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TAY, Melvin

TAY, Melvin

TAY, Melvin

Research Associate

Melvin Tay is Research Associate in the Institute of Policy Studies’ Social Lab. His research interests lie at the intersection of politics and society; with a focus on societal faultlines, their significance, and their management via policy instruments and community platforms. He has scoped, managed, and contributed to several public sector-commissioned projects on race, religion, immigration, class, sexuality, age and education – key faultlines in the Singapore context.

Alongside his research role at the Institute, Melvin is concurrently PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Public Policy, where he is perusing issues of social trust and capital, and their intersection with the use of artificial intelligence. Prior to his time at IPS, Melvin was a corporate strategist at a top management consulting firm. He worked directly with the MD to drive formulation of market strategy across Asia-Pacific markets, run strategic alignment workshops for C-suite clients and internal stakeholders, and contribute to the delivery of external strategy and visioning projects for key public sector agencies.

Outside of the Institute, Melvin has been well-involved in several community and youth empowerment initiatives, in partnership with the Central Singapore Community Development Council and the National Youth Council since 2011. These are conceptualised with the intent to provide at-risk and underprivileged youth pathways to success, and have to-date impacted over 5,000 youths. Melvin’s other side pursuits include a community café (with great coffee and satay!) employing a social partnership model to provide opportunities for underprivileged Singaporeans.

Melvin has a Master of Social Sciences (Political Economy), and a Bachelor of Social Sciences (1st Class Honours) in Political Science and Philosophy from the National University of Singapore.


Research Interests

Social divisions, social trust, race, religion, immigration, nationality, class, inequality, gender and sexuality, generational divides, education


Publications


Op-eds/Commentaries


Conferences / Presentations 

  • Tay, M. (2018). Beyond Power Plays: Why Do Weaker States Ink Deep Trade Agreements?. Inaugural National University of Singapore Political Science Conference, Singapore.
  • Tay, M., Lee, T., and Laksmana, E. (2017). Why do Retired Military Officers Enter Politics?: An Empirical Analysis of Indonesia’s Military Academy Graduates. 75th Annual Midwest Political Science Association Conference, Chicago, IL.
  • Kim, S. Y., and Lee, C. Y. Y. and Tay, M. (2017). Setting up Shop in Foreign Lands: Do Investment Commitments in PTAs Promote Production Networks?. The Political Economy of International Organizations 10th Annual Conference, University of Bern, Switzerland.
  • Aoki, N. and Tay, M. (2013). Managerialism and Regimes in Public Administration. Public Management Research Conference, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA.


Awards / Scholarships 

  • University of Tokyo Graduate School of Public Policy Doctoral Fellowship
  • Elfinity-Asia Pacific Industry Fellowship
  • National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Teaching Fellowship
  • NUS Master’s Scholarship
  • NUS Undergraduate-UTown Scholarship