 “In Defense of Guided Reason: Hamka and the Reconstruction of Southeast Asian Islam ”, History of Religions 57, 2 (2017), 107-128. |
 “Recasting Gendered Paradigms: An Indonesian Cleric and Muslim Women in the Malay World”, Islam and Muslim-Christian Relations, 27, 2, (2016), pp. 175-193. |
 “Reorienting Sufism: Hamka and Islamic Mysticism in the Malay World”, Indonesia, 101, 1 (2016), pp. 1-18. |
 “Political Memoirs as Contrapuntal Narratives: Said Zahari’s Dark Clouds at Dawn“, Interventions: Journal of Postcolonial Studies (2016), 18, 4 (2016), pp. 512-525. |
| “Writing Reformist Histories: A Cleric as an Outsider-History Maker”, The Public Historian 37, 3 (2015), pp. 10-28. |
 “Demarginalizing the Sharia: Muslim Activists and Legal Reforms in Malaysia”, ReOrient: Journal of Critical Muslim Studies, 1, 2 (2016), pp. 127-146. |
 “Writing Reformist Histories: A Cleric as an Outsider-History Maker”, The Public Historian, 37, 3 (2015), pp. 10-28. |
 “Coffeeshops in Colonial Singapore: Domains of Contentious Publics”, History Workshop Journal, 78, 1 (2014), pp. 65-85. |
| “Transcending Orientalism: Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas and the History of Islam in the Malay World”, Tafhim 6, 1, (2014), pp. 1-21. |
| “Against Multiple Hegemonies: Radical Malay Women in Colonial Malaya”, Journal of Social History (Oxford University Press), 46, 1 (2013), pp. 153-175. |
| “The Prison and the Anti-colonialist in British Malaya”, Journal of Historical Sociology, 25, 3 (2012), pp. 386-412. |
| “Mediating and Consuming the Memories of Violence in the Philippines”, Critical Asian Studies, 44, 1 (2012), pp. 227-250. [co-written with Rommel Curaming] |
| “Social Memory and State-Civil Society Relations in the Philippines: Forgetting and Remembering Jabidah ‘Massacre’”, Time and Society, 21, 1 (2012), pp. 89-103 [co-written with Rommel Curaming] |
| “The Other Muhammadiyah Movement: Singapore, 1958-2008”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 42, 2 (2011), pp. 281-302. |
| “Micro-history and the Study of Minorities”, Social History. 35, 1 (2011), pp. 22-35. “A Theory of Colonialism in the Malay World”, Postcolonial Studies, 14, 1 (2011), pp. 7-21. |
| “Ethnic Resurgence, Minority Communities and State Policies in a Network Society”, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 16, 2 (2010), pp. 304-326. |
| “Rethinking Riots in Colonial Southeast East Asia”, Southeast Asia Research, 18, 1 (2010), pp. 105–131. |
| “British Discourses and Malay Identity in Colonial Singapore”, Indonesia and the Malay World, 37, 107 (2009), pp. 1-22. |
| “The Role of Hadramis in Post-World War Two Singapore – A Reinterpretation”, Immigrants and Minorities, 25, 2 (2007), pp. 163-183. |
| “Making Sense of an Evolving Identity: A Survey of Studies on Identity and Identity Formation of Malays in Singapore”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA), 26, 3 (2006), pp. 371-382. |
| “Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles’ Discourse on the Malay World – A Revisionist Perspective”, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asian Studies, 20, 1 (2005), pp. 1-22. |
| “Estranged from the Ideal Past – Historical Evolution of Madrasahs in Singapore”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (JMMA), 25, 2 (2005), pp. 249-260. [co-written with Dayang Istiaisyah Hussin] |
| “Films as Social History – P. Ramlee’s ‘Seniman Bujang Lapok’ and Malays in Singapore (1950s-60s)”, Heritage Journal, 2, 1 (2005), pp. 1-21. |
| “Edward Said and Southeast Asian Islam”, Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies (Special Issue on “The Life and Legacy of Edward Said”), 11, 1-2 (2004), pp. 159-175. Chapters in Books and Encyclopedia Entries |
| “The Uneven Topography of Personal Memory”, in Alistair Thomson et. al, Historical Fragments in Southeast Asia (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), pp. 83-100. [co-written with Rommel Curaming] |
“Introduction to Figures of Singaporean Modernity”, in Erik Harms, Joshua Barker and Johan Lindquist (eds.), The Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), pp. 195-198.
“The Scholar-Musician”, in Erik Harms, Joshua Barker and Johan Lindquist (eds.), The Figures of Southeast Asian Modernity (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2013), pp. 179-181.
“Muslims and Heritage in George Town”, in Johan Saravanamuttu and Francis Hutchinson (eds.), Catching the Wind: Penang in a Rising Asia (Singapore: ISEAS, 2013), pp. 55-67.
“Tools of conflict, levers of cohesion: Culture and religion in Muslim Southeast Asia”, Sven Schottman and Joseph Camilleri (eds.), Culture and Religion and Conflict in Muslim Southeast Asia (London: Routledge, 2012), pp. 179-191.
“Theorising Colonialism in the Malay World”, Zawawi Ibrahim (ed.), Social Science and Knowledge in a Globalizing World (Petaling Jaya: PSSM, 2012), pp. 201-218.
“Islamic Education – Singapore”, in John Esposito, Oxford Islamic Studies Online, http://www.oxfordislamicstudies.com/ (2012).
“The Languages of Security in Malaysia”, in Matthew Hill and Sheryn Lee (eds.), The Languages of Security in the Asia-Pacific http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/blogs/languagesofsecurity/category/languages/malaysian/ (2011).
“Globalising the History of Singapore”, in Derek Heng and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (eds.), Global Connections: Singapore in World History (ICAS Series) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2011), pp. 11-26. [co-written with Derek Heng]
“Melayu: Politics, Poetics and Paradoxes”, in Maznah Mohamed and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (eds.), Melayu: The Politics and Paradoxes of Ethnicity (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2011), pp. ix-xxii. [co-written with Maznah Mohamad]
“Malay Identity in Postcolonial Singapore”, in Maznah Mohamed and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (eds.), Melayu: The Politics and Paradoxes of Ethnicity (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2011), pp. 145-167.
“A Century of Hope, Experiment and Change”, in Aileen Lau (ed.), Malay Heritage in Singapore (Singapore: Malay Heritage Foundation, 2011), pp. 40-56. [co-written with Timothy P. Barnard]
“Temasek, Singapura and Singapore: From Ancient to Colonial Port”, in Aileen Lau (ed.), Malay Heritage in Singapore (Singapore: Malay Heritage Foundation, 2011), pp. 20-31. [co-written with Timothy P. Barnard]
“Perils and Prospects of Researching the Maria Hertogh Controversy in Singapore”, in Loh Kah Seng and Liew Kai Khiun (eds.), The Makers and Keepers of Singapore History (Singapore: Singapore Heritage Society, 2010), pp. 139-146.
“Hadhramis within Malay Activism: The Role of Al-Saqqaf (s) in Post-War Singapore”, in Ahmed Ibrahim Abushouk and Hassan Ahmed Ibrahim (eds.), The Hadhrami Diaspora in Southeast Asia: Identity Maintenance or Assimilation? (Leiden: Brill, 2009), pp. 225-244.
“Introduction”, in Derek Heng and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (eds.), Reframing Singapore: Memory, Identity and Trans-Regionalism (ICAS Series) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009), pp. 11-20. [co-written with (with Derek Heng]
“Beyond the Rhetoric of Communalism”, in Derek Heng and Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied (eds.), Reframing Singapore: Memory, Identity and Trans-Regionalism (ICAS Series) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2009), pp. 69-88.
“Arabs in Singapore” and “Abdullah Bin Abdul Kadir (Munshi Abdullah)”, in Timothy Auger, Jimmy Yap, Ng Wei Chian (eds.), Singapore: The Encyclopedia (Editions Didier Millet: Singapore, 2006).