Daniel Seah, Associate Professor of Law, Singapore Management University

Daniel Seah (PhD, 2018) is a public international lawyer by training, and is admitted as an Advocate and Solicitor of the Singapore Supreme Court. He is a full-time Associate Professor of Law (Education) at Singapore Management University (SMU) where he researches ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) law and emerging technologies, such as misinformation, open-source governance and “open-washing”, through an interdisciplinary lens. 

Daniel has received various teaching excellence awards, including his induction into the SMU Core Curriculum Hall of Fame for Teaching Excellence. He received the SMU Educational Research Fellowship to advance the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) through a mixed-methods study on faculty perceptions of fair grading in neurodiverse classrooms.

What motivated you to study a PhD at UCL?

I’m from Singapore and decided on UCL because of its location. London’s energy is raw and real. The university attracts very bright individuals from incredibly diverse backgrounds. That’s a reason for UCL’s formidable research and its aggregation of amazing teachers.

What makes UCL such a great place to study?

In Southeast Asia, UCL has long been highly regarded for the quality of its LLB and LLM programmes. However, its doctoral programme deserves to be valorised. I’ve benefited from strong mentorship from exemplary teachers, and worked with a culturally diverse pool of undergrad and postgrad students from different continents.

I suggest that this diversity is UCL’s signal advantage as a university. In a polarised world, a strong exposure to diversity develops our ability and willingness to make connections and to work with people who hold diverse views. In my current job, I find myself drawing on the experiences and lessons during my doctoral studies. I’m very lucky to join the UCL family!

How has your career path evolved since finishing the PhD, and how did UCL Laws prepare you for this?

In the early years, a serendipitous return to my common law roots in tort and evidence proved decisive in my academic trajectory. I began to explore the intersections between national and international legal standards in what was then called emerging technologies and the law. This field has since evolved into a major research area, with standalone modules across Singapore universities. This serendipity also sparked interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in psychology, social work, and Geographic Information Systems. These collaborations sharpened my ability to conduct mixed-methods research and to secure competitive grants. It transformed my academic career.

UCL Laws provided a rigorous intellectual foundation. I received exceptional PhD supervision, which fostered a deep commitment to scholarly precision. At UCL, I refined the forensic analysis of primary sources. This is a skill that is valuable to and valued by colleagues in large interdisciplinary teams across STEM and the social sciences.

Can you tell us about your current role and what it entails?

To quote a doyen, I do my best work in the classroom. I have found a home as a teacher-scholar within the College of Integrative Studies at SMU, an incubator for interdisciplinary teaching and research. My role is to bring my expertise as a lawyer into SMU’s Core Curriculum, where students from every degree engage with modules which cut across disciplinary silos. Singapore must cultivate a generation with the intellectual agility to integrate knowledge across domains and to address complex problems that transcend disciplinary boundaries.

For students inclined to pursue an interdisciplinary degree, my other role is to supervise them in the Bachelor of Integrative Studies. The programme begins with the identification of a learning artefact (capstone or senior thesis), which anchors the student’s academic journey. The entire degree is then customised around this artefact to support the integration of knowledge across fields. Current artefacts include destination redevelopment and sustainable consumption, where students combine management, psychology, and data analytics to produce innovative solutions. No two days are ever the same with our students!
 

What advice would you give to anyone undertaking a PhD at UCL Laws?  

Make full use of UCL’s place in London’s unique ecosystem. The university sits at the heart of a city that is alive with networking opportunities. Actively meet and learn from other PhD students across different schools within this large university. Study how they are scaling their ideas, and determine how your skills can add value.

Academia can be rewarding, but it is highly competitive and potentially uncertain, so it is wise to plan alternatives beyond academia. UCL and London provide an exceptional vantage point to connect your research training with wider professional opportunities. The relationships that you forge in this city can shape your career in unexpected ways.