Dr Ernest Koh - Researcher Profile

Biography

I graduated from The University of Western Australia with a BA (Hons) in History and a PhD in Asian Studies, and joined the History Department at Monash in January 2008. My areas of expertise are in Overseas Chinese history (especially migration and economic histories), oral history and memory in Asia, and nationalism and the end of empire in Southeast Asia.

I am currently working on two projects: Diaspora at War is a monograph that investigates the nature of wartime identity among the Chinese of Malaya during the Second World War. It tracks the stories of a constituency of Overseas Chinese who volunteered to serve in the Chinese and British military services during the conflict in both Europe and Asia, and investigates their absence in national narratives that commemorate the Second World War in postcolonial Malaya.

I am also collaborating with three other colleagues, from both within the department at Monash and internationally, in putting together an edited volume on oral history and memory in Southeast Asia, based on a conference that was organised in Singapore in June 2010.

Qualifications

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY WITH DISTINCTION

Institution: The University of Western Australia

Year awarded: 2008

BACHELOR OF ARTS (HON)

Institution: The University of Western Australia

Year awarded: 2003

Publications

Books

Koh, E.W.S., 2010, Singapore Stories: Language, Class, and the Chinese of Singapore 1945-2000, Cambria Press, New York, United States.

Book Chapters

Koh, E., 2010, A diaspora at war: national and transnational narratives of Singapore's Second World War, in The Makers & Keepers of Singapore History, eds Loh Kah Seng and Liew Kai Khiun, Singapore Heritage Society, Singapore, pp. 242-254.

Koh, E., 2010, Singapore memories: remembering, and the makers and keepers of Singapore history, in The Makers & Keepers of Singapore History, eds Lo Kah Seng and Liew Kai Khium, Singapore Heritage Society, Singapore, pp. 195-204.

Koh, E.W.S., 2009, Gender and discipline in the 'Singapore story': the female Chinese factory workers in perspective c.1980-1990, in Reframing Singapore: Memory, Identity, Trans-Regionalism, eds Derek Heng and Syed Muhd Khairudin Alijunied, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 109-130.

Journal Articles

Baldwin, A.J., Koh, E.W.S., 2012, Enhancing student engagement in large, non-disciplinary first year survey courses, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education [E], vol 24, issue 1, ISETL, www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/, pp. 113-121.

Koh, E.W.S., 2012, The Chinese of Singapore and their imperial Second World War 1939-1945, Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies [P], vol 5, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia, pp. 57-78.

Koh, E., 2007, Ignoring History from Below: People's History in the Historiography of Singapore, History Compass [P], vol 5, issue 1, Blackwell, USA, pp. 11-25.

Koh, E., 2007, On the margins of the "economic miracle": Non english-literate Chinese factory workers in Singapore, 1980-90, Southeast Asian Studies [P], vol 44, issue 4, Centre for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan, pp. 466-493.

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Gender and the Developmental State: Low-skilled Female Labour in Singapore 1960 - 1980.

Supervisors:

O''Hanlon, S (Main), Koh, E (Associate), Murphy, K (Associate).

Program of Study:

(MASTER'S BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Genealogy: The Why and How.

Supervisors:

Drakard, J (Main), Koh, E (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Institutionalisation in Victoria: Its history and its impact on individuals, families and communities.

Supervisors:

O''Hanlon, S (Main), Koh, E (Associate).

Program of Study:

(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).

Thesis Title:

Vietnam memories: an interdisciplinary study of oral history, documentary-filmmaking and making the private, public.

Supervisors:

Thomson, A (Main), Koh, E (Associate).

Completed Supervision

Student:

Bourke, V.

Program of Study:

Remembering the bombing of Darwin: making sense of war memories. (Masters) 2012.

Supervisors:

Thomson, A (Main), Koh, E (Associate).

Student:

Wilkie, D.

Program of Study:

The Deconstruction of a Convict Past. (Masters) 2011.

Supervisors:

Thomson, A (Main), Koh, E (Associate).