Staff profile

Previous Education and Employment

Prior to my PhD, I read Geography at the National University of Singapore. I also worked as a research assistant at the School of Social Sciences and College of Integrative Studies at the Singapore Management University.

Research

I work at the intersections of social, cultural, and urban geography. My research focuses on the politics and practices of digital technological changes in Asian cities, with specific work based around Singapore. Additionally, I have also explored the challenges of living with differences in multicultural urban contexts, examining issues relating to religion, race and ethnicity in earlier projects.

My PhD research investigates how cities are reorganised through spaces of volume, and the implications this has for governance and everyday living. Drawing on two case studies of drone practices—urban infrastructuring tasks (e.g., drone-based inspections) and recreational drone use, I explore how technologies conventionally associated with surveying distance and remoteness are increasingly adapted to high-rise, dense urban environments, particularly in Asia. Through this, I consider how volumetric shifts reshape urban politics, how human-technology-space relations evolve, and what these developments might mean for future forms of urban governance and living. 

My project is supported by UK's ESRC NINE Doctoral Training Partnership. A short description of my project can be found here.

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As a first-generation university graduate beginning an academic career, I strive to be mindful of the varied experiences that shape academic life. I welcome opportunities to listen, learn, and exchange experiences with others navigating similar paths in academia.

• social & cultural geography, volumetric urbanism, cultural politics, Asian cities

• 2023 - 2027: UK Economic and Social Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership Scholarship:

Chapter in book

• Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age
  
  Shee, S. Y. (2025). Propagating Digital Dharma: The Possibilities and Politics of Reinventing Buddhist Meaning in a Digital Age. In Handbook of the Geographies of Religion (pp. 1011-1029). Springer Nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-64811-3_55

Journal Article

• (Un)mapping the Punjab Onto Singapore’s Gurdwaras : Diasporic Territorialities and Decolonial Spaces of Sikh Socialisation
  
  Shee, S. Y., & Woods, O. (2025). (Un)mapping the Punjab Onto Singapore’s Gurdwaras : Diasporic Territorialities and Decolonial Spaces of Sikh Socialisation. Geopolitics, 30(3), 1499-1524. https://doi.org/10.1080/14650045.2025.2451300
• When planetary cosmopolitanism meets the Buddhist ethic: Recycling, karma and popular ecology in Singapore
  
  Shee, S. Y., Woods, O., & Kong, L. (2024). When planetary cosmopolitanism meets the Buddhist ethic: Recycling, karma and popular ecology in Singapore. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 49(2), Article e12654. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12654
• Lived religion in a digital age: technology, affect and the pervasive space-times of ‘new’ religious praxis
  
  Gao, Q., Woods, O., Kong, L., & Shee, S. Y. (2024). Lived religion in a digital age: technology, affect and the pervasive space-times of ‘new’ religious praxis. Social & Cultural Geography, 25(1), 29-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2022.2121979
• Moving as a ‘scrawny, brown body’: navigating sticky emotional geographies of physical activity in Singapore
  
  Shee, S. Y. (2023). Moving as a ‘scrawny, brown body’: navigating sticky emotional geographies of physical activity in Singapore. Gender, Place & Culture, 30(1), 70-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369x.2021.1994931
• Eating to become ‘good’ citizens: exploring the visceral biopolitics of eating in Singapore
  
  Shee, S. Y. (2023). Eating to become ‘good’ citizens: exploring the visceral biopolitics of eating in Singapore. Cultural Geographies, 30(1), 35-49. https://doi.org/10.1177/14744740211065047
• Making sense of digital health data: Negotiating epistemological tensions of everyday eating in Singapore
  
  Shee, S. Y. (2022). Making sense of digital health data: Negotiating epistemological tensions of everyday eating in Singapore. Geoforum, 136, 92-100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.09.001
• The digital void of voluntourism: Here, there and new currencies of care
  
  Woods, O., & Shee, S. Y. (2021). The digital void of voluntourism: Here, there and new currencies of care. Geoforum, 124, 46-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.05.016
• "Doing it for the 'gram"? The representational politics of popular humanitarianism
  
  Woods, O., & Shee, S. Y. (2021). "Doing it for the ’gram"? The representational politics of popular humanitarianism. Annals of Tourism Research, 87, 103107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2020.103107