Current Institutional Affiliation
Research Fellow, Duke - NUS Medical School, Singapore

Award Information

2013
Labor of Love: Queer Kinship and Stratified Reproduction among Female Same-Sex Partners in Singapore

In Singapore, Malay Muslim single-mothers are gaining public visibility for their decision to enter same-sex domestic partnerships and collaboratively raising children from previous heterosexual relationships together. Based on these observations, my research aims to explore alternative formations of kinship that arise out of shifting economic structures and attitudes toward gender, sexuality and family. I propose to investigate how working class same-sex female partners actively carve out their notions of "family" and social security through analyzing their household and caregiving practices. In short, I intend to study the significance of race, ethnicity and class in structuring Singaporean Malay Muslim women's lives, their identities and family formations. In examining these kinship practices, I will explore how research into social governance of single-mother families in Singapore provides an effective opportunity to understand the prevalence of neoliberal globalization in East and Southeast Asia especially in terms of citizenship and welfare.

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