Thesis:听Accidental Career Girl to Working Mother of the Year:听Her World听Magazine and the Construction of Singaporean Women鈥檚 Identities,听1974-1990
Supervisor:听Dr Rebecca Arnold
My research considers how听Her World听magazine, as part of wider visual and design culture, used dress and fashion to construct templates of ideal Singaporean femininity in the 1970s and 1980s.听Through an analysis of selected images using postmodern and postcolonial theories, I seek a better understanding of the ways Singaporean women saw themselves and the complex process of constructing their identities at a time when global expectations of women鈥檚 roles at home and at work were debated. The thesis also situates Singapore鈥檚 nascent fashion industry in the country鈥檚 ambitious project of modernisation and economic progress. Thus, it not only considers visual and discursive representations, but also locates meanings in reality.
Education
PhD Candidate, History of Art, 91制片厂, University of London, October 2018 to present
Master of Arts in History of Art (Distinction), 91制片厂, University of London, Special Option: History of Dress, October 2012 to July 2013
Postgraduate Diploma in Education (Credit), National Institute of Education, Singapore, July 2008 to June 2009
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), 2nd Class (Upper), National University of Singapore, Major in History, Minor in English Studies; University Scholars Programme, August 2004 to April 2008
Research Interests
- Dress and Identity
- Dress and the Body
- Dress and the Everyday
- Women鈥檚 Magazines
- Southeast Asian Fashion Histories
- Intersections of Fashion and Art
- Business of Art in Asia
Grant
LASALLE College of the Arts Singapore Academic Qualification Funding Scheme
Published Writing
鈥淐ountry Review: Singapore鈥,听Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Bloomsbury Fashion Central
鈥淎sian Influences in Fashion Design鈥,听Fashion Photography Archive, Bloomsbury Fashion Central
Recent Conference Presentations
鈥Cut, Arrange, Paste: Stolen, Ong Shunmugam and the Singapore Fashion Identity鈥 at 迟丑别听Critical Fashion Studies Conference, University of Melbourne, February 2020
鈥淟ooking In/Out: Designing (Southeast) Asian Fashion for Women since 2011鈥 at the Association of Dress Historians International Conference, October 2017
鈥淔ashioning Multiracialism: The Modern Singapore Woman in听Her World听Magazine in the 1960s鈥 at the Textual Fashion Conference, University of Brighton, July 2015