Mental Health Stigma in Singapore: The Impact of Stories

Date: 27 October, Friday | Time: 10:30am - 12:00pm | Venue: LT4, Gaia, Nanyang Technological University

Speakers: Assoc Prof Graham Matthews, Asst Prof Michelle Chiang, Ms Melissa Ho, Ms Azila Rozaini

Programme Description

The panel, comprised of members from the NTU Medical Humanities Cluster, will present their ongoing collaboration on an interdisciplinary project that analyses the impact of local mental health narratives on stigma against persons with mental health conditions (PMHCs) in Singapore. They will share information about their three distinct strands of research, each employing unique methodologies: the core analysis of narratives, focus group discussions with PMHCs, and multi-disciplinary and cross-sector roundtables.

Speaker Bios

Assoc Prof Graham Mathews	Associate Professor Graham Matthews holds the position of Associate Professor in Medical Humanities at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research in literature, science and the arts can be found in journals such as Modern Fiction Studies, Textual Practice, Configurations, Literature & History, Literature & Medicine, and English. His current research projects include an interdisciplinary and cross-sector engagement with culture and mental health stigma in Singapore, and a book-length study of medicine in mid-century British literature.
​ Asst Prof Michelle Chiang	Assistant Professor Michelle Chiang holds the position of Assistant Professor of English and is the coordinator of the Medical Humanities Research Cluster at Nanyang Technological University. Her selected publications include Samuel Beckett's Intuitive Spectator: Me to play (Palgrave, 2018) and "It'll never end, I'll never go": Representation of Caregiving in Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Footfalls (Journal of Medical Humanities, 2023). Beckett led her to explore embodied lives in absolute systems that persistently fail to account for lived experiences. Her literary research intersects with her medical humanities interests in narratives of loss: the loss of physical control, the witnessing of loss, and the experience of dying. She is currently the Principal Investigator of a Ministry of Education (Singapore) funded research project Medical Humanities Approach to the Value of Patient Stories and Narrative Ethics.
​ Ms Melissa Ho	​Melissa Ho is a Research Associate in the Medical Humanities Research cluster at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, where she works on the SSRC-funded project, ‘Developing Guidelines for Cultural Production to Combat Mental Health Stigma in Singapore.’ Her research interests lie in autism narratives, discourses on value, and accessibility and inclusivity policy.
​ Ms Azila Rozaini	​Azila Rozaini is a Graduate (Research) student at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological University. She is currently working on the SSRC-funded project, ‘Developing Guidelines for Cultural Production to Combat Mental Health Stigma in Singapore’. Her research interests are in Postcolonial, Southeast Asian and Gothic Literature.