Introducing: Mohammad Bin Khidzer
Mohammad Bin Khidzer recently joined the Institute for History as a Postdoc, as part of Fenneke Sysling's ERC Starting Grant project COMET: Human Subject Research and Medical Ethics in Colonial Southeast Asia. Below he introduces himself.
Hello everyone! My name is Mohammad Khamsya Bin Khidzer (you can just call me Mohammad) and I am delighted to be here in the Institute of History, where I will be working closely with Fenneke Sysling as well as two other amazing PhD students in her team, Bianca Angelien Claveria and Caroline Schep. I join Leiden University from the University of California San Diego, where I recently completed my PhD in Sociology and Science Studies (Spring 2024). I am originally from Singapore and completed my bachelors and Masters in Sociology at the National University of Singapore.
My research lies at the intersection of social and historical studies of science, technology and medicine, the sociology and history of race and ethnicity, and Southeast Asian studies. For my dissertation project, I focused on the case of Singapore to explain how political, economic, and technoscientific transformations shape perceptions of race and disease in Singapore society over the course of the 20th and 21st century. Drawing from archival research and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Singapore, I elucidate how advancements in diabetes research intersect with postcolonial developmentalism, global racial hierarchies, the racial politics of nation building, and the recent emergence of an ‘Asian’ bioeconomy, to produce distinct forms of racialized disease in public health. As a postdoc in Fenneke’s team, I will be expanding my research agenda to examine the afterlives of colonial medicine in Southeast Asia. This includes converting my dissertation research into a book project, tentatively titled ‘Making Asian Diabetes Global: Disease, Race and the Global Bioeconomy from Postcolonial Singapore’.
Prior to coming to Leiden, I had never stepped foot in the Netherlands, although I have travelled around Europe. I am happy to report that aside from the initial shock of having to install my own flooring with the apartment, my experience so far has been absolutely wonderful! Leiden’s small-city charm and the numerous accessible parks present endless opportunities for exploration, particularly for my partner and very active 6-year-old who love hiking in nature. As an avid cyclist, I am also really excited to maximize the outstanding cycling infrastructure here. I’m already thinking about bikepacking across the country! I look forward to meeting with you all during my postdoctoral term. Feel free to contact me or drop by my office for a chat.