diliman Globalisation studies, affect theory, rhetoric,
Filipino diaspora, and Philippine drama,
theatre and performance
25 Park Jae Min
PhD Candidate, Interdisciplinary Program,
Cultural landscape in the industrial sites of
Landscape Architecture, Seoul National
modern Asia; Place Memory which is a new
University, South Korea
concept and methodology to interpret
cultural landscape
26 Ranwarat Poonsri
PhD Candidate, Department of Comparative
Women’s identity and Singaporean women’s
Literature, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
literature
27 Salman Alfarisi
PhD Candidate, Cultural Studies,
Ale-ale: Tuan Guru versus Tokoh Adat within
Udayana University, Indonesia
Sasak Community
28 Sanghita Datta
PhD Candidate, Centre for the Study of Social
Trans-border issues, forced migration refugee
Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
studies and sexuality
98
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
Name
29 Saw Keh Doe
Institution
Research Topic
MA Candidate, Regional Center for Social
Health issues along Thai-Burma borderland;
Science and Sustainable Development,
familial relatedness and pregnancy caring
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
practices of displaced Karen women in a
refugee camp
30 Syafwan Rozi
PhD Candidate, Religious Studies Program, Religious and ethnic identity in addressing
State Islamic University (UIN) Bandung,
global issues; politics, democracy,
Indonesia globalisation, ideology, ecology, gender
and environment
31 Taweeluck Pollachom
PhD Candidate, Asian Studies Program, Three southern border provinces of Thailand
School of Liberal Arts, Walailak University,
of the on-going conflict
Thailand
32 Thep Boontanondha
MA Candidate, Department of History,
King Vajiravudh and his military power; role
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand
and support
33 Tran Thi Minh
PhD Candidate, Department of Biology,
Features of morphology, race and diseases of
Hanoi University of Science, Vietnam
human teeth in the Neolithic period in North
and Northern part of Central Vietnam
34 Wahyu Kuncoro Socio-spatial issues in the borderland and
MA Candidate, The Regional Center for Social
Sciences and Sustainable Development (RCSD), transnational migration studies in mainland
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
Southeast Asia; Burmese Muslim migrant
community in Thai-Myanmar borderland
Tourism issues in Greater Mekong Sub-region;
35 Yoshiyuki Iwaki
MA Candidate, The Regional Center for Social
Sciences and Sustainable Development (RCSD), relations between virtual images and
Chiang Mai University, Thailand
authentic experiences made by Japanese
backpackers visiting Luang Prabang, Lao PDR
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
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SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
RESEARCH
SCHOLARSHIPS
A number of NUS PhD scholarships have been allotted to ARI, although administration, coursework
and assessment of graduate students remain with the relevant departments. In 2013, two students
graduated, bringing the total number of graduates on ARI’s PhD scholarships programme to 11 since
the start of the programme. 14 students remain on ARI’s scholarships and are supervised through the
different departments.
GRADUATED
Tan Lee Ooi
PhD (Philosophy)
Joseph Nathan Cruz
M.Soc.Sci (Sociology)
Kim Ji Youn
Department of Sociology
Shelley Mae Jalandoon Sibya
Department of Sociology
Claire Lee Seung Eun
Department of Sociology
Robert David Williamson
Office of Programmes
Danicar Mariano
Department of Geography
Fan Xue
Department of Chinese Studies
Stefani Haning Swarati Nugroho
Department of Sociology
June Yap
Office of Programmes
Yenny Rahmayati
School of Design and Environment
Tabassum Zaman
Office of Programmes
ON-GOING STUDIES
Bubbles Beverly Asor
Department of Sociology
Angeline Eloisa Javate Dios
Department of Geography
Hannah Keren Griffiths
School of Design and Environment
100
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
Fiona-Katherina Seiger
Department of Sociology
SUPPORT FOR UNDERGRADUATE AND GRADUATE STUDIES 10.0
ARI INTERNSHIP
PROGRAMME
ARI has been receiving undergraduates and postgraduates from local and overseas tertiary institutions
under the ARI Internship Programme since 2006. The objectives of the programme are to create
opportunities for students to be exposed to an academic research environment, to observe the
workings of a research institute, and to participate more fully in one particular designated area at the
Institute. The intern gains work experience in a research environment, and is introduced to professional
research practice and administration. Interns may join the research work of a cluster, and/or assist the
administrative team in providing support functions.
Over the years, ARI has provided
internship opportunities to students from
the Chinese University of Hong Kong,
City University of Hong Kong, University
of British Columbia, University of
California-Berkeley, Tsinghua University,
Nanyang Technological University, NUS
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and
others. In total, ARI provided internship
opportunities to the following 7 interns
and 5 volunteer interns in 2013.
Candy Ip Oi Man
Chinese University of Hong Kong
From 17 Jun to 7 Aug 2013
Joshua Sunga
University of British Columbia
From 7 Jan to 30 Apr 2013
Urooba Jamal
University of British Columbia
From 31 Jul to 30 Nov 2013
Colman Fung Chun Ming
City University of Hong Kong
From 10 Jun to 16 Aug 2013
Samantha Lim Shu Fang
MA Candidate, University
College London
Volunteer from 2 Jan to 30 Jun 2013
Hong Yee Wa
Chinese University of Hong Kong
From 17 Jun to 7 Aug 2013
Jimmy Ma Tsz Chun
Chinese University of Hong Kong
From 17 Jun to 7 Aug 2013
Simon Yin Ximing
Tsinghua University
From 9 Jul to 9 Nov 2013
Anmol Aggarwal
BTech Student, Guru Gobind Singh
Indraprasatha University, New Delhi
Volunteer from 18 Jun to 18 Jul 2013
Julian Chua Ying Hao
BA (Sociology) (Singapore Institute
of Management)
Volunteer from 5 Aug to 30 Nov 2013
Justin Lane
PhD Candidate, University of Oxford
Volunteer since 7 Oct 2013
Koh Choon Hwee
MA Candidate, American University,
Beirut
Volunteer from 20 May to 28 Jun 2013
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
101
11.0
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
102
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
EXTERNAL RELATIONS 11.0
MOU/EXTERNAL
FUNDING RECEIVED
Organisation/Foundation
Date of Agreement/
Award
Project Title/Description
Amount/Sponsorship
1.
Asian Civilisations Museum,
January 2013
A Storytelling Performance
Sponsorship of
Singapore
Based on Valmiki’s Ramayana
accommodation costs for
speaker and event venue
2.
DFID, UK
£85,000
(through University of Sussex)
in Indonesia
3.
Faculty of Arts and Social
Workshop on Replaying the Past:
Sciences, NUS
January 2013
January 2013
Global Quantitative Survey
$3,112
Performances of Hindu Textual
Heritage in India and Bali
4.
Humanities and Social
Workshop on Invisible Connection:
Sciences Fund, Office of
Syncretism and Esotericism
Deputy President (Research
between Asia and the West in
and Technology), NUS
the Modern Era
5.
Centre for Southeast
Workshop on Reassessing Ritual
Sponsorship of airfare and
Asian Studies (CSEAS) at
in Southeast Asian Studies
accommodation costs for
Kyoto University, Japan
January 2013
February 2013
$6,375.52
speakers, venue, and
meals and refreshments during the event
6.
Faculty of Arts and Social
$5,840
Sciences, NUS
February 2013
Workshop on Orders and Itineraries:
Buddhist, Islamic, and Christian
Networks in Southern Asia, c.900-1900
7.
The Henry Luce
Conference on Religion and the
Foundation, Inc
February 2013
Potentates and “Progress”
8.
John Templeton Foundation Religion’s Impact on Human Life:
(through University of Oxford)
February 2013
US$37,500
Politics of Development: Priests,
£50,000
Integrating Proximate and Ultimate
Perspectives
9.
Situating Science, Canada,
Workshop on The Bright Dark Ages:
Sponsorship of airfare and University of Iceland
Comparative and Connective
costs for speakers
February 2013
Perspectives
10. Faculty of Arts and Social
Workshop on Transnationalism,
March 2013
Sciences, NUS
$3,311.51
Gender Hierarchies and Masculinity
in Asia
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
103
EXTERNAL RELATIONS 11.0
Organisation/Foundation
Date of Agreement/
Award
Project Title/Description
Amount/Sponsorship
11. Humanities and Social
April 2013
Casino Mobilities: Labour Migration,
$199,867.50
Sciences Fund, Office of
Global Consumption and Regulation
Deputy President (Research
in Singapore
and Technology), NUS
12. National Library Board
April-November 2013
Asia Trends 2013
(NLB), Singapore; and
NLB Public Libraries,
Sponsorship of lecture
venues
Singapore
13. DFID, UK
June 2013
Dissemination Activity
(through University
(Regional Project 1 of Migrating Out
of Sussex)
of Poverty Research Programme)
14. The Leverhulme Trust, UK, June/July 2013
$10,000
Producing Chinese Cinemas in
Sponsorship of airfare
the 21st Century
and accommodation costs
University of Exeter, UK,
and School of Social
for speakers, event venue,
Sciences at Singapore
and meals and Management University
refreshments during the
event
15. DFID, UK
£43,156
July 2013
Migration and Precarious Work:
(through University
Negotiating Debt, Employment,
of Sussex)
and Livelihood Strategies amongst
Bangladeshi Migrant Men Working
in Singapore’s Construction Industry
(Regional Project 6 of Migrating Out
of Poverty Research Programme)
16. Faculty of Arts and Social
Geographies of Aspiration:
Sponsorship of airfare and
July 2013
Sciences, NUS, and cities@
Urban Places, Constitutive
accommodation costs for
manchester, The University
Connections & Methodological
speakers, event venue, and
of Manchester, UK
Innovations
meals and refreshments
during the event
17. Faculty of Arts and
$5,115.69
18. Inter-Asia Cultural
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
July 2013
(IACS) Conference 2013
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
Studies Society
19. Routledge, Taylor &
July 2013
Social Sciences, NUS
July 2013
Francis Group
20. Singapore Tourism Board
July 2013
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society
(IACS) Conference 2013
21. The Forum for Asian
Workshop on Migration Infrastructure
Studies, Stockholm
University, Sweden
22. Max Planck Institute for
August 2013
Conference on Friendship and
the Study of Religious
and Ethnic Diversity
September 2013
Social Sciences, NUS
104
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
$12,710.63
$20,000
in Asia and the Middle East
23. Faculty of Arts and
$5,000
(IACS) Conference 2013
August 2013
$33,875.69
(IACS) Conference 2013
€5,000
Convivial City
Conference on Friendship and
Convivial City
$5,750
EXTERNAL RELATIONS 11.0
Organisation/Foundation
Date of Agreement/
Award
Project Title/Description
Amount/Sponsorship
24. Consortium for Southeast
October 2013
SEASIA: Charter
Collaboration with several
Asian Studies in Asia
institutes to establish a
international consortium
for Southeast Asian
Studies in Asia
25. DFID, UK £48,500
October 2013
Global Qualitative Research
(through University
of Sussex)
26. Mind & Life Institute,
November 2013
in Indonesia
Understanding The Mind:
Sponsorship of airfare and
Exploring New Partnerships
accommodation costs for
USA, and Development
Office, NUS
27. Mr Muhammad Alagil
Muhammad Alagil Distinguished
$3,000,000
Professorship in Arabia Asia Studies
(Endowed Gift)
28. Faculty of Arts and
Living Alone: Single-person
$4,010.15
November 2013
speakers, and meals
December 2013
Social Sciences, NUS
Households in Asia
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
105
EXTERNAL RELATIONS 11.0
INTERNATIONAL
VISITS
BY DIRECTOR, PROF PRASENJIT DUARA
21 – 24 March 2013
Association for Asian Studies Annual
Conference, USA
20 April – 20 May 2013
Contemporary China Research Centre,
University of Wellington, New Zealand
23 – 25 June 2013
International Convention of Asia Scholars
(ICAS), Macau
22 August – 1 September 2013
Australian National University
21 – 29 November 2013
Nalanda University, India
30 September – 8 October 2013
International Conference on Inter-Asia
Connections IV, Turkey
12 – 13 December 2013
University of Zurich, Switzerland
24 – 28 October 2013
Middle East Technical University, Turkey
16 – 18 December 2013
The Graduate Institute, Geneva,
Switzerland
VISITORS
2 April 2013
Prof Philippe Burrin, Director,
The Graduate Institute, Geneva
3 April 2013
Mr Evans Chan, Film Director,
Hong Kong
15 April 2013
Prof Roger Ames, University of Hawai‘i
at Mānoa, USA
2 July 2013
Prof Christopher P. Manfredi, Dean,
Faculty of Arts, McGill University, Canada
7 July 2013
Prof Joergen Oerstroem Moeller,
Visiting Senior Research Fellow,
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,
Singapore
106
ANNUAL REPORT 2013
16 July 2013
Assoc Prof Simon Shen, Director of
Global Studies Programme and Master
of Global Political Economy Programme,
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
19 August 2013
Dr Philippe M.F. Peycam, Director,
International Institute for Asian Studies,
Netherlands
3 September 2013
Mr Adityam Krovvidi, Head of Impact
Forecasting Asia Pacific, Aon Benfield
Asia Pte Ltd
Mr Brad Weir, Head of Castastrophe
Management, Aon Benfield Asia Pte Ltd
Mr Kieran Dunne, Research Analyst,
Aon Benfield Asia Pte Ltd
Dr Adam D. Switzer, Principal
Investigator, Tectonics Group, Earth
Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang
Technological University, Singapore
4 December 2013
Mr Khoo Teng Chye, Executive
Director, Centre for Liveable Cities,
Singapore
Dr Hee Limin, Acting Director
(Research), Centre for Liveable Cities,
Singapore
EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION TEAM
Huang Jianli
Saharah Abubakar
Sharlene Anthony
Sharon Ong
Verene Koh
WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF
Kristy Won
Valerie Yeo
Jonathan Lee
Li Hongyan
Tharuka Prematillake
Theodora Lam
Henry Kwan
Kalaichelvi Sitharthan
Vernice Tan
Asia Research Institute
NUS Bukit Timah Campus 469A Bukit Timah Road
Tower Block #10-01 Singapore 259770
Tel: +65 6516 3810 Fax: +65 6779 1428
www.ari.nus.edu.sg