RESEARCH
Research Areas
- Sex, Gender, the Body, and Sexuality
- Modern East and Southeast Asian History
- Migration Studies
- Queer Theory
- Sensory Studies
- Musicology
- Music History
- Cultural Studies
My research primarily pertains to the research of culture, sex, gender, and sexuality both in a historical lens as well as a contemporary sense. I am interested in how culture develops and how culture shapes our perceptions of self. I bounce back and forth in my research between the historical past and the present as part of an ongoing effort to research how identity and culture are intertwined. Below you will find a briefing about my current projects.
CURRENT PROJECTS
Hardening Men: Masculinity, Nationalism, and Leadership in Post Colonial Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia)
I am interested in how manhood and masculinity are constructed through military service. Moreover, how is masculinity co opted into being an issue of national security for newly created countries in Southeast Asia?
“You make me feel good, I like that”: North American Music Festivals/Raves,Queer Identity, and Finding Utopia
Mainly, I am interested in understanding how gay Asian men (“Gaysians”) find “utopia” through sensory experiences in raves and music festivals. My approach is to consider Sensory Studies as method to understand how music, clothing/costume, and drugs work in tandem with rave culture (PLUR) to create a sense of utopia and belonging in a crowd.
I am mostly focusing my energy on looking at the big North American Electronic Dance Music (EDM) music festivals such as Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC), Dreamstate, Second Sky, and VELD.
Male (Gay) Sex Work, Domestic Servants, and Masculinity in Colonial Southeast Asia
My research here is mostly focused on the “sexual underground” and how people express sexuality in spaces and places where they cannot openly be gay.
I am also interested in how men who work as domestic workers (house cleaners, childcare workers, etc.) are effeminized by their colonial masters
Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Chinese Cultures
I just finished teaching/coordinating a UBC course on Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in Chinese Cultures
Topics included polygamy and polyamory, feminist literature, Queer cinema, and BL literature