Biography

I grew up in Singapore, where I developed a fascination with history and a love for the natural world. At Harvard, I combined those two interests during my B.A. in History and Anthropology. I have a keen interest in how nature in Southeast Asia came to be understood as ‘science,’ and in histories of local knowledge and labour in colonial collections. Through academic research, public storytelling, and curatorial practice, I hope to contribute to crucial ongoing efforts to share more just and inclusive histories of science. During my MPhil in Digital Humanities, I combined a robust grounding in digital methods with critical approaches to digitised archives of science. My work culminated in a dissertation entitled 'Digital History in the Specimen Database: Colonial Science, Global Networks, and Local Collectors at the Singapore Herbarium, 1875-1941.' I am grateful to the Gates Cambridge community for a valuable and enriching experience as a scholar. In 2024, I began a PhD in the Faculty of History at Cambridge through an AHRC-funded Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the University's Museum of Zoology. My ongoing work focuses on histories of expeditionary science in the Malay Peninsula at the turn of the 20th century.

Previous Education

Harvard University History and Anthropology 2023