Biography
Gomez was born in 1965. His father, Thomas Vincent Gomez, was a founder and prominent member of the Singapore Manual and Mercantile Worker's Union (SMMWU).
Gomez studied at Nanyang Junior College before going on to the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 1988–92, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Political Science. He then completed a Master of Arts degree in Politics and Human Rights at the University of Essex in the United Kingdom in 1994.
Gomez was appointed as a Visiting Associate at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore in 1995, and was as a Visiting Researcher at the National Institute of Education Centre for Research in 1997–98. He taught a course on the NUS Southeast Asian Studies programme in 1997, and on the University of Leeds distance learning Master's degree programme in Asia-Pacific Studies from 1997–2000. He occasionally contributed book reviews that appeared in The Straits Times and other local publications. He also wrote opinion pieces on culture and identity that appeared in various local magazines.
Gomez began working for the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Asia in 1996. He also continued his interest in academia through several research organisations and tertiary institutions. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Media and Communications Department at the Hong Kong Baptist University in 2002, and also presented guest seminars at the University of Hong Kong. From 2002–04, he co-ordinated and guest lectured on a course on International Ethics and Human Rights at Thammasat University in Thailand, and was also an Adjunct Lecturer on the Human Rights Programme at Thailand's Mahidol University.
In 2004, Gomez began studying for a Ph.D. at the Monash Asia Institute of Monash University in Australia. While he was there, he co-ordinated a publication project entitled the Singapore Studies Workshop Series, which resulted in three special issue journals (two in print and 1 online). They include SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia vol 20/2 (October 2005) as a special focus issue entitled "Democracy and Civil Society: NGO Politics in Singapore"; Asia Rights (online journal) issue 5 (December 2005) "Human Rights Spotlight: Singapore"; and the Copenhagen Journal of Asia Studies vol 23 (July 2006) "Stability, Risks and Opposition in Singapore".
Gomez also worked as a Programme Officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance in Sweden from 2006 to 2008. From 2008–09, Gomez was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science at Keio University in Japan. In between May 2009 to end May 2011 Gomez was the Deputy Associate Dean (International) and Head of Public Relations at the School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences at Monash University.
Gomez presently serves on the editorial board of Asia Rights, an online journal of human rights produced by the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS) at the Australian National University.
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