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What happens when an old house is no longer just a building, but a vessel of memory, migration, and return? In “老厝犹在” [The Old House Still Stands] (Lianhe Zaobao, 12 July 2026), Associate Professor Thang Leng Leng (NUS Japanese Studies) reflects on a family trip through southern Fujian and eastern Guangdong, using visits to ancestral […]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, spatial restrictions and social distancing significantly impacted older adults in Singapore, particularly those that were previously socially isolated. In ‘Social Infrastructures and Older Adults’ Webs of Care: COVID-19 as Spatial Breach’ (Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 2023), Professor Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, Gao Siyao, and Samantha Lim (all NUS Geography) […]
In ‘Macroeconomy Without FIRE’, which was awarded a Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 2 grant from 2025–2029, Assistant Professor Donghai Zhang (NUS Economics) asks a deceptively simple question: do businesses really understand the economy as well as economists assume they do? For decades, most economic models have been built on the idea of “full-information rational expectations”—the assumption that all firms, whether a multinational […]
Expanding the family circle: Local in-law relationships and their role in supporting foreign spouses
The Transnational Family Care Programme was launched in July 2024 to address the growing needs and challenges faced by transnational families in Singapore. With about one-third of citizen marriages involving a Singaporean marrying a non-citizen, the number of transnational families is growing in Singapore, constituting an integral part of its social fabric. While community programmes […]
The global rise in adults reaching midlife without having children is particularly pronounced in Asia. Despite this trend, little is understood about the varied pathways leading to permanent childlessness within the region’s populations. In ‘Diverse Pathways to Permanent Childlessness in Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis’ (Advances in Life Course Research, 2024), Wang Yanwen, Associate Professor […]
Peninsular Malaysia, with its extensive coastline, is home to numerous artisanal fishing communities that have historically relied on the sea for their livelihoods. Amid the escalating challenges of climate change, small-scale Malaysian fishermen are among the most vulnerable communities. In ‘Analysing Climate Change Through a Human Security Lens: a Case Study of Fishermen in Crisis […]
Despite the widespread adoption of digital services post-COVID where e-transactions, telecommuting, and online activities have become the norm, societal attitudes toward digital equality and strategies to achieve it remain underexplored. In ‘Campaigning for Digital Equality: the Role of Digital Access Attitudes in a Neoliberal Context’ (Asia Pacific Journal of Social Work and Development, 2024), Professor […]
What shapes a speaker’s choice to say, ‘Put where?’ instead of ‘Where do I put it?’ This is the central question behind ‘Morphosyntactic Choice in Singapore English: Grammar, Psycholinguistics, and Variation’, a research project funded from 2026 to 2031 and led by Assistant Professor Nick Huang (NUS Department of English, Linguistics, and Theatre Studies). Supported […]
The Johor-Singapore Causeway celebrated its 100th birthday on 28 June 2024. Since its inauguration day, it has served as a crucial piece of infrastructure, facilitating the constant flow of people, commodities, and goods between Singapore and Malaysia, thereby contributing to their statuses as each other’s second most important trading partners. To commemorate its centenary, Dr. […]
In the second half of the twentieth century, Singapore emerged as a key site for the practice of conservative ideology in Asia. This conservatism was developed through a network of intellectuals, institutions, and cultural projects across Asia and the West. One such figure was Chinese political philosopher Wu Teh Yao (1916-1994) whose peripatetic life spanned […]