I supervise graduate students who conduct primarily qualitative research on diverse issues pertaining to gender and sexuality, including digital intimacy, online feminism, embodiment, LGBTQ+ issues, gender and technology, (social) media representations of women, and East Asian popular culture and fandom.
Below are some of their profiles.
Zishan Lai (she/her) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Communications and New Media (CNM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Her interests include digital intimacy, East Asian popular culture and fandom, lying at the intersection of feminism and media & cultural studies. Her ongoing dissertation project is about understanding how Chinese women’s love and intimacy relate to the otome games (female-targeted dating simulation games), and to the political economy in which they are embedded. She has published in Information, Communication & Society and Games and Culture.
Angela Louise C. Rosario (she/her) is a PhD student in the Cultural Studies in Asia programme under the Department of Communications and New Media (CNM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She received her MA in Japanese Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, where she analysed Japanese women’s representation under the Allied Occupation Period, and worked as a Part-Time Lecturer. Her current research interests include a combination of gender, media, and cultural studies. For her dissertation, she is currently exploring how the affordances and marketing of Japanese female technology (“femtech” such as period-tracker apps) factor in the users’ meaning-making and affective practices in relation to their identities, sexualities, and relationships. She has published in Comparative Sociology, Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, and Silva Iaponicarum (forthcoming, February 2023).
Linqiu Li (she/her) is a PhD student in the Department of Communication and New Media (CNM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Prior to that, she studied communication at Temple University and Rutgers University in the US. While studying in the U.S., her research interest was in the study of Sham marriage among Chinese sexual minorities, and after coming to Singapore she began to focus more on Chinese immigrant sexual minorities. Her research interest in intercultural gender, sexuality and especially queer women community derives from a larger concern for people and community who suffer from voice deprivation. Her ongoing dissertation project is about understanding and exploring the cumulative impact and experience of Singapore-based Chinese queer women’s use of social media to build romance intimacy and the online to offline transition of intimacy.
Wi En Ng (she/her) is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Communication and New Media at the National University of Singapore. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (Hons) from the same university. Her area of research focuses on exploring the impact of media technology use on embodied experiences and how it shapes communication and daily interactions. Her current work seeks to examine the impact of virtual fashion in the metaverse and its influence on identity formation.
Cindy Ho (she/her) is a Master’s by Research student and teaching assistant in the Department of Communications and New Media (CNM) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Her research interests include body image and body politics on Instagram, leveraging on feminist, fat and media studies. Her ongoing thesis explores the body positivity movement in Singapore, particularly how local women challenge or reinforce beauty standards through concerted efforts. On the other hand, her teaching portfolio focuses on strategic communication and media writing.
Michelle H. S. Ho 