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 VIDEO
ARTICLES
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. READ THE ARTICLE →
In a world inundated with data, literature helps us seek truth, argued poet POOJA NANSI. It is where we learn about difference and contradiction, and thus discover how to live with one another. READ THE ARTICLE →
Social policy researcher 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. READ THE ARTICLE →
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. READ THE ARTICLE →
Media scholar CHERIAN GEORGE questions Singapore’s censorship, harassment and blacklisting of social activists pushing for moral progress. READ THE ARTICLE →
PROGRAMME
Panel 1—States of Unease
- Cheng Nien Yuan (Performance scholar, educator and dramaturg)
- Paul Tambyah (Academic and politician)
- Ng Kok Hoe (Social policy researcher) – Social policies that promise care can perpetuate harm
- Yeo Kang Shua (Architectural historian and conservation academic) – Learning to read our city: the wall is the only document
- Moderator: Anthea Ong
Panel 2—Imagining, collectively
- Teo You Yenn (Sociologist) – A theory of change that banks on ‘ordinary people’
- Cherian George (Professor of media and politics) – A good society means being open to debates that challenge norms about who ‘we’ are
- Pooja Nansi (Poet, performer and educator) – A healthy literary culture helps society recognise different ways of being
- Mohamed Imran Mohamed Taib (Interfaith advocate and independent researcher)
- Moderator: Kok Heng Leun (Theatre practitioner)
