Tiffany Tivasuradej talks to Dr. Nicholas Teo & Oshin Siao Bhatt: on anthropological mindset and ethnographic practices in Asian context

We are excited to have Tiffany hosting the episode today and sharing her experience of conducting ethnography outside of academia in the Asian context together with Nicholas and Oshin. As a colonial discipline in its origins, anthropology inevitably carries the Western gaze, something of which to be cautious in the day-to-day research. Is there a need for a framework, methods and a way of thinking designed for anthropologists from Asia in Asia? Tiffany, Oshin and Nicholas share insights of how to be an applied anthropologist at home and reflect on the hopes and ambitions for design anthropology within Asia.

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Tiffany Tivasuradej (podcast host) – Tiffany holds a first class honours degree in Biological Anthropology from Durham University (UK) and currently works as a Consultant at Ogilvy Consulting in Hong Kong. In her role, she advises Fortune 500 clients in Asia, especially Thailand and China, on how to transform their business model, brand, and user experience in response to changes in customer and employee behaviours and culture. She also leads the local Behavioural Science practice at Ogilvy. Tiffany is passionate about advocating the application of anthropology beyond academia. Most recently, she was invited to talk about this topic and share her experiences of working as an anthropologist in Asia at the premier international conference on ethnography in business by EPIC in 2020. (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ycttivasuradej/)

Dr. Nicholas Teo – Nicholas is an Assistant Professor and Deputy Programme Director at Singapore Institute of Technology. Prior to going back to Singapore he was studying and working in Melbourne, Australia, developing his skills in design anthropology. Nicholas has been able to work closely with various companies to build better design driven solutions. He has presented his work and research on design and education around the world and is now trying to build a stronger design community in Singapore. He is also the host on the Everything Design Show found on YouTube which looks to showcase the many facets of design that touches our lives on a daily basis (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickography/)

Oshin Siao Bhatt– Oshin Siao Bhatt is an independent researcher based in New Delhi, India with a background in Sociology, Social Anthropology and Design Research. She has worked with organisations across the spaces of design, development and academia on topics like citizen engagement, sexual and reproductive health, reproductive technologies, healthcare, women’s rights, etc. She is interested in exploring the interconnections between design and the social sciences, and hopes to contribute to conversations around the need for a reflexive approach within design research and design thinking. Currently she is pursuing a graduate degree at Design Academy Eindhoven (LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oshin-siao-bhatt-241a0855)

Mentioned in Podcast:

Everything Design Show, https://anchor.fm/everything-design-show