Contemporary postcolonial migration is a compelling force increasing diversity in globalising cities such as Singapore. Amidst multiplicative diversities, processes of  enclavement and encounter along a spectrum of self/other divides, occur alongside those of selective acculturation and negotiated co-existence as people with different histories and geographies meet and take stock of one another in the constant (re)making of divercities. While civility in public spaces (‘ritualised codes of etiquette’) is often taken to be the key litmus test for private prejudices/moralities, it is equally important to rethink the politics of diversity and migrant encounter in private spaces, where ‘the other’ may be strange and unfamiliar, but may well be intimate and even familial. For global cities such as Singapore to develop a truly cosmopolitan urban ethic, not just the conviviality of its streets but the intimacies of its homes need to be ‘places of self-knowledge, not fear’ (Sennett, 2001). 

Introduction and moderation of the Q&A by Joanna Waley-Cohen, Provost and Affiliated Professor of History, NYU Shanghai; Julius Silver Professor of History, NYU. 

Speaker

Brenda S.A. Yeoh is Raffles Professor of Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Research Leader of the Asian Migration Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, NUS. Her research interests include the politics of space in colonial and postcolonial cities, and a wide range of migration research in Asia, including key themes such as cosmopolitanism and highly skilled talent migration; gender, social reproduction and care migration; migration, national identity and citizenship issues; globalising universities and international student mobilities; and cultural politics, family dynamics and international marriage migrants. She has published widely on these topics and her recent books include Contested Memoryscapes: The Politics of Second World War Commemoration in Singapore (Routledge, 2016, with Hamzah Muzaini), Asian Migrants and Religious Experience: From Missionary Journeys to Labor Mobility (Amsterdam University Press, 2018 with Bernardo Brown) and Handbook of Asian Migrations (Routledge, 2018 with Gracia Liu-Farrer).