I’ve always liked playing with other people, perhaps it comes from growing up in a ragtag family of five siblings and neighbourhood play gangs in Singapore during the 1970s-80s. Yet until recently, collaborations have been an uphill struggle that bore little fruit for me. 2016, however, seems to be the year when they are finally […]
Continue ReadingWhat they DONT’t tell you before you embark on a PhD
(originally published in Australia Asia Pacific Institute Review Jan-March 2016, p. 9) Well, if you thought that working on a PhD was about spending 3 years (or more? Yay!) reading and writing about your pet topic, you’re wrong. The first thing they don’t tell you is that editing will be much more important than writing. […]
Continue ReadingSupervising someone else’s dream?!!
This year I find myself taking on more postgraduate supervisions than I’ve ever had, though not as many as some of my colleagues because I’m wary of the responsibility of supervising someone else’s dream. And that’s how I think of postgraduate supervision, particularly for PhDs. People undertake these projects for different reasons, sometimes it’s a […]
Continue ReadingThe Craft of Writing for Research
Scholarship is a choice of how to live as well as a choice of career; whether he knows it or not, the intellectual workman forms his own self as he works toward the perfection of his craft; to realize his own potentialities, and any opportunities that come his way, he constructs a character which has […]
Continue ReadingTimely Feedback
It isn’t easy providing timely feedback as a supervisor amidst the many tasks that call for your attention. Does one drop the lecture being prepared, the paper being written or essay being marked to read through the draft sent by a student? How does one set up expectations so a reasonable time frame is allowed […]
Continue ReadingWhat is Good Supervision?
For the past few weeks I’ve been attending a series of seminars on research supervision, conducted by Geoff Hill, with staff from across the different faculties. Just this Monday we were looking at each others’ definition of what is good supervision? For many of my colleagues, it was about being systematic, offering guidance and providing […]
Continue ReadingProjects I Supervise
I’m currently co-supervisor on a few projects. One of which is based on the transformative potential of digital storytelling and another on community media in the developing world. My students have successfully completed projects on topics as diverse as new media in retirement villages in Australia and the notion of place in master planned communities […]
Continue ReadingCongratulations, You’re now a Doctor!
It makes no difference whether one took 3 or 10 years to complete the PhD, round the period of the last year thoughts turn towards what else there is to life after the thesis. With the congratulations usually comes the expectation to put the hard earned knowledge to good use. Those who have had earlier […]
Continue Reading