Mark Chong

Dr Mark is currently an associate professor in criminology and criminal justice studies. He was formerly the Director of Research Education at the School of Arts and Social Sciences, James Cook University from 2012 to January 2015, and Acting Associate Dean of Research at the College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, from July 2019 to September 2019 (3 months). In 2021, he received the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Community Engagement at JCU. He is also an external assessor (grant applications) for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Dr Mark graduated with a PhD in Law from the University of Sydney, where he received his Law School’s Longworth Scholarship (2003), the Cooke, Cooke, Coghlan, Godfrey and Littlejohn Scholarship (2004), the Longworth Scholarship for Academic Merit (2006), and the Longworth Scholarship once again in 2007.

He was initially trained as a criminal defence lawyer and later secured an LLM (Merit) from Queen Mary, University of London. Thereafter he was appointed as a judicial Referee (currently referred to as a Tribunal Magistrate) by the President of the Republic of Singapore on the recommendation of the Chief Justice to the Small Claims Tribunals’ bench. However, given his deep interest in criminal justice issues, Dr Mark subsequently taught the Singapore Police Force and the Central Narcotics Bureau at Temasek Polytechnic (Singapore) under a joint academic programme with Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He was also an adjunct lecturer and tutor at SIM University (Singapore), where he designed a criminology subject (the Sociology of Law and Order) specifically for students from the Singapore Police Force.