February 4

Interdisciplinary research: worth the while

It’s a seriously happy day for a scholarly team when the fruits of their labour are published. After months – sometimes years – of tireless work, twists and turns, and minor (or major) setbacks, the culminating publication reminds the researchers that it’s all worth it. It signals the completion of at least some aspect of the project, which the team owes funders and stakeholders, but also themselves and humankind. It carries recognition from peers of the rigour and value of the work. And it means the findings have “gotten out there:” the whole wide world – okay, part of it – is finally privy to what the team had been so keen to share all along. As such, it stands a greater chance to make a real impact. 

In my humble opinion, when that team crosses academic disciplines, it means even more.  

My scientific training is rooted in an experimental psychology. While I have broad interests in applied cognitive psychology, my PhD focused almost entirely about memory distortion, which has a natural application to the law. Immediately after my PhD, I worked in trial consulting, during which I explored juror decision-making in both mock and real trial scenarios.  

 Cut to 2019: my friend and collaborator, Dr Jacob Phelps, an environmental social scientist at the University of Lancaster, colloquially described to me a challenge he faced. He was interested in the use of civil lawsuits to remedy environmental harm, such as illegal wildlife trade. But when he asked judges about how they would rule in such cases, he struggled to obtain useful information. Over a casual chat and coffee (the best research ideas are certainly bred over food and drink), a research idea was born: we would present judges with an abridged, hypothetical case in mock trial format, and ask them to make rulings as if they were ruling in an actual case. This way, we could better learn how judges might handle argument and evidence in the context of such a trial. Was I an expert in the scholarship of wildlife conservation? Hardly. Do environmental scientists use mock trial methods in their research? Not so much. But did that stop us? Not in the slightest. The research was too important. There is too much at stake.   

In the end, I joined Dr Phelps and Ms Rika Fajrini, an Indonesian lawyer with experience in forest and land governance, to investigate judicial decision-making in the context of a mock trial about the illegal trade of two baby tigers. You can read about our work in Biological Conservation and hear about key findings here.  

The road was nonlinear. Each of us come from a discipline with its own tradition to form research questions, its own approaches to research design, and its own analytic methods. For me, the Indonesian context of the study provided language challenges, new legal systems and philosophies of jurisprudence to understand, and new cultural norms for working teams in NGO and governmental contexts. There was even disbelief at some point that it the project would “ever work,” given the degree of involvement the project required from our judge participants. And with a raging pandemic, the project lasted longer than expected. But through perseverance, leveraging upon the strengths of our diversity, and the sheer magic (and fun!) of interdisciplinary collaboration, we now know something about judicial reasoning that can promote pro-environmental outcomes.  

And this, by far, was worth the while.  

For more, see Fajrini, R., Nichols, R. M., & Phelps, J. (2022). Poacher pays? Judges’ liability decisions in a mock trial about environmental harm caused by illegal wildlife trade. Biological Conservation, 266, 109445. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109445 

 

Submission by:

Dr Rebecca Nichols

Lecturer, Psychology

School of Social Sciences

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January 3

Lead as a Global Citizen World Series Webinars

For six consecutive weeks in July and August, the Humanitarian Affairs Asia organised 11 sessions of the inaugural Lead as a Global Citizen World Series webinars to prepare participants for a global career of contribution and collaboration.

The Lead as a Global Citizen World Series webinars are part of Humanitarian Affairs Asia’s initiatives as a member of United Nations Global Compact to support the Sustainable Development Goals on Quality Education focusing on Global Citizenship. The concept of Global Citizenship is embedded in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals though SDG 4: Insuring Inclusive and Quality Education for All and Promote Life Long Learning, which includes global citizenship as one of its targets.

NTU-USP students were invited to participate in a series of webinars designed to equip them with the knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development and global citizenship. Six of our NTU-USP scholars attended the webinars, where they learnt about advocacy and being better changemakers.

 Here are their key takeaways:

1. How to amicably deal with people who possess different perspectives, personalities and life views

One key takeaway we got from the webinar was advice on how to peacefully advocate liberal ideas in more conservative societies like Singapore. The panelist advised the use of soft approaches rather than hard ones to influence, educate and align the interests of the society towards the advocated course. She advised practicing tolerance in the face of opposition and to capitalise on every opportunity to engage in constructive conversations. Her advice really struck a chord as we realised that it was common for one to given in to their basal selves and engage in heated, emotional and petulant arguments instead of fixating on the larger objective that mandates taking up the mantle of the “bigger man” to educate rather than to condemn. The focus should always be on winning the hearts and minds through open conversations and to resort to condemnation as the last resort. We were also really privileged to hear the experiences of undergraduates who have first hand experience in advocating for causes that were considered social taboos in the past.

2. Small and intentional efforts lead to big changes

The talk was motivational and eye opening, as it provided a glimpse of the different professional opportunities available. It was encouraging to see that a world of opportunity awaits us and we are not limited just by the careers we see around us. My greatest takeaway was, “small steps make meaningful contributions to all of our experiences.” Speaker Reana shared that she felt like even the smallest incremental change in her life – taking up the chore of doing dishes or cleaning the toilet – taught her many essential values that she still carries with her today. As such, we learnt that we should focus on the quality of the experience rather than the professional repute of said experience.

3. Research is an integral part of advocacy which can inform efforts to make social change

​​While there are different research methodologies, there are certain guiding principles that you should keep at the back of your mind. One best practice is the cost-benefit analysis: does the risk associated with that research outweigh the benefits for the society/individual, or vice versa?

4. The importance of overseas exposure in developing cultural competencies

The seminar discussed the importance of overseas exposure in our development as global citizens, and recommended that we look for overseas internships. To achieve this, we were recommended to build up cultural competence before the journey, and to network with potential employers with bases overseas. However, one key point raised during the talk was that it was ok to zoom in on an area of the world one had interest in. Our reflections on this suggest that this is because having an interest in a certain area of the world facilitates the building of cultural competencies in that region, and narrows our options for networking, allowing us greater efficiency in the endeavour.

5. The distinction between global and local in an increasingly globalized yet culturally distinct world, and how one might seek to institute social change within said context

During the seminar, two interesting questions were raised: 1) where is the distinction between local and global; and 2) how else could we end up in a position where we can strongly influence change?

As to the first question, the panelists believed that the distinction is becoming more blurred. They stressed the need for cultural competence, because the interconnected nature of the world calls for people to ‘think global’ but ‘act local’. Lacking cultural competence in either the local situation or the target location’s situation precludes the ability to do so.

As to the second question, some of the panelists had been in positions of political power before, but they acknowledged that businesses might be another way to institute change. This is an interesting concept that could have been explored further, if there had been more time. World-spanning businesses may, in fact, have much to contribute to the development and acceptance of global citizenry. It remains to be seen how they may implement this in future.

6. The importance of Linkedin as a tool of social and cultural connectivity

Linkedin is an important platform to gain connections, don’t think of it as a hassle because it will really help you to get traction for your organisations and help you to find like-minded people who are interested in the same cause.

7. Getting business onboard to advocate for social causes alongside you can be a powerful tool for change

In that regard, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a rising phenomenon today that activists can tap on. Some countries mandate businesses to have a social reporting component so CSR is mandatory for them. Be aware of how their mission and vision may align with your social cause and network with them.

 

Submission by: 

Goh E- Jie Aloysius, Year 2, PPGA

Ryan Tan Swee Keat, Year 2, ECPP

Ben Tan Kai Xiang, Year 2, ADM

Priyadharshini D/O Chockalingam, Year 3, PSY

Lim Ziqian, Year 3, PPGA

Chong Han, Year 4, LMS

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January 3

An Interdisciplinary Approach to Tackle Contemporary issues

The term “interdisciplinary” sounds grand and glamorous, but what does it really mean to be an interdisciplinary student? This is something that I pondered upon since the start of my NTU-USP journey. Four years down the road, I can safely say that the exposure to an interdisciplinary curriculum has provided me with opportunities to apply knowledge from various fields in my current work. Upon graduation with a Bachelor’s in Communication Studies, I am currently pursuing a PhD under the Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme in NTU. My research focuses on the use of digital technologies such as virtual reality and video games to improve people’s self-perceptions and interpersonal interactions. Till date, I have had the opportunity to take up courses in various areas such as Psychology, Sociology, and virtual environment design. The thought of having to scale a steep learning curve appears rather daunting initially yet being able to gain knowledge in a new area can be a really fulfilling experience. Furthermore, this is crucial in achieving my research goal, which is to improve people’s self-perceptions and social experiences using digital technologies. This requires one to have an understanding on how people communicate with one another, while also knowing how to conceptualize and utilize current digital tools to achieve those goals. Over my four years in NTU-USP, there were various opportunities to discover how knowledge gathered across disciplines can be integrated to tackle different issues. For instance, I had the chance to work with a team from various disciplines on a qualitative research project during the Travel Overseas Programme for Scholars (TOPS) and that experience prompted me to ruminate upon the research topic through both the lenses of a Business and Social Sciences student. I also managed to incorporate some of the knowledge that I have gained from the NTU-USP classes such as Ethics and Error and Bias into my Final Year Project, which examined how players make moral decisions in video games and their subsequent intergroup perceptions after the game play. The various classes outside of my main field of study allowed me to have a better understanding about how people perceive others, as well as some of the moral considerations that people have when faced with ethical dilemmas. Altogether, those experiences helped me to better design the video game for the study and consider various perspectives that could influence the research findings. While the idea of being interdisciplinary might allow us to be more marketable and more knowledgeable, it is still crucial to be an expert in a particular field of interest. Being exposed to an interdisciplinary curriculum provides an icing on the cake by allowing us to extend our knowledge in various areas. This would be helpful, particularly when we are tackling certain issues such as improving intergroup perceptions, self-perceptions, and attitudes toward environmental issues, which might require more than just one area of knowledge in order to devise an intervention.

 

Submission by:

Koek Wei Jie Dominic, Class of 2020

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January 3

At Home on the Range

In mid-December, I was invited to give a “Last Lecture”. This is an excellent idea, to invite lecturers to give a talk that summarises their parting advice to students even before they embark on their career.

Summarising my thoughts in one 40-minute talk was harder than I thought but I knew my very first point: be a “ranger”. Earlier in the year, I had stumbled upon a book by a sports journalist, David Epstein, titled “Range: How Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” published 2020. The book begins with how when one asks successful people for their secret to success, many will say: this is how I did it, but do not follow my path. As I thought of my own path, it struck me that that was exactly what I would tell those who ask me.

My educational path is unusual. I did double-maths and physics and was headed to hardcore engineering, which was where most of my classmates landed when they won scholarships. I ended up in law. And then in a newspaper working as a journalist. And then doing a PhD in mass media, when there was no communication school in Singapore. I would echo the remarks of those interviewed by Epstein: do not follow my path.  

At a superficial level, following that line of don’t-follow-my-path thinking, it would mean that the path to success is not to follow the path of successful people. Of course, being more thoughtful (and, I would say, theoretical) there is a principle to be abstracted: and that is that one should “range”, ie try a variety of experiences because one never knows how events develop.

In the book, the contrasting metaphor is Tiger Woods vs Roger Federer. We know Tiger Woods as the golf prodigy who learned to play golf well before even going to elementary school. That is a common understanding of success: it’s Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000-hours-of-practice model. Start early and keep on drilling, in both senses.

In contrast, Roger Federer, a world tennis champion, played different sports such as basketball and football when he was young, before settling on tennis. This is the less publicised model for success but one that is more common for most people. (There is a YouTube video of Gladwell and Epstein talking about their perspectives.)

The academic response to reconcile the two contrasting approaches would be the failsafe academic answer: it depends. It depends if the sport is “static” such as golf or chess, then 10,000 hours of practice can lead to success. On the other hand, if the sport is “dynamic” such as tennis, then a “ranging” approach could work better.

In today’s world, where there are so much more options in work and business, I think that a ranging approach offers even more scope. There are so many interesting and varied jobs and possibilities. Who could have guessed that there could be an occupation label such as “influencer”?

It is possible to succeed by specialising. In my own household, my wife is the specialist—she did accounting and has stayed in that line throughout her working career. As a volunteer in non-profit organisations, she has ended up being the treasurer.

But for more of us, the ranging approach is worth trying.

In the metaphor of Tiger Woods, Epstein ponders the current fate of the former golf champion. Perhaps having a ranging approach might better equip him to address the dynamic nature of life itself.

Go range.

 

Submission by:

Professor Ang Peng Hwa

Director, NTU-USP

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