Maureen Hickey, Ph.D. Research Fellow
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
My work as centers on intensive qualitative research and focusing on political-economic and socio-spatial analysis in order to better understand the the construction of class identities and class struggles “on the ground” in the rapidly developing states of Southeast Asia. My dissertation research on Bangkok’s taxi drivers provided an excellent opportunity to observe the complex interplay between national discourses of class, migration, ethno-regionalism and gender from both the perspectives of the hegemonic culture and from the “street level” perspectives (literally) of rural Northeastern Thai internal migrants. My current research at NUS focuses on the increasing number of college-educated, middle-class, young people from the Philippines, India and English-speaking African nations migrating to East and Southeast Asia in order to teach English as a Foreign Language. This project interrogates the complex relationships between middle class aspirations in Asia, the global commodification of education, and English as a marker of social class and as a vehicle for economic mobility.
Contact: arimhh@nus.edu.sg – Website
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