The s/pores e-journal is a multi-disciplinary platform for works investigating different aspects of historical and contemporary Singapore society. Moving beyond statist perspectives, the journal encourages research that opens up space for recalibrating the status quo in Singapore.
s/pores is an interplay of the short form, the lower case, the plural, the backslash, the informal, the non-elite, the multiple, the oblique. Pronounced ‘spores’, our title also denotes the dispersal of seeds of ideas, some of which should fall on fertile ground. s/pores is therefore simultaneously a declaration of authorial positioning as it is a statement of our hopes for a more variegated Singapore.
Please send comments and queries to s.poresjournal[at]gmail.com.
Image: Chong Fah Cheong, First Generation, 2000, Bronze sculpture, Singapore River. Cropped from photograph by Michael Gwyther-Jones, licensed under CC BY 2.0.
s/pores is an independent, non-profit e-journal run by dedicated volunteers with a common passion for reasoned and diverse social discourse. Opinions and editorial decisions expressed do not represent those of the organisations the members of the editorial collective are affiliated with.
Founding
s/pores came about from the discussions among recently-returned Singaporean academics in 2007, none of whom were trained as specialists of Singapore as such. They were keen to be ‘home scholars’, defined by Thai historian Thongchai Winichakul as those whose works are read, debated, and become, in a sustained manner, part of the scholarly discourse and cultural politics of their home country.
Conversations in 2007 with like-minded friends, including those already pushing in new directions, were consolidated into an electronic journal, then a fairly novel medium, principally for the relative freedom from financial outlay and from distribution challenges that producing the conventional publication entailed.
The initial issues have been managed by our editorial collective, whose founding members are Hong Lysa, Kwee Hui Kian, Lim Cheng Tju, Francis Lim Khek Gee, Sai Siew Min, and Teng Siao See. To get the journal off the ground, the collective’s responsibilities included writing for s/pores and soliciting for contributions. A panel of advisers would advise on directions and possibilities which might be neglected by the collective.
We have now settled on having themed issues identified by editors who would then work with a team of at least two other writers. In recent years, s/pores has appeared more or less annually, but we hope to be able to shorten the interval between issues.
Please do contact us if you have an idea that could be developed into a s/pores issue. We work with the deadline set by the editor. The collective hopes that s/pores will continue to serve as a regular forum for thoughtful, constructive commentary.
Advisory committee
s/pores continues to have the benefit of the services of an advisory committee. Its current members are Chua Beng Huat, Kwok Kian Woon, and Tan Pin Pin.
Editorial collective
Current members
In alphabetical order:
Amali Ibrahim is an anthropologist who currently teaches at Yale-NUS College. He is interested in forms of governance and citizen politics in Southeast Asia under contemporary neoliberal capitalism. (Mar 2022)
Fadli Fawzi is currently a lawyer in private practice. Other than the law, his areas of interest include sociology, history, politics, literature and religion. (Mar 2022)
Faris Joraimi is a writer and researcher specialising in the history of the Malay World. He has authored various essays for print and electronic media. He is also co-editor of Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History (2021), a volume of essays on Singapore’s decolonial history. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History from Yale-NUS College. He is a PhD student at NYU. (Mar 2022)
Hong Lysa (on sabbatical leave from March 2022), a historian, is co-author of The Scripting of a National History: Singapore and its Pasts (2008), and co-editor of The May 13 Generation: The Chinese Middle Schools Student Movement and Singapore Politics in the 1950s (2011); The 1963 Operation Coldstore in Singapore (2013) and Poh Soo Kai: Living in An Age of Deception (2016). (Mar 2022)
Lim Cheng Tju is an educator who writes about history and popular culture in Singapore. His articles have appeared in Southeast Asian Journal of Social Science, Journal of Popular Culture and Print Quarterly. He is also the country editor for the International Journal of Comic Art. (Mar 2022)
Sai Siew Min is a Taipei-based Singaporean historian who researches Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia with a focus on European imperial formations in Southeast Asia, the cultural politics of colonialism and nationalism, language, race and Chineseness. She co-edited Raffles Renounced: Towards a Merdeka History with Alfian Sa’at and Faris Joraimi. Her academic writings have appeared in the Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Indonesia, Journal of Chinese Overseas, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. She is also co-editor of the book Reassessing Chinese Indonesians: History, Religion and Belonging. (Mar 2022)
Trained as a sociologist, Teng Siao See is a researcher at the National Institute of Education. She researches on intercultural issues, diversity education and educational transitions. She also has interests in local history and ethnic identities. (Mar 2022)
Former members
Daniel PS Goh (2012)
Kwee Hui Kian (2017)
Edgar Liao (2022)
Francis Lim Khek Gee (2022)
