Neo works with caregiver communities in Singapore on Care Index, a research project examining the structures and textures of care. This seminar provided an opportunity to hear about her areas of interest and her extended research process. When we talk about illness and aging, we tend to talk about our bodies—the bodies undergoing change. But even before becoming a body that needs care, or often at the same time, we are commonly already in the position of providing care. From grandparents and parents to partners, pets, and children, we spend our entire lives tending to one another. Through her work, Neo brings into focus the frequently overlooked lives of caregivers, drawing out the emotions, actions, and narratives of recovery belonging to those pushed to the margins of often invisible spaces—isolation facilities, homes, and elsewhere. The word “care” actually encompasses a vast range of acts: professional medical treatment, monitoring movement and helping someone get around, cooking to fill another person’s stomach, and sometimes simply being a willing listener. Caring for the caregiver, and caring for that care in turn—the seminar was a reminder to keep practicing and sustaining this unending, circular structure of care.  

—Han Munhee (Amo) (DCW 2025)