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• High-flying students: meritocracy, mobility, and the myth of the rootless global citizen2026-09-24
  LUKE LU (Nanyang Technological University) analyses conversations among top-performing students from Raffles Institution, using linguistic ethnography to understand their aspirations, attitudes towards state scholarships, and their sense of identity in relation to Singapore and their peers. Lu’s book on this subject has just been released.
• Cracks in a national institution: the press under Lee Hsien Loong2026-09-15
  In Part 2 of his analysis of media regulation under prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, CHERIAN GEORGE (Hong Kong Baptist University) examines the government’s management of the press. He observes that, as social media grew in importance, the government became less invested in a credible national newspaper than his predecessors were. The full article was… Read more: Cracks in a national institution: the press under Lee Hsien Loong
• Dealing with digital dissent in the Lee Hsien Loong era2026-09-10
  CHERIAN GEORGE assesses the Singapore’s internet regulation under its second prime minister, during whose tenure the government lost patience with online dissent.
• Fake recruiters and elite capture: “Singapore Washing” gets even riskier amid heightened geopolitical tensions2026-08-20
  Concern is mounting about China’s intelligence agency luring other countries’ citizens, including Singaporeans, with fake consultancy opportunities. Some of these shell organisations are claiming Singapore connections, exploiting the republic’s reputation for trustworthiness. These trends call for new approaches to protecting Singapore’s national security, says CHONG JA IAN (National University of Singapore).
• Uneasy family lives and the degradation of care2026-08-12
  The prime minister has promised to address the strains on family life in his National Day Rally speech. NESSA SWINN YAP and JACQUELINE HO argue that this requires embracing care as core to life and not allowing the market to turn the fulfilment of this human need into a rat race.
• Beyond consultation: Strengthening public participation in Singapore’s planning system2026-08-09
  The experience with Gillman Barracks and Maju Forest reveals the Singapore public’s appetite for engaging closely with planning processes. There are clear lessons for how we can improve transparency and public participation, argues Melissa Low (National University of Singapore).
• How Dear You ignited a debate over Chinese identity2026-08-05
  The blockbuster Dear You has sparked a wider debate over Chinese identity, exposing competing ideas of culture, language and belonging across China and Southeast Asia. In this article originally published in ThinkChina political scientist Chong Ja Ian (National University of Singapore) examines why.
• On our frictionless road to the future, be present, take stock, remember2026-08-05
  Seamless progress can edit our lives away, cautions documentary filmmaker TAN PIN PIN, in a Commencement address for NUS College.
• Social policies that promise care can perpetuate harm2026-07-30
  Economist NG KOK HOE explains how policies on public rental housing and migrant workers are based on a logic of discrimination that denies people’s common humanity. This article is based on his remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum.
• Learning to read our city: the wall is the only document2026-07-29
  Architectural historian YEO KANG SHUA critiques the unease written into Singapore’s fabric, and argues that conservation is a discipline of attention we can all practise. This essay is adapted from his remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum.
• A healthy literary culture helps society recognise different ways of being2026-07-29
  In a world inundated with data, literature helps us seek truth, argues poet POOJA NANSI. It is where we learn to be patient with difference and contradiction, and thus discover how to understand and live with one another. This article is based on her remarks at the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026.
• A good society means being open to debates that challenge norms about who ‘we’ are2026-07-28
  In his contribution to the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026, media scholar CHERIAN GEORGE explored the idea of moral progress as a core objective of a good society. This essay elaborates on his argument.
• A theory of change that banks on ‘ordinary people’2026-07-28
  At the “States of Unease” Public Forum 2026, sociologist TEO YOU YENN explained why Singaporeans should not think of the Government as the only relevant conversation partner if they want to change things. This article is based on her remarks at the event.
• Public forum: How can we make space for multiple conceptions of the good life?2026-06-24
  This event co-organised with Ethos Books was held on the evening of Friday 24 July 2026 at the Stephen Riady Auditorium in downtown Singapore. Tickets were sold out within a few days, with hundreds on the waiting list. AcademiaSG and Ethos Books thank all who came and those who wanted to but could not. FULL… Read more: Public forum: How can we make space for multiple conceptions of the good life?
• The Albatross File Exhibition is bad history that diminishes Lee Kuan Yew2026-06-08
  Historian THUM PING TJIN argues that The Albatross File Exhibition and its accompanying book turn Lee Kuan Yew from a historically consequential actor into a passive victim of circumstance, thus diminishing him. By trying to protect him from moral scrutiny, Singaporeans are given a comforting story instead of an educational one where power, fear, race, ambition, and moral compromise destroyed Malaysia.