Academic leadership and faculty

lasalle_ma_arts_pedagogy_practice_woo_yenyen

Doctor of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
Master of Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York
Postgraduate Diploma in Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University
BA Arts (Honors), National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Woo Yen Yen is an innovative educator who bridges pedagogy and entrepreneurial creativity.

She has worked professionally as an educator, filmmaker, publisher, tech founder and researcher, always striving to build a world more open to each other’s stories. Her teaching derives from John Dewey’s experiential education, Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy and Gloria Ladson-Billing’s culturally relevant pedagogy. She specialises in supervising creative practice research, practice-based research and arts-based research.

Assoc Prof Woo attained her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, served as Associate Professor of Education at Long Island University, New York, and as Visiting Professor at National Central University, Taiwan.

Beyond her academic pursuits, she maintains a robust artistic and entrepreneurial portfolio. She has experimented across disciplines through the conceptual lens of public pedagogy, collaborating with award-winning artists, including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, Emmy, and Golden Horse awards.

Her body of work has shifted the discourse on Singlish (through Talkingcock.com), contributed to the dialogue on materialism, the role of women in society, and the pressures of the Singaporean dream (through the film, Singapore Dreaming), and told previously untold stories of hawkers (through the podcast, Eat by Ear). Her film accomplishments have been internationally lauded, earning her awards at prestigious venues such as the San Sebastian International Film Festival and Tokyo International Film Festival. Her work has been licensed by platforms like HBO, Netflix and Singapore Airlines, and has reached audiences across film festivals in Asia, US and Europe.

Her scholarship through creative practice research has been published alongside pioneers in arts-based research. For instance, her film work produced writing such as ‘Film as public pedagogy’ (in the Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship) and ‘Engaging new audiences: Translating research into popular media’ (in Educational Researcher); her recent podcast, Eat by Ear, resulted in ‘Re-sensing food culture in Singapore: Podcasting as practice-based research’ (in Media International Australia); her non-traditional career trajectory led to the chapter ‘Putting critical public pedagogy into practice: reorienting the career path of the teacher-artist-scholar’ (in Arts-based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice).

She is currently expanding her work on a Singapore food podcast, Eat by Ear, launched at the Listening Biennial and on all major podcast platforms. She co-wrote and co-created a children’s comics series and mobile app Dim Sum Warriors and a stage musical Dim Sum Warriors The Musical, which toured 26 cities in China.

After 25 years abroad, Assoc Prof Woo is excited to return to Singapore where she is currently collaborating with faculty and students in LASALLE’s School of Creative Industries to cultivate impactful and scalable culture. Her aim is to create and disseminate culture that drives change towards a more democratic and inclusive society.

Woo, Y. Y. & Wee, T. (Under Review). Singapore Hawker Foodways: A Visual-Verse Approach.
Woo, Y. Y., Prosser, R., and Gan, S.H. (2026). Re-sensing food culture in Singapore: Podcasting as practice-based research. Media International Australia.
Woo, Y. Y. (2026). Putting critical public pedagogy into practice: reorienting the career path of the teacher-artist-scholar. In M. Cahnmann-Taylor & R. Siegesmund (Ed.), Arts-Based Research in Education: Foundations for Practice (3rd Edition). New York: Routledge.
Woo, Y. Y. (2019). Film as public scholarship. In P. Leavy (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Methods for Public Scholarship. Oxford University Press.
Woo, Y.Y. & Goh, C. (2016). A dream within a dream. In HK. Wee & Chia, J. (Eds.), Singapore Dreaming: Managing Utopia (pp. 214-230). Singapore: Asian Urban Lab.
Woo, Y. Y. (July 3, 2013). Choice. Teachers College Record. Retrieved from: http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentId=17174
Woo, Y. Y. (2010). Getting past our inner censor: Collective storytelling as pedagogy in a polarised media environment. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 1(2), 231-136.
Woo, Y. Y. (2008). Engaging new audiences: Translating research into popular media. Educational Researcher, 37(6), 321-329.
Woo, Y. Y. & Simmons, J. (2008). Paved with good intentions: Images of textbook development in Afghanistan. Asian-Pacific Journal of Education, 28(3), 291-304.
Woo. Y. Y. & Goh, C. (2008). Curious Connections: TalkingCock.com and PM Goh. In B. Welsh, J. Chin, A. Mahizhnan, T. H. Tan (Eds.), Impressions: The Goh Years (pp. 451-458). National University of Singapore Press.
Woo. Y. Y. (2008). Youth temporalities and the cost of Singapore’s educational success, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 29(2), 159-178. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1080/0159630080196678

Creative practice (select)

Woo, Y. Y. (Artist) (2025). Eat by Ear Season 1 [Digital audio], The Listening Biennial Lab 2025. The Brother Joseph McNally Gallery, LASALLE College of the Arts, Singapore.
Woo, Y. Y. (Host and creator). (2025, August 11). Wat tan hor: made with heart and chef’s tears (No. 1) [Audio podcast episode]. In Eat by Ear. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wat-tan-hor-made-with-heart-and-chefs-tears/id1834296634?i=1000722735542
Woo, Y. Y. (Host and creator). (2025, September 8). A pilot’s journey to the perfect bowl of kway chap (No. 2) [Audio podcast episode]. In Eat by Ear. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-pilots-journey-to-the-perfect-bowl-of-kway-chap/id1834296634?i=1000725442429
Woo, Y. Y. (Host and creator). (2025, September 8). Ssshhh, the sambal in this nasi lemak is a top secret (No. 3) [Audio podcast episode]. In Eat by Ear. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ssshhh-the-sambal-in-this-nasi-lemak-is-a-top-secret/id1834296634?i=1000725442430
Woo, Y. Y. (Festival Director). (2024, 25/10/24 – 3/11/24). Kampung Halloween [an 8-day experimental arts festival featuring 127 artists, in partnership with the Arts Resource Hub, supported by the National Arts Council.] Singapore.
Woo, Y. Y. (2024). Sorry, Not Sorry (A Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Tale). Singapore: Yumcha Studios.
Woo, Y. Y. (2024). Celebrating is Hard Work (A Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Tale). Singapore: Yumcha Studios.
Woo, Y. Y. (Director). (2024, 2025). Snapshots, Artist-teacher profiles of MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice graduates. Link.
Woo, Y. Y. (Curator). (2023).The Children’s Season’s Comics Workshops. 30 children’s comics-making workshops across 10 museums in Singapore. Appointed by The Museum Roundtable, National Heritage Board.
Woo, Y. Y. (Organiser and curator) (2023). Singapore Dreaming: A Comics Competition for Young Creators. A nationwide comics competition supported by Children’s Museum Singapore and beverage giant Yeo’s. Total number of entries: 979
Woo. Y. Y. (Producer & Playwright) (2017-2018). Dim Sum Warriors the Musical. Theatre Above, toured 26 cities in China.
Woo. Y. Y. (Producer, Screenwriter, Director) (2006). Singapore Dreaming. Singapore: 5C Films.
- Best Asian-Middle Easter Film Award at the 20^th Tokyo International Film Festival;
- Montblanc New Screenwriters Award at the 54^th San Sebastian International Film Festival;
- Audience Award at the 30^th Asian-American International Film Festival;
- Nominations include: the Altadis New Directors Award (San Sebastian International Film Festival), the Most Promising Director Award (Vilnius International Film Festival), the Camera Novo Award (Belgium Cinema Novo Film Festival), the Most Promising New Director Award (Vilnius International Film Festival)
- Festivals include the aforementioned as well as the Taiwan Women Make Waves Festival, the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Philadelphia International Film Festival, the Göteborg International Film Festival, the Singapore International Film Festival, the inaugural ASEAN Film Festival and many others

Invited talks and conference presentations (select)

Woo (Invited panellist) (2026, Sept 14th-15th). Re-Sensing Culture: Restoring Reflection and Friction in the Age of AI. In Transcending Humanism? Humanities, Post-Humanities and Human-Sustainability in the 21st Century Forum, The 20th Anniversary of College of Humanities, National Taiwan University of the Arts, Taiwan.
Woo, Y. Y. (Invited lecture). (2025, Sept 26th). The secret language of social class. Singapore, Lien Fung’s Colloquium, College of Integrative Studies and the Wee Kim Wee Centre.
Woo, Y. Y. (Invited panellist). (2025, April 5th). Arts education for critical thinking” [Invited panellist]. The Work of Art Now – Practices and Pedagogies in Southeast Asia. A University of the Arts Singapore Symposium.
Woo, Y. Y. (2025, Jan 19th-25th). The sounds of Singapore food culture: towards a critical practice in a food podcast [Conference presentation]. 48th World Conference for the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, Wellington, New Zealand.

Teaching

LASALLE College of the Arts, University of the Arts Singapore
Associate Professor and Programme Leader, MA Arts Pedagogy and Practice | 2023–current
Courses taught: the “AGORA” interdisciplinary module; “Investigating Practice”; “Experiencing Diverse Pedagogies”; “Transforming Practice”; “MA Thesis” module.
National Central University, Taiwan
College of Liberal Arts
Visiting Professor | 2017–2019
Courses taught (in Mandarin): “From Collective to Cultural Stories”; “Manuscript, Text and New Publishing”.
Long Island University (C.W. Post), Brookville, NY
College of Education and Information Technology,
Department of Curriculum & Instruction
Associate Professor | 2010–2019
Assistant Professor | 2004–2010
Courses taught: “Curriculum Development for Teachers”; “Foundations of Education”.
Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY
Department of Curriculum and Teaching
Lecturer | 2002–2004
Instructor | 2000–2002
Courses taught: “Curriculum Theory”; “Action Research”; “Qualitative Research Methodologies”.

Creative practice research, practice-based research, public pedagogy, podcast as method, foodways, theory of creative practice.

Academic leadership and faculty

Programme Leaders

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Alan P Rudge

Andreas Schlegel

Audrey Wong

Dayal Gian Singh

Dr Diego Celi

Erzan Adam

Dr Francis Maravillas

Ginette Chittick

Guo Ningru

Hazel Lim-Schlegel

Dr Ian Woo

Dr Indra Selvarajah

Jay Loo Dexian

Jaygo Bloom

Jeffrey Say

Joselyn Sim

Justin Hegburg

Kathryn Shannon Sim

Khalid Almkhlaafy

Matt Grey

Michael Budmani

Associate Professor Natalia Grincheva

Nathan Yong

Pavan J Singh

Professor Ronald P.M.H. Lay, MA, AThS-HF, AThR, ATR-BC

Associate Professor Rosslyn Prosser

Dr Subashini K Rajanthran

Victoria Elizabeth Ho

Wendy Chua

Associate Professor Woo Yen Yen

Senior Lecturers

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Adeline Kueh

Brian O’Reilly

Associate Professor Darren Moore

Dirk Johan Stromberg

Emylia Safian

Hideho Urata

Jeremy Sharma

Kelley Cheng

Dr S Chandrasekaran

Salleh Japar

Urich Lau Wai-Yuen

Lecturers

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Adrian Huang

Aloysius Foong

Alvin Chiam

Dr Amber Chunzhi Yin

Ang Qing Sheng

Dr Aprille Chua Jia Qi

Belinda Foo

Chen Chin Tyng

Chris Yee

Christina Low Yung Chyuan

Dr Damaris D E Carlisle

Daniela Monasterios Tan

David Lee Siew Bing

Edmund Chia

Eugene Lee

Fanny Bratahalim

Felix Sng

Frank DeMeglio

Dr Gan Sheuo Hui

Goh Hiro Toshi

Hera

Hillary Yeo

Isidro Ramirez

Dr James Félix

Janet Teoh

Jason Vitorillo

Jessica Olivia Chua

Joanne Ho Sau Leng

Dr Joel Gn

Dr Leela Alaniz

Lidya Chrisfens

Lim Shu Min

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