Events

CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Ja Ian Chong, Department of Political Science, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

How do people in Asia self identify? What do people mean to identify when they claim to identify with a nation or society? How do people in Singapore self-identify? How do people identify and relate to who they see as “others”?

The above are key questions for research on identity politics in Asia and Singapore. These are questions that the Making Identities Count in Asia project has been trying to examine, using a range of methods from discourse analysis to focus group discussions and survey research. In process since 2016, the project is now ready to share data, preliminary results and research findings in public.

Joining the conversation are researchers on the European Union-funded Sinophone Borderlands project which examine attitudes toward the PRC across 56 countries in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The exchange showcases how Making Identities Count in Asia enter into dialogue with research on identity, politics, and international relations now occurring around the world.

Anonymized data from from the focus group discussions, surveys, and discourse-based identity reports for Cambodia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam will be made freely available to all researchers.

Making Identities Count in Asia is an Asia Research Institute project funded by Singapore’s Social Science Research Council (MOE2016-SSRTG-020).

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Alfred Gerstl is a specialist on international relations in the Indo-Pacific, notably in Southeast Asia. His research interests include ASEAN’s regional centrality, hedging strategies in Southeast Asia, the South China Sea dispute, China’s Belt and Road Initiative as well as traditional and non-traditional security threats. His most recent publication is “Hedging Strategies in Southeast Asia: ASEAN, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam and their Relations with China”. Alfred is currently Associate Professor at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacky University Olomouc (Czech Republic) and Senior Researcher in the department’s EU-funded project “SInophone Borderlands – Interaction at the Edges”. From January 2023 on, he will head the EU-funded project “The EU in the volatile Indo-Pacific region”. Moreover, Alfred is President of the transnational think tank Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and Lecturer at the University of Vienna. Previously, he worked as an associate professor and post-researcher, respectively in Austria, Russia, Germany and Australia.

Ja Ian Chong is Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. His work covers US-China relations, security and order in Northeast and Southeast Asia, cross-strait relations, and Taiwan politics. Chong’s current research examines how non-leading state behavior collectively intensifies major power rivalries, paying particular attention to the US-China relationship in Asia. He has concurrent projects investigating how states react to sanctions on third parties by trade partners, and the characteristics of foreign influence operations. He previously worked at CSIS in Washington, DC as well as Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies and the East Asian Institute in Singapore. Chong is the author of External Intervention and the Politics of State Formation: China, Indonesia, Thailand, 1893-1952 (Cambridge 2012) as well as a number of articles and book chapters.

Kay Key Teo is Research Fellow at IPS Social Lab at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in National University of Singapore (NUS). She has a PhD in Political Science from NUS. Her research interests are in political and social attitudes, public opinion, voting behavior, and Singapore society. She is interested in examining these topics using a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Her current projects examine a myriad of issues in Singapore, including attitudes towards the family, social norms and values, and national identity. Prior to joining IPS, she worked in the civil service for nearly 3 years doing strategic planning, training, and policy work. She also has a Masters in Political Behaviour from the University of Essex in the United Kingdom and a Bachelors in Social Science from the Singapore Management University.

Mathew Matthews is Head of IPS Social Lab, a centre for social indicator research and Principal Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies in National University of Singapore. To date, Mathews has been involved in over fifty research projects, most of them addressing social policy issues. These have included research using both quantitative and qualitative methods on race, religion, immigrant integration, family, ageing and poverty. Matthews also studies the impact of social programmes on social issues and has been involved in a number of evaluations on the usefulness of various government initiatives. He has taught courses on social policy and has published in a range of academic and media outlets. Mathews currently sits on the boards of OnePeople.sg and National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre. He is a research advisor to the Ministry of Social and Family Development and is part of the VWOs-Charities Capability Fund Panel and Families for Life Council.

Richard Q. Turcsanyi is a key researcher at Palacky University Olomouc, Assistant Professor at Mendel University in Brno, and Program Director at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS). He holds a PhD in International Relations and further degrees in economy and political science. In past, he conducted long-term research stays at the University of Toronto, Peking University, National Chengchi University in Taipei, and the European Institute for Asian Studies in Brussels. He is an author of “Chinese Assertiveness in the South China Sea” and has published a number of academic articles and opinion pieces on Chinese foreign policy, relations between China and (Central and Eastern) Europe, and Chinese soft power. He is a member of various networks focusing on contemporary China and EU-China relations, including European Think Tank Network on China (ETNC), a COST action “China in Europe Research Network” (CHERN), or Chinese Observers in Central and Eastern Europe (CHOICE). Most recently, he has conducted surveys of public attitudes towards China in various countries around the world, as part of the Sinophone Borderlands project (www.sinofon.cz/surveys).

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this hybrid event has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the talk.