Associate Professor Ee Ling Quah

Associate Professor Quah Ee Ling is a fire dragon feminist, Singaporean of Chinese-Hokkien and Indonesian-Peranakan heritage. Ee Ling insists on the correct order of her name - surname (Quah) first followed by given name (Ee Ling). She earned a PhD in Sociology (University of Sydney), MSocSci (National University of Singapore) and BA (National University of Singapore). 

She developed fire dragon feminism to blow flames at coloniality and racial capitalism and build solidarities for more just and sustainable futures. She has no patience for white supremacy, imperialism, racial capitalism, racism, patriarchy and heteronormativity.

Research and Community Engagement

Ee Ling is the author of three sole-authored books: Fire Dragon Feminism: Asian Migrant Women's tales of migration, coloniality and racial capitalism (Bloomsbury 2025); Transnational Divorce: Understanding Intimacies and Inequalities from Singapore (Routledge 2020); Perspectives on Marital Dissolution: Divorce Biographies in Singapore (Springer 2015).

Her research on migration, coloniality, race, gender, sexuality and feminisms have also appeared in Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies; Sexualities; Journal of Intercultural Studies; Gender, Work and Organisation; Journal of Family Issues; Emotion, Space and Society; Journal of Sociology; Australian Feminist Studies; Marriage & Family Review; and Sydney Review of Books.

She is the Comment & Debate Editor, Emotions and Society (Bristol University Press) and Editorial Advisory Board Member, Journal of Sociology (Sage). 

Ee Ling has brought her research to creative and literary platforms such as Queerstories, OzAsia, Melbourne Fringe, Midsumma Festival, Casula Powerhouse, DearNelly, Melbourne Comedy Club, GenerationWomen, Medibank's We Are Lonely podcast, Sydney Mardi Gras, World Pride,  Willoughby Literary Festival and Manly Writers' Festival. 

Ee Ling is the Chief Investigator on these research projects: 

1. Australian Research Council Linkage 'Place-based Employment and Enterprise of Newly-Arrived Young Migrant Women' (in partnership with CORE Community Servcies, Navitas, Western Sydney Migrant Resource Centre, Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Neighbourhood Network, Curious Works and 15/15 Films);
2. WSU SAGE 'Understanding Level A Academic Staff’s Work Experiences with the WSU Decasualisation Scheme’;
3. ‘Understanding Multicultural LGBTIQA+ Employees' Experiences with Workplace DEI initiatives’ project funded by the Brennan-Lynch Foundation/WSU Rainbow Western.

She has recently completed a community engagement research project on Forcibly Displaced Chinese LGBTIQA+ migrants in Australia (funded by Pride Foundation Australia & Sidney Myers Fund via Australia New Zealand Tongzhi Rainbow Alliance).

Teaching & Service

At WSU, Ee Ling is the subject coordinator of a large first-year core Bachelor of Arts subject, Diversity, Language and Culture since 2023. She employs an anti-colonial approach to designing and delivering a critque of coloniality, imperialism, racial capitalism and neoliberalism in this subject. 

Ee Ling is the Deputy Academic Lead of Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), and a member of the Institute for Culture & Society, Writing & Society Research Centre, and Sexualities & Genders Research. She was the former convenor of Culture & Society discipline (2022-2025).

Previous employment

Prior to WSU, she was a senior lecturer in Sociology with University of Wollongong (UOW) from 2016-2022. At UOW, she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Rosemary Cooper Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Award 2020. After achieving her PhD in 2013, she won a highly competitive postodctoral fellowship and a subsequent research fellowship with the National University of Singapore, Asia Research Institute.