How the Humanities and Social Sciences Can Help Us Hack the STEM Fields

Some of the world’s most successful leaders in technology fields have backgrounds in the humanities and social sciences. Jack Ma of Alibaba was an English literature major. Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder of Slack, studied philosophy. Steve Jobs studied philosophy and psychology before spending time traveling in India, where he studied Buddhism and Asian religions. What allowed these tech innovators to stand apart from their peers was their ability to anticipate future challenges and seek out opportunity for growth using the strategic and creative skills that they honed as students of the humanities and social sciences.

This roundtable brings together practitioners and academics from across the humanities and social science fields for an exciting conversation about how tech innovations in anthropology, psychology, Asian studies, communications and media studies, financial technology, and the digital humanities can help us answer important social and cultural issues and challenges in Singapore and our globalized world. In the process, we’ll have a chance to discuss how tech innovation can help us advance our dreams for Singapore’s future and help us develop a happier, healthier, fairer, more just, and more equal society.

Speakers

Dr Yow Wei Quin

Wei Quin is a Professor and Head of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences Department at Singapore University of Technology and Design. Her research interests lie in social sciences and her discipline is in psychology.

Dr Setsuko Yokoyama

Setsuko is Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, at Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in Singapore University of Technology and Design. Her current research concerns the literary history of speech-to-text technology (STT), and reimagines the contemporary discourse on fairness in speech AI.

Dr Gordon Tan

Gordon is Assistant Professor of Geography at Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in Singapore University of Technology and Design. He is a financial geographer with a focus on fintech and how digital platforms and blockchain technologies are changing the way people live, work, and play.

Dr Andrew Yee

Andrew is Assistant Professor of Communication in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences of Singapore University of Technology and Design. His current work examines youth digital media use, where his team is using screenomes to better understand and dissect smartphone use.

Dr Alastair Gornall

Alastair is Associate Professor of History and Religion, and Associate Head of Research and Faculty Affairs at Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in Singapore University of Technology and Design. He teaches courses in Asian religion, history, and the digital humanities.

Dr Lyle Fearnley

Lyle is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Associate Head of Cluster (Education) at the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) department in Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Dr Rhema Hokama

Rhema is Assistant Professor of English Literature in Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences of Singapore University of Technology and Design. She is the author of Devotional Experience and Erotic Knowledge in the Literary Culture of the English Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2023).