Cera Ying Jing Tan
Nationality:
Singapore
Faculty and Department:
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Year of Study:
3
Undergraduate University:
National University of Singapore
Why Did You Choose To Pursue Your PhD At NUS?
The department of English Language and Literature has outstanding faculty members whom I have had the privilege to get to know and work with over the course of my undergraduate days. I cultivated a productive and meaningful relationship with my supervisor who has been supporting me on my research journey.
Several departments from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) also offer a Joint-Degree Programme (JDP) with King’s College London (KCL). The JDP offers the opportunity for inter-disciplinary research: my own research straddles English Literature (NUS) and the Digital Humanities (KCL).
Can You Tell Us Briefly About Your Research Topic?
By historicising the drive I term anticipatory, from the Latin anticipare which holds within its etymological roots the sense of acting in advance or to act before [ante-] something, I hope to delineate a kind of genealogy that has endured in biopolitical thought. This anticipatory drive, whose nascent origins may be located in probabilistic thinking, has metastasised across disciplines, from natural and applied sciences to business and social sciences. By tracing the co-implications of biopolitics and anticipation, my research seeks to open a register between algorithmic governmentality and the corpus of biopolitical thought.
Any Advice For Someone Who's Considering A PhD In NUS?
It is integral that you find yourself a community, whether for intellectual or personal purposes. Get yourself involved in reading groups, research workshops, and department talks. The stronger your support system, the smoother your PhD journey will be.
Any Other Words Of Wisdom To Share?
“There is always a surprise in store for the anatomy or physiology of any criticism that might think it had mastered the game, surveyed all the threads at once, deluding itself, too, in wanting to look at the text without touching it, without laying a hand on the “object,” without risking — which is the only chance of entering into the game, by getting a few fingers caught — the addition of some new thread.” – Jacques Derrida