Staff Profile

I joined the department in 2021 as a Lecturer in the Politics of Race and Ethnicity. My research examines race, citizenship, multiculturalism and migration, with specific expertise on Singapore. My approach to research is intersectional and interdisciplinary, drawing on qualitative approaches inspired within and beyond the discipline of politics, including methods from sociology, geography and cultural studies.

 

Currently, I am working on two areas of research that develop understandings of how citizenship, ethnicity and migration are mutually governed and negotiated by international communities, governments and societies. 

 

Much of my work is inspired by multiculturalist thought. My work contests traditional theories of multicultural citizenship founded on liberal classicist notions that equality can only be assured, and maximised, by a standardised set of rights and rules across individual citizens. Recognising citizenship and migration as existing at the nexus of the international and local, I argue for the inclusion of non-citizens (i.e. migrants) by questioning liberal frameworks and introducing neorepublican tenets of non-domination. This premise forms the backbone of my research, which highlights the intersection of cultural, political and economic disadvantages, and the need for institutional redress through group-specific rights. My arguments and findings are published in peer-reviewed journals as well as my monograph. 

 

In the future, I would like to further study the intersection of race, knowledge-production and migration among domestic migrant workers in Singapore. I am also planning to examine how race is understood through the lens of the social contract in Southeast Asia, guided by Charles Mills' idea of the racial contract. 

 

In 21/22, I am co-teaching Order and Disorder: The Shaping of the 21st Century (POL1046) and Security Studies (POL2110). I am also module leader for the research project modules, Project in Politics (POL3047/3048). 

• Giovanni A, Grépin KA, Kamradt-Scott A, Lee K, Marion S, Worsnop CZ, Papagaryfallou I, Papamichail A, Piper J, Rothery F, Teh BCG, Teo T-A, Kim SY. COVID-19 and IR Scholarship: One Profession, Many Voices. International Studies Review 2021, 23(2), 302-345.
• Teo T-A. Minstrelsy beyond the ‘west’: Deflections, continuities and the un/knowing of race in Singapore. Journal of Intercultural Studies 2022, 43(1), 1-22.
• Teo T-A. Multiculturalism beyond citizenship: The inclusion of non-citizens. Ethnicities 2021, 21(1), 165-191.
• Teo T-A. Silent citizenship: choices, tactics and claims-making among sexual citizens. Citizenship Studies 2021, 25(5), 656-677.
• Teo TA, Wynne-Hughes E, ed. Postcolonial Governmentalities: Rationalities, Violences and Contestations. Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020.
• Teo T-A. Civic Multiculturalism in Singapore: Revisiting Citizenship, Rights and Recognition. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019.
• Teo T-A. Conduct and Counter-conduct in the "Nonliberal" State: Singapore’s Headscarf Affairs. Global Society 2019, 33(2), 201-223.
• Teo T-A. Perceptions of Meritocracy in Singapore: Inconsistencies, Contestations and Biases. Asian Studies Review 2019, 43(2), 184-205.