In Singapore, the relationship between gender and technology goes largely unquestioned. While the digital revolution has been celebrated for creating wealth and empowering users, the relationship between gender and technology is generally not mentioned. Is this important? Does it matter that men still dominate science and technology fields?

This month’s roundtable discussion will ponder these issues, foregrounding the Singapore government’s 10-year technology roadmap. Called Intelligent Nation 2015 (or iN2015), this roadmap was rolled out in 2006 and aims to transform Singapore into a global infocomm hub. An economic blueprint and policy document, iN2015 markets empowerment in a digital future for everyone. What is the role that gender plays in this vision?

Speaker: Ms. Shirley Soh

Shirley Soh recently completed her Master of Arts (Communication and New Media) at the National University of Singapore. Her thesis examined the ontology and politics of new technology adopted in Singapore’s latest ICT policy, ‘intelligent nation 2015’. Shirley has also worked as a TV journalist, a documentary producer, in the publishing and printing industry, and as a visual artist in practice while teaching at the Lasalle College of the Arts. Most recently, she shaped and directed Singapore Management University’s co-curricula. Shirley’s honours degree was in Political Science at the then-Singapore University. In mid-career, she obtained a BA (Fine Art) awarded by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. Her last project was co-curating the exhibition, The Sustainable Shop, for SMU.

Speaker: Ms. Margaret Tan

Margaret Tan is an academic and artist from Singapore, and works with a wide range of media. Through a feminist perspective, she is interested in the intersections of body with space, technology and culture, particularly with regards to technological embodiment and identity. Margaret recently completed her PhD with the Communications and New Media Department, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore. Her dissertation entails a critical analysis of the discourses surrounding pervasive computing and Singapore’s Intelligent Nation 2015 (iN2015) IT masterplan, and their conditions of possibility. She is concerned with how these visions and discourses intersect, and their implications on creative and feminist endeavours.

Chair: Ms. Robin Ann Rheaume

Date: Thursday June 16, 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Venue: AWARE Centre, Block 5 Dover Crescent #01-22

Click here to register this event.