I study the politics and materiality of care for more-than-human worlds, engaging with ideas at the intersections of science and technology studies, medical anthropology, anthrozoology, and the Anthropocene.
My current project asks how the ‘killable’ becomes ‘careable’, that which obliges care and is capable of caring. It investigates this question by following 'Singapore Specials—stray ‘landrace’ dogs––across the affectively-laden and simultaneously contradictory social categories that they have come to inhabit: biosurveillance targets/care-recipients, dangerous rabies vectors/healing canine ‘therapists’. My field sites span the places where these dogs roam, from the ruderal shrublands and industrial estates of Jurong Island, Singapore’s offshore petrochemical hub, to the various clinical- and social service- facilities amid Singapore’s high modernist cityscape where trained dogs are incorporated into animal-assisted services for therapeutic gains in humans.
In addition to my research, I hold the position of Director at Animal-Assisted Interactions Singapore (aasig), Singapore’s first social enterprise specializing in the field of animal-assisted services (AAS). I received a M.SocSci (Political Science) from the National University of Singapore and a BMus (Honours, Recording Arts and Science) from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. In 2022, I obtained the Animals and Human Health Certificate from the Institute for Human-Animal Connection, at the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Social Work.