Jin Yao KWAN
Ph.D. (Social Welfare), M.P.P.
Jin Yao KWAN
Ph.D. (Social Welfare), M.P.P.
I am a social service researcher, evaluator, and educator.
Welcome to my personal website.
Alternatively, you may be interested in my University of Delaware profile page, socialservice.sg podcast (also on Instagram and TikTok), socialservice.sg newsletter, as well as CV.
About Me
I am an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Human Development's Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Delaware. I am also Research Fellow with The Majurity Trust, a philanthropic organisation in Singapore.
I am a social service researcher, evaluator, and educator who adopts and advocates for community-centred, practice-research, as well as interdisciplinary, mixed-method approaches. Because I believe strongly in public communication and engagement, I also run socialservice.sg (also on Instagram and TikTok), a website, podcast, and newsletter dedicated to social service research, practice, and policies in Singapore.
Overall, my research focuses on the development of adolescents, youth, and young adults in underserved communities. Relatedly, I explore how families and communities use institutional supports and also examine structural factors and contextual processes perpetuating poverty and inequality. My current research areas include: (a) Family processes, especially households facing disadvantages and marginalisation; (b) Youth civic and community engagement and political participation; and (c) Evaluation research and implementation science, within the classroom as well as in social service and philanthropic settings. Read more about my ongoing research and projects.
Previously, I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver. I graduated with a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs under the National University of Singapore (NUS)-Overseas Graduate Scholarship. In 2017, I graduated with my master's degree in public policy from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS. I was born and raised in Singapore.
As a volunteer
Having volunteered with the Association of Women for Action and Research, Children-At-Risk Empowerment Association Singapore, as well as the social empowerment initiative “I Am Talented”, I now volunteer or work with Singaporean charities on research projects and data analysis.
In addition, I am founder of and was advisor to PREPMUN, Singapore's Model United Nations Preparatory Conference (organised by the United Nations Association of Singapore from 2011 to 2018).
Writings
In addition to (and complementing my research), I now run socialservice.sg (also on Instagram and TikTok), a website, podcast, and newsletter dedicated to social service research, practice, and policies in Singapore.
Previously, I maintained a personal socio-political blog (July 2009 to July 2019) which is now archived (guanyinmiao.wordpress.com). I had also written for three now-defunct sites: the “Breakfast Network” in 2013 and “The Middle Ground” from 2015 to 2016 as well as “SALT”, an online publication by the National Volunteer and Philanthropy Centre in 2014.These archived posts best represent who I am as a blogger (at my best and worst):
Earlier Posts
- Singapore's education system as an overheated pressure cooker (2010).
- Why the Community Involvement Progamme (CIP) is not working (2010).
- The poor and the elderly in Singapore: Roving task-force a viable band-aid? (2011).
- The biggest problem that frustrates Singapore's NSFs (2012).
- National Service in Singapore: How and why you should unsubscribe from Pioneer magazine (2012).
- Singapore Youth Festival: So, what exactly has changed? (2012).
- Stop posting pictures of you and kids you've "helped" on your trips (2013).
Later Posts
- The man of the protest moment (2014).
- Eugene Tan: Captain Not-Obvious (2014).
- "The elite school student's burden" (2018).
- 12 years a SAP student, and nothing (Chinese) to show for it (2018).
- Our problematic "SES" responses reveal more than the guidebook itself (2018).
- Please, stop throwing anecdotes at Singapore's inequality and class divide problems (2018).
Personal
- Why I have chosen to further my studies in Singapore (2012).
- From Hwa Chong graduate to young Chef on Wheels: Going beyond conventional academic focuses (2012).
- "I Am Talented": An undergraduate's triumph against the odds (2012).
- "You don't need to be awesome at Hwa Chong": When failure means a hell lot more (2012).
- That first field camp (2015).
Contact
Get in touch with me via email.
Jin Yao Kwan © 2019-2024