School of Social and Political Science

Background

My research focuses on the production of masculinity in Singapore through a decolonial intersectional perspective. It aims to answer the following questions:

1. How do Singaporean men construct their masculinity in everyday life?
2. How do these constructions of masculinity interact with citizenship-making practices?

For my Masters, I explored the embodiment of Japanese masculinity by conducting interviews and body-mapping with Japanese men. Building on my Masters thesis, I aim to study masculinity in Singapore for my PhD project, delving deeper into how Singaporean men talk about how they become men in relation to significant life-events (for e.g. marriage, family, military service etc).

Supervisors

Prof. Mary Holmes and Dr. Radhika Govinda

Honours and awards

Feminist Studies Association Small Grant Scheme, May 2024

Gilchrist Educational Trust Study Grant, February 2023

Sue Grant Service Award, December 2021

Tan Ean Kiam Postgraduate Scholarship, August 2021

Tweedie Research Fellowship, March to August 2021

Publications

Christoffersen, Ashlee, Lai, Aerin and Meer, Nasar (eds). 2023. Advancing Racial Equality in Higher Education. RaceED and Identities.

Lai, Aerin. 2023. “A Study of the Fudanshi Identity in Singapore” in Kaori Fushiki and Ryoko Sakurada, eds. Anthropology Through the Experience of the Physical Body. Singapore: Springer. 

Keywords: masculinity, embodiment; sexuality; Singapore; Japanese subculture

---. 2022. “Docile BL Bodies – Boys Love under State and Societal Censorship in Singapore” in James Welker, ed. Queer Transfigurations: Boys Love Media in Asia. HI: University of Hawai’i Press.

Keywords: embodiment; sexuality; censorship; state-society relations; Singapore; Japanese subculture

---. 2021. "Nomadland The blurred lines between nationalistic and ethnic identities in Singapore." The Sociological Review, October 15. https://doi.org/10.51428/tsr.islx6612

---. 2020. Review of Decolonizing Universalism: A Transnational Feminist Ethic by Serene J. Khader. LSE Review of Books. Retrieved April 24, 2020.

---. 2020. "The Hypervisibility of Chinese Bodies in Times of Covid-19 And What It Says About Being British." Discover Society, April 12.

Keywords: embodiment; sexuality; identity; Japanese subculture; Singapore

Articles/blog posts

Lai, Aerin. 2020. "The Phenomenology of a Global Pandemic." Edinburgh Decameron: Lockdown Sociology at Work.

A short reflection on the embodied experiences of time and space during lockdown in Covid-19 and the importance of understanding 'felt' time and space in the construction of identity and the process of making sense of our social realities.

Conference presentations

“This is how we do things in Singapore” – A decolonial intersectional analysis of men and masculinities. British Sociological Association annual conference, "Sociological Voices in Public Discourse". Manchester, United Kingdom. April 2023.

"Thinking in the Dire Straits: Creolised Chinese Philosophy in the Straits Philosophical Society” Doing Theory in Southeast Asia, Centre for Cultural Studies and MA in Intercultural Studies Program, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). May 2021. (Co-presented with Dr Lilith Lee, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)

"Masculine body-making in Japan: the production of embodied masculine identities through dieting and exercise among young Japanese men," British Sociological Association Annual Conference, "Reimagining Social Bodies: Self, Institutions and Societies". Birmingham, United Kingdom. April 2020. (CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC)

“Clan Associations in Singapore and Hindrances to Revitalization”, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies International Conference, “Worlding: Asia Beyond / After Globalization”. Seoul, South Korea. July 2017.

“Bodily Myths and Rottenness of Fudanshi”, Cultural Typhoon Europe. Vienna, Austria. September 2016.

Teaching experience

Guest Lectures

• 'What have masculinities to do with feminism?' Contemporary Feminist Debates (AY2021/22)
• 'Queer Studies through a Postcolonial / Decolonial Lens' Introduction to Queer Studies (AY2020/21)

Tutoring

• Understanding Race and Colonialism, Sociology
• Social Theory, Sociology
• Key Concepts in Global Social Change, Sociology (Postgraduate)
• Empires, Social Anthropology
• Introduction to Queer Studies, Edinburgh College of Art
• Designing and Doing Social Research, Sociology
• Social Anthropology 1A: The Life Course, Social Anthropology