The Australian National University

Undergraduate, School of Sociology

Ph.B. candidate

College of Arts & Social Sciences

Thesis Title: Agency, Intentionality and Reflexivity: From the ‘Discursive’ to the ‘Performative’ and ‘Affective’ Turn in the Social Sciences

About

RESEARCH INTERESTS
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1. Contemporary Social, Cultural, and Political Thought:
Post-Structuralism and Post-Modernism; Critical Realism; Ideology, knowledge production, power and resistance; Agency, intentionality and reflexivity; Performativity; Affect; Non-representational theories; Deliberative Democracy and Agonism; Rhetoric, emotion and persuasion in politics; Theoretical and methodological issues in ethnographic writing

2. Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Anthropology:
Language Ideology; Language identities and sociopolitical affiliations; Language attitudes and beliefs; Theories of discourse/textual analysis; Language Policy and Planning; Sociolinguistic studies of Singapore and Australia

3. Memory and Heritage Studies:
Collective Memory; Memory and social relations; The Politics of memory; Agency, guilt and responsibility in memory; Memory, representation and inter-textuality


SCHOLARSHIPS, AWARDS & GRANTS
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Jun 2011  ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences Conference Travel Grant
(AUD $1,500)
Apr 2011  ANU Chancellor's Letter of Commendation
Mar 2011  Golden Key International Honour Society, Member by Invitation
Jul 2010  ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences Ph.B. Scholarship


RESEARCH & PUBLICATIONS IN PROGRESS
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Tan, Sherman. 2012 (tentative). “Language Ideology in resistance to dominant hierarchies of linguistic worth: Mandarin Chinese and Chinese "Dialects" in Singapore." The Australian Journal of Anthropology. Special Issue on Linguistic Anthropology.

Tan, Sherman and Tan, Kenneth Paul. 2012 (tentative). “LGBT (Lesbian-Gay-Bisexual-Transsexual) discourses in the Performing Arts in Singapore as sociopolitical resistance.” Journal Article in progress.

Tan, Sherman. 2012 (tentative). “Performance/Performativity and Sociolinguistics: Some suggestions for research.” Conference Paper in progress.

Tan, Sherman. 2013 (tentative). “Agency, Intentionality and Reflexivity: From the ‘Discursive’ to the ‘Performative’ and ‘Affective’ Turn in the Social Sciences.” Undergraduate Honours Thesis-in-progress.


PUBLICATIONS
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Tan, Sherman. 2011. "Understanding the "structure" and "agency" debate in the social sciences." Habitus (Yale Sociology Department) 1: 36-50.

Tan, Sherman and Ng, Bee Chin. 2010. "Three generations under one roof: A study of the influence of the presence of grandparents on language shift, identity and attitudes." Travaux neuchâtelois de linguistique 52: 69-92.


CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS & TALKS
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Tan, Sherman. 2011. “Contemporary Visions of Power and Resistance: On the relevance of Jurgen Habermas, Michel Foucault, and Judith Butler.” Inaugural Annual Ph.B. Arts/Science Conference, The Australian National University. October 26, 2011.

Tan, Sherman. 2011. “Language-ideological processes in the resistance against language policy and standardization: The case of Mandarin Chinese and Chinese ‘dialects’ in Singapore.” 60 years of Anthropology at the ANU, Panel for Linguistic Anthropology on “Interlanguage and Intercultural Articulations in the Asia-Pacific”, The Australian National University. September 24-26, 2011.

Tan, Sherman and Ng, Bee Chin. 2011. “Three generations under one roof: A study of the influence of the presence of grandparents on language shift, identity and attitudes.” International Symposium on Bilingualism 8, University of Oslo. June 15-18, 2011.

Tan, Sherman. 2009. A brief sharing of my experiences as an Assistant on “Singapore Voices: A sound installation on Endangered Languages”. Symposium on Language and Diversity, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. March 5-6, 2009.


RESEARCH DESCRIPTION
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I am a final year undergraduate research student enrolled in the ANU Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.) program. In 2012, I will be working on my honours thesis in Sociology. For more information on the ANU Ph.B. (Hons) program, please visit http://studyat.anu.edu.au/programs/4140HBPHIL;overview.html

I am interested in a wide range of theoretical and philosophical debates/issues in social-scientific research. These include (but are not limited to) ideas about (social) structure and agency, materialism and idealism, stability and change, as well as related concepts like intentionality, causality, emergence, supervenience and reflexivity. I am also interested in the notion of scientific "paradigms", as well as processes of justification, legitimation and authority (on the part of intellectuals) in the construction of theory and in the production/writing of ethnographic accounts.

I am also developing a theoretical understanding of collective memory, based on the current interdisciplinary literature. This is informed by historical studies of war and conflict, theories of power and identity politics, as well as various theoretical perspectives in the anthropology/sociology of time and memory.

In Linguistics, I am especially interested in understanding the inter-relatedness of language, culture, and social life. In particular, I draw upon sociological, anthropological and social-psychological approaches to language such as social identity theory and communication accommodation theory. To this end, I have published an article documenting the implications of language loss of Chinese dialects in Singapore on familial relationships and the social identity of Singaporean youths. I am also currently working on a paper examining the interrelation between language ideology, power and resistance - with regards to the sociolinguistic situation in Singapore.

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