Nationality: Canada
Current Job: Associate Professor, McGill University, Canada
Graduation: Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Year 2008
Undergraduate University: University of Victoria, Canada
"Doing a PhD is an enormous privilege and offers the time to think, to explore, and to strengthen writing,reasoning, and other professional skills."
On hindsight, would you still have chosen NUS to do your PhD?
I had an excellent experience at NUS, thanks largely to my incredibly talented PhD supervisor, Lily Kong. NUS and Singapore more generally were stimulating places to be based for my PhD, particularly as my research was in Indonesia. NUS and affiliated institutes, such as the Asia Research Institute, exposed me to leading-edge researchers doing innovative research on Asia.
On hindsight, would you have chosen the same research supervisor for your PhD?
My supervisor is main reason for my career success. Prof. Lily Kong is a world-renowned scholar and administrator who is currently the president of the Singapore Management University, the first woman president ever of a Singaporean university. I received outstanding supervision from Prof. Kong and would not be where I am today without her. I was extraordinarily lucky that she accepted me as her graduate student and appreciate both her brilliance and her kindness.
How did NUS prepare you for your career?
My supervisor helped me to refine my critical thinking and writing skills so that I was able to write successful postdoc applications and publish academic work. After NUS, I did a postdoctoral fellowship at MIT. While at NUS, I was immersed in a vibrant research-focused department and absorbed how to prepare myself for a career in academia. In my department, students were treated seriously and I was impressed and inspired by how many were publishing their work with the support of their supervisors. It was also expected that we attend all department seminars as a way to learn about various subfields and how to engage in academic discourse.
Briefly share something fun in your graduate journey at NUS that you remember
I made many lifelong friendships at NUS. I have hosted friends I met at NUS and have traveled to other countries to visit them. My cohort had students from India, China, Sudan, USA, Canada, Japan, Indonesia, and more. We have maintained a strong global network based on the fun we had together during our PhDs.
Any other words of wisdom to share?
Doing a PhD is an enormous privilege and offers the time to think, to explore, and to strengthen writing, reasoning, and other professional skills. It is also a time to build up a network of friends and colleagues and support those around you through a challenging period in which we all experience self doubt, fatigue, and homesickness. Take time on weekends to explore Singapore and the region. It is easy to get sucked into thinking you need to be working 24/7 but you will be happier and more productive if you make memories and built friendships and have some adventures in what is a truly fascinating part of the world.