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I am bilingual, fluent in both English and Chinese.
Hi, I'm Rachel! Current Research Assistant with the National University of Singapore, attached to the Social Science Research Thematic Grant "Foundations for Home-Based Work: A Singapore Study". Recent graduate of Master of Architecture (National University of Singapore) and MPhil Architecture in Urban Studies (University of Cambridge). I share an equal passion for research on urban studies and visual and communications studies. My dissertation investigated the dialectics of spontaneity and organization in social movements, using the case studies of the January 25 Revolution in Cairo, the 15-M/Indignados Movement in Madrid, and the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York City; positioned at the intersection of urban theory, media and communications theory, and new social movement theory. Do contact me if anything here piques your interest!
My general interests are in the material culture of politics and social movements, Japanese fashion, playing the piano, and exploring undocumented cultures in Singapore. I also find Reality TV fascinating.
Do contact me if anything here piques your interest!
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-sim-50b493142/
Design Portfolio (Issuu):
https://issuu.com/racheljs/docs/rach_design_portfolio_writing_samples
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Workshop Facilitator, April 2020
Module: History and Theory of Western Architecture (AR2222)
Key Tasks: Conduct weekly seminars, grade reading responses, and provide essay consultations
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Teaching Assistant, January 2020-April 2020
Module: History and Theory of Western Architecture (AR2222)
Key Tasks: Conduct weekly seminars, grade reading responses, and provide essay consultations
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Teaching Assistant, August 2019-November 2019
Module: History of Southeast Asian Architecture (AR2221)
Key Tasks: Conduct weekly consultations for essay writing, grade essay assignments and student presentations
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
[Current Role] Research Assistant under A/P Dr. Lilian Chee, September 2022-
Research Project involved in: “Foundations of Home-based Work: A Singapore Study”, supported by Social Science Research Thematic Grants, Singapore
Key Tasks: Assisting with administrative duties, including budgetary work, procurement, website design and conference planning. Co-leading a seminar module entitled “Domestic Capital and Workaround”, which involves the revision of module readings, giving student briefings, and commenting on student presentations, reading responses, and essays. Involved also in a visual ethnography of home-based work conducted in neighbourhoods around Singapore. Is expected to be involved in the editing of a special volume, as well as a journal paper on home-based work and the architectural typologies that accommodate it.
Brief Description of Research Project: Foundations of Home-based Work is an inter-disciplinary project seeking to understand how home-based work is built into homes and neighbourhoods, and what it builds for them. Supported by the Social Science Research Thematic Grant (WBS no.: A-0008463-01-00; IRB no.: NUS-IRB-2021-799), the team comprises of established researchers across the National University of Singapore’s Department of Architecture, Department of Communications and New Media, and Yale-NUS. The project was launched in September of 2021, with the aim of offering foundational scholarship to meet a gap in scholarly insight into the past and present experience of home-based work in Singapore.
See: https://www.makingdo.org/about
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Research Assistant under Provost's Prof. Heng Chye Kiang, May 2020-August 2021
Book Publication involved in: Vertical Cities Asia (upcoming)
Key Tasks: Assisted in the compilation of content - including essays and competition submissions - generated across a 5-year program organized by NUS, titled the Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition and Symposium. Involved in the initial reframing of content spanning all 5 symposiums to emphasize the importance of verticality and densification for evolving Asian cities. Heavily involved in translation (Chinese to English) and editing in the later stages of the project.
Brief Description of Research Project: The Vertical Cities Asia International Design Competition and Symposium was created to encourage design explorations and research into the prospects of new models for the increasingly vertical, dense, and intense urban environments in Asia.
See: https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/vertical-cities-asia
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Student Researcher under A/P Dr. Simone Chung, May 2019-July 2019
Journal Publication involved in: Deciphering the Spatial Rhetorics of Millennial Nomads (upcoming)
Key Tasks: Conducted semi-structured virtual interviews with millennial nomads (sourced from Facebook and other social media platforms); processed their responses through the generation of ArcGIS mobility mappings and qualitative coding in NVivo.
Brief Description of Research Project: Understanding the formation and management of a multi-mobile millennial nomad’s identity and spatial practices in the private domain, urban environment and the digital realm. Core research methodologies include virtual ethnography, spatial mapping, and systematic qualitative analysis.
See: https://millennialnomadspace.com/about/
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Student Researcher under A/P Dr. Lilian Chee, May 2019-July 2019
Book Publication involved in: Art in Public Space: Singapore (2022)
Key Tasks: Sourced and condensed research material into essays covering a range of topics, e.g. implications of Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle on human mobility, impact of colonialism on Singapore’s tropical landscape, and the evolution of public art in Singapore. Indexed and compiled an Appendix for an upcoming book on public art in the Singaporean city core - Art in Public Space: Singapore (2022), commissioned by the Urban Development Authority in 2018.
Brief Description of Research Project: Tracing the history of public art in Singapore and postulating the future trajectory of public art in Singapore.
See: https://www.ura.gov.sg/Corporate/Resources/Publications/Books/Book-Details/Art-In-Public-Space
CONFERENCE PLANNING EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, CAMBRIDGE, UNITED KINGDOM
Newnham College
Key Tasks: Head of the June 2022 instalment of the Newnham Rebels Graduate Conference, organized around the theme “Feminism in the Everyday”. Responsibilities included liaising with invited speakers, emceeing duties, logistics, and social media publicity. Invited speakers included: Anne Thorne, EDIT Collective, Araminta Hall, Jasvinder Sanghera CBE, and Empower Her Voice.
About the theme: In Living a Feminist Life, Sara Ahmed (2017) writes that feminism is a way of being, a way of thinking how to live. “Feminism is homework”, a self-assignment, and to practice feminism at home isn’t simply maintaining a house; it rebuilds the home. She further asks, “[w]hat is this thing called feminist theory?” Is it just something esoteric, produced by academics, for academics? Or is it something meant to be performed in our everyday lives? If we acknowledge that it is the latter, how would we then perform feminism? How do we express feminism in the most familiar situations, such as at the dinner table, at a meeting table, or in our work? This theme was selected for students, educators, and just anybody who is curious about how feminism can be practiced in everyday life; for those curious about how sexism ingrains itself in our surrounding environment and how they can subvert it.
See:https://www.eventbrite.sg/e/newnham-rebels-conference-22-tickets-343065286507
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE
Department of Architecture
Planning Committee Member of NUS M(Arch) Gradshow, April 2020
Key Tasks: Planned an hour-long introductory seminar on architectural pedagogy and the relevance of thesis projects to architectural students; presented Masters’ thesis project in a sociopolitical/geopolitical seminar on fieldwork/ethnographic practices in socio-politically oriented architectural projects.
AWARDS
DEAN'S LIST, 2020
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS (GOLD), 2018
Participatory Design Project | NUS SMILE Village Overseas Community-involvement project
TECHNICAL SKILLS
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Rhinoceros
Grasshopper
Unity
AutoCAD
SketchUp
Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint
EXHIBITIONS
ARCHIVAL '20 and '21
Showcased design work in annual exhibition by the NUS Department of Architecture
CITYEX '17 and '18
Showcased design work in annual exhibition by the NUS Department of Architecture, in partnership with Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA, Singapore)
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