NTU Sociology Seminar Series | SMU–NTU Joint Seminar
Date: Friday, 14 November 2025
Time: 4:00 – 6:30 pm (seminar time: 4:00 to 6:00; followed by tea and refreshments)
Location: Seminar Room 5 (ABS-02-SR5), Level 2, Wee Cho Yaw Plaza (formerly Gaia), NTU
(In-person only)
Join us for the upcoming NTU Sociology Seminar Series featuring two engaging talks in collaboration with Singapore Management University. This joint seminar brings together leading scholars to discuss how individuals and institutions in Singapore navigate contemporary transformations in education and digital life.
1. The Changing Shape of Shadow Education: A Research Agenda
Speaker: Assistant Professor Jacqueline Ho, Singapore Management University
This talk begins with the familiar images of cram schools, test prep classes, and private tutoring, the forms that come to mind when we think of shadow education. Most scholarship sees it as providing academic support and shadowing formal schooling. Yet emerging patterns, especially in Singapore, suggest that shadow education now extends beyond academic aid and has become an autonomous force shaping the very standards by which students are evaluated. This presentation outlines a research agenda aimed at documenting and theorising these dynamics.
About the Speaker:
Jacqueline Ho is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Singapore Management University. Her research examines families’ experiences of the education system in Singapore, with a focus on the mechanisms that shape inequality and how these evolve under educational reform.
2. Constructing Authentic Selves in Mental Health Discussions on Singapore Reddit
Speaker: Associate Professor J. Patrick Williams, Nanyang Technological University
This talk discusses how young Singaporeans construct authentic selves on Reddit. It examines how young redditors define themselves and their socioemotional and mental health (SE/MH) problems, emphasizing the cultural sources that shape these self-definitions and distinguishing between experiential forms of self-presentation and constructionist forms of social identification. The research also outlines methodological strategies, leveraging ChatGPT to qualitatively analyze approximately 20,000 Reddit posts.
About the Speaker:
J. Patrick Williams is Associate Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has published widely on youth cultures, digital media, and identification, and is particularly interested in the social construction of subcultural authenticities. His latest book is Interpreting Subcultures (2024). He is Past-President of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction.