Current projects

I have ongoing research projects in three major areas:

(1) Cultural tastes. I’m working on a series of projects that build on my previous work on complex tastes, meta-tastes, and the temporal dynamics of tastes and fashions. This line of research is primarily supported by the Nanyang Technological University’s Start-up Grant.

(2) Authenticity in cultural fields. I’m also looking at how artist production, mass reception, and elite valuation of authenticity within cultural fields are being transformed under the generative AI regime. Currently, the project focuses on the field of photography. This line of research is primarily supported by the Singapore Ministry of Education Tier 1 Seed Grant.

(3) Large-language models and the fidelity of silicon sampling. Finally, I’m working on a project that extends silicon sampling to new domains, namely within to studies of cultural tastes and also of Singaporean social life more broadly. Silicon sampling, for those who are unfamiliar, refers to the use of large-language models (generative AI models) to produce synthetic panels of survey responses. This line of research is primarily supported by the Nanyang Technological University’s SSHR Seed Grant.

If you’re looking to collaborate in areas related to my substantive or methodological expertise, please send me an email at xy.ma@ntu.edu.sg. I’d love to talk more.

I’m also hiring part-time research assistants. If you’re an undergraduate or graduate student currently at Nanyang Technological University who’s interested in getting involved, please similarly send me an email. These are paid positions (generally, about $15 an hour).