{"id":123,"date":"2020-07-27T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/mls\/?page_id=123"},"modified":"2023-09-05T18:43:45","modified_gmt":"2023-09-05T10:43:45","slug":"research-projects","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fass.nus.edu.sg\/mls\/research-projects\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\tResearch Projects\n\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\tBeing and Becoming Female in the Malay World: Interrogating and Curating the Photo-Archives of Early Singapore (NHB Grant)<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t

<\/p>\nPI: A\/P Maznah Mohamad;\"\"<\/a>
\nCo-Investigators: Dr Suriani Suratman, Dr Imran Tajudeen and Dr Bahar Gursel<\/strong>\n

This research seeks to appraise the value and role of pre-digital photographs as heritage, by studying how the intersectionality of gender, race and place has been visually depicted in Singapore\u2019s history. The study will also explore the ways in which the representation of female Malay subjecthood is sometimes framed by architectural and spatial settings, which are often connected with perceived roles and positions of Malays in general and Malay women in particular. The masculinized colonial gaze serves as the ideological foundation of not only discursive portrayals but also of visualizations of the \u201cMalay woman\u201d, composed and captured through the camera. The subtext of the power of colonial photography was of male prowess fixated by the feminine subject. Here is where the photographer\u2019s authority as the only legitimate interpreter of events and experience should not be left unquestioned, but in need of a deeper reading and interrogation to counter the monological perspective of national histories. Hence, a re-reading of photographs through this research will provide the necessary contexts for excavating the inaudible in history. One of the deliverables of the project is the curation of a virtual exhibition, drawing audience into a conversation around the exhibited photographs and their implications, especially on how the female body has been portrayed, objectified and subsequently, reclaimed for a new interpretation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\t\t\tMalay World Manuscripts: Medium and Method in Decentering Dominant Narratives (MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant)<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\tPI: A\/P Sher Banu A. L. Khan\"\"<\/a>
\n<\/strong>Co-PI: A\/P Maznah Mohamad\u00a0<\/strong>\n

The source and object of study – the Malay manuscripts \u2013 have been quite considerably studied before this, within the fields of literature, history, linguistics, philology and cultural studies.\u00a0This project brings a different approach and perspective.\u00a0\u00a0Instead of considering the manuscript as the repository of authentic \u2018indigeneity\u2019, we interrogate the manuscript as a medium and method for \u2018decolonizing knowledge\u2019. The decoloniality of inquiry can be understood as a project for the decentering of epistemic narratives which have centred the epochal sway of imperialism, colonialism and nationalism (primarily European-driven) as the \u2018singular dominant\u2019 point in the historicization of \u2018Asia’ versus the rest, or of the Malay world, in comparison to other \u2018worlds\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

As\u00a0a\u00a0starting point\u00a0for\u00a0exploring\u00a0narratives\u00a0that\u00a0fall\u00a0outside\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0\u2018singular\u00a0dominant\u2019\u00a0narrative, this research proposes to study texts which predate the modern era of imperialism, colonialism and nationalism. Manuscripts of the Malay world are one such textual material, defined as being handwritten and hand-decorated. They could be works of original compositions, translated from other languages or copied from other sources. The handwritten feature of manuscripts meant that they were produced before the coming of printing technology into the region around the seventeenth century. Malay manuscripts thus form an important corpus of pre-imperial, pre-colonial and pre-national repository of knowledge production and representation. We propose to utilize Malay manuscripts as a valuable archival resource in the search for medium and method in the project of decentering dominant narratives in knowledge production within the social sciences. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Exploring\u00a0Malay\u00a0texts\u00a0will\u00a0uncover\u00a0an\u00a0alternative\u00a0paradigm that\u00a0gives\u00a0the\u00a0longue\u00a0dur\u00e9e\u00a0<\/i>perspective of social processes. This will lead coloniality and its effects to be placed in a more multi-layered, interconnected and circulatory time frame and an \u2018other\u2019 paradigm where new meaningful categories, new imaginaries, new methodologies will be discovered. The method of inter-referencing and multiplying frames of reference without placing Europe and coloniality at the center allows for many other agents to be recognized as the significant and interconnecting points of reference. To decenter and to move away from the \u2018singular dominant\u2019 frame of capturing the social meaning of human existence often recognised to be Eurocentric in nature is a major aim of this project. The Malay world before colonialism was not parochial or \u2018local\u2019 but one that was already connected to the other power centers such as in China, India, Middle East and Eurasia before the rise of Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The \u2018manuscript\u2019 will straddle both medium and method in this research as it is a multiple site of meaning-making. Textualism as a tool for reading and re-reading the manuscripts will be the approach used. Related to this is the method of intertextuality or the process of deconstructive reading, in which the text and its textuality can be read as the intersection of many social processes. This method allows the research to postulation the circulatory assemblages, connections and intersections of relations within the Malay Archipelago and beyond. Philology is another method towards the study of texts, where relationships between language and historical circumstances of the texts are studied. This method allows the research to identify the contexts of the texts in terms of their periodization, authorship, and social and political circumstances around their production. Texts and contexts is another method where manuscripts triangulated or corroborated with other contemporary sources help reveal or reconstruct societies from which manuscripts were produced. Manuscripts will also be considered as a \u2018social thing\u2019 with a biographical story of mobilities and circulation. Old manuscripts are material artifacts, with a history of \u2018travelling\u2019 and of \u2018utility\u2019 and \u2018function\u2019. The method for tracing this will combine both historical and ethnographic study of how manuscripts and their meanings have been used within contemporary political and cultural discourse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0outcome\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0research\u00a0will\u00a0be\u00a0the\u00a0recognition\u00a0of\u00a0new\u00a0global\u00a0relationships\u00a0and\u00a0cross-cultural borrowings\u00a0where\u00a0circulation,\u00a0connectivity,\u00a0interactivity\u00a0and\u00a0interdependency\u00a0of\u00a0knowledge production\u00a0is key. Understanding\u00a0the\u00a0past\u00a0through\u00a0decolonizing\u00a0genealogies\u00a0will\u00a0enable\u00a0a more complete\u00a0understanding\u00a0of\u00a0how\u00a0future trajectories on issues of power, inequality and conflicts might\u00a0be\u00a0projected.\u00a0This\u00a0research\u00a0will\u00a0advance\u00a0the\u00a0study\u00a0of\u00a0manuscripts\u00a0as\u00a0a\u00a0new\u00a0epistemic\u00a0source\u00a0in the redefinition\u00a0of\u00a0social,\u00a0ecological\u00a0and\u00a0cosmological\u00a0life\u00a0within\u00a0the\u00a0fields\u00a0of\u00a0historiography\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0sociology\u00a0of\u00a0knowledge, as\u00a0well\u00a0as\u00a0reinvigorate\u00a0the\u00a0relevance\u00a0of\u00a0Area\u00a0Studies\u00a0in contemporary\u00a0times, where\u00a0state-centrism\u00a0and\u00a0nation-state\u00a0borders\u00a0are\u00a0being\u00a0contested.\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/ari.nus.edu.sg\/events\/mwm\/<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\tCosmopolitan Adaptation: Singaporean Malay-Muslim Migrants in Australia<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\t

PI: A\/P Khairudin Aljunied\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This project examines how first-generation Muslim immigrants adapt in Western environments through the case study of Singaporean Malay-Muslim communities in three carefully selected cities of Australia: Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney. The research interrogates and extends the current literature on adaptation strategies of Muslim immigrants in the West, particularly in the light of the September 11 attacks in New York City which unleashed the rise of Islamophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments and the preponderant view of Muslims as a \u201csuspect\u201d and \u201cproblem community\u201d.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/blog.nus.edu.sg\/fassresearch\/fass-research-gallery\/muslim-cosmopolitanism-southeast-asian-islam-in-comparative-perspective\/\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\tArchitectural Encounters and Disciplinary Categories in Maritime Southeast Asia (MOE AcRF Tier 1 grant)<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExpand<\/i><\/a>\n\t\tPI: Dr Imran bin Tajudeen<\/strong>\n

This research project seeks to investigate and address the following questions:<\/p>\n