Updated on 20 Jul 2020

CHENG YI’EN | 曾 乙 恩
Research Fellow
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
yien.cheng@nus.edu.sg:: http://chengyien.wordpress.com

EDUCATION

2016 Doctor of Philosophy

University of Oxford, Geography & the Environment
Completed thesis entitled Restructuring of education, youth, and citizenship: an
ethnographic study of private higher education in contemporary Singapore

2012 Masters of Social Sciences

National University of Singapore, Geography
Completed thesis on the topic of Southeast Asian student migrants’ transnational
practices and identities in Singapore

2010 Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours, First)

National University of Singapore, Geography
Major in Geography and Minor in Gender Studies; completed thesis on the topic of
international marriage and Singaporean masculinities

ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS

Jul 2019- Research Fellow

Present National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute

Jul 2016- Postdoctoral Fellow

Jul 2019 Yale-NUS College Singapore, Division of Social Sciences

July 2017- Associate

Jun 2019 National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute

SUMMARY

Research
My research interests lie broadly in geographies of education, young people, and mobilities, focusing on
topics of global education, youth citizenship, and transnational im/mobilities in Asian cities. Specific
themes include:
● International student mobilities
● Globalisation and higher education
● Youth citizenship and political lives

Teaching
My teaching is guided by three pedagogical strivings – intellectual mastery, experiential education, and
collaborative learning. These have been integrated into the following taught courses:
● Youth Urbanisms: Global Trends, Local Perspectives
● Methods in Social Sciences (qualitative methodologies)
● Urban Soundscapes – Week 7 Lab
● Introduction to Urban Studies
 Updated on 20 Jul 2020

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed Articles
Cheng, YE and Jacobs, JM (2020) Urban custodians and hospitable citizens: citizenship and social actions
of students at two liberal arts universities in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Space and Polity, 24(1): 12-29.

Cheng, YE (2019) Liberal arts educated citizen: experimentation, subjectification, and ambiguous
contours of youth citizenship, Area, 51(4): 618-626.

Cheng, YE (2018) Educational friction: striated routes, transition velocity, and value recuperation among
Singaporean private degree students, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 39(6): 642-657.

Cheng, YE (2018) Educated non-elites’ pathways to cosmopolitanism: the case of private degree students
in Singapore, Social & Cultural Geography, 19(2): 151-170.

Danicar, M.; Yeoh, BSA and Cheng, YE (2017) Crossing borders of state and religious power: reproductive
mobilities in Singapore. Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 58(2): 203-215.

Cheng, YE (2016) Critical geographies of education beyond ‘value’: moral sentiments, caring, and a
politics for acting differently, Antipode, 48(4): 919-936.

Cheng, YE (2016) Learning in neoliberal times: private degree students and the politics value coding in
Singapore, Environment and Planning A, 48(2): 292-308.

Cheng, YE (2015) Biopolitical geographies of student life: private higher education and citizenship life-
making in Singapore, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 105(5): 1078-1093.

Cheng, YE; Yeoh, BSA and Zhang, J (2015) Still ‘breadwinners’ and ‘providers’: Singaporean husbands,
money, and masculinity in transnational marriages, Gender, Place and Culture, 22(6): 867-883.

Cheng, YE (2014) Time protagonists: student migrants, practices of time, and cultural construction of the
Singapore-educated person, Social and Cultural Geography, 15(4): 385-405.

Cheng, YE (2014) Telling stories of the city: walking ethnography, affective materials, and mobile
encounters, Space and Culture, 17(3): 211-223.

Yeoh, BSA; Chee, HL; Vu, TKD and Cheng, YE (2013) Between two families: the social meaning of
remittances for Vietnamese marriage migrants in Singapore, Global Networks, 13(4): 441-458.

Cheng, YE (2012) Transnational masculinities in situ: Singaporean husbands and their international
marriage experiences, Area, 44(1): 76-82.

Editorial Works on Journals

Lam-Knott, S. and Cheng, YE (2020) Youth politics in urban Asia: an introduction, Space and Polity, 24(1):
1-11.

Cheng, YE and Holton, M (2019) Geographies of citizenship in higher education: an introduction, Area.
51(4): 613-617.

Robertson, S; Cheng, YE and Yeoh, BSA (2018) Mobile aspirations? youth im/mobilities in the Asia-Pacific,
Journal of Intercultural Studies, 39(6): 613-625.

Book/Volume Chapters
 Updated on 20 Jul 2020

Cheng, YE and Wong, JWM (2019) Singapore, in Wells, K (ed) Teen Lives Around the World: a Global
Encyclopedia, Santa Barbara, California, ABC-CLIO. pp. 461-472.

Yang, PD and Cheng, YE (2018) Educational mobility and transnationalization: a critical and culturalist
perspective, in Gleason, N. (ed) Higher Education in the Era of Fourth Industrial Revolution. Singapore:
Palgrave. DOI: 10.1007%2F978-981-13-0194-0_3.

Cheng YE (2016) Cultural politics of education and human capital formation: learning to labour in
Singapore, in Tatek, A. and Waters, J. (eds) Labouring and Learning, Vol. 10 of Skelton, T. (ed)
Geographies of Children and Young People, Singapore, Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-981-4585-97-2_11-1.

Yeoh, BSA; Huang, S and Cheng, YE (2015) Transnational domestic work and the politics of development,
in Coles, A.; Gray, L. and Momsen, J. (eds) The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Development, London,
Routledge, pp. 298-308.

Yeoh, BSA and Cheng, YE (2013) Singapore: from postcolonial plural society to globalizing city-state, in P.
Spoonley and E. Tolley (eds) Diverse Nations, Diverse Responses: Approaches to Social Cohesion in
Immigrant Societies, Canada, McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 193-214.

Yeoh, BSA and Cheng, YE (2013) Family migration, in I. Ness (ed) Encyclopedia of Global Human
Migration, US, Wiley-Blackwell. DOI: 10.1002/9781444351071.wbeghm217.

Book Reviews
Cheng, YE (2020) One road, many dreams: China’s bold plan to remake the global economy, By Daniel
Drache, A.T. Kingston and Duan Qi, Reviewed in Journal of Overseas Chinese. DOI: 10.1163/17932548-
12341416.

Cheng, YE (2018) Passing through Shanghai: ethnographic insights into the mobile lives of expatriate
youths, By Marie Sander, Reviewed in Children’s Geographies, 16(2): 220-221.

Cheng, YE (2013) Geographies of alternative education: diverse learning spaces for children and young
people, By Peter Kraftl, Reviewed in Children’s Geographies, 12(3): 369-370.

Cheng, YE (2011) Translocal geographies: spaces, places, connections, By Katherine Brickell and Ayona
Datta, Reviewed in Localities, 1: 261-266.

Commentary/Op-Ed
Cheng, YE (2017) Is private higher education in Singapore a ‘second chance’ option?, Channel News Asia,
September. https://news.nus.edu.sg/sites/default/files/resources/news/2017/2017-09/2017-09-
17/EDUCATION-cnaonline-17sep.pdf

Other Creative Output

Cheng, YE (2020) Covid-19, higher education and international student mobility: a digital initiative,
hosted by Asia Research Institute. https://covidism.wordpress.com/

GRANTS AND AWARDS

2019, Research and Fieldwork Grant of S$5,000, Belt and Road Initiative, Transnational Higher
Education, and Mobilities in ASEAN: the case of Xiamen University Malaysia, 2019-2020, awarded by
Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore
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2019, Academic Event Grant of S$9,000 (with Brenda Yeoh and Ho Kong Chong), Workshop on Belt and
Road Initiative, New Knowledge Spaces and Asian Regionalism, awarded by Asia Research Institute,
National University of Singapore

2017, Academic Research Internal Grant of S$74,934 (with Jane Jacobs), Liberal Arts Experiments in
Asia: Redefining Education, Economy, and Citizenship in the 21st Century, 2017-2019, awarded by Yale-
NUS College

2016, Academic Event Grant of S$23,000 (with Brenda Yeoh and Shanthi Robertson), Workshop on
Youth Mobilities and Immobilities in the Asia-Pacific, awarded by Asia Research Institute, National
University of Singapore

2013, Fieldwork Grant of £3,978, St Peter’s College Foundation Graduate Research Award, awarded by
St Peter’s College, University of Oxford

2012-15, Clarendon Fund & St Peter’s College Diggle Scholarship, Full tuition/college fee waiver &
£13,590 p.a. at the University of Oxford,

2012, Conference Grant of S$2,000, Graduate Student Conference Funding, Faculty of Arts & Social
Sciences, NUS

2012, Conference Grant of S$500, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography Conference Award,
Geography, NUS

2011, Fieldwork Grant of S$1,445, Graduate Research Support Scheme, Faculty of Arts & Social
Sciences, NUS

2010-12, NUS Research Scholarship, Full tuition fee waiver & monthly stipend of S$1,500, National
University of Singapore

INVITED TALKS / LECTURES

Mobile Aspirations and the Nexus of Youth, Mobility, and Education, Presented (Web Seminar) at
Centre for Advanced Research, University of Brunei Darussalam, 12 March 2020.

Guest Speaker, National Library Board. Delivered post-screening talk for Read! Fest 2019 in
collaboration with the Asian Film Archive; on the film Heartbound - A Different Kind of Love Story (2018)
directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, Sine Plambech, Jul 2019.

Guest Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University. Delivered lecture for module on ‘Sociology of
Education’; on topic of transnationalizing higher education and the youth question, Mar 2017.

Guest Lecturer, Nanyang Technological University. Delivered lecture for module on ‘Cities and Urban
Life’; on topic of urban spaces, politics, and citizenship, Mar 2016.

Cultural Production of “Values beyond Value”: a Case of Private Degree Students in Singapore,
Presented at HSSE Brown Bag Seminar, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological
University, 24 Feb 2016.

Guest Lecturer, National University of Singapore. Delivered lecture for module on ‘Geographies of
Social Life’; covered key geographical concepts in the field of social geographies with particular focus on
identities, Aug 2013.
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Education, Youth, and Globalisation: Young People’s Experiences of Private Higher Education in
Singapore, Presented at St Peter’s College Foundation & Diggle Scholarship Luncheon with Scholar,
University of Oxford, 7 Feb 2013.

REGIONAL / INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES

Cheng, YE and Koh, SY (2020) The ‘soft infrastructure’ of the Belt and Road Initiative: imaginaries,
affinities, and subjectivities in Chinese transnational education. Paper presented at Crossing the River by
Feeling the Stones: Alternative Imaginaries of China’s Presence in Southeast Asia in Contemporary
Contexts, 13-14 August 2020, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Cheng, YE (2018) Liberal arts educated citizen: youth politics recalibrated? Paper presented at Youth
Politics in Urban Asia, 28-31 August, RGS-IBG Annual Conference, Cardiff.

Cheng, YE (2017) Liberal arts experiments in Asia and the Youth Citizenship Question. Paper presented at
Theorizing Citizenship in Higher Education: Students as Agents of Change?, 5-9 April 2017, Association of
American Geographers Annual Meeting, Boston.

Cheng, YE (2016) Tracing differentiation, contradiction, and correlation in youths’ degree-seeking

strategies within Singapore. Paper presented at Youth Mobilities and Immobilities in the Asia-Pacific, 7-8
November 2016, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Cheng, YE (2015) Learning in neoliberal times: private degree students and the politics value
(trans)coding in Singapore. Paper presented at Geographies of Education, 19-23 August 2015, 4th Global
Conference on Economic Geography, Oxford.

Cheng, YE (2014) Chasing the degree: emotional life under neoliberalisation through the lens of private
degree students. Paper presented at Educational Transitions: Changes, Contexts and Geographies, 26-29
August 2014, RGS-IBG Annual Conference, London.

Cheng, YE (2014) Becoming ‘included’ in neoliberal times: private degree students and their strategies to
‘belong’ in contemporary Singapore. Paper presented at Inclusionary Youth: Changes, Challenges and
Responsibilities, 18-22 August 2014, IGU Regional Conference 2014, Krakow, Poland.

Cheng, YE (2014) The emotional dimension of cultural capital: Singaporean youth ‘doing’ aspiration
through private higher education. Paper presented at Youthful Futures? Aspirations, Education and
Employment in Asia, 5-6 May 2014, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Cheng, YE, Yeoh, BSA and Zhang, J (2013) Marriage, money and masculinity: Singaporean husbands and
their negotiations of transnational topographies, Paper for Transnationalism, Gender Hierarchies and
Masculinities in Asia, 11-12 March 2013, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Cheng, YE (2012) “We don’t care how much better, it’s just better”: student mobilities, aspirations, and
the construction of ‘left-behind’ places, Paper presented at Education Mobilities in East Asia, 16-18 May
2012, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

Cheng, YE (2012) Student migrants in Singapore: reading transnational intimacies through time and
space, Paper presented at Critical Geographies of Young People: Globalization, Time, and Space, 24-28
February 2012, Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting, New York.

Cheng, YE (2012) Student migrants in Singapore: time-space narratives of youth, transition, and futurity,
Paper presented at Asia-Pacific Worlds in Motion Graduate Conference, 21-22 February 2012, National
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University of Singapore (in collaboration with St. John’s College, Department of Geography, University of
British Columbia and Metropolis British Columbia), Singapore.

Cheng, YE and Yeoh, BSA (2010) Marriage, money and masculinity: Singaporean husbands and their
negotiations of transnational topographies, Paper presented at The Nexus of Migration and Masculinity
in the Asian Context, 15-16 July 2010, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Teaching
2016-19, Faculty Instructor, Yale-NUS College.
• 2018/19: Taught ‘YSS3256 Youth Urbanisms’; Co-taught ‘YSS2220 Introduction to Urban Studies’ and
developed/led mid-term local field trip.
• 2017/18: Taught qualitative methods in ‘YSS3231 Methods in Social Sciences’; Proposed and
developed ‘Youth Urbanisms’. Proposed and developed Week 7 Lab ‘Urban Soundscapes’. Co-taught
‘YSS2220 Introduction to Urban Studies’ and developed/led mid-term field trip to Iskandar Malaysia.
• 2016/17: Taught qualitative methods in ‘YSS3231 Methods in Social Sciences’; Co-taught (with Jane
M. Jacobs) ‘YSS2220 Introduction to Urban Studies’; Co-taught (with Jane M. Jacobs) ‘YSS4207
Creative Cities’.

2011-12, Graduate Teaching Assistant, Geography, NUS.

• Facilitated tutorial classes for undergraduate modules “Globalization and Asian Cities”, “Changing
Landscapes in Singapore”, and Honours year class “Development of Geographic Thought”

Supervision and Mentoring

2020, Student-Initiated Summer Research Program, Yale-NUS College
• External advisor to undergraduate Yeung Jason Chun Yat on project entitled ‘Liberal Education in
Global Cities: University College London and University of Tokyo’, Jun-Aug 2020

2017-19, Capstone supervision, Yale-NUS College.

• Lim Sze Ching, Neighbourhood transformation: the case of “Save Joo Chiat Working Group”
• Nyang Bing Lin, On borrowed land: Sungei Road Thieves Market and responses to its closure
• Lim Se Ern, The unspectacular icon: mosaic playgrounds in a global city

2017-18, Faculty-Led Summer Research Program, Yale-NUS College.

• Mentored undergraduates Yeung Jason Chun Yat and Teo Li Xin, project on liberal arts education and
citizenship in Asia. Conducted fieldwork in Hong Kong and Shanghai, Jun-Jul 2018
• Mentored undergraduate Krishan Sanjay Mahesh, project on liberal arts education and citizenship in
Asia, Jun-Jul 2019.

SERVICE AND ROLE

Professional Affiliations
2017-19, Associate, Migration Cluster, Asia Research Institute, NUS
2011 on, Member, American Association of Geographers
2015 on, Member, Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers
2014-15, Postgraduate Fellow, Royal Geographical Society-Institute of British Geographers
2013-14, Visiting Student Affiliate, Asia Research Institute, NUS

Committees
2019-20, Member, ARISCOPE Working Committee, Asia Research Institute, NUS
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Journal Manuscript Reviewer

ACME: Sep 2019
Children’s Geographies: Apr 2016
Children, Youth and Environments: Aug 2016
Critical Studies in Education: Oct 2015; Apr 2016; Oct 2016; Dec 2016; Feb 2018
Emotion, Space and Society: Jul 2016; Aug 2018
Gender, Place, and Culture: Sep 2015; Jan 2016; Jan 2019
Geoforum: Aug 2016; Mar 2018, Sep 2019, Oct 2019
Global Networks: Aug 2017
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies: Jan 2016
Journal of Intercultural Studies: May 2018; Jun 2020
Mobilities: Feb 2018
Population, Space and Place: Jul 2018; Dec 2018
Social & Cultural Geography: Nov 2017
Sociological Research Online: Feb 2020
Time and Society: Mar 2020
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers: Jun 2018; Mar 2020

Conference/Workshop Convener
2020, Asia Research Institute, NUS. Organized workshop (in collaboration with Brenda Yeoh and Yang
Peidong) on International Student Mobilities and Post-Pandemic Futures, 5-6 Nov.

2019, Asia Research Institute, NUS. Organized workshop (in collaboration with Brenda Yeoh and Ho Kong
Chong) on Belt and Road Initiative, New Knowledge Spaces and Asian Regionalism, 27-28 Nov.

2018, Royal Geographical Society-IBG, Cardiff. Organised and chaired session (with Sonia Lam-Knott, Asia
Research Institute, NUS) on Youth Politics in Urban Asia, 28-31 Aug.

2017, American Association of Geographers, Boston. Organized and chaired session (with Mark Holton,
Plymouth) on Theorising Citizenship in Higher Education: Student, Agency, and Change, 5-9 Apr.

2016, Asia Research Institute, NUS. Organized workshop (in collaboration with Shanthi Robertson and
Brenda Yeoh) on Youth Mobilities and Immobilities in the Asia-Pacific, 7-8 Nov.

2012, Association of American Geographers, New York. Organised and chaired session (with Tracey
Skelton, NUS) on Critical Geographies of Young People: Globalization, Space and Time, New York, 24-28
Feb.

Invited Panel Chair/Discussant

2020, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop 15th Singapore Graduate Forum on Southeast Asian
Studies, 22-24 Jul.

2020, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop New Racism and Migration: Beyond Colour and the
‘West’, 16-17 Jan.

2019, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop Migrant-led Diversification and Differential Inclusion in
Arrival Cities across Asia, 20-21 Aug.

2019, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, at workshop Infrastructures of

Injustice, Singapore, 25-26 Jan.

2018, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop Multinational Migrations: Onward Migration Patterns
and Possibilities in Asia and Beyond, Singapore, 27-28 Sep.
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2016, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop Children, Family and Migration in East Asia, Singapore,
7-8 Jul.

2014, Asia Research Institute, NUS, at workshop Encountering Urban Diversity in Asia: Class and other
Intersections, Singapore, 15-16 May.