Monash University - Faculty of Arts

Arts Faculty » Historical Studies » Staff »

Personal History

I took up my current appointment with the School of Historical Studies at Monash University in January 2008, coming from The University of Western Australia where I was a lecturer in Asian Studies. I completed my undergraduate and doctoral studies at UWA, in History and Asian studies respectively, and my PhD thesis was awarded a Distinction medal by the university. I write in the area of Overseas Chinese histories, and on the interplay between memory and ideas of 'nation' and the nation-state, but I also teach modern world history. I am originally from Singapore, and although I have resided in Australia since 1999 I make frequent (and somehow inevitable) trips 'back home' for the company of friends and relatives, as well as an indulgence with local food.

I realise that I am quite fortunate in the sense that I find teaching and research to be equally enjoyable activities, and that I find having an intellectual relationship with undergraduate students just as rewarding as making a researched exposition. In 2008 I received an Excellence in Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts at UWA for my work there during the previous year, and I was also the Faculty's nominee for the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Awards for Australian University Teaching (in the Early Career Category).

Current Research

Having completed the final manuscript for my doctoral thesis-to-book project, I currently find myself working on a history of the Malaya and Singapore Chinese during Second World War. Entitled Diaspora at War, the book takes the Malaya/Singapore Chinese experience of the conflict beyond its traditional geo-political borders. Using both oral and archival history sources, the book integrates these experiences into the broader Second World Wars by looking at the roles played by members of this community in the war in Europe, China, and Burma.

My next research project is based on questions and thoughts that have emerged in the recovery of the stories for Diaspora at War. In particular, I seek to understand why these stories are not a part of the public memory of Singapore’s Second World War. I approach my line of inquiry armed with the hypothesis that these are memories 'between' nation-states.

Major Publications

Monographs
Singapore Stories: Language, Class, and the Narratives of Everyday Life Among the Chinese of Singapore 1945 – 2000. New York and London: Cambria Press [Forthcoming: manuscript complete].
Diaspora at War: The Overseas Chinese of Malaya and their Exceptional Second World Wars. Boston, MA: Brill Academic Publishers [Forthcoming: contracted Sept 2008].

Journal articles and book chapters
"'Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand’: Oral Histories, the Paradox of Historiographical Observation, and the Intonation of Singapore’s Past". In Tangent, Vol. 6 (2), 2007, pp. 87–92.
"Gender and Discipline in 'The Singapore Story': The Chinese Female Factory Workers in Perspective, c.1980–1990." In Heng, D. & Khairudin Aljunied, S.A. (Eds.) Reframing Singapore: Memory, Identity and Trans-regionalism. Amsterdam and Chicago: Amsterdam University Press and the ICAS Secretariat [In Press].
"Ignoring 'History from Below': People's History in the Historiography of Singapore", History Compass, Vol. 5 (1), 2007, pp. 11-25.
"On the Margins of the 'Economic Miracle': Non English-Literate Chinese Factory Workers in Singapore, 1980-90". In Tonan Ajia Kenkyu (Southeast Asian Studies), Vol. 44 (4), March 2007, pp. 466-493.

Areas of Research & Supervision

I would relish the opportunity to be involved in research projects on modern Southeast and East Asian history, especially those that pertain to the Overseas Chinese communities in these regions. I also have interests in research projects in the area of social histories of the Second World War, diaspora and public/private memories, labour histories in developing and developed Asia, and political development in Southeast Asia.

Teaching

Currently I teach into the School's "Contemporary Worlds" series in International Studies, where world history (in first semester) and the effects of globalisation on contemporary societies (in second semester) are central themes. I have also taught in survey courses on modern Asian history, in units that look at the production of historical and contemporary knowledge about the region in scholarship, as well as in courses that examine the nexus of politics and development in the region.

INT1010 - Contemporary Worlds 1
INT1020 - Contemporary Worlds 2 INT4010/ITM4/5010 - Global justice