Diverse Families
A widow raising two daughters on a single income. A family struggling to raise a child with hearing or visual impairments. A gay individual coming under the spotlight simply by virtue of his high-profile family. “Family” in Singapore has traditionally reflected a nuclear, normative, and heterosexual space that assumes the idea of safety. Furthermore, this is exacerbated by the social stigma attached to communities of differing physical ability, and sexual orientation among others.
How can we challenge the underlying assumptions within the word “family”? How do we understand the different kinds of social stigma that different communities face? Are all families safe? This theme examines diverse family structures in Singapore and how social stigma and government policies may disadvantage families that do not conform to normative ideas of a “safe” and or nuclear family structure.
Ms Carissa Cheow
"Students for a Safer NUS - Prototyping a systemic approach to keeping our communities safe"
How has the family fared as a safe space for individuals? How do we as a society support individuals who remain in unsafe families?
SafeNUS was initiated by Carissa, an ex-CAPTain and a first year Masters student at LKYSPP, alongside her friends in response to the clarion call for more survivor-centric measures in response to sexual violence cases in Singapore. Since then, SafeNUS has worked with NUS to conduct thorough reviews of the measures put in place to help survivors of sexual violence.
However, an AWARE study showed that the recent Circuit Breaker measures forced some individuals into unsafe homes. This pushed Carissa and SafeNUS to expand its reach to victims of family violence and trauma. In her CAPSTONE project, she focuses on how building a safer community can start from a safe home. This meant covering the usually-uncomfortable topic of domestic violence and relationship abuses, and how the state and community can develop a culture of non-tolerance against violence and a survivor-centric response for cases of abuse in Singapore.
Ms Clarissa Choo
“Hearing you: The experiences of deaf people in hearing families and the effects on their social functioning”
How do you communicate in a family if you have no common language? And how would that in turn affect the family relationships and dynamics experienced?
Clarissa’s initial contact with the Deaf community came in her first year in CAPT, watching two seniors sign to each other in Signing Exact English (SEE). Participating in Singapore Sign Language (SgSL) classes herself, her interest in the language and desire to better understand the Deaf community only grew from there. Interactions with Deaf adults, students and teachers to the Deaf helped her gain a deeper understanding of the community, their strengths, unique experiences as well as their struggles.
One struggle that stood out in particular was the language barrier between the Deaf and hearing, including within the family. As a Social Work student, Clarissa was curious about the implications of language differences on family dynamics and relationships. This led her to embark on a qualitative study of Deaf individuals’ experiences in their families, and the effect it had on social functioning. In her study, she spoke to Deaf adults, as well as individuals who work with the Deaf on a daily basis.
Dr Kamalini Ramdas
"Evolution/Revolution: Advocating for Diverse Families through Research and Education"
Dr. Kamalini Ramdas’ research engages with feminist and queer theory in the context of social and cultural geography. She has published in Environment and Planning A, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, Gender Place and Culture, Geoforum and has also co-edited Untying the Knot: Marriage and Reality in Asian Marriage (with Gavin Jones; Singapore: NUS Press, 2004) and Changing Landscapes of Singapore: Old Tensions, New Discoveries (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013).
In her presentation, Dr Ramdas conceptualizes the generative space of a classroom as a space for advocacy. She draws from her experiences working with Sayoni on its human rights documentation research and teaching a fourth-year honours level geography module, Gender and the City. Her collaboration with Sayoni has also resulted in research output that has allowed Sayoni to advocate for LBTQ women in Singapore. Dr Ramdas will discuss how advocacy research and education can promote critical thinking about the diverse formations of family in the classroom and beyond.