FASS Staff Profile

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ERIC C. THOMPSON

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Appointment:
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
Office:
AS1 04-31
Email:
socect@nus.edu.sg
Tel:
+65-6516-6070
Fax:
Homepage:
http://profile.nus.edu.sg/fass/socect/
Tabs

Brief Introduction

Eric C. Thompson is Associate Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the National University of Singapore. Before joining NUS, he completed a PhD in sociocultural anthropology at the University of Washington and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of California Los Angeles. He is co-editor of the Asian Journal of Social Sciences and associate editor of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.

He teaches anthropology, gender studies, Southeast Asian studies, and research methods. He has conducted research for three decades throughout Southeast Asia, primarily in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. His research interests include transnational networking, gender studies, urban-rural interactions, planetary urbanization, agrarian transitions, culture theory, and ASEAN regionalism.

His work has appeared in the journals American Ethnologist, Asian Studies Review, Citizenship Studies, Contemporary Sociology, Contemporary Southeast Asia, Current Anthropology, Field Methods, Gender Place and Culture, Global Networks, Political Geography, Urban Studies, and Women's Studies International Forum among others. He is author of Unsettling Absences: Urbanism in Rural Malaysia (NUS Press, 2007), Attitudes and Awareness toward ASEAN (with Chulanee Thianthai, ISEAS Press, 2008), Do Young People Know ASEAN? (with Moe Thuzar and Chulanee Thianthai, 2015), and co-editor of Southeast Asian Anthropologies: National Traditions and Transnational Practices (NUS Press, 2019) and Asian Smallholders in Comparative Perspective (Amsterdam University Press, 2019).


Teaching Areas

My main teaching areas are anthropology, gender studies and qualitative research methods.

Courses taught at NUS include:
GEK1005 Cultures in the Contemporary World
SC1101 Introduction to Sociology
SC2207 Peoples and Cultures of Southeast Asia
SC2218 Anthropology and the Human Condition
SC2220 Gender Studies
SC3206 Urban Sociology
SC3219 Sexuality in Comparative Perspective
SC4227 Gender, Sex, and Power
SC4213/5103/6103 Qualitative Research Methods
SC6214 Gender, Culture and Society
SC6216 The Anthropological Perspective 
SC6770 Graduate Research Seminar


Publications

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS AUTHORED

  • Thompson, E.C. (n.d.) The Story of Southeast Asia. Singapore: NUS Press. (forthcoming)
  • Thompson, E.C. and V. Sinha, eds. (2019) Southeast Asian Anthropologies: National Traditions and Transnational Practices. Singapore: NUS Press.
  • Thompson, E.C., M. Thuzar and C. Thainthai (2016) Do Young People Know ASEAN? Update of a Ten-Nation Survey. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
  • Bunnell, T., D. Parthasarathy and E.C. Thompson, eds. (2013) Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia. Dordrecht: Springer Publishing (forthcoming).
  • Thompson, E.C. and Chulanee Thainthai (2008) Attitudes and Awareness Towards ASEAN: Findings of a Ten-Nation Survey. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2007) Unsettling Absences: Urbanism in Rural Malaysia. Singapore: Singapore University Press.

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS

  • Shoji Gen, Yoshida Kunimistu, Yokoyama Satoshi and E.C. Thompson (2020) “Transition of Farmland Use in a Japanese Mountainside Settlement: An Analysis of the Residents’ Career Histories,” Geographical Review of Japan Series B 93(1):15-26.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2020) “Urban Annexation of the Rural: Kebun Culture in Malaysia,” Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 41(1):136-153.
  • Bunnell, T.G., R. Padawangi and E.C. Thompson (2018) “The Politics of Learning from a Small City: Solo as Translocal Model and Political Launch Pad,” Regional Studies 52(8):1065-1074
  • Patcharin Lapanun and E.C. Thompson (2018) “Masculinity, Matrilineality and Transnational Marriage,” Journal of Mekong Societies (วารสารสังคมลุ่มน้ำโขง) 14(2):1-19.
  • Thompson, E.C., Pattana Kitiarsa and Suriya Smutkupt (2018) “Transnational Relationships, Farang-Isan Couples and Rural Transformation,” Journal of Sociology and Anthropology (Thammasat University) 37(1):95-126.
  • Thompson, E.C., Pattana Kitiarsa and Suriya Smutkupt (2016) “From Sex Tourist to Son-in-Law: Emergent Masculinities and Transient Subjectivities among Farang Men in Thailand,” Current Anthropology 57(1):53-71.
  • Rigg, J., A. Salamanca and E.C. Thompson (2016) “The Puzzle of East Asia’s Persistent Smallholder,” Journal of Rural Studies 43(1):118-133.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2014) “Immigration, Society, and Modalities of Citizenship in Singapore,” Citizenship Studies 18(3/4):315-331.
  • Jongwilaiwan, R. and E.C. Thompson (2013) “Thai Wives in Singapore and Transnational Patriarchy,” Gender, Place and Culture 20(3):363-381.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2013) “In Defense of Southeast Asia: A Case for Methodological Regionalism,” TRaNS: Trans-National and -Regional Studies of Southeast Asia, 1(2):1-22.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2012) "Anthropology in Southeast Asia: National Traditions and Transnational Practices," Asian Journal of Social Science 40(6):664-689
  • Abidin, C. and E.C. Thompson (2012) “Bymylife.com: Cyberfeminities and Commercial Intimacy in Blogshops,” Women’s Studies International Forum 35(6):467-477.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2012) “The World beyond the Nation in Southeast Asian Museums,” Sojourn 27(1):54-83.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2010) “Racial Realities: Social Constructs and the Stuff of Which They are Made,” Global Dialogue 12(2) (online: www.worlddialogue.org)
  • Thompson, E.C. (2009) “Mobile Phones, Community and Social Networks among Foreign Workers in Singapore,” Global Networks 9(3):359-380.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2007) “Internet-Mediated Experiences of Underdevelopment: A Four-Country Survey of Academia,” Asian Journal of Social Sciences 35(6):554-574.
  • Thompson, E.C., Chulanee Thianthai and Irwan Hidayana (2007) “Culture and International Imagination in Southeast Asia,” Political Geography 26(3):268-288

  • Chulanee Thianthai and E.C. Thompson (2007) “Thai Perceptions of the ASEAN Region: Southeast Asia as Prathet Phuean Ban,” Asian Studies Review 31(1):41-60

  • Thompson, E.C. and Zhang Juan (2006) “Comparative Cultural Salience: Measures Using Free List Data,” Field Methods 18(4):398-412

  • Thompson, E.C. (2006) “Singaporean Exceptionalism and Its Implications for ASEAN Regionalism,” Contemporary Southeast Asia 28(2):183-206
  • Thompson, E.C. (2006) “Internet Mediated Networking and Academic Dependency in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and the United States,” Current Sociology 54(1):41-51.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2004) “Rural Villages as Socially Urban Spaces in Malaysia,” Urban Studies 41(12):2358-2376.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2004) “Internet Adoption and Use in the Indonesian Academy: Issues of Social and Institutional Hierarchy,” Jurnal Antropologi Indonesia 28(73):20-31.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2003) “Malay Male Migrants: Negotiating Contested Identities in Malaysia,” American Ethnologist 30(3):418-438.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2002) “Migrant Narratives of the Rural in Malaysia,” Sojourn 17(1):52-75.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

  • Thompson, E.C. and A. Sunchindah (2022) “ASEAN Identity,” In: The Elgar Companion to ASEAN. Frederick Kliem and Jörn Dosch, eds. Cheltenham (UK): Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Sakunika W. and E.C. Thompson (2019) “Singapore: Making Space for Farming,” In: Asian Smallholders: Transformation and Persistence, E.C. Thompson, J. Rigg and J. Gillen, eds. pp.211-236, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Thompson, E.C., J. Rigg and J. Gillen (2019) “Introduction: Asian Smallholders in Comparative Perspective” In: Asian Smallholders: Transformation and Persistence, E.C. Thompson, J. Rigg and J. Gillen, eds. pp.13-37, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
  • Thompson, E.C. and V. Sinha (2019) “Anthropologies in Southeast Asia,” In: Southeast Asian Anthropologies: National Traditions and Transnational Practices, E.C. Thompson and V. Sinha, eds. pp.1-18, Singapore: NUS Press.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2015) ““Rural Transformations,” In: Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Malaysia, Meredith Weiss, ed. pp.236-248. Milton Park and New York: Routledge.
  • Thompson, E.C., D. Parthasarathy and T. Bunnell (2013) “Place, Society and Politics across Rural and Urban Asia,” In: Bunnell, T., D. Parthasarathy and E.C. Thompson, eds., Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia. Dordrecht: Springer Publishing. (Uncorrected Proofs; Forthcoming)
  • Thompson, E.C. (2013) “Urban Cosmopolitan Chauvinism and the Politics of Rural Identity,” In: Bunnell, T., D. Parthasarathy and E.C. Thompson, eds., Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia. Dordrecht: Springer Publishing (in press).
  • Thompson, E.C. (2011) “Kula Ring Review Session,” In Strategies in Teaching Anthropology 6th Edition, P.C. Rice and D.W. McCurdy, eds. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Prentice Hall.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2011) “Dobe Ju/’hoansi Kinship and Marriage Game,” In Strategies in Teaching Anthropology 6th Edition, P.C. Rice and D.W. McCurdy, eds. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Prentice Hall.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2009) “Southeast Asia,” In: International Encyclopedia of Human Geography, Rob Kitchen and Nigel Thrift, eds. Oxford: Elsevier.
  • Thompson, E.C. and Zhang Juan (2009) “Navigating Transnationalism: Immigration and Reconfigured Ethnicity,” In: Impressions of the Goh Chok Tong Years in Singapore, Bridget Welsh, James Chin, Arun Mahiznan, and Tan Tarn How, eds., Singapore: NUS Press.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2008) “ASEAN Perceptions of the Mekong Region,” In: Transborder Issues in the Greater Mekong Subregion, Suchada Thaweesit, Peter Vail, and Rosalia Sciortino, eds. Ubon Ratchathani (Thailand): Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2002) “Rocking East and West: The USA in Malaysian Music” In Global Goes Local: Popular Culture in Asia, T. Craig and R. King, eds. pp.58-79.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2000) “Web-Based Projects in Anthropology: Notes from the Virtual Field,” In Strategies in Teaching Anthropology, P.C. Rice and D.W. McCurdy, eds. pp.6-12. Upper Saddle River (NJ): Prentice Hall.

SHORTER ARTICLES/COMMENTS IN JOURNAL

  • Thompson, E.C., Chulanee Thianthai, Apichai Sunchindah and Larasati Indrawagita (2022) “A Search for Identity: Reflecting on How Young People See ASEAN,” The ASEAN (December 2021-January 2022) pp.54-56.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2022) “Fifty Years of Asian Social Science,” Asian Journal of Social Science 50(1):1-6.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2020) “Making Your Mark and Constructing Your Field in Global Academia,” Asian Journal of Social Science 48(1-2):3-13.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2014) “Rethinking the Rural-Urban Continuum,” In: The New Urban: Towards Progressive Secondary Cities, J.C. Rodriguez, ed. pp.41-44. Bangkok: Oxfam.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2014) “Exploring Melayu and Other People-Grouping Concepts,” Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 87(1):91-96.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2010) “This is Our Culture: Anthropology and the Public Sphere in Malaysia,” American Anthropologist 112(3):462-463
  • Thompson, E.C. (2009) “Research and Regionalism in Southeast Asia (Review Essay),” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 165(4):612-622
  • Thompson, E.C. (2009) “Environmental and Archeological Perspectives on Southeast Asia (Review Essay),” Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde 165(1):186-189
  • Bunnell, Tim and E.C. Thompson (2008) “Editorial: Unbounding Area Studies: Malaysian Studies beyond Malaysia and Other Geographies of Knowing,” Geoforum 39(4):1517-1519.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2008) “A World of Anthropologies: Paradigms and Challenges for the Coming Century (Review Essay),” Asian Journal of Social Sciences 36(1):121-127.
  • Qiu, Jack Linchuan and E.C. Thompson (2007) “Editorial: Mobile Communication and Asian Modernities,” New Media and Society 9(6):895-901.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2006) Comment on “Transgenderism and Gender Pluralism in Southeast Asia since Early Modern Times,” Michael Peletz, Current Anthropology 47(2):332-333.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2006) “The Problem of ‘Race as a Social Construction’,” Anthropology News 47(2):6-7.

BOOK REVIEWS

  • Mosques and Imams: Everyday Islam in Eastern Indonesia, Katheryn Robinson, ed., for Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 2022, 43(1):153-155.
  • “Getting By”: Class and State Formation among Chinese in Malaysia, Donald M. Nonini, for American Ethnologist 2016, 43(3):576-578.
  • Ghosts of the New City: Spirits, Urbanity, and the Ruins of Progress in Chiang Mai, Andrew A. Johnson, for Pacific Affairs 2015, 88(4):962-964.
  • Social Science and Knowledge in a Globalizing World, Zawawi Ibrahim, ed., for Journal of Asian Studies 2013, 72(4):1032-1034.
  • Everyday Life in Southeast Asia, Adams, Kathleen and Kathleen Gillogly, eds., for Sojourn (2013), 28(3):576-581
  • Men and Masculinities in Southeast Asia, Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons, eds., for Asian Journal of Social Science (2013), 41(1):80-81.

  • Revisiting Rural Places: Pathways to Poverty and Prosperity in Southeast Asia, Jonathan Rigg and Peter Vandergeest, eds., for New Mandala, October 2012
    http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2012/10/30/review-of-revisiting-rural-places-tlc-nmrev-xlv/

  • Islamic Spectrum in Java, Timothy P. Daniels, for Asian Journal of Social Sciences 2011, 39(3):395-396.
  • Southeast Asia in World History, Craig A. Lockard, for The Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 2011, 32(3):399-400.
  • The Sociology of Southeast Asia: Transformations of a Developing Region. Victor T. King, for Journal of Regional Science 2010, 50(4):903-905.
  • Houses in Motion: The Experience of Place and the Problem of Belief in Urban Malaysia, Richard Baxstrom, for Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 2010, 41(1):181-183.
  • Asia-Pacific: A History of Empire and Conflict. Thomas Crump, for Journal of Asian Studies 2009, 68(4):1231-1232.
  • Mien Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. Hjorleifur Jonsson, for Asian Journal of Social Science 2008, 36(1):158-159.
  • Vientiane: Transformations of a Lao Landscape, Marc Askew, William S. Logan and Colin Long, for Urban Studies 2007, 45(8):1738-1740.
  • Transforming Technologies: Altered Selves – Mobile Phones and Internet Use in the Philippines. Raul Pertierra, for International Journal of Communication 2007, 1:156-157.
  • Ethnicity in Asia. Colin Mackerras, ed., for Journal of Asian Studies 2004, 63(2):480-482.
  • Cultural Contestations: Mediating Identities in a Changing Malaysian Society. Zawawi Ibrahim, ed., for Asian Journal of Social Science 2003, 31(2):364-366.

PUBLISHED REPORTS

  • Thompson, E.C., C. Thianthai and A. Sunchinda (2021) Understanding How Young People See ASEAN: Awareness, Values, and Identity. Jakarta: The ASEAN Secretariat.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2004) Tribal Signifiers and Intersubjectivity in a General Theory of Group Identity. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Department of Sociology, Working Paper No.167, National University of Singapore.
  • Thompson, E.C. (2003) “Student Perceptions of Teachers, Courses, and Classmates at NUS,” CDTL Brief 6(5).
  • Thompson, E.C. (1999) “Indonesia in Transition: The 1999 Presidential Elections,” NBR Briefing, No. 9. Seattle: National Bureau of Asian Research.

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