Hi, I’m Corrie, and I make sense of art through intimate writing. A wayfarer between academia and journalism, I’m often invited into projects where I can be a critical companion, resource sharer and co-thinker, and can offer up rich textual accompaniment to a creative process or work. At the moment, I’m arts editor of the independent digital magazine Jom and the artistic director of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network.

In my various roles, I desire to be an architect of affect, where I consider all the ways I can scaffold the emotional or affective spaces around any activity I’m creating, or have a shared responsibility for. In both my personal and professional lives, I hope to build affective architectures around “hosting” or “holding” spaces for people, so they feel like they can be invited to be their best selves. This space may be a classroom, or it may be a page of text. 

On the academic front, I received my joint Ph.D. in Theatre & Performance Studies from King’s College London and the National University of Singapore, generously funded by the President’s Graduate Fellowship (NUS) and the Li Siong Tay Postgraduate Scholarship (Tan Kah Kee Foundation). My doctoral work is practice-led and knits together care ethics, collaborative practices, and new articulations of performance criticism in archipelagic Southeast Asia. My thesis, The Intimate Critic, is grounded in theory-doing and performance-making from this region. I believe criticism is a relational act. I like thinking about the critic as a shapeshifting intermediary, archivist and collaborator—with an emphasis on care work, intimacy and generosity.

Other things I’m exploring and (un/re)learning: Southeast Asian performance (Singapore in particular); contemporary archipelagic thinking; participatory, political, and site-specific performance; new dramaturgies, including ecodramaturgy and feminist practices; care ethics; emotion, affect and intimacy; postcolonialism and decolonialities.

Before all this, I graduated from Brown University with a B.A. (Hons) in Literary Arts on a Singapore Press Holdings Journalism Scholarship. I worked as an arts journalist for many years before transitioning to academia. I hold an M.A. (Dist) in Performance & Culture from Goldsmiths, University of London as a recipient of both the National Arts Council (Singapore) Postgraduate Arts Scholarship and the Goldsmiths International Scholarship.

As a researcher, I engage with scholars from the Southeast Asian region as a priority, with praxis as a cornerstone of the work I do. I was formerly assistant editor with AcademiaSG and was also on the Future Advisory Board of Performance Studies international. It’s important to me that research is accessible and legible to the communities and publics we serve, but that strategies of refusal and illegibility are also available when we need them. I often work and think with my peers, feminist scholars Nurul Huda Rashid and Phoebe Pua.

As a critic, I am the arts editor of weekly digital magazine Jom. I also run The Intimate Critic, an intermittent newsletter on performance, intimacy, care and criticism. I have covered the arts for 15 years, and was formerly contributing editor and resident critic with Southeast Asian arts platform ArtsEquator, and part of their inaugural Asian Arts Media Roundtable for regional writers. I’ve also written regularly for The Guardian, The Stage, Exeunt Magazine and The Straits Times. I value long-term relationships, generosity, and asking good questions.

As a dramaturg, I am the artistic director of the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network. In my practice, I’ve worked with theatre practitioner Chong Gua Khee and dance artist Bernice Lee on their long-term performance project Tactility Studies; their approaches and ethos have deeply informed and are densely intertwined with the work I do. I also often work with playwright Nabilah Said, theatre company Drama Box and dance company P7:1SMA. To me, dramaturgy is about companionship, communication, and a commitment to people over outcomes.

As a facilitator & mentor, my pedagogy is closely aligned with Joan Tronto’s ethical elements of care: attentiveness, responsibility, competence and responsiveness. I relish scaffolding students’ creative and critical explorations. To me, the classroom is a space of rehearsal, both for myself and my students, and I do my best to offer multiple means of engagement, representation and expression for their creative and research tasks. I also contributed to the development of the inaugural MFA Fine Art at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts.