Modules_NM – Department of English, Linguistics and Theatre Studies

General Education & CHS Interdisciplinary courses

The Department offers an interesting range of General Education and CHS Interdisciplinary courses.

Semester 1 - General Education Courses

GEC1017 (GEH1053) Film Art and Human Concerns

Gilbert YEOH

Can movies engage with serious concerns? Through the close study of films by great directors, this course explores how film as an artistic medium can be used to engage with significant socio-cultural and existential concerns. Students will be taught how to analyze film as an artistic medium and, further, how film directors use the aesthetic elements of film to engage with important subjects. Through films by directors like Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou, students get a chance to reflect on issues like the human condition, the family, the urban condition, love and society, and the nation.

Preclusion for GEC1017: GEH1053
Preclusion for GEH1053: GEC1017

GEC1018 (GEH1054) Names as Markers of Socio-cultural Identity

Peter TAN

This course focuses on names as a means of marking out the socio-cultural identity of the named and of the namer. Attention will be paid to anthroponyms (personal names), toponyms (place names) and commercial names. This course will be interdisciplinary in nature and will combine a range of approaches to names. Linguistic and philosophical approaches will provide the theoretical anchor to the topic of names. Subsequent seminars will contextualise names in their historical, geographical, political and literary contexts. There will be scope for students to develop the course in the direction of their interests in the mini project.

Preclusion for GEC1018: GEH1054
Preclusion for GEH1054: GEC1018

GEI1002 (GET1030) Computers and the Humanities

Miguel ESCOBAR

Digital technologies expand the frontiers of the humanities through interactive publishing, machine-driven analysis, media-rich platforms, online archives and crowd-sourced databases. This course invites students from across the university to consider these new approaches through a problem-based approach. In each session, the students will learn to use and critically evaluate digital approaches. Reflecting the multiple perspectives within the digital humanities, teaching combines seminar discussions with computational thinking projects that require the students to pose humanities questions in terms of data.

Preclusion for GEI1002: GET1030
Preclusion for GET1030: GEI1002

GEN2001 Theatre and Community Engagement

Robin LOON, Peggy FERROA & Jeffrey TAN

This course introduces students to how theatre can be an effective tool to engage communities. Leveraging on theatre’s inherent collaborative, experiential and embodied propensities, the course aims to raise student awareness of the sensitivities, responsibilities & creativity of Theatre in community engagement. Students will be tasked to envision and pitch theatre-centred community engagement projects.

GEN2003 Inclusivity and Equality: Domestic Worker Community

Mie HIRAMOTO

This course explores the intricate world of language contact and its socio-cultural implications within the context of Singapore's domestic worker community. By collaborating with the Foreign Domestic Workers Association for Social Service and Training (FAST), students will gain a profound understanding of the linguistic challenges faced by migrant domestic workers (MDWs) who have come to Singapore with varying degrees of English proficiency. Through a comprehensive exploration of language and paralinguistic dynamics, this course aims to illuminate the social inequalities that stem from language-related limitations and disparities in confidence, affecting MDWs' daily interactions with both locals and their employers.

GEN2004 Green Communities in Action: Climate, Species, Crisis

Gayatri PILLAI

Arguably, the most pressing contemporary issue that affects all humanity is the global environmental crisis. This course aims to engage with Green Communities in Singapore in order to synthesise their common aim to fight the negative effects of climate crisis. It will examine cultural, political and literary narratives, and draw on field studies to provide both knowledge-based and experiential insight into various green projects. This course exposes students from across disciplines to salient directions in the environmental humanities and to observe praxis methodologies in action. It approaches the climate crisis primarily from the angle of ecocritical textual analysis.

GEX1031 (GET1044) Hollywood Cinema: Constructing the Realistic

Edna LIM

Hollywood cinema is arguably the most popular and dominant cinema in the world but it is also a group style that represents a particular mode of expression and approach to the cinematic medium. This course explores the ways that Hollywood has used film form to create a naturalised style and viewing experience. We will study its conventions as well as the variations and deviations that push the envelope or constitute alternative constructions of the realistic. This course is 100% CA and some of the films studied may have mature content.

Preclusion for GEX1031: GET1044
Preclusion for GET1044 : GEX1031

Semester 1 - Interdisciplinary Courses

HS2912 Polymaths: Innovating Between Art and Science

Maiya MURPHY & CHNG Hui Ting

Why are so many successful scientists also artists? Why are so many artists obsessed with science? Can the skills of polymath geniuses like Leonardo daVinci be learned? This course explores the history, skills, and capacities of problem-solvers and innovators who reject disciplinary borders and work across both science and art. By engaging with the work of famous and everyday art-science polymaths across time and place, students will engage in and interrogate both scientific and artistic practices to cultivate a toolbox of strategies and aptitudes for crossing disciplines, seeing the bigger picture, solving complex problems, and innovating in a dynamic world.

Advisory pre-requisites:

This course is reserved for students from Year 2 onwards.
Students are encouraged to have completed at least two of the Level-1000 CHS Common Curriculum courses, which may include: HSI1000, HSH1000, CHS Data Literacy course, and CHS Digital Literacy course.

HS2914 How to Get Humans and Machines to Talk to Each Other

Nick HUANG & Vic GOPAL

Language is one of the basic defining characteristics of what is it to be human, although recent advances seem to have helped computers master at least some aspects of human language. But how does human language work, and do machines handle it the same way as humans do? This course is an overview, for non-specialists, of rule-based and statistical approaches that have proven to be very effective at modeling various aspects of human language, used whether by humans or by computers. The course will also provide students with a greater appreciation of the strengths and limitations of these two approaches.

Advisory pre-requisites:

This course is reserved for students from Year 2 onwards.
Students are encouraged to have completed a course from either the CHS Digital Literacy pillar and/or the CHS Data Literacy pillar.

Semester 2 - General Education Courses

GEI1002 (GET1030) Computers and the Humanities

Miguel ESCOBAR

Preclusion for GEI1002: GET1030
Preclusion for GET1030: GEI1002

GEN2001 Theatre and Community Engagement

Robin LOON, Peggy FERROA & Jeffrey TAN

GEN2004 Green Communities in Action: Climate, Species, Crisis

Gayatri PILLAI

GESS1021 (GES1029) Singapore Film: Performance of Identity

Edna LIM

This course explores the ways in which Singapore films constitute a national cinema. It explores a series of Singapore films from the golden age to the revival and key topics such as space, language, and history. Through a group creative project, students are challenged to make their own Singapore film or curate an online Singapore film festival that involves the practical application of critical ideas and enables students to participate in the ways that a national cinema performs and functions.

Preclusion for GESS1021: GES1029
Preclusion for GES1029: GESS1021

Semester 2 - Interdisciplinary Courses

HS2913 Representing Live(s): Research, Performance and Stories

Robin LOON & Jennifer ESTES

How can we learn about people’s experiences, ethically represent their lives, and communicate their stories to an audience? What is the affective power of live performance? How can these performances inform the public’s understanding of pressing social issues? This course explores these questions by integrating approaches from anthropology and theatre studies. You will apply the ideas you learn into practice by collaborating in groups to create a performance piece based on your original research. In the process, you will hone your ability to employ qualitative research methods, craft compelling narratives, and communicate complex ideas.

Advisory pre-requisites:

This module is reserved for students from Year 2 onwards.
Students are encouraged to have completed HSS1000 and HSH1000.

HS2917 The Meaning of Colour

Susan ANG & Adrian LEE

What is colour? Is this a question for science or a question for the arts? Our species has known colour throughout its evolutionary history. It influences how we interact with the world and gives insights into the very nature of the universe. We communicate in and with colour. In this course, we will ask questions about light and vision, pigments and dyes, the psychological and emotional effects of colour, and about its impact on social and cultural identity. These questions will find answers in science and the arts, but will only find proper meaning when these answers blend.

Advisory pre-requisites:

This course is reserved for students from Year 2 onwards.
Students are encouraged to have completed at least two of the Level-1000 CHS Common Curriculum courses, which may include: HSI1000, HSH1000, CHS Data Literacy course, and CHS Digital Literacy course.