The past few months have offered rich opportunities for reflection:

• I commented on Professor Chua Beng Huat’s new book, Public Subsidy, Private Accumulation at the Asia Research Institute on May 2, 2024.
• AcademiaSG held our first in-person conference on May 6-7, 2024. The artists, academics, journalists, and activists who presented were extraordinary–knowledgeable, nuanced, humorous, reflexive. After two days listening to their presentations, I gave these closing remarks.
• The most challenging writing I’ve had to do in recent times (possibly ever) is a personal essay about my journey as a sociologist, How I’ve managed to stay an academic (thus far). I was encouraged to keep writing by the fact that I was in the marvelous company of Linda Lim, Kevin Tan, Mark Baildon, and Cherian George. The essay is a part of a series we call Occupational Hazards. I did not say much about this in my essay but AcademiaSG–the collective, our shared and evolving vision and project–has been one of the most fulfilling things in my journey.
• Finally, thanks to the fearless and indefatigable feminists, Kanwaljit Soin and Margaret Thomas, who invited me to contribute thoughts about Singapore’s future in Why Not?: Thinking about Singapore’s Tomorrow, I was able to pause to reflect on what I’ve learnt from the numerous people I’ve interviewed over the years. The chapter that resulted is Ordinary People Dream (which World Scientific has kindly made accessible for download; Jom also generously published an excerpt).