Soon How, LOH
Soon How is a PhD student at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. His research thesis for his master’s degree, completed in early 2023, also under NIE, NTU, examined adolescents’ perspectives on multiculturalism in Singapore. He completed his Bachelor Degree in Sociology at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS). He was Convenor and a Fellow (2023 to 2024) of the now defunct Ethics and Education Reading Group. A latecomer to the social sciences, his venture into sociology began after happening upon C. Wright Mills’ “The Sociological Imagination” and, later, was intrigued by Georg Simmel’s and Erving Goffman’s writings. His research and writing focus on citizenship, culture, ethnicity, racialisation, multiculturalism, and nationalism, as well as sociology of education and family.
a student of sociology
When I first picked up sociology, I was primarily curious about the sociology of culture and ethnicity. Living in the race-conscious Singapore society which is avowedly multicultural inevitably contributed to my interest in multiculturalism. My interest in multiculturalism was the motivation for the research topic of my master’s thesis and part of the thesis was later developed into my first single-author paper with Ethnic and Racial Studies, published in 2022, arguing for the contemporary relevance of multiculturalism by dissecting two prominent post-multiculturalism alternatives, interculturalism and transculturalism.
Before embarking on my master’s degree, the research work I was involved in at the NIE, NTU as a research assistant centred on collective teacher learning and professional development. Under the mentorship of Associate Professors Hairon Salleh and Jonathan Goh, I took on an interest in Rasch analysis and hierarchical linear modelling. It was during this time that I dabbled in research on education and gained greater appreciation of the lived experiences of young people. I was also previously with the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), National University of Singapore (NUS), as a research assistant working on issues pertaining to demography and the family in Singapore. During my time at the IPS, my participation in regular discussions on social policies and current affairs with colleagues, mainly former Principal Research Fellow Yap Mui Teng and Senior Research Fellow Christopher Gee, led to my writing of a handful of professional articles, two of which were published in local broadsheets. My concern about the family, as an evolving institution in modern society and its internal dynamics, grew. Although I have a few burning questions and ideas (including an initial intention to pursue my master’s research in this area), it is a regret that not much materialised in terms of research and writing.
Prior to my endeavour into research work, I was a special education teacher for students with autism and a technician by training in my early career. Despite having moved on from special needs education, my concern in this area continues. Less could be said about my interest in the field of technical work, outside of simple electrical fault finding and replacing household electrical fixtures. Nevertheless, I found myself “in charge” (although “assigned” would be a more accurate term except that no such apparent assignment occurred) of the janitorial duties at home. This has, in turn, shaped my perspective and interest in the sociological aspect of the family and household chores. When one cleans, it seems to invite reflection on the enterprise and phenomenon of the family in its malleable entirety. Then again, it could just be my wild-running train of thoughts.
Most of my energy is currently invested in my PhD work and related scholarly pursuits. My research on multiculturalism has branched into an attempt to conceptualise and distinguish systemic racialisation from systemic racism (my paper on this was published in 2025 in Ethnicities) to provide a more nuanced and targeted critique for discourses on race, racialisation, and racism. It has also led me to look into the related concepts of and issues in nationalism and national identity (see my 2025 paper published in Journal of Intercultural Studies). These pathways in my research sharpen as well as expand my focus into citizenship, an area I am working on right now.
contact
email: soonhowloh@gmail.com
bluesky: @lohsoonhow.bsky.social
linkedin: lohsoonhow
twitter: @lohsoonhow
Loh Soon How 