Jacqueline HO
Full-time Faculty
Assistant Professor of Sociology
School of Social Sciences
SOSS
Jacqueline’s work begins with the premise that how we evaluate “merit” can both generate and legitimate inequality. In the context of growing critiques of meritocracy as an organising system, her work examines the processes that sustain or challenge evaluative practices in education systems. Does the removal of school rankings reduce the perception of hierarchy? Why might disadvantaged youth paradoxically believe that their education system is meritocratic? Jacqueline specialises in in-depth interviewing and brings a theoretical perspective informed by cultural sociology. Her research is focused primarily on the Singaporean education system. At SMU, she teaches Sociology of Education.
Qualifications
- Ph.D. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2024
- M.A. (Sociology), Cornell University, 2021
- B.A. (Environmental Studies), Brown University, 2014
Research Interests
- Inequality
- Education
- Valuation and Evaluation
- Culture
- Singapore
- Qualitative Methods