I am a sociologist and researcher affiliated with the University of Auckland and the National University of Singapore. I am also the Editor-in-Chief of Sociology Compass, and the Managing Editor of Current Sociology, two journals with a significant presence in sociological publishing. I have a PhD from the National University of Singapore, an MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a BA from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. I specialize in issues of mixed race/mixed ethnic identity, citizenship and belonging, multiculturalism, diversity and social cohesion in Asia and the Pacific.

I have worked as a researcher in academic institutions and international organizations, including at the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Economic Forum. I regularly work with the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and with academic colleagues around the world. I have published over 40 journal articles, chapters and books on issues of identity, belonging, and race and ethnicity, with a focus on mixed and complex identities. My most recent book, Applied and Clinical Sociology in Aotearoa New Zealand, explored practical and policy applications of sociological research.

My monograph “Mixed Race” Identities in Asia and the Pacific: Experiences from Singapore and New Zealand was published in 2016. I co-edited two volumes on mixed race: Mixed Race in Asia: Past, Present and Future (2017, with Farida Fozdar) and Mana Tangatarua: Mixed heritages, ethnic identity and biculturalism in Aotearoa/New Zealand (2018, with Melinda Webber). In 2020, Peter J. Aspinall and I published The Palgrave International Handbook on Mixed Racial and Ethnic Classification, the first volume to bring together scholars from all over the world to explore the global classifications of mixedness.