News

Ancient India: Living Traditions

May 5, 2025

As Mark Twain said, “India is the cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and great-grandmother of tradition.” Ancient India, with its vast cultural, spiritual, and artistic heritage, has played a crucial role in shaping the course of human civilization. It was here that some of […]

Ageing in networks: The unbounded geographies of non-migrant and migrant older adults

May 2, 2025

As Singapore’s population grows older, national efforts like the Age Well SG programme aim to expand active ageing centres and bring social activities closer to seniors’ homes. Amid these developments, older immigrants often remain overlooked despite their past contributions and continued roles in caregiving and community life.   In ‘Ageing in networks: The unbounded geographies of […]

#Minimosque: Cov-Eid as Image, Event, and Archive

April 28, 2025

The COVID-19 pandemic led to the closure of mosques in Singapore, preventing Muslims from gathering for communal prayers and rituals. Projects such as “Living with COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: Personal and Visual Experiences of Crisis, Control, and Community”, the NUS Asia Research Institute’s crowdsourced visual archive on pandemic life in Southeast Asia attempted to organise the […]

SRN is Hiring! Call for Undergraduate/Graduate Student Assistants

April 24, 2025

Call For Applications: Student Assistant at the Singapore Research Nexus (SRN)   The Singapore Research Nexus (SRN) is a unique academic resource covering the wide range of research on Singapore produced by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS). It can be found at https://fass.nus.edu.sg/srn/. SRN is part of the FASS Research Division and has […]

Disruptive behaviors, antisocial attitudes, and aggression in young offenders: Comparison of Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) typologies

April 23, 2025

April is National Child Abuse Awareness Month, dedicated to globally raising awareness about children’s needs, safeguarding them from harm, and ensuring their rights are protected. Childhood and adolescence are crucial developmental stages that can be profoundly affected by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) such as abuse, neglect, and familial dysfunction. The World Health Organization (WHO) defines […]

Retelling Railway Histories Centring Labour

April 17, 2025

Temple Tracks: Labour, Piety and Railway Construction in Asia (Berghahn Books, 2023) by Professor Vineeta Sinha (NUS Sociology and Anthropology) is a historical and ethnographic study that focuses on the interlinked narratives of railway construction, Indian labour migration, and religious development in the regions once known as Malaya. The first chapter, ‘Retelling Railway Histories Centring […]

Disruptive Technologies and Digital Citizenry: The Case for “Functioning” as and “Becoming” a Digital Citizen in Singapore

April 14, 2025

In an era characterised by constant change, the internet has ushered in a new age of digital disruptive technologies, compelling companies and individuals to innovate new models and networks. Specifically, information communication technologies (ICTs), in the form of social networking platforms and portable digital devices, have influenced how individuals consume information and communicate. This entails […]

Gods Have Eyes: Praying Online in Singapore

April 7, 2025

The Daoist Lorong Koo Chye Sheng Hong Temple (新加坡韮菜 芭城隍庙) started their ‘Praying Online’ initiative on 7 April 2020, to adapt to the newly-implemented safe-distancing measures that were introduced to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in Singapore. The pandemic marked a paradigm shift for religious groups and places of worship in Singapore, having to quickly […]

Singapore: Families Living in and Through the Pandemic

March 28, 2025

Amidst the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual health, deeply ingrained structural inequalities also surfaced, causing different segments of society to experience the social effects of the virus unevenly. In their study ‘Singapore: Families Living in and Through the Pandemic’ (Family Life in the Time of COVID: International Perspectives, 2023), Professor Vineeta Sinha, […]

Curating Shadows: Malayan Shadow Puppets in Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum

March 21, 2025

World Puppetry Day is celebrated worldwide on 21 March. Across Asia, shadow puppetry is an art form traditionally associated with the high culture of Hindu India and has proliferated as a form of entertainment in various contexts. Singapore’s Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) exhibits over 700 shadow puppets (wayang purwo), with most scholarship focusing on the […]