Happy new year, dear readers and friends.

This will be a short update; I’m just emerging from a period of creative hibernation and rejuvenation and readying myself for the fertile period that comes after the fallow.

In 2024, I…

officially received my Ph.D., after six long years
participated in the ArtsEquator Fellowship supporting mid-career arts critics from South-east Asia
concluded my one-year contract as Senior Lecturer at NAFA’s School of Fine Art, where I had the privilege of working with the most dedicated colleagues, and students who certainly taught me more than I taught them
co-organised and curated two international programmes for the Asian Dramaturgs’ Network, one as part of the ACT Shanghai Contemporary Theatre Festival (September) and the other in partnership with the Czech Association of Independent Theatres, Continental Drift: Connecting Asia-Europe Dramaturgies (June to December)
marked my first anniversary as arts editor of Jom! I commissioned and/or wrote a total of 12 long-form essays about the arts and culture in Singapore, and it’s been a pleasure working closely with our contributors and publishing our second print issue
spoke at several different events, including presenting my research at Performance Studies international’s annual conference (June), and as keynote speaker at the Foresight Conference organised by the Prime Minister’s Office (August)
took an intense summer sailing trip off the south-west coast of the UK with my colleagues Sudhir Thomas Vadaketh and Faris Joraimi from Jom, part of our seafaring training for a longer sea-based book project we are embarking on, which engages with the contemporary developments and historical contexts of our livelihoods and shared cultural heritages in the Riau archipelago

It’s been a wonderful, restorative year and I am looking forward very much to what the next one will bring.