His research has focused on a range of topics including state formation in the eighteenth-century Straits of Melaka, Malay identity throughout history, Malay film in the 1950s, and the environmental history of Singapore. He has published numerous book chapters and articles, as well as the book Multiple Centres of Authority (KITLV, 2003) and the edited volumes Contesting Malayness (NUS Press, 2004) and Nature Contained (NUS Press, 2014). He has just completed a history of the Singapore Botanic Gardens entitled Nature’s Colony, which will be launched in October 2016.