When I visited Madrid for the first time last December, I was spellbound by the city. It seemed like a good time to visit. December is gentler in Spain than in northwestern Europe and I was rewarding myself for having completed a major project. With A in tow, we inhaled what Madrid had to offer… Continue reading Madrid
Category: Culture
Film x reading group event in Singapore (June 2024)
When I started my first academic job at the University of Malaya, I was determined to take, in my own limited way and with varying degrees of success, the tutorial session outside the university confines. These were organised as monthly feminist reading groups that invited members of the public to join in a discussion of… Continue reading Film x reading group event in Singapore (June 2024)
Feminist Reading Group 3 – Malaysian femininity and housework
The last in the series of our meetings is on Saturday morning 11 am on 19th March 2016 at our usual location AWAM -85, Jalan 21/1, Sea Park, 46300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. The quickest way to get to AWAM is by LRT Taman Paramount. It is a 2-minute walk away. We will discussing Angela… Continue reading Feminist Reading Group 3 – Malaysian femininity and housework
Thinking intersectionally about Malay women and the tudung
I have been thinking a lot about intersectionality and women who do not wear the tudung lately and it is not so much because the concept is de rigueur right now as I have been accused of not being intersectional enough in my viral article, Asal-usul obsesi Melayu dengan tudung (The origins of the Malay… Continue reading Thinking intersectionally about Malay women and the tudung
New column on Malay Mail Online on the ‘sexual dynamics of looking’
Do read my new column on the Malay Mail, ‘Sexual dynamics of looking‘, published on 26th June 2014, in which I talk about what it means when women are told not to look at men.
What does a city for women look like?
How does a woman walk in a city in the daytime and at night? Does she walk head held up high? Does she think her hair is showing through her headscarf, her knee-length skirt too short? Will that be commented on by someone on the street? Does she walk under what Shilpa Phadke calls the… Continue reading What does a city for women look like?
A Malaysian scholar remembers Stuart Hall
First published in my Malay Mail column on 27th February 2014: A great intellectual died on February 10, 2014. His name was Stuart Hall, dubbed the “godfather of multiculturalism.” As the tributes by academics made up of peers and admirers alike came flooding in, I thought about the impact of Hall’s work concerning identity and… Continue reading A Malaysian scholar remembers Stuart Hall
In supermodernity, is the subaltern a cyborg?
First published in The State on 20th January 2014. When I lived in South Jakarta, my initial access to the internet was in the nearby warnet, a portmanteau word composed of ‘warung’ (cafe or stall) and internet. The warnet was tiny and had no chairs. Planks of wood were used as benches for a dozen… Continue reading In supermodernity, is the subaltern a cyborg?
My 5 cultural highlights of 2013
First published in The State on 2nd January 2014 1. Exhibition of the year. Traces: Ana Mendieta Retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, 24th September – 15 December 2013. When Cuban artist Ana Mendieta fell to her death from her New York City apartment in 1985, it might seem as if it had eclipsed her career.… Continue reading My 5 cultural highlights of 2013
Towards a Viridian feminist future
This piece is part of the 5 year Viridian retrospective organised by Tim Maly, published in The State on 13 December 2013: Viridian Design was an avant-garde bright green design movement engineered by Bruce Sterling and intended to address climate change. It ran from 1998-2008. Five years later, we reflect. The vision of a Viridian… Continue reading Towards a Viridian feminist future