Louisa-May Khoo
Bio and CV
I was an urban planner in Singapore, involved in urban research and public policy formulation for many years. My interests navigate the intersections between marginalization, urban policy, and social justice in cities. As Senior Assistant Director with the policy research think-tank - Centre for Liveable Cities (CLC), Singapore, I led the housing and social research teams, focusing on issues relating to planning, affordable housing, immigration and diversity. Having been awarded the International Doctoral Fellowship by UBC, I moved to Vancouver in Fall 2018 to extend my work with marginalized communities, exploring how pre-arrival stories of refugees shape their post-arrival settlement experience. In particular, I am interested in how refugees navigate trauma through their everyday life as a means towards thinking about more effective planning strategies to improve their settlement experience. In so doing, I hope to re-conceptualize trauma, spatializing stories into visual narratives, and build bridges between planners, policy makers and related health and social work practitioners in this area.
Louisa holds a BA and a MSSc in Geography, both from the National University of Singapore.
(Recent publications)
Khoo, L-M (forthcoming) “Making Trust a Planning Asset: Singapore's Community Engagement Journey” in Urban Solutions
Khoo, L-M and Boh, J (2018), “Engaging Well, Forging Bonds: The Community as Stakeholders in Urban Development”, Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore.
Khoo, L-M, et. al. (2017) “Understanding Ethnic and Nationality Clusters in Singapore: the Meyer Road Neighbourhood”, internal government report (classified), Ministry of National Development, Singapore.
Khoo, L-M and Bunnell, T (2017) 'Producing Cohesion: Governmentality and Everyday Multiculture in Global City Singapore', paper presented at Migrants in Global Cities: Experiences from Asia, the Middle East and Europe | National University of Singapore (NUS) and Universite Sorbonne Paris Cite (USPC) | October 30, 2017
Khoo, L-M (2017) “Governing Difference: Managed multiculture and encounters at play in Singapore”. Masters Thesis (closed). Department of Geography. National University of Singapore.
Khoo, L-M (2017), “Living with Diversity the Singapore Way” in Urban Solutions, Issue 10: Diversity, Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore.
Wu WN and Khoo, L-M, “The case for building new HDB flats in the city centre” in The Straits Times, 4 Nov 2016.
Chionh Chye Khye and Louisa-May Khoo (2016) “Home, Community, Identity: Singapore’s Public Housing Story” in Challenges and Reforms in Urban Governance: Insights from the Development Experience of China and Singapore , jointly published by the Ministry of National Development and the Development Research Centre of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China.
International Doctoral Fellowship (2018-2023), University of British Columbia
(2012-present): Senior Assistant Director (Adjunct), Centre for Liveable Cities, Singapore
Lecturer, Fujitsu-Jaims Foundation, “From Plans to Reality”, Global Leaders for Innovation and Knowledge Management Programme (Biannually in Singapore 2015-2018)