Rethinking the divorce penalty


Academic Views

Oliver Sng, Assistant Professor of Psychological Science at UC Irvine, examines the implications of a MSF report widely understood to be showing a “divorce penalty” for the children of divorcees. According to a recent study by the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), children of divorcees face what they called a “divorce penalty”—being less […]

2021-01-25

Making space for community


Editorials

Academics are repeatedly encouraged to contribute to the scholarship and to make a wider social impact. Most of AcademiaSG’s efforts so far have focused on the latter, defending and growing the space for academics to play a more public role (see our year-end report card below). But interlocutors within the academy are important, too. The […]

2020-12-11

Special Topics: Speech that offends


Special Topics

by Cherian George Since 2000, laws against offensive expression have been among the most frequently triggered speech restrictions in Singapore. Most of these cases have been initiated by citizens taking offence at racially or religiously provocative online content. How to deal with such cases continues to be debated. Like in most societies, there’s growing alarm […]

2020-12-09

Sonic City: Making Rock Music and Urban Life in Singapore


Academic Views

Steve Ferzacca, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge, discusses the emergence of community through music-making in Singapore. I arrived in Singapore in 2011 to take up an appointment as a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute for a year. My plan was to complete a manuscript of […]

2020-11-27

Singapore’s poor productivity performance


Academic Views

Private sector economists Manu Bhaskaran and Nigel Chiang argue that in both labour and total factor productivity, Singapore is under-performing relative to trading partners, peers and OECD countries, reflecting deep and systemic issues in the economy, especially in sectors where an over-reliance on labour force growth through migrant labour has affected incentives to invest. This is […]

2020-11-20

Malays in the national imagination: Defining our identity


Academic Views

Professor Yaacob Ibrahim, Professor of Engineering at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), gave this speech on identity on 30 October 2020, as part of the Cendekiawan Lestari Series (CLS) organised by the Malay Heritage Foundation. I would like to share my take on the Malay community’s path in finding a place for itself in […]

2020-11-02

Two faces of ontological (in)security: Xenophobia and cooperation in Singapore


Academic Views, Coronavirus

Terri-Anne Teo and Yasmine Wong (Research Fellow and Senior Analyst respectively at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU) consider how recent manifestations of pandemic-era xenophobia and social collaboration in Singapore can be understood in terms of ontological security. Singapore has settled into some semblance of a new normal amid the fight against COVID-19. […]

2020-10-26

Addressing sexual violence on university campuses: Structure, culture and agency


Academic Views

Mohan J Dutta (Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Massey University) discusses strategies for improving universities’ responses to sexual violence on their campuses. Between 2018 and 2020, at least five publicly circulated cases of sexual violence on university campuses in Singapore have […]

2020-10-20

Governed by tech: Citizens and the making of the Smart Nation


Academic Views

In light of Singapore’s burgeoning data collection systems, Monamie Bhadra Haines (Assistant Professor of Sociology at NTU) and Hallam Stevens (Associate Professor of History at NTU and Associate Director (Academic) of the NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity) argue that citizen technology assessments should be integrated into building the Smart Nation. On 25 […]

2020-10-14