Hi there, I'm Kai!

I am a storyteller, researcher, and journalist.

Currently, I am pursuing my PhD studies at Stockholm University's Department of Media Studies. My research investigates the inequalities and structures that render marginalised groups invisible in data, and what we can learn from past efforts to resist, refute, and correct epistemic injustice.

My published research focuses on civil society responses to Singapore's controversial law against "fake news" and how civil society navigates authoritarian constraints over data.

Prior to this, I studied sociology and political science, graduating at the top of my class from the University of Cambridge as a postgraduate Chevening scholar (which funded my degree), and completing my undergraduate studies at Leiden University.

Background:

Beyond academia, I have also been a journalist with The Straits Times, Singapore's national newspaper, covering subcultures and under-represented perspectives. This means that I've consistently written the newspaper's most unusual stories.

My feature-length investigations have spanned everything from the prevalence of image-based sexual abuse, internet restrictions faced by domestic workers, how the nation's ride-hailing app's expansion is intertwined with precarity, and a history of dying in Singapore.

My past work includes stints in journalism (at Business Insider and Yahoo Singapore) and working with non-profits and think tanks (the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism - The Hague and the Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict).

Between 2019 and 2022, I also compiled the POFMA'ed Dataset, which recorded every instance of use of Singapore's controversial law against "fake news". This dataset was cited by Freedom House, the International Commission of Jurists, and the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights in their analyses of the law's impact on political discourse.

To contact me:

You can reach me at teokaixiang@protonmail.com or kaixiang.01 on Signal. Always happy to be a listening ear, especially if you have a story to share or are looking to collaborate on research.

I can also be found on LinkedIn and Bluesky.

If you enjoy my work, check out my personal newsletter dedicated to the overlooked, obscure, and seemingly trivial things that define life in Singapore: Singapore Samizdat.