History Courses by Themes
This page offers a thematic overview of the specialisations and courses available in our department. This thematic representation is designed to assist students as they plan a pathway of courses. Please note, some courses are listed under multiple themes. For course listings by levels, visit this page. For the current academic year's courses, go to this page.
Asian History
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
All history is contemporary history. Nowhere is this truer than in Asia, where some of the oldest human civilisations constitute the world’s newest growth regions. In this course, we engage Asia and its varied pasts to show you how a historical frame of mind is integral to the making of a well-informed world citizen. From Beijing and Bangkok to Bangalore, from ancient dynasties to Cold War domino theories, learn about how today’s Asia continues to be at the frontier of global history. While HY1101E is a pre-requisite for majors and minors, all students are welcome to take the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course provides a broad survey of Chinese imperial history from the classical period to the eighteenth century. Apart from placing this general history within a chronological framework, it will be analysing major political events and long-term trends in the development of Chinese statecraft, economic and social institutions, philosophy and religion, literature and art, as well as relations with the outside world. The course is mounted for undergraduates throughout the university with an interest in China, especially its history, politics and culture.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with major changes within China from around 1800 to 1949. Emphasis will be given to the internal political and socio-economic dynamics, foreign impact and new ideological currents during the late Qing dynasty as well as in the subsequent Chinese Republic. The broad theme of a long, continuous struggle for wealth, power and democracy will be used to comprehend this period of Chinese history. The course is mounted for students throughout the university with an interest in China, especially its history, politics, and economy.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: Nil
Preclusion(s): HY3207
This course explores major developments in the premodern Japanese polity, economy, culture and society, from the early ages to the end of the eighteenth century. Its main themes include studies in Japanese origins and mythology, court culture and popular culture, samurai and shogunal rule, economic and social trends, intellectual and religious developments, and Japan's interaction with the outside world, notably, China, Korea, Southeast Asia and the West. The relevance of Japan's premodern heritage to present-day Japan will also be emphasized.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with the impact of Japanese rule in the Korean peninsula, of independence in 1945 followed by the "Korean War" and partition, and of the economic, political and social transformations in South Korea from the 1960's to 1990's. The approach adopted is a thematic one, and certain topics will be selected for analysis.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: Nil
Preclusions: GEK2015
Cross-listing: GEK2015
This course explores Europe and Asia’s mutual fascination with, and appropriation of, each other’s visual and material cultures. From the Buddhist art of Central Asia to KL Petronas Towers through medieval textiles, chinoiseries, Orientalist paintings, colonial architecture, museums, modernist avant-gardes and postmodernism, the course surveys chronologically some fifteen centuries of East/West artistic interactions while introducing students to the disciplines (art and cultural history, post-colonial and cultural studies) concerned with visual culture. The course is open to students from all faculties and does not require background knowledge of art history.
Units:: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the history of modern Japan from the late-Tokugawa period to the present. Its primary goal is to promote basic understanding of major events, while also aiming to analyze the modern history of Japan in transnational and comparative contexts through exploring a number of common themes of modern global history: nation building, colonialism, total war, and various transformations and social conflicts in the postwar period. Through such examination, the module aims at promoting critical thinking concerning diverse historical interpretations and controversies. Accordingly, students will be exposed to a broad range of historical debates and viewpoints throughout the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces Southeast Asia’s past from earliest times to the present (1st century to 21st century). It highlights how processes of interaction, circulation, and connection shaped the key characteristics and worldviews that are associated with the region today. Course content will focus on how local communities adopted and adapted influences from around the world to form a distinctive regional culture. How polities emerged via the region’s historical interaction with Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Iberian, European, Japanese, and New World civilizations will be given special attention. Today’s nation-states and regional organizations are a product of this long history of community formation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
That the Second World War impacted Southeast Asia is beyond doubt. But the significance of its impact on the structure of the region's 'contemporary' history is more debatable, for revisionist historians are wont to discount the thesis that the War represented a significant turning point or watershed which 'transformed' the region's history. Drawing on both country and regional perspectives, this course first assesses the impact of the War on the theme of decolonization, perhaps the one major historically significant process to dominate the region's political terrain in the immediate post-war aftermath. It will further examine the challenges and trials confronting the new states "after" decolonization, in particular, their search not only for new political frameworks to replace the colonial structures they had discarded, but also for solutions to mitigate the issues of social integration, inter-state conflict and regional co-operation.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the development of international relations in East Asia from the Opium War to the Korean War. It not only discusses major international events, such as conflicts, treaties, and alliances, but also examines the interplay between domestic and foreign affairs, the spread of political ideologies, and the rise of nationalism and racial/ethnic identities.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will introduce Asian, European, and American material from the late nineteenth century to nearly the present day, concentrating on social and cultural themes such as industrialization, colonialism, science and race, technology and war, computers and global telecommunications and biotechnology and the human genome project. It will be taught as a series of cases illustrating important events and multiple themes. The proposition that modern science and technology have been 'socially constructed', reflecting political and cultural values as well as the state of nature, will be examined rather closely. Some theoretical material will leaven our otherwise empirical focus.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This seminar explores China's place within the larger maritime world, beginning with the voyages of Ming dynasty eunuch Zheng He and culminating in the South China Sea dispute in our time. We will focus partly on states and societies that claimed China’s coastal regions and the oceanic spaces surrounding it, and partly on the networks, institutions, and economies linking China to a wider maritime sphere. Readings will be drawn from both primary sources and scholarship on topics such as the Zheng organization on Taiwan, steamships, overseas migration, fishing, smuggling, and reform and opening in the late 20th century.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This module studies the growth and expansion of Vietnam over the centuries to look at how this history has affected its culture and development. Particular attention is given to how the Vietnamese tell the story of their own past and how they perceive their history as a nation. The module is intended for students with a particular interest in Vietnam and for others who would like to do an in-depth study of a single country; it raises issues about nationhood and historical narrative which are applicable to many other cases.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course focuses on the histories of the Malays who have populated the Straits of Melaka and the South China Sea. Discussions and lectures do not focus on chronology or a simple narration of “facts,” but upon a critical examination of questions such as “who is Malay?” and “what is the Malay World?”, allowing for a better understanding of the key social, cultural, political, and economic practices and institutions that have shaped the Malay experience. The course will be of interest to any student who wants to know more about Malays and the societies in and around Singapore.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2228, SN3262, SN2261
Cross-listing(s): SN3262
This course is concerned with the political evolution of the Indian nation in two of its most formative periods: the late nationalist struggle from 1920-47 that led to the withdrawal of the colonial power; and the years of Jawaharlal Nehru's prime ministership, 1947-64. The course looks at both decolonisation and nation-building as processes characterised by debate and contestation in relation to (a) social, regional and group identity and (b) political rights and power. The course will study the impact of that debate and contestation on the character, institutions and political life of the nation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS3239
Cross-listing(s): AS3239
This course will focus on the role of the US in the Asia-Pacific region from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The evolution of political, military and economic ties between the America and three sub-regions of Asia will be explored. The nature of US involvement in the conflicts of the East Asian nations of Japan, China and Korea will form the first part of the module. The involvement of America in the decolonization and nation-building of the Southeast Asian nations will also be examined. Finally, the American influence in the sectarian and power differences in the South Asian nations of India and Pakistan will be addressed. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the history of relations between China and Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the modern period. We will explore in weekly seminars the various dimensions and dynamics of China-Southeast Asian relations, including the evolution of regional state structures, tributary relations, maritime trade, migration, the impact of Western colonialism, nationalism and communism, the Cold War, and the rise of China in recent times. Though a basic knowledge of Chinese and Southeast Asian history will be helpful, the course is open to all undergraduate students who are interested in the topic.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the history of Myanmar (Burma). Organized chronologically from the emergence of the earliest polities to the present, students will examine the formation and interaction of communities, ideological worldviews, ethnic identities, and material cultures that have characterized the societies that evolved along the Irrawaddy River basin and beyond. Course content will consider the particulars of Myanmar's history (early state-formation and the historical development of Burmese “identity”) within regional/global processes and themes. Fundamentally, this module addresses why contemporary Myanmar is perceived to be so different from its regional neighbours despite sharing many historical and cultural experiences.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
The People's Republic of China was established in 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party, first led by Mao Zedong and later by Deng Xiaoping and his successors. The development path from its founding to the Tiananmen incident of 1989 was turbulent and far from linear. Indeed, the new China has been premised upon revolutionary remaking and a total break from the past. Nonetheless, there are still historical continuities when compared with the previous imperial and republican eras. This course aims to provide a deeper understanding of contemporary China by looking at its politics, society, economy and culture in broad historical perspective and within a thematic framework. It also explores China's distancing and connecting with the rest of the world.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
No one can say that the Cold War has ended yet in East Asia. But rather a number of the contemporary intra-regional tensions in East Asia stem from the Cold War era; from the tensions over the Taiwan Straits, to the temporary cease-fire status between North and South Korea, to the constitutional controversy in Japan. With a special emphasis on the international dimension, this course explores how the Cold War confrontation (1945-present) has unfolded in the historical context of East Asia over the past decades.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
‘Brides of the Sea', ‘Gateways to Asia' and ‘the transformers of Asia' are some of the ways scholars have described Asian port cities. Through case studies, this module explores the port city and the ‘maritime world' in Asia. Students are introduced to the history of China's maritime world with a focus on the challenges it faced through encroachment by Western imperial powers. This module also examines Asia's colonial port cities, including Calcutta and Singapore, as sites of Western influence and modernization and also as sites of local resistance and transformation. This course is suitable for all students of NUS.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will explore the Philippines' almost 500 years of social and cultural history—from its early association with India, China and Southeast Asia, to its incorporation into the Spanish and American empires, to its tumultuous road towards independence and democratization. Students will consider Filipino religiosity and worldview, and analyze their ramifications in society. Popular images of the Philippines – homeland of international labor and site of natural hazards and spectacle of poverty – will be investigated. Students will take Philippine history as an exemplar towards a better understanding of the postcolonial condition that numerous nations experience.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the major patterns and themes of Chinese migrations since 1400. From merchants under the tributary trade system, to indentured and free labour in the industrialising age, as well as the making of new citizens in multi-culturalist nation-states, students will examine the social experience of long-distance migration through regional and global processes of political-economic change. In addition to academic texts, students will read official documents, family letters, memoirs, and novels to address enduring questions in the history of human migration – why do people leave their homes, and what remains when they adapt to their lands of adoption?
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion: HY2234
From its origins in India, Buddhism has expanded across the world and taken deep root in diverse societies across Asia over the past two thousand years. This course traces the development of both Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Major topics to be covered include the spread of Buddhism, the rise of Buddhist kingdoms, the development of popular traditions, the impact of European colonialism, the relationship between Buddhism and nationalism, the emergence of modern reformist movements, and Buddhist minorities in maritime Southeast Asia.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This level-3000 course examines how violent conflict defined nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chinese history. It explores in equal parts, the role of armed force in state formation and nation-building, and the impact of violent conflict on social, economic, and cultural life. It investigates how and why various regimes resorted to violent means for their political and ideological ends. However, it also uncovers the devastating impact of armed conflict on different sectors of the Chinese population, and studies how ordinary people reconstructed everyday normalcy amidst upheaval. Thus, the course traces the traumatic and transformative effects of violence on Chinese politics and society.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in MS.
Preclusion(s): HY4210HM
This course will examine the continuity and change in Malaysian political, economic and society history by focusing on salient themes. Included in these themes will be the evolution of the traditional Malay states and society, internationalism and nationhood, social change within the various communities, the modernization of the Malaysian economy and the interplay of complex historical forces in colonial and independent Malaysia.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4214HM
This course seeks to appreciate the complexities of China within its general development. It surveys theories and concepts that help analyze Chinese history, familiarizes students with past and current scholarships on China, considers debates about the nature of China’s historical developments, and discusses selected issues. The course is mounted for students at the senior levels with an interest in China.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SE.
Preclusion(s): HY4215HM
This course focuses on early Southeast Asian history. It examines and compares various types of political structures, including the fundamental concept of a “ kingdom” or empire in a Southeast Asian context to raise questions about how this early history has traditionally been analyzed. Cultural history, especially the role of religion, is an important component. The course is intended for Honours students interested in exploring and rethinking the earlier centuries of the region’s history.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SE.
Preclusion(s): HY4216HM
During this course we will examine how the past in Southeast Asia has been recorded and presented and how the “literature” of these works influences our views of the region’s history. In the first section of the course we will focus on how history was presented prior to the modern period in the region. The second section of the course will focus on depictions of Southeast Asian culture changed over time in the “literature”, and how this may provide new understandings of the region. The course is targeted at students that are interested in Southeast Asian history, culture and literature.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SE or 28 units in MS.
Preclusion(s): HY4217HM
This course surveys the various approaches that were developed to study and conceptualise Southeast Asian history. It seeks to equip students with an awareness of the analytical frameworks within which history research on the region had been written up. In the process, the course will evaluate the validity of the different approaches. For illustration, samples from secondary literature and, where applicable, primary texts will be used.
(Teaching Dept: Department of Japanese Studies)
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 units, including 28 units in HY or 28 units in GL/GL recognised non-language courses, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Cohort 2020 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 28 units in HY, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusion(s): JS4213HM and HY4218HM
Cross-listing(s): JS4213HM and HY4218HM
This course traces the historical development of Japan from the mid 19th century to the present. It focuses on close reading and discussion of important English-language works with particular emphasis on historical and theoretical controversies in the field. Students will be encouraged to think about both the modern history of Japan as well as the historians who have claimed to reconstruct and narrate it. The course is aimed at students interested in the intersection between Japanese history, the practice of historiography, and the application of theoretical models to the past.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SN.
Preclusion(s): HY4222HM
This seminar course examines the development of Asian businesses. Selected themes such as organizations, entrepreneurship and networks will be discussed. It may focus either on one country like Singapore, or regions in Asia in comparative studies.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4223HM
The history of the Chinese demonstrates cases of total integration into the host society, of long-term coexistence and competition with it, and of a variety of options in between. It has produced a wondrous array of acculturative, adaptive, and assimilative phenomena. Chinese have been pulled towards different identities at various times, as Chinese sojourners abroad, as Westernized colonial subjects, as loyal citizens of their adopted countries, as revolutionary communists or modern multinational capitalists. This course will investigate the history of Chinese emigration through a comparative approach to its diaspora in diverse locals such as East and Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia. A case study approach will be adopted in this module. The course is mounted for students at the senior levels with an interest in China and the Chinese overseas.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4233HM
Japanese imperialism left a deep and lasting imprint throughout Asia. This course will examine the characteristics of the Japanese empire and its postwar legacies, as well as the diverse issues surrounding its history and memory. The primary focus of the module will be a consideration of the Japanese empire in international contexts. Students are encouraged to apply comparative perspectives to draw implications for a larger discussion on modern imperialism.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4240HM, YHU3366
Between China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam lies an expansive region of mountains and valleys populated for centuries by upland peoples, scattered townsfolk, traders, fugitives, and insurgents. Through a range of historical, ethnographic, and primary source accounts, this course puts these often-marginalized figures at the center. We examine their motives for engaging or avoiding the states all around: imperial China and Vietnam, British and French colonial regimes, and modern nation-states of all kinds. At the same time, we also study the efforts of state or lowland actors to capture, control, convert, aid, and “civilize” the peoples of the borderlands.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4880BHM
Students have been a potent force for social and political change in many parts of Asia, particularly since 1950. Arranged on a chronological and thematic basis, this course will give students an opportunity to survey the history of student activism, primarily but not exclusively, in Asian countries during this period. In emphasizing a comparative approach, the course not only looks into the causes, functions, effects, and limits of student movements in each society, but also explores intra-Asian, or even global, interconnections of student activism in the second half of the twentieth century.
Global History
Units: 4
Workload: 3-1-0-4-2
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEK2049, GEH1013
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Piracy, understood broadly as violence or crime at sea, is a present day phenomenon and yet one which has a history spanning centuries and across all the oceans of the world. From pirates to privateers, corsairs to raiders, maritime predators take various names and forms. This course explores the history of pirates and piracy. By examining case studies from the 1400s onwards and by placing pirates into the context of oceanic history and maritime studies, students will be able to demystify the popular images often associated with pirates.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEH1077
Cross-listing(s): Nil
More people live in cities now than in any other point in history: how does this change human culture and civilisations? Cities tell a story of our world; they are a testament to humankind’s ability to reshape the environment in lasting ways. They reveal how we interact with the environment and with each other. Cities are created in many forms and for many reasons ranging from defense, religion and economic activity. Through case studies this courses examines urban history, lived experiences and how city life has changed over time.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Preclusion(s): GET1037
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course discusses the ‘big picture’ of History by considering defined themes that range across time and space. The focus is not on individual societies or time periods, but on questions related to commonalities in developments across all societies. This approach is like looking at a painting from a distance instead of at the brush strokes that constitute it, and will lead to questions about what human activities and experiences constitute the global experience. As part of the Thinking and Expression pillar, this course will help students think historically and also critically engage the maxim that ‘the past is a foreign country.’
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-5-0-2
Preclusion(s): SC2217
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course offers a broad survey of the evolution of travel and tourism, delving into its historical foundations and contemporary complexities. Students will examine the history of travel and exploration and its impact on cultural exchange, empire-building, economic development, and global connectivity. Students will trace the historical roots of the booming travel and tourism industry, and be introduced to contemporary issues related to travel consumerism, sustainability, and the influence of technology and social media. Students will develop an understanding of the multifaceted nature of travel and tourism within the broader historical and contemporary context of societal, cultural, and environmental dynamics.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
All history is contemporary history. Nowhere is this truer than in Asia, where some of the oldest human civilisations constitute the world’s newest growth regions. In this course, we engage Asia and its varied pasts to show you how a historical frame of mind is integral to the making of a well-informed world citizen. From Beijing and Bangkok to Bangalore, from ancient dynasties to Cold War domino theories, learn about how today’s Asia continues to be at the frontier of global history. While HY1101E is a pre-requisite for majors and minors, all students are welcome to take the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the evolution of strategic thought from times of antiquity through to the twentieth century. It presents strategic theories and concepts as historical phenomena, as the products of specific times and places. Students will travel through space and time, from ancient China to the Ottoman Empire, from revolutionary France to World War II Japan, to trace major turning points in understandings of the nature of warfare. They will establish a strong foundation in both strategic thought and historical modes of inquiry.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
After 1815, the Industrial Revolution and mass politics changed warfare. The new pattern of Modern War that emerged led to a further and more dramatic change: war between great industrial powers for unlimited ends, using unlimited means. Why did this happen and how did it affect the course of history? This course will pursue this question, analyzing changes in the nature and pattern of warfare to identify and explore the characteristics of Total War. It will concentrate on the Second World War. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: Nil
Preclusions: GEK2015
Cross-listing: GEK2015
This course explores Europe and Asia’s mutual fascination with, and appropriation of, each other’s visual and material cultures. From the Buddhist art of Central Asia to KL Petronas Towers through medieval textiles, chinoiseries, Orientalist paintings, colonial architecture, museums, modernist avant-gardes and postmodernism, the course surveys chronologically some fifteen centuries of East/West artistic interactions while introducing students to the disciplines (art and cultural history, post-colonial and cultural studies) concerned with visual culture. The course is open to students from all faculties and does not require background knowledge of art history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): GEK2008
Cross-listing(s): GEK2008
This course is designed to introduce students to major themes in Environmental History, meaning the historical study of the mutual influence of humans and the environment. After critically evaluating how the discipline of Environmental History has developed, lectures and discussions will focus on topics such as disease, agriculture, gender and modern environmental problems. Lectures will be combined with research assignments that will help students better understand how a historian approaches a topic. Students interested in history, the environment or new approaches to the past will be interested in the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU2221
Cross-listing(s): EU2221
Students will gain a basic understanding of empires in history. Individual empires will be studied to demonstrate patterns regarding the origins, development and collapse of empires. Topics will include the expansion of empires, colonization, military conquest, administration, and ideologies of empire. The humane side of imperialism will also be explored: the course will get students to try to understand the experience of subject peoples while also regarding empires as sites of cultural interaction. Finally, students will be introduced to some of the interpretative paradigms which have shaped the scholarly exploration of empires.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the common ground between the discipline of history and art history by considering images as historical evidence It concerns itself with both Western and Asian art in the time period from the 5th c. BC to the 20th c. The learning objectives are twofold: acquire the conceptual tools to understand the meaning of images and read visual narratives as historical texts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the history of technology through object-based learning and engagement with 3D and VR technologies. Does technology drive history, or is it the other way around? The course examines a variety of important technologies from stone tools to AI. Wars, geopolitics, and the discovery of new pleasures and anxieties are all interwoven with the history of tools and techniques. The course substantially leverages digital humanities, teaching students how to use 3D scanning, and the medium of VR to curate impactful experiences about various technologies.
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Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces key themes relating to global business history. It considers how business and enterprise have contributed to the making of the modern world. It looks at key economic actors, agents and institutions of historical change, their forms of organization, their strategies and culture, their relations with state and society and at how economic practices have been shaped by culture. Some of the themes covered will be: the business firm; the nineteenth century revolution in production, distribution, transport and communication; the rise of retailing; integration of mass production and distribution; managerial capitalism; multinationals; state -business relationships; and, culture and capitalism.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will look at the evolution of Christianity and its impact on Western and global history. It will trace the development of the various branches of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and how the conflicts among them shaped European history. It will consider the role of religion in American history. It will look at the linkages between missionary efforts and imperialism, as well as the consequences of conversion in colonial societies around the world. It will also look at how Christianity has been linked to ethnicity and nationalism in the post-colonial nation-states.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Law, Crime, and Punishment are all social concepts subject to historical change. In the case of law historical precedents are important in determining how best to apply the rule of law. By presenting a set of themes in the history of law, crime, and punishment across time and cultures this course allows students to examine processes of change in both how these concepts are understood, applied and structured. History as a practice is an investigative process and both historians and criminal investigators seek to determine what happened and why and how it happened.
Units: 4
Workload: 4-0-0-4-2
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the ways popular culture shapes understandings of history on two different levels. First, it examines how the popular culture of a specific era can reveal much of the social milieu of the time and help contextualise events of that period. Second, it will examine how popular culture, such as a film, created at a later time can influence perceptions about an earlier era. This course will examine instances and eras of popular culture to discuss the challenges of deriving historical knowledge from popular culture. Each iteration of the module may vary in its focus.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Preclusions(s): Students from Cohort 2017 and before who have read HY2245 or EU2221. YHU2314.
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course asks: why should we care about Roman history? What key questions do real-life historians use to investigate Roman society – its emperors, gods, wars and civil wars, households, women, slaves, philosophy, literature and technology? How can I interpret evidence to assess and make persuasive historical arguments about ancient Rome? And how are these themes and issues relevant today? Trace how the ideas and impact of the Roman empire are visible in our own politics, social discourses, art, media and pop culture, including the historical background to a major world religion – Christianity.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course asks: why should we care about ancient Greece? What questions do real-life historians use to investigate Greek society – ranging from Athenian democracy, Sparta and the Persian Wars, to Alexander, gods, heroes and religion; households, women, ‘barbarians’ and slaves; and philosophy, art, literature and drama? How can I interpret evidence to assess and argue about ancient Greece? And how are these themes relevant today? Trace the ideas and impact of ancient Greece, visible in our own politics, social discourses, art, media and pop culture – the roots of the modern West.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Crosslisting(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): EU1101E
This course offers an overview of the major events, actors, and developments that have shaped the course and character of Europe since the French Revolution. From the rise of nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism that paved the way for World War I, this course sketches out the making and remaking of Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This course is designed for all students interested in acquiring an understanding of modern Europe.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Crosslisting(s): Nil
Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world. This course explores the birth and evolution of Buddhism and its impact on Asian and world history. It will consider sources drawn from various Buddhist traditions (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), from ancient times to the present day. Through an examination of the spread and development of Buddhism in Asia and the West, the course will address a range of topics, such as the relationship between Buddhist institutions and the state; local traditions and popular practices; travel and trading networks; imperialism and nationalism; and globalization and modernism.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
This course traces the evolution of intelligence and statecraft from antiquity to the present, examining how covert operatives, influence agents, and intelligence collectors have shaped global, regional, and local affairs. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies, it surveys espionage across eras, probes the ethical complexities of intelligence work, and assesses the roles clandestine actors play in conflict, diplomacy, and statecraft. The syllabus cultivates analytical skills and foundational perspectives, equipping learners to critically engage with intelligence practice across changing geopolitical and technological contexts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
Over three billion people in the world play video games. You probably do too. This course focuses on both the history of video games from their humble beginnings in the 1950s to their ubiquity in our present day, and how games imagine alternative pasts. By playing video games and reading and thinking about them throughout the semester, we will explore what video gaming tells us about the histories of popular culture, technology, artificial intelligence, capitalism, and globalization, and about ourselves as playful creatures.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course invites the student to reflect critically on the ways the past is established, experienced and represented in the present. The objective is to foster an appreciation of history as a dynamic undertaking in which not only academics but societies as a whole participate. The course is comprised of a theoretical core and changing case studies that touch on media representations, museology and conservation, historiography and the philosophy of history. CA projects afford students the opportunity to experience first-hand how history, far from being confined to libraries and archives, is part of daily life. While the module targets primarily History majors, its cultivation of critical skills in the analysis of written and visual texts is relevant to students from all faculties.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU3212, YHU2307
Cross-listing(s): EU3212
Europe was plagued by wars, revolution and totalitarian dictatorship between 1919 and 1945. It witnessed the rise of Bolshevism and of various Fascist regimes, revealed the economic and political weakness of the Western democracies and the failure of the League of Nations. This course will focus on the rise of three dictators of this period: Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler. All students are welcome, but those coming with a background in Political Science and even Sociology may find this course builds on existing knowledge and concepts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS3239
Cross-listing(s): AS3239
This course will focus on the role of the US in the Asia-Pacific region from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The evolution of political, military and economic ties between the America and three sub-regions of Asia will be explored. The nature of US involvement in the conflicts of the East Asian nations of Japan, China and Korea will form the first part of the module. The involvement of America in the decolonization and nation-building of the Southeast Asian nations will also be examined. Finally, the American influence in the sectarian and power differences in the South Asian nations of India and Pakistan will be addressed. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
The course relates the study of modern European imperialism to some topics outside of Europe. It examines a dimension of modern imperialism. Themes will include the economic basis of imperialism, the interaction of cultures (within imperial networks), the migrations of peoples, missionary movements, the management of religion, and motives and means of imperial control. Normally one geographical area of imperial experience will be explored in depth.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is about the history of the Cold War in the global south in the second half of the twentieth century. While the Soviet-U.S. rivalry and the European Cold War did not escalate into large-scale conflict, developments elsewhere were marked by significant violence and destruction. This course seeks to reconcile, if that is possible, the perception of the history of the Cold War as a “long peace” with the turbulent lived experiences of peoples in the global south. Which, and whose, Cold War best defines the history of the twentieth century?
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the major patterns and themes of Chinese migrations since 1400. From merchants under the tributary trade system, to indentured and free labour in the industrialising age, as well as the making of new citizens in multi-culturalist nation-states, students will examine the social experience of long-distance migration through regional and global processes of political-economic change. In addition to academic texts, students will read official documents, family letters, memoirs, and novels to address enduring questions in the history of human migration – why do people leave their homes, and what remains when they adapt to their lands of adoption?
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-3-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the history and philosophy of science and its relation to technology and society. We will examine major topics and readings in the field including the scientific revolution, experimental science, industrialization, probabilistic theory, and environmental science, keeping in mind the broader historical circumstances that have shaped these forces. Key concepts explored include: scientific norms, paradigm shifts and technoscience. Students will encounter historical and contemporary case studies from regions various regions and countries.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
In recent decades, the Cold War has developed into an area of study not only in the fields of diplomatic history, but in social and cultural histories, as well as gender, race, and memory studies. Also, its scope is no longer limited to Europe, the Soviet Union, and the United States, but covers Asia, Latin America, and Africa. With this point in mind, this course introduces students to new developments, themes, and approaches in the studies of the Cold War, with a particular emphases on the global and comparative perspectives, as well as the studies of emotions, gender, and sexuality.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course offers an inter-disciplinary approach to the study of history. It enables students to engage in the study of history by interacting with the methods and genres of other disciplines in the humanities, notably literature and philosophy.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units including 20 units in HY or 28 units in PS.
Preclusion(s): HY4209HM, EU4226 and EU4226HM
Cross-listing(s): EU4226
The course will explore in depth, in seminar format, problems in a selected area or aspect of modern imperialism. It will examine in closer focus a particular empire (British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and American) with particular reference to Asia and to Asian interaction with Europe and America. Common themes will include subaltern history, economic development, challenges to imperial control, and explanation and arguments about imperial decline.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY, or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY42111HM
This course will allow students to explore in detail a major theme in Environmental History, meaning the historical study of the mutual influence of humans and the environment. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach, it will introduce students to many of the basic issues in the discipline, and require research in both the field and library on a specific topic, thus enhancing their research and writing skills.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4212HM, EU4214 and EU4214HM
Cross-listing(s): EU4214
This course will explore and introduce different themes in Modern European History such as political changes, political leadership, diplomacy and interstate relations.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-0-7
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY, or 28 units in SC, or 28 units in PS.
Preclusion(s): HY4225HM
Beyond international circumstances, domestic politics and personalities, a vital key to understanding the complexities of United States’ foreign policy is through its ideological dimensions. This course will enable students to explore these ideological threads through both seminal documents and scholarly discourses. The course will be taught through both lectures and student presentations. Students will read, present and write on important documents such as John Winthrop’s City upon a H ill, George Washington’s Farewell Address, the Monroe Doctrine, Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and George Kennan’s containment policy.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3.5-3.5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY4229HM
This course will expose students to the historiographically complex relationship between history and biography, and its ramifications for historical writing. Students will be given opportunities to closely consider a wide range of biographies and biographical material and develop their individual sensibilities as to if, and if so, how biographical material can be used in historical construction.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4234HM
This course examines the meaning of the concept “grand strategy,” and its relationship to statecraft. Attention is paid to the ways in which historical personalities thought about power and defined priorities, as well as the manner in which these actors developed, mobilized, and exploited an array of resources and measures to advance specific goals. Their successes and failures will be evaluated, and some principles about grand strategy will be drawn from the study of historical cases.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4242HM
This course examines changing discourses on evil from the eighteenth century to the aftermath of World War II. It explores shifts and developments in literary portrayals of the devil, varieties of theodicy, and theories about the nature of human destructiveness, criminality, and the psychology of perpetrators of evil. Through a close reading of major works in philosophy, literature, and other disciplines, we will pay attention to how understandings of evil have changed over time in response to large scale socio-cultural transformations and traumatic historical events, such as the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and the Holocaust.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4880HM
This course will examine specialised topics in history at an advanced level depending on the specialty of the instructor. The topics offered will generally be more specialised in scope than the Department’s already existing modules. Most likely the topic will change from year to year.
Singapore History
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2239, SSA2203, GESS1007
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course traces the business history of Singapore from its origins as an East India Company outpost, as an entrepôt for regional and international trade routes to its current status as a global city and centre for international finance and business. This course offers an introduction to business history and explores different case studies in the local context. These case studies range from ‘rags to riches’ stories of early migrant communities, popular local brands, and present day entrepreneurs. Major topics include: trading communities, commodities, networks and migration, entrepreneurship, business culture, heritage, globalisation, state, politics and business.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2229, SSA2204, USE2304, GESS1008
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is about Singapore’s emergence from British colonial rule and merger with Malaysia to independence and nation-building. It covers political events, the economy, education, national service, ethnic relations, and culture and national identity. Students are encouraged to think through issues central to these topics.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): SSA2211, GESS1009
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Histories of Singapore have conventionally been narrated along internal lines, framed by administrative, political and national trajectories. Yet, the evolution of Singapore, from regional emporium to imperial port and strategic naval base, has all along been defined by much larger regional and transoceanic forces. Even after political independence in 1965, Singapore continues to project itself as a 'global city-state'. This courese seeks to examine the historical evolution of Singapore against the contexts of global changes and developments from the 14th to the 21st century. This course is open to all students interested in Singapore studies.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): HY2254, SSA2221, GESS1010
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is designed for both History and non-History students to explore the development and evolution of popular culture in Singapore from the colonial period to the present day. Students will learn diverse topics including Singapore's changing religious landscape, wedding and death rituals, as well as varied forms of popular entertainment from street opera, amusement parks to radio and cinema. Students should expect to gain a sensitivity to change and continuities within historical contexts, to better understand Singapore’s rich cultural heritage and to hone their skills in critical thinking, writing and presentation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2.5-4.5
Preclusion(s): GESS1026
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course facilitates an introductory inquiry into Singaporean pasts based on a cache of 'objects', broadly defined. Students will be invited to make critical observations and bring to bear their imaginations on a variety of 'objects' from Singapore’s pasts: sand, well, club, movie and sound card, among others. Students will then exercise their historical imaginations to generate interpretive possibilities pertaining to Singapore's past prompted by these objects, both individually and collectively. In reflecting on these objects and their possible connections to the past, students will emerge from this course with a broad, diverse, creative and concrete grasp of Singapore's histories.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-4-3
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is an introduction to gender and sexuality issues in Singapore from a historical perspective. We examine how our everyday understandings of gender have been formed in a long, complex process of negotiation over the twentieth century. In five themes 1) religion and marriage, 2) non-binary histories, 3) state morality, 4) queer stories and 5) gender troubles, we trace how state and religious authorities have shaped sexual behaviours and gender identities, with varying degrees of conformity and contestation from groups and individuals. Throughout history, gender remained fluid despite multiple attempts at restraining sexuality.
Units: 4
Workload: 4-0-0-2-4
Preclusion(s): SSA2208
Cross-listing(s): SSA2208
Singapore is a sovereign nation-state with formidable armed forces but its military situation is still very much governed by its place in the Malay world and its fluctuating strategic value to great powers. This course showcases the value of a 700-year approach to the island’s military history and examines the relative impact of its distant and recent past on its present situation. This course has no pre-requisites and is suitable for any student with an interest in Singapore’s history or military history in general.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is aimed at students who wish to deepen their understanding of Singapore history through an examination of different representations of history: (a) academic scholarship, (b) social memory and oral history, (c) heritage. Each section will incorporate fundamental concepts and debates behind the production of history, together will the application of these ideas to specific Singapore case studies. At the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyse Singapore history as a whole in terms of historiography and heritage studies, whilst gaining familiarity with the treatment of key issues in Singapore's past.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY4227HM
This course is aimed at students who wish to develop research skills using primary sources for the study of Singaporean history. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach, it will introduce students to the use of a variety of sources, ranging from newspapers and memoirs to governmental reports and archival material. At the end of the course, students will be able to use, and critically analyse, a variety of sources and understand their role in the development of Singaporean historiography, while also preparing for their own research projects.
Units:: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4236HM
This course will allow students to explore the sources, arguments and scholarship related to a major theme in Singaporean History. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach and topic, it will introduce students to many of the basic issues in the discipline of history as it is practiced in Singapore, and require research in both the field and library on a specific issue, thus enhancing their research and writing skills.
Empires and Colonies
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with the impact of Japanese rule in the Korean peninsula, of independence in 1945 followed by the "Korean War" and partition, and of the economic, political and social transformations in South Korea from the 1960's to 1990's. The approach adopted is a thematic one, and certain topics will be selected for analysis.
Units:: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the history of modern Japan from the late-Tokugawa period to the present. Its primary goal is to promote basic understanding of major events, while also aiming to analyze the modern history of Japan in transnational and comparative contexts through exploring a number of common themes of modern global history: nation building, colonialism, total war, and various transformations and social conflicts in the postwar period. Through such examination, the module aims at promoting critical thinking concerning diverse historical interpretations and controversies. Accordingly, students will be exposed to a broad range of historical debates and viewpoints throughout the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS2237, GEK2000
Cross-listing(s): AS2237, GEK2000
This course seeks to provide students with a basic grounding of American historical, and cultural developments from European colonisation to the end of the twentieth century. It will examine both the internal developments in the United States as well as its growing importance in international politics. By offering a range of social, economic, and political perspectives on the American experience, it will equip students with the knowledge for understanding and analysing the dominance of the United States in contemporary world history and culture. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU2221
Cross-listing(s): EU2221
Students will gain a basic understanding of empires in history. Individual empires will be studied to demonstrate patterns regarding the origins, development and collapse of empires. Topics will include the expansion of empires, colonization, military conquest, administration, and ideologies of empire. The humane side of imperialism will also be explored: the course will get students to try to understand the experience of subject peoples while also regarding empires as sites of cultural interaction. Finally, students will be introduced to some of the interpretative paradigms which have shaped the scholarly exploration of empires.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces Southeast Asia’s past from earliest times to the present (1st century to 21st century). It highlights how processes of interaction, circulation, and connection shaped the key characteristics and worldviews that are associated with the region today. Course content will focus on how local communities adopted and adapted influences from around the world to form a distinctive regional culture. How polities emerged via the region’s historical interaction with Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Iberian, European, Japanese, and New World civilizations will be given special attention. Today’s nation-states and regional organizations are a product of this long history of community formation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will look at the evolution of Christianity and its impact on Western and global history. It will trace the development of the various branches of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and how the conflicts among them shaped European history. It will consider the role of religion in American history. It will look at the linkages between missionary efforts and imperialism, as well as the consequences of conversion in colonial societies around the world. It will also look at how Christianity has been linked to ethnicity and nationalism in the post-colonial nation-states.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Crosslisting(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): EU1101E
This course offers an overview of the major events, actors, and developments that have shaped the course and character of Europe since the French Revolution. From the rise of nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism that paved the way for World War I, this course sketches out the making and remaking of Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This course is designed for all students interested in acquiring an understanding of modern Europe.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
That the Second World War impacted Southeast Asia is beyond doubt. But the significance of its impact on the structure of the region's 'contemporary' history is more debatable, for revisionist historians are wont to discount the thesis that the War represented a significant turning point or watershed which 'transformed' the region's history. Drawing on both country and regional perspectives, this course first assesses the impact of the War on the theme of decolonization, perhaps the one major historically significant process to dominate the region's political terrain in the immediate post-war aftermath. It will further examine the challenges and trials confronting the new states "after" decolonization, in particular, their search not only for new political frameworks to replace the colonial structures they had discarded, but also for solutions to mitigate the issues of social integration, inter-state conflict and regional co-operation.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the development of international relations in East Asia from the Opium War to the Korean War. It not only discusses major international events, such as conflicts, treaties, and alliances, but also examines the interplay between domestic and foreign affairs, the spread of political ideologies, and the rise of nationalism and racial/ethnic identities.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU3212, YHU2307
Cross-listing(s): EU3212
Europe was plagued by wars, revolution and totalitarian dictatorship between 1919 and 1945. It witnessed the rise of Bolshevism and of various Fascist regimes, revealed the economic and political weakness of the Western democracies and the failure of the League of Nations. This course will focus on the rise of three dictators of this period: Mussolini, Franco, and Hitler. All students are welcome, but those coming with a background in Political Science and even Sociology may find this course builds on existing knowledge and concepts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This module studies the growth and expansion of Vietnam over the centuries to look at how this history has affected its culture and development. Particular attention is given to how the Vietnamese tell the story of their own past and how they perceive their history as a nation. The module is intended for students with a particular interest in Vietnam and for others who would like to do an in-depth study of a single country; it raises issues about nationhood and historical narrative which are applicable to many other cases.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2228, SN3262, SN2261
Cross-listing(s): SN3262
This course is concerned with the political evolution of the Indian nation in two of its most formative periods: the late nationalist struggle from 1920-47 that led to the withdrawal of the colonial power; and the years of Jawaharlal Nehru's prime ministership, 1947-64. The course looks at both decolonisation and nation-building as processes characterised by debate and contestation in relation to (a) social, regional and group identity and (b) political rights and power. The course will study the impact of that debate and contestation on the character, institutions and political life of the nation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS3239
Cross-listing(s): AS3239
This course will focus on the role of the US in the Asia-Pacific region from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The evolution of political, military and economic ties between the America and three sub-regions of Asia will be explored. The nature of US involvement in the conflicts of the East Asian nations of Japan, China and Korea will form the first part of the module. The involvement of America in the decolonization and nation-building of the Southeast Asian nations will also be examined. Finally, the American influence in the sectarian and power differences in the South Asian nations of India and Pakistan will be addressed. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the history of relations between China and Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the modern period. We will explore in weekly seminars the various dimensions and dynamics of China-Southeast Asian relations, including the evolution of regional state structures, tributary relations, maritime trade, migration, the impact of Western colonialism, nationalism and communism, the Cold War, and the rise of China in recent times. Though a basic knowledge of Chinese and Southeast Asian history will be helpful, the course is open to all undergraduate students who are interested in the topic.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the history of Myanmar (Burma). Organized chronologically from the emergence of the earliest polities to the present, students will examine the formation and interaction of communities, ideological worldviews, ethnic identities, and material cultures that have characterized the societies that evolved along the Irrawaddy River basin and beyond. Course content will consider the particulars of Myanmar's history (early state-formation and the historical development of Burmese “identity”) within regional/global processes and themes. Fundamentally, this module addresses why contemporary Myanmar is perceived to be so different from its regional neighbours despite sharing many historical and cultural experiences.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
‘Brides of the Sea', ‘Gateways to Asia' and ‘the transformers of Asia' are some of the ways scholars have described Asian port cities. Through case studies, this module explores the port city and the ‘maritime world' in Asia. Students are introduced to the history of China's maritime world with a focus on the challenges it faced through encroachment by Western imperial powers. This module also examines Asia's colonial port cities, including Calcutta and Singapore, as sites of Western influence and modernization and also as sites of local resistance and transformation. This course is suitable for all students of NUS.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will explore the Philippines' almost 500 years of social and cultural history—from its early association with India, China and Southeast Asia, to its incorporation into the Spanish and American empires, to its tumultuous road towards independence and democratization. Students will consider Filipino religiosity and worldview, and analyze their ramifications in society. Popular images of the Philippines – homeland of international labor and site of natural hazards and spectacle of poverty – will be investigated. Students will take Philippine history as an exemplar towards a better understanding of the postcolonial condition that numerous nations experience.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units including 20 units in HY or 28 units in PS.
Preclusion(s): HY4209HM, EU4226 and EU4226HM
Cross-listing(s): EU4226
The course will explore in depth, in seminar format, problems in a selected area or aspect of modern imperialism. It will examine in closer focus a particular empire (British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and American) with particular reference to Asia and to Asian interaction with Europe and America. Common themes will include subaltern history, economic development, challenges to imperial control, and explanation and arguments about imperial decline.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SE.
Preclusion(s): HY4216HM
During this course we will examine how the past in Southeast Asia has been recorded and presented and how the “literature” of these works influences our views of the region’s history. In the first section of the course we will focus on how history was presented prior to the modern period in the region. The second section of the course will focus on depictions of Southeast Asian culture changed over time in the “literature”, and how this may provide new understandings of the region. The course is targeted at students that are interested in Southeast Asian history, culture and literature.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SE or 28 units in MS.
Preclusion(s): HY4217HM
This course surveys the various approaches that were developed to study and conceptualise Southeast Asian history. It seeks to equip students with an awareness of the analytical frameworks within which history research on the region had been written up. In the process, the course will evaluate the validity of the different approaches. For illustration, samples from secondary literature and, where applicable, primary texts will be used.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4223HM
The history of the Chinese demonstrates cases of total integration into the host society, of long-term coexistence and competition with it, and of a variety of options in between. It has produced a wondrous array of acculturative, adaptive, and assimilative phenomena. Chinese have been pulled towards different identities at various times, as Chinese sojourners abroad, as Westernized colonial subjects, as loyal citizens of their adopted countries, as revolutionary communists or modern multinational capitalists. This course will investigate the history of Chinese emigration through a comparative approach to its diaspora in diverse locals such as East and Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia. A case study approach will be adopted in this module. The course is mounted for students at the senior levels with an interest in China and the Chinese overseas.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY4227HM
This course is aimed at students who wish to develop research skills using primary sources for the study of Singaporean history. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach, it will introduce students to the use of a variety of sources, ranging from newspapers and memoirs to governmental reports and archival material. At the end of the course, students will be able to use, and critically analyse, a variety of sources and understand their role in the development of Singaporean historiography, while also preparing for their own research projects.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4233HM
Japanese imperialism left a deep and lasting imprint throughout Asia. This course will examine the characteristics of the Japanese empire and its postwar legacies, as well as the diverse issues surrounding its history and memory. The primary focus of the module will be a consideration of the Japanese empire in international contexts. Students are encouraged to apply comparative perspectives to draw implications for a larger discussion on modern imperialism.
Units:: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4236HM
This course will allow students to explore the sources, arguments and scholarship related to a major theme in Singaporean History. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach and topic, it will introduce students to many of the basic issues in the discipline of history as it is practiced in Singapore, and require research in both the field and library on a specific issue, thus enhancing their research and writing skills.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4240HM, YHU3366
Between China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam lies an expansive region of mountains and valleys populated for centuries by upland peoples, scattered townsfolk, traders, fugitives, and insurgents. Through a range of historical, ethnographic, and primary source accounts, this course puts these often-marginalized figures at the center. We examine their motives for engaging or avoiding the states all around: imperial China and Vietnam, British and French colonial regimes, and modern nation-states of all kinds. At the same time, we also study the efforts of state or lowland actors to capture, control, convert, aid, and “civilize” the peoples of the borderlands.
Economy, Culture, and Society
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-4-3
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is an introduction to gender and sexuality issues in Singapore from a historical perspective. We examine how our everyday understandings of gender have been formed in a long, complex process of negotiation over the twentieth century. In five themes 1) religion and marriage, 2) non-binary histories, 3) state morality, 4) queer stories and 5) gender troubles, we trace how state and religious authorities have shaped sexual behaviours and gender identities, with varying degrees of conformity and contestation from groups and individuals. Throughout history, gender remained fluid despite multiple attempts at restraining sexuality.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is intended to whet students’ appetites for a gustatory exploration of the past. We will consider various historical exchanges of ingredients across the globe, the refinement of techniques of culinary preparation, rituals of consumption, table manners and cutlery as well as the cultural significance of acts of feasting or fasting. Various religious, medical and cultural dietary regulations and taboos will be examined, along with the rise of sumptuary rules and connoisseurial practices, and the development of ‘dining out’. Finally we will analyse the role of food in the formation of various identities: nation, gender, class, diaspora.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-2-0-0-2-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
When Rome grew into an empire, the city transformed itself into the capital of the known world. It was the first – and until London in the early 19th century – the only Western city to reach a population of a million. Rome reflected the grandeur and diversity of its empire. It was a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic mega-city, which showcased Roman might, organizational efficiency, and cultural wealth through public works, monumental architecture, and a consumer culture. Studying Rome offers insights into the genealogy of Western urbanism and statecraft, because the city and its empire became paradigmatic in Western Eurasia.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course traces how the sky has shaped cultures from across the world and in different times. We will explore how skywatching has provided answers to fundamental questions, such as the origins of life and the world, how society should be organised, and how our lives should be led. We will consider perspectives from Indigenous, European and Asian cosmologies, and discuss practices of prediction including astrology and meteorology. We will ponder the implications of technology that is now reshaping our sky. You will have the opportunity to reconnect with the sky and to discuss what the skies mean to you.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-2-0-2-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Humans have always lived between light and dark, yet this fundamental rhythm shapes more than daily cycles. Darkness enables rest, intimacy, and spiritual reflection while driving evolutionary adaptations and ecological relationships spanning millions of years. This course explores how darkness operates simultaneously as environmental condition, cultural symbol, and biological necessity. We combine historical investigation of sleep, fear, and meaning-making with scientific analysis of vision, circadian biology, and nocturnal ecosystems. We will explore cross-cultural attitudes, sleep patterns, light pollution, and the impact of our technology. History reveals cultural meanings; biology provides mechanistic understanding. Together, they illuminate how darkness shapes life.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the historical roots, theoretical frameworks, and practical applications of mindfulness. Drawing on Buddhist studies, psychology, and neuroscience, we will examine how understandings of mindfulness have evolved and how they shape approaches to mental health and well-being. Students will read seminal works on mindfulness and engage in mindful practices such as meditation and contemplative exercises. Through readings, discussions, and experiential learning, this course will provide students with an exploratory understanding of mindfulness by examining its historical and theoretical foundations alongside contemporary practices, engaging perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and cognitive sciences in both secular and religious contexts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course provides a broad survey of Chinese imperial history from the classical period to the eighteenth century. Apart from placing this general history within a chronological framework, it will be analysing major political events and long-term trends in the development of Chinese statecraft, economic and social institutions, philosophy and religion, literature and art, as well as relations with the outside world. The course is mounted for undergraduates throughout the university with an interest in China, especially its history, politics and culture
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with major changes within China from around 1800 to 1949. Emphasis will be given to the internal political and socio-economic dynamics, foreign impact and new ideological currents during the late Qing dynasty as well as in the subsequent Chinese Republic. The broad theme of a long, continuous struggle for wealth, power and democracy will be used to comprehend this period of Chinese history. The course is mounted for students throughout the university with an interest in China, especially its history, politics, and economy.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: Nil
Preclusion(s): HY3207
This course explores major developments in the premodern Japanese polity, economy, culture and society, from the early ages to the end of the eighteenth century. Its main themes include studies in Japanese origins and mythology, court culture and popular culture, samurai and shogunal rule, economic and social trends, intellectual and religious developments, and Japan's interaction with the outside world, notably, China, Korea, Southeast Asia and the West. The relevance of Japan's premodern heritage to present-day Japan will also be emphasized.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with the impact of Japanese rule in the Korean peninsula, of independence in 1945 followed by the "Korean War" and partition, and of the economic, political and social transformations in South Korea from the 1960's to 1990's. The approach adopted is a thematic one, and certain topics will be selected for analysis.
Units:: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the history of modern Japan from the late-Tokugawa period to the present. Its primary goal is to promote basic understanding of major events, while also aiming to analyze the modern history of Japan in transnational and comparative contexts through exploring a number of common themes of modern global history: nation building, colonialism, total war, and various transformations and social conflicts in the postwar period. Through such examination, the module aims at promoting critical thinking concerning diverse historical interpretations and controversies. Accordingly, students will be exposed to a broad range of historical debates and viewpoints throughout the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS2237, GEK2000
Cross-listing(s): AS2237, GEK2000
This course seeks to provide students with a basic grounding of American historical, and cultural developments from European colonisation to the end of the twentieth century. It will examine both the internal developments in the United States as well as its growing importance in international politics. By offering a range of social, economic, and political perspectives on the American experience, it will equip students with the knowledge for understanding and analysing the dominance of the United States in contemporary world history and culture. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces Southeast Asia’s past from earliest times to the present (1st century to 21st century). It highlights how processes of interaction, circulation, and connection shaped the key characteristics and worldviews that are associated with the region today. Course content will focus on how local communities adopted and adapted influences from around the world to form a distinctive regional culture. How polities emerged via the region’s historical interaction with Indian, Chinese, Islamic, Iberian, European, Japanese, and New World civilizations will be given special attention. Today’s nation-states and regional organizations are a product of this long history of community formation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces key themes relating to global business history. It considers how business and enterprise have contributed to the making of the modern world. It looks at key economic actors, agents and institutions of historical change, their forms of organization, their strategies and culture, their relations with state and society and at how economic practices have been shaped by culture. Some of the themes covered will be: the business firm; the nineteenth century revolution in production, distribution, transport and communication; the rise of retailing; integration of mass production and distribution; managerial capitalism; multinationals; state -business relationships; and, culture and capitalism.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will look at the evolution of Christianity and its impact on Western and global history. It will trace the development of the various branches of Christianity (Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant) and how the conflicts among them shaped European history. It will consider the role of religion in American history. It will look at the linkages between missionary efforts and imperialism, as well as the consequences of conversion in colonial societies around the world. It will also look at how Christianity has been linked to ethnicity and nationalism in the post-colonial nation-states.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Law, Crime, and Punishment are all social concepts subject to historical change. In the case of law historical precedents are important in determining how best to apply the rule of law. By presenting a set of themes in the history of law, crime, and punishment across time and cultures this course allows students to examine processes of change in both how these concepts are understood, applied and structured. History as a practice is an investigative process and both historians and criminal investigators seek to determine what happened and why and how it happened.
Units: 4
Workload: 4-0-0-4-2
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the ways popular culture shapes understandings of history on two different levels. First, it examines how the popular culture of a specific era can reveal much of the social milieu of the time and help contextualise events of that period. Second, it will examine how popular culture, such as a film, created at a later time can influence perceptions about an earlier era. This course will examine instances and eras of popular culture to discuss the challenges of deriving historical knowledge from popular culture. Each iteration of the module may vary in its focus.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Preclusions(s): Students from Cohort 2017 and before who have read HY2245 or EU2221. YHU2314.
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course asks: why should we care about Roman history? What key questions do real-life historians use to investigate Roman society – its emperors, gods, wars and civil wars, households, women, slaves, philosophy, literature and technology? How can I interpret evidence to assess and make persuasive historical arguments about ancient Rome? And how are these themes and issues relevant today? Trace how the ideas and impact of the Roman empire are visible in our own politics, social discourses, art, media and pop culture, including the historical background to a major world religion – Christianity.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course asks: why should we care about ancient Greece? What questions do real-life historians use to investigate Greek society – ranging from Athenian democracy, Sparta and the Persian Wars, to Alexander, gods, heroes and religion; households, women, ‘barbarians’ and slaves; and philosophy, art, literature and drama? How can I interpret evidence to assess and argue about ancient Greece? And how are these themes relevant today? Trace the ideas and impact of ancient Greece, visible in our own politics, social discourses, art, media and pop culture – the roots of the modern West.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Crosslisting(s): Nil
Buddhism is one of the major religions of the world. This course explores the birth and evolution of Buddhism and its impact on Asian and world history. It will consider sources drawn from various Buddhist traditions (Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana), from ancient times to the present day. Through an examination of the spread and development of Buddhism in Asia and the West, the course will address a range of topics, such as the relationship between Buddhist institutions and the state; local traditions and popular practices; travel and trading networks; imperialism and nationalism; and globalization and modernism.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
Over three billion people in the world play video games. You probably do too. This course focuses on both the history of video games from their humble beginnings in the 1950s to their ubiquity in our present day, and how games imagine alternative pasts. By playing video games and reading and thinking about them throughout the semester, we will explore what video gaming tells us about the histories of popular culture, technology, artificial intelligence, capitalism, and globalization, and about ourselves as playful creatures.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the social and economic changes in late imperial China from the Tang-Song transition to the end of Qing. The central themes include the periodization of the imperial period in Chinese history, agricultural and urban development, and population growth. This course highlights their relevance to world history. Key questions include why and how China’s modern transition differed from what we have conventionally understood as a general modernization pattern, the crucial role played by energy resources and the environment in this transition, and what lingering effects such a pattern left on the present-day economic development in China.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This seminar explores China's place within the larger maritime world, beginning with the voyages of Ming dynasty eunuch Zheng He and culminating in the South China Sea dispute in our time. We will focus partly on states and societies that claimed China’s coastal regions and the oceanic spaces surrounding it, and partly on the networks, institutions, and economies linking China to a wider maritime sphere. Readings will be drawn from both primary sources and scholarship on topics such as the Zheng organization on Taiwan, steamships, overseas migration, fishing, smuggling, and reform and opening in the late 20th century.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
With the creation of colonial states in Southeast Asia, certain peoples in the region became minorities owing to their languages, religious beliefs or customary practices. Examples include the Shan and Karen in Myanmar, Muslim minorities in Myanmar, Thailand and the Philippines, the people of the Mountain Province in the Philippines, Christian communities in Indonesia, the hill peoples of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, and animist groups in Borneo and the Eastern archipelago. Colonial administrations often made special provisions for these minorities, but with independence the dominant ideology across the region called for a single national identity within each nation-state. This course examines the position of minorities under colonial and post-colonial governments. It surveys the minorities of the region, and develops case studies dealing with selected groups. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course invites the student to reflect critically on the ways the past is established, experienced and represented in the present. The objective is to foster an appreciation of history as a dynamic undertaking in which not only academics but societies as a whole participate. The course is comprised of a theoretical core and changing case studies that touch on media representations, museology and conservation, historiography and the philosophy of history. CA projects afford students the opportunity to experience first-hand how history, far from being confined to libraries and archives, is part of daily life. While the module targets primarily History majors, its cultivation of critical skills in the analysis of written and visual texts is relevant to students from all faculties.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course focuses on the histories of the Malays who have populated the Straits of Melaka and the South China Sea. Discussions and lectures do not focus on chronology or a simple narration of “facts,” but upon a critical examination of questions such as “who is Malay?” and “what is the Malay World?”, allowing for a better understanding of the key social, cultural, political, and economic practices and institutions that have shaped the Malay experience. The course will be of interest to any student who wants to know more about Malays and the societies in and around Singapore.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the history of relations between China and Southeast Asia, with an emphasis on the modern period. We will explore in weekly seminars the various dimensions and dynamics of China-Southeast Asian relations, including the evolution of regional state structures, tributary relations, maritime trade, migration, the impact of Western colonialism, nationalism and communism, the Cold War, and the rise of China in recent times. Though a basic knowledge of Chinese and Southeast Asian history will be helpful, the course is open to all undergraduate students who are interested in the topic.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
The People's Republic of China was established in 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party, first led by Mao Zedong and later by Deng Xiaoping and his successors. The development path from its founding to the Tiananmen incident of 1989 was turbulent and far from linear. Indeed, the new China has been premised upon revolutionary remaking and a total break from the past. Nonetheless, there are still historical continuities when compared with the previous imperial and republican eras. This course aims to provide a deeper understanding of contemporary China by looking at its politics, society, economy and culture in broad historical perspective and within a thematic framework. It also explores China's distancing and connecting with the rest of the world.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
‘Brides of the Sea', ‘Gateways to Asia' and ‘the transformers of Asia' are some of the ways scholars have described Asian port cities. Through case studies, this module explores the port city and the ‘maritime world' in Asia. Students are introduced to the history of China's maritime world with a focus on the challenges it faced through encroachment by Western imperial powers. This module also examines Asia's colonial port cities, including Calcutta and Singapore, as sites of Western influence and modernization and also as sites of local resistance and transformation. This course is suitable for all students of NUS.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will explore the Philippines' almost 500 years of social and cultural history—from its early association with India, China and Southeast Asia, to its incorporation into the Spanish and American empires, to its tumultuous road towards independence and democratization. Students will consider Filipino religiosity and worldview, and analyze their ramifications in society. Popular images of the Philippines – homeland of international labor and site of natural hazards and spectacle of poverty – will be investigated. Students will take Philippine history as an exemplar towards a better understanding of the postcolonial condition that numerous nations experience.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the major patterns and themes of Chinese migrations since 1400. From merchants under the tributary trade system, to indentured and free labour in the industrialising age, as well as the making of new citizens in multi-culturalist nation-states, students will examine the social experience of long-distance migration through regional and global processes of political-economic change. In addition to academic texts, students will read official documents, family letters, memoirs, and novels to address enduring questions in the history of human migration – why do people leave their homes, and what remains when they adapt to their lands of adoption?
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion: HY2234
From its origins in India, Buddhism has expanded across the world and taken deep root in diverse societies across Asia over the past two thousand years. This course traces the development of both Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism in Southeast Asia. Major topics to be covered include the spread of Buddhism, the rise of Buddhist kingdoms, the development of popular traditions, the impact of European colonialism, the relationship between Buddhism and nationalism, the emergence of modern reformist movements, and Buddhist minorities in maritime Southeast Asia.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
In recent decades, the Cold War has developed into an area of study not only in the fields of diplomatic history, but in social and cultural histories, as well as gender, race, and memory studies. Also, its scope is no longer limited to Europe, the Soviet Union, and the United States, but covers Asia, Latin America, and Africa. With this point in mind, this course introduces students to new developments, themes, and approaches in the studies of the Cold War, with a particular emphases on the global and comparative perspectives, as well as the studies of emotions, gender, and sexuality.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SE.
Preclusion(s): HY4216HM
During this course we will examine how the past in Southeast Asia has been recorded and presented and how the “literature” of these works influences our views of the region’s history. In the first section of the course we will focus on how history was presented prior to the modern period in the region. The second section of the course will focus on depictions of Southeast Asian culture changed over time in the “literature”, and how this may provide new understandings of the region. The course is targeted at students that are interested in Southeast Asian history, culture and literature.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC or 28 units in SN.
Preclusion(s): HY4222HM
This seminar course examines the development of Asian businesses. Selected themes such as organizations, entrepreneurship and networks will be discussed. It may focus either on one country like Singapore, or regions in Asia in comparative studies.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4223HM
The history of the Chinese demonstrates cases of total integration into the host society, of long-term coexistence and competition with it, and of a variety of options in between. It has produced a wondrous array of acculturative, adaptive, and assimilative phenomena. Chinese have been pulled towards different identities at various times, as Chinese sojourners abroad, as Westernized colonial subjects, as loyal citizens of their adopted countries, as revolutionary communists or modern multinational capitalists. This course will investigate the history of Chinese emigration through a comparative approach to its diaspora in diverse locals such as East and Southeast Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Australasia. A case study approach will be adopted in this module. The course is mounted for students at the senior levels with an interest in China and the Chinese overseas.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3.5-3.5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY4229HM
This course will expose students to the historiographically complex relationship between history and biography, and its ramifications for historical writing. Students will be given opportunities to closely consider a wide range of biographies and biographical material and develop their individual sensibilities as to if, and if so, how biographical material can be used in historical construction.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4240HM, YHU3366
Between China, India, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam lies an expansive region of mountains and valleys populated for centuries by upland peoples, scattered townsfolk, traders, fugitives, and insurgents. Through a range of historical, ethnographic, and primary source accounts, this course puts these often-marginalized figures at the center. We examine their motives for engaging or avoiding the states all around: imperial China and Vietnam, British and French colonial regimes, and modern nation-states of all kinds. At the same time, we also study the efforts of state or lowland actors to capture, control, convert, aid, and “civilize” the peoples of the borderlands.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4242HM
This course examines changing discourses on evil from the eighteenth century to the aftermath of World War II. It explores shifts and developments in literary portrayals of the devil, varieties of theodicy, and theories about the nature of human destructiveness, criminality, and the psychology of perpetrators of evil. Through a close reading of major works in philosophy, literature, and other disciplines, we will pay attention to how understandings of evil have changed over time in response to large scale socio-cultural transformations and traumatic historical events, such as the Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 and the Holocaust.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4880BHM
Students have been a potent force for social and political change in many parts of Asia, particularly since 1950. Arranged on a chronological and thematic basis, this course will give students an opportunity to survey the history of student activism, primarily but not exclusively, in Asian countries during this period. In emphasizing a comparative approach, the course not only looks into the causes, functions, effects, and limits of student movements in each society, but also explores intra-Asian, or even global, interconnections of student activism in the second half of the twentieth century.
Diplomacy, Grand Strategy, and Military
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the relationship between economics and war. Armed conflict has always required the deep involvement of profit-seeking actors: mercenaries, merchants, trading companies, banks, corporations, and contractors. In turn, innovation and infrastructural development have instigated new methods of warfare. By examining the intersection of military and economic forces from around the world, from the early modern era to the present day, the course explores how the exigences of war have shaped the emergence of the nation-state, the development of capitalism, and the creation of global labor markets.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEH1079
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course seeks to analyse why killing ‘unarmed civilians’ has been so commonplace in war, across time and space. Why were defenceless unarmed people killed by armed forces? The word now used to define this theme is ‘non-combatant.’ But neither word nor concept is primordial, or was universal. The notion that some types of people should not be targets for military operations did not spring from our consciousness, or from any abstract sense of ethics or morality. It evolved historically, and not in any straight line. This course will ask the direct questions: how, why and to what ends?
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Analogies—cognitive devices that clarify complex or unfamiliar concepts by comparing them to more familiar ones—shape how individuals and institutions understand and decide on pressing issues. Focusing on historical analogies that explicitly draw on actual events, experiences, or models from the past, this course—anchored in cognitive psychology, history, and political science—equips students to analyze, evaluate, and apply analogical reasoning across a wide range of domains. Through case studies, students integrate perspectives from these disciplines to recognize, critique, and harness analogies and lessons from the past to make informed decisions in contemporary contexts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the evolution of strategic thought from times of antiquity through to the twentieth century. It presents strategic theories and concepts as historical phenomena, as the products of specific times and places. Students will travel through space and time, from ancient China to the Ottoman Empire, from revolutionary France to World War II Japan, to trace major turning points in understandings of the nature of warfare. They will establish a strong foundation in both strategic thought and historical modes of inquiry.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
After 1815, the Industrial Revolution and mass politics changed warfare. The new pattern of Modern War that emerged led to a further and more dramatic change: war between great industrial powers for unlimited ends, using unlimited means. Why did this happen and how did it affect the course of history? This course will pursue this question, analyzing changes in the nature and pattern of warfare to identify and explore the characteristics of Total War. It will concentrate on the Second World War. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS2237, GEK2000
Cross-listing(s): AS2237, GEK2000
This course seeks to provide students with a basic grounding of American historical, and cultural developments from European colonisation to the end of the twentieth century. It will examine both the internal developments in the United States as well as its growing importance in international politics. By offering a range of social, economic, and political perspectives on the American experience, it will equip students with the knowledge for understanding and analysing the dominance of the United States in contemporary world history and culture. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
Units: 4
Workload: 4-0-0-2-4
Preclusion(s): SSA2208
Cross-listing(s): SSA2208
Singapore is a sovereign nation-state with formidable armed forces but its military situation is still very much governed by its place in the Malay world and its fluctuating strategic value to great powers. This course showcases the value of a 700-year approach to the island’s military history and examines the relative impact of its distant and recent past on its present situation. This course has no pre-requisites and is suitable for any student with an interest in Singapore’s history or military history in general.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU2221
Cross-listing(s): EU2221
Students will gain a basic understanding of empires in history. Individual empires will be studied to demonstrate patterns regarding the origins, development and collapse of empires. Topics will include the expansion of empires, colonization, military conquest, administration, and ideologies of empire. The humane side of imperialism will also be explored: the course will get students to try to understand the experience of subject peoples while also regarding empires as sites of cultural interaction. Finally, students will be introduced to some of the interpretative paradigms which have shaped the scholarly exploration of empires.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
This course traces the evolution of intelligence and statecraft from antiquity to the present, examining how covert operatives, influence agents, and intelligence collectors have shaped global, regional, and local affairs. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies, it surveys espionage across eras, probes the ethical complexities of intelligence work, and assesses the roles clandestine actors play in conflict, diplomacy, and statecraft. The syllabus cultivates analytical skills and foundational perspectives, equipping learners to critically engage with intelligence practice across changing geopolitical and technological contexts.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the development of international relations in East Asia from the Opium War to the Korean War. It not only discusses major international events, such as conflicts, treaties, and alliances, but also examines the interplay between domestic and foreign affairs, the spread of political ideologies, and the rise of nationalism and racial/ethnic identities.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): AS3239
Cross-listing(s): AS3239
This course will focus on the role of the US in the Asia-Pacific region from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. The evolution of political, military and economic ties between the America and three sub-regions of Asia will be explored. The nature of US involvement in the conflicts of the East Asian nations of Japan, China and Korea will form the first part of the module. The involvement of America in the decolonization and nation-building of the Southeast Asian nations will also be examined. Finally, the American influence in the sectarian and power differences in the South Asian nations of India and Pakistan will be addressed. This course is designed for students throughout NUS with an interest in American history.
(Teaching Dept: South Asian Studies Programme)
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): EU3231
Cross-listing(s): EU3231
The course relates the study of modern European imperialism to some topics outside of Europe. It examines a dimension of modern imperialism. Themes will include the economic basis of imperialism, the interaction of cultures (within imperial networks), the migrations of peoples, missionary movements, the management of religion, and motives and means of imperial control. Normally one geographical area of imperial experience will be explored in depth.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
No one can say that the Cold War has ended yet in East Asia. But rather a number of the contemporary intra-regional tensions in East Asia stem from the Cold War era; from the tensions over the Taiwan Straits, to the temporary cease-fire status between North and South Korea, to the constitutional controversy in Japan. With a special emphasis on the international dimension, this course explores how the Cold War confrontation (1945-present) has unfolded in the historical context of East Asia over the past decades.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This level-3000 course examines how violent conflict defined nineteenth- and twentieth-century Chinese history. It explores in equal parts, the role of armed force in state formation and nation-building, and the impact of violent conflict on social, economic, and cultural life. It investigates how and why various regimes resorted to violent means for their political and ideological ends. However, it also uncovers the devastating impact of armed conflict on different sectors of the Chinese population, and studies how ordinary people reconstructed everyday normalcy amidst upheaval. Thus, the course traces the traumatic and transformative effects of violence on Chinese politics and society.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is about the history of the Cold War in the global south in the second half of the twentieth century. While the Soviet-U.S. rivalry and the European Cold War did not escalate into large-scale conflict, developments elsewhere were marked by significant violence and destruction. This course seeks to reconcile, if that is possible, the perception of the history of the Cold War as a “long peace” with the turbulent lived experiences of peoples in the global south. Which, and whose, Cold War best defines the history of the twentieth century?
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY4207HM
Every year this course explores a different dimension of modern military history. The general theme is the nature of warfare in the 20th century with particular reference to Asia. This course is designed for students majoring in History.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units including 20 units in HY or 28 units in PS.
Preclusion(s): HY4209HM, EU4226 and EU4226HM
Cross-listing(s): EU4226
The course will explore in depth, in seminar format, problems in a selected area or aspect of modern imperialism. It will examine in closer focus a particular empire (British, Dutch, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and American) with particular reference to Asia and to Asian interaction with Europe and America. Common themes will include subaltern history, economic development, challenges to imperial control, and explanation and arguments about imperial decline.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-0-7
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY, or 28 units in SC, or 28 units in PS.
Preclusion(s): HY4225HM
Beyond international circumstances, domestic politics and personalities, a vital key to understanding the complexities of United States’ foreign policy is through its ideological dimensions. This course will enable students to explore these ideological threads through both seminal documents and scholarly discourses. The course will be taught through both lectures and student presentations. Students will read, present and write on important documents such as John Winthrop’s City upon a H ill, George Washington’s Farewell Address, the Monroe Doctrine, Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and George Kennan’s containment policy.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4233HM
Japanese imperialism left a deep and lasting imprint throughout Asia. This course will examine the characteristics of the Japanese empire and its postwar legacies, as well as the diverse issues surrounding its history and memory. The primary focus of the module will be a consideration of the Japanese empire in international contexts. Students are encouraged to apply comparative perspectives to draw implications for a larger discussion on modern imperialism.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY.
Preclusion(s): HY4234HM
This course examines the meaning of the concept “grand strategy,” and its relationship to statecraft. Attention is paid to the ways in which historical personalities thought about power and defined priorities, as well as the manner in which these actors developed, mobilized, and exploited an array of resources and measures to advance specific goals. Their successes and failures will be evaluated, and some principles about grand strategy will be drawn from the study of historical cases.
Technology, Environment, and Digital Humanities
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course traces how the sky has shaped cultures from across the world and in different times. We will explore how skywatching has provided answers to fundamental questions, such as the origins of life and the world, how society should be organised, and how our lives should be led. We will consider perspectives from Indigenous, European and Asian cosmologies, and discuss practices of prediction including astrology and meteorology. We will ponder the implications of technology that is now reshaping our sky. You will have the opportunity to reconnect with the sky and to discuss what the skies mean to you.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Non-human animals have been essential actors in human society from its beginnings. Their existence has often been taken for granted, however, both in daily life and scholarship. This course will foreground the human/non-human animal relationship, taking methodologies from history, zoology, bioethics, and allied fields. It will be organised around such themes as the domestication, breeding, eating, worshipping, ownership, and conservation of animals, and modern conceptions like biodiversity, zoonoses, and speciesism. Students will not only be exposed to the thriving interdisciplinary scholarship on the human/animal relationship but also be invited to reflect on the role of animals in their own lives.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-2-0-2-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Humans have always lived between light and dark, yet this fundamental rhythm shapes more than daily cycles. Darkness enables rest, intimacy, and spiritual reflection while driving evolutionary adaptations and ecological relationships spanning millions of years. This course explores how darkness operates simultaneously as environmental condition, cultural symbol, and biological necessity. We combine historical investigation of sleep, fear, and meaning-making with scientific analysis of vision, circadian biology, and nocturnal ecosystems. We will explore cross-cultural attitudes, sleep patterns, light pollution, and the impact of our technology. History reveals cultural meanings; biology provides mechanistic understanding. Together, they illuminate how darkness shapes life.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): GEK2008
Cross-listing(s): GEK2008
This course is designed to introduce students to major themes in Environmental History, meaning the historical study of the mutual influence of humans and the environment. After critically evaluating how the discipline of Environmental History has developed, lectures and discussions will focus on topics such as disease, agriculture, gender and modern environmental problems. Lectures will be combined with research assignments that will help students better understand how a historian approaches a topic. Students interested in history, the environment or new approaches to the past will be interested in the course.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the history of technology through object-based learning and engagement with 3D and VR technologies. Does technology drive history, or is it the other way around? The course examines a variety of important technologies from stone tools to AI. Wars, geopolitics, and the discovery of new pleasures and anxieties are all interwoven with the history of tools and techniques. The course substantially leverages digital humanities, teaching students how to use 3D scanning, and the medium of VR to curate impactful experiences about various technologies.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
Over three billion people in the world play video games. You probably do too. This course focuses on both the history of video games from their humble beginnings in the 1950s to their ubiquity in our present day, and how games imagine alternative pasts. By playing video games and reading and thinking about them throughout the semester, we will explore what video gaming tells us about the histories of popular culture, technology, artificial intelligence, capitalism, and globalization, and about ourselves as playful creatures.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course will introduce Asian, European, and American material from the late nineteenth century to nearly the present day, concentrating on social and cultural themes such as industrialization, colonialism, science and race, technology and war, computers and global telecommunications and biotechnology and the human genome project. It will be taught as a series of cases illustrating important events and multiple themes. The proposition that modern science and technology have been 'socially constructed', reflecting political and cultural values as well as the state of nature, will be examined rather closely. Some theoretical material will leaven our otherwise empirical focus.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-3-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course surveys the history and philosophy of science and its relation to technology and society. We will examine major topics and readings in the field including the scientific revolution, experimental science, industrialization, probabilistic theory, and environmental science, keeping in mind the broader historical circumstances that have shaped these forces. Key concepts explored include: scientific norms, paradigm shifts and technoscience. Students will encounter historical and contemporary case studies from regions various regions and countries.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY, or 28 units in SC.
Preclusion(s): HY42111HM
This course will allow students to explore in detail a major theme in Environmental History, meaning the historical study of the mutual influence of humans and the environment. While the material and specific focus of the course will shift, as each instructor will offer a unique approach, it will introduce students to many of the basic issues in the discipline, and require research in both the field and library on a specific topic, thus enhancing their research and writing skills.
General Education and Interdisciplinary Courses
Units: 4
Workload: 3-1-0-4-2
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEK2049, GEH1013
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Piracy, understood broadly as violence or crime at sea, is a present day phenomenon and yet one which has a history spanning centuries and across all the oceans of the world. From pirates to privateers, corsairs to raiders, maritime predators take various names and forms. This course explores the history of pirates and piracy. By examining case studies from the 1400s onwards and by placing pirates into the context of oceanic history and maritime studies, students will be able to demystify the popular images often associated with pirates.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEH1077
Cross-listing(s): Nil
More people live in cities now than in any other point in history: how does this change human culture and civilisations? Cities tell a story of our world; they are a testament to humankind’s ability to reshape the environment in lasting ways. They reveal how we interact with the environment and with each other. Cities are created in many forms and for many reasons ranging from defense, religion and economic activity. Through case studies this courses examines urban history, lived experiences and how city life has changed over time.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): GEH1079
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course seeks to analyse why killing ‘unarmed civilians’ has been so commonplace in war, across time and space. Why were defenceless unarmed people killed by armed forces? The word now used to define this theme is ‘non-combatant.’ But neither word nor concept is primordial, or was universal. The notion that some types of people should not be targets for military operations did not spring from our consciousness, or from any abstract sense of ethics or morality. It evolved historically, and not in any straight line. This course will ask the direct questions: how, why and to what ends?
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Preclusion(s): GET1037
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course discusses the ‘big picture’ of History by considering defined themes that range across time and space. The focus is not on individual societies or time periods, but on questions related to commonalities in developments across all societies. This approach is like looking at a painting from a distance instead of at the brush strokes that constitute it, and will lead to questions about what human activities and experiences constitute the global experience. As part of the Thinking and Expression pillar, this course will help students think historically and also critically engage the maxim that ‘the past is a foreign country.’
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is intended to whet students’ appetites for a gustatory exploration of the past. We will consider various historical exchanges of ingredients across the globe, the refinement of techniques of culinary preparation, rituals of consumption, table manners and cutlery as well as the cultural significance of acts of feasting or fasting. Various religious, medical and cultural dietary regulations and taboos will be examined, along with the rise of sumptuary rules and connoisseurial practices, and the development of ‘dining out’. Finally we will analyse the role of food in the formation of various identities: nation, gender, class, diaspora.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course traces how the sky has shaped cultures from across the world and in different times. We will explore how skywatching has provided answers to fundamental questions, such as the origins of life and the world, how society should be organised, and how our lives should be led. We will consider perspectives from Indigenous, European and Asian cosmologies, and discuss practices of prediction including astrology and meteorology. We will ponder the implications of technology that is now reshaping our sky. You will have the opportunity to reconnect with the sky and to discuss what the skies mean to you.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course examines the relationship between economics and war. Armed conflict has always required the deep involvement of profit-seeking actors: mercenaries, merchants, trading companies, banks, corporations, and contractors. In turn, innovation and infrastructural development have instigated new methods of warfare. By examining the intersection of military and economic forces from around the world, from the early modern era to the present day, the course explores how the exigences of war have shaped the emergence of the nation-state, the development of capitalism, and the creation of global labor markets.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-5-0-2
Preclusion(s): SC2217
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course offers a broad survey of the evolution of travel and tourism, delving into its historical foundations and contemporary complexities. Students will examine the history of travel and exploration and its impact on cultural exchange, empire-building, economic development, and global connectivity. Students will trace the historical roots of the booming travel and tourism industry, and be introduced to contemporary issues related to travel consumerism, sustainability, and the influence of technology and social media. Students will develop an understanding of the multifaceted nature of travel and tourism within the broader historical and contemporary context of societal, cultural, and environmental dynamics.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-2-0-0-2-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
When Rome grew into an empire, the city transformed itself into the capital of the known world. It was the first – and until London in the early 19th century – the only Western city to reach a population of a million. Rome reflected the grandeur and diversity of its empire. It was a cosmopolitan, multi-lingual, and multi-ethnic mega-city, which showcased Roman might, organizational efficiency, and cultural wealth through public works, monumental architecture, and a consumer culture. Studying Rome offers insights into the genealogy of Western urbanism and statecraft, because the city and its empire became paradigmatic in Western Eurasia.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2239, SSA2203, GESS1007
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course traces the business history of Singapore from its origins as an East India Company outpost, as an entrepôt for regional and international trade routes to its current status as a global city and centre for international finance and business. This course offers an introduction to business history and explores different case studies in the local context. These case studies range from ‘rags to riches’ stories of early migrant communities, popular local brands, and present day entrepreneurs. Major topics include: trading communities, commodities, networks and migration, entrepreneurship, business culture, heritage, globalisation, state, politics and business.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Preclusion(s): HY2229, SSA2204, USE2304, GESS1008
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is about Singapore’s emergence from British colonial rule and merger with Malaysia to independence and nation-building. It covers political events, the economy, education, national service, ethnic relations, and culture and national identity. Students are encouraged to think through issues central to these topics.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): SSA2211, GESS1009
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Histories of Singapore have conventionally been narrated along internal lines, framed by administrative, political and national trajectories. Yet, the evolution of Singapore, from regional emporium to imperial port and strategic naval base, has all along been defined by much larger regional and transoceanic forces. Even after political independence in 1965, Singapore continues to project itself as a 'global city-state'. This courese seeks to examine the historical evolution of Singapore against the contexts of global changes and developments from the 14th to the 21st century. This course is open to all students interested in Singapore studies.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): HY2254, SSA2221, GESS1010
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is designed for both History and non-History students to explore the development and evolution of popular culture in Singapore from the colonial period to the present day. Students will learn diverse topics including Singapore's changing religious landscape, wedding and death rituals, as well as varied forms of popular entertainment from street opera, amusement parks to radio and cinema. Students should expect to gain a sensitivity to change and continuities within historical contexts, to better understand Singapore’s rich cultural heritage and to hone their skills in critical thinking, writing and presentation.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2.5-4.5
Preclusion(s): GESS1026
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course facilitates an introductory inquiry into Singaporean pasts based on a cache of 'objects', broadly defined. Students will be invited to make critical observations and bring to bear their imaginations on a variety of 'objects' from Singapore’s pasts: sand, well, club, movie and sound card, among others. Students will then exercise their historical imaginations to generate interpretive possibilities pertaining to Singapore's past prompted by these objects, both individually and collectively. In reflecting on these objects and their possible connections to the past, students will emerge from this course with a broad, diverse, creative and concrete grasp of Singapore's histories.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-4-3
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is an introduction to gender and sexuality issues in Singapore from a historical perspective. We examine how our everyday understandings of gender have been formed in a long, complex process of negotiation over the twentieth century. In five themes 1) religion and marriage, 2) non-binary histories, 3) state morality, 4) queer stories and 5) gender troubles, we trace how state and religious authorities have shaped sexual behaviours and gender identities, with varying degrees of conformity and contestation from groups and individuals. Throughout history, gender remained fluid despite multiple attempts at restraining sexuality.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Preclusion(s): GEC1037
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course discusses the ‘big picture’ of History by considering defined themes that range across time and space. The focus is not on individual societies or time periods, but on questions related to commonalities in developments across all societies. This approach is like looking at a painting from a distance instead of at the brush strokes that constitute it, and will lead to questions about what human activities and experiences constitute the global experience. As part of the Thinking and Expression pillar, this course will help students think historically and also critically engage the maxim that ‘the past is a foreign country.’
(Co-hosted with CNM)
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Sports offer an important arena for the study of bodies, and bodies in their various forms (e.g. bodies that do or govern sports) are also vital sites for studying sports. This course draws on sociocultural and historical perspectives to encourage diverse interests and multiple approaches toward sporting bodies. We will discuss a variety of issues related to elite, college, and everyday sports: sports, race, (post)colonialism, and nation-state; sport industry, politics, and capitalism; sports media, culture, and the embodiment of genders and sexualities; doping behaviors and “sex-testing” in sport; disability, digital technologies, and sport inclusion and exclusion.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-0-7
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Non-human animals have been essential actors in human society from its beginnings. Their existence has often been taken for granted, however, both in daily life and scholarship. This course will foreground the human/non-human animal relationship, taking methodologies from history, zoology, bioethics, and allied fields. It will be organised around such themes as the domestication, breeding, eating, worshipping, ownership, and conservation of animals, and modern conceptions like biodiversity, zoonoses, and speciesism. Students will not only be exposed to the thriving interdisciplinary scholarship on the human/animal relationship but also be invited to reflect on the role of animals in their own lives.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-3-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Analogies—cognitive devices that clarify complex or unfamiliar concepts by comparing them to more familiar ones—shape how individuals and institutions understand and decide on pressing issues. Focusing on historical analogies that explicitly draw on actual events, experiences, or models from the past, this course—anchored in cognitive psychology, history, and political science—equips students to analyze, evaluate, and apply analogical reasoning across a wide range of domains. Through case studies, students integrate perspectives from these disciplines to recognize, critique, and harness analogies and lessons from the past to make informed decisions in contemporary contexts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-2-0-2-0-4
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
Humans have always lived between light and dark, yet this fundamental rhythm shapes more than daily cycles. Darkness enables rest, intimacy, and spiritual reflection while driving evolutionary adaptations and ecological relationships spanning millions of years. This course explores how darkness operates simultaneously as environmental condition, cultural symbol, and biological necessity. We combine historical investigation of sleep, fear, and meaning-making with scientific analysis of vision, circadian biology, and nocturnal ecosystems. We will explore cross-cultural attitudes, sleep patterns, light pollution, and the impact of our technology. History reveals cultural meanings; biology provides mechanistic understanding. Together, they illuminate how darkness shapes life.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-0-5
Preclusion(s): Nil
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the historical roots, theoretical frameworks, and practical applications of mindfulness. Drawing on Buddhist studies, psychology, and neuroscience, we will examine how understandings of mindfulness have evolved and how they shape approaches to mental health and well-being. Students will read seminal works on mindfulness and engage in mindful practices such as meditation and contemplative exercises. Through readings, discussions, and experiential learning, this course will provide students with an exploratory understanding of mindfulness by examining its historical and theoretical foundations alongside contemporary practices, engaging perspectives from the humanities, social sciences, and cognitive sciences in both secular and religious contexts..
Art History
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: Nil
Preclusions: GEK2015
Cross-listing: GEK2015
This course explores Europe and Asia’s mutual fascination with, and appropriation of, each other’s visual and material cultures. From the Buddhist art of Central Asia to KL Petronas Towers through medieval textiles, chinoiseries, Orientalist paintings, colonial architecture, museums, modernist avant-gardes and postmodernism, the course surveys chronologically some fifteen centuries of East/West artistic interactions while introducing students to the disciplines (art and cultural history, post-colonial and cultural studies) concerned with visual culture. The course is open to students from all faculties and does not require background knowledge of art history.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores the common ground between the discipline of history and art history by considering images as historical evidence It concerns itself with both Western and Asian art in the time period from the 5th c. BC to the 20th c. The learning objectives are twofold: acquire the conceptual tools to understand the meaning of images and read visual narratives as historical texts.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course introduces students to art history both as a field of academic knowledge concerned with works of art (including painting, sculpture and architecture) and as a discipline with a distinctive methodology, vocabulary and theoretical foundations. The course surveys the main trends in the artistic traditions of Europe and Asia paying special attention to cross-cultural comparative analysis (i.e. how the human body and landscape are represented in different artistic traditions).
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
This is an introductory-level course, providing students a historical survey of three thousand years of Chinese visual arts with emphasis on painting. Through the course, students will gain a basic understanding of the historical transformation of Chinese art from the classical towards the modern and contemporary, as well as key aesthetic and philosophical conceptions underpinning the production of visual arts in the Chinese culture. In addition, the course provides some comparative studies of Chinese and Western visual arts. There will also be a component introducing the special linkages between the history of Singapore art and the Chinese context.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
What is modern art? How has it been understood and interpreted by artists, critics and art historians? What is the relationship between modern art, modernism and modernity? Is the history of modern art “multiple”? The course will explore these questions through a chronological introduction to modern art, from the 19th century to the 1950s. Students will be encouraged to critically-analyse visual and textual primary-source material to develop a nuanced understanding of different developments in modern art. Case studies on modern art in Asia will also be included to encourage students to appreciate the multiplicity and global diffusion of modern art.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-1-6
Prerequisite: AH2101
This course surveys art and architectural genres produced in British colonies, chiefly India, Singapore and Malaya through diverse visual forms such as painting, calendar art, photography, craft objects and buildings. Visual analysis is accompanied by an investigation into the shifts in materials, technologies and contexts of display and consumption, which often expressed British control, native resistance and a desire for self-rule. The course also considers the role of British institutions, namely, art schools, archaeological surveys, museums and exhibitions in grooming art production and tastes; native projects and responses are unravelled simultaneously to understand East-West interactions.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-2-5
Prerequisite: AH2101
This course examines historically significant sculptures, architecture and paintings that are produced in Southeast Asia and span the timeframe of about one thousand years. It surveys artistic field shaped by Hindu-Buddhist ideals. These testify to the creative, technological capacities of designers and communities of artists, as well as the ambitions and resources of patrons. They also reveal links within the region, and connections with India. The course cultivates methods for analysing the composition and formation of images, designs and built forms, gaining understanding of their symbolic import, and fostering insights into complex relationships between religious ideals and their artistic representations.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
This course provides an introduction to key movements and tendencies in late modern and contemporary art, primarily in Europe and North America, but also extending to related developments around the world. Through a close analysis of significant artists, exhibitions and texts, the course will encourage a historical understanding of the emergence of Western contemporary art and its role within the globalised art world of today. The influences of social, political and cultural forces will also be discussed, providing a wider framework for students to interpret artworks and to examine their context and reception.
Units: 4
Workload: 2-1-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
The course aims to equip students with curatorial methodologies and theories drawn from the history of exhibitions in Southeast Asia. Students will be introduced to postcolonial theories, approaches and methodologies with an inter-disciplinary focus that can be used to frame the art histories of the region. This course will provide opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience of curatorial practices through workshops with curators, conservators, educators and public programmers by drawing resources from the NUS Museum and the National Gallery Singapore.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Prerequisite: AH2101
This course examines the development of a wide range of private and institutional collecting practices in Europe and Asia, from the late medieval period to the present day. It draws on diverse theoretical approaches to collection studies. The course seeks to understand the contributions of collectors to art-production, display and taste-making and value-arbitration, and, consequently to the overall contours of art history and its canons. It adopts an inter-disciplinary approach to demonstrate how collectors have actively shaped other histories of modernities, nationalisms and cosmopolitanisms.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
This course examines the history of art history as a discipline looking at its origins, evolution and shifts across time. It seeks to understand how genres in art history are sequenced, compared and analysed in the European tradition. The course also examines how art history evolves differently in Asian texts and Asian contemporary writing. These differences in the methods and approaches to art history provide diverse frameworks to appreciate art-production and consumption globally.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
What is "modern art" in "Southeast Asia"? When and how did it emerge? In what ways have modern art and its histories been discussed, as distinct yet also connected to the modern art of other regions? This course explores these questions by guiding students through key historical approaches to the relationship between art and modernity in Southeast Asia, since the 19th century. The course's thematic structure pairs historical and methodological concepts with diverse case studies from visual art and other cultural forms. This equips students with the skills for critically reflexive considerations of relationships between art, modernity, and Southeast Asia.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s): AH2101
How do we discuss “Islamic art” history within the context of modern and contemporary Southeast Asia? How do we recontextualize the category of “Islamic art” through looking closely at objects and exhibitions from Southeast Asia? Through art historical methods of writing about objects and images, this module discusses how modern and contemporary artworks reveal the complex negotiations between Islam and modernity and the subtle conversations that traverse cultural practices and ethnic identifications. The course will be structured through artworks that also bear traces of Islamic trade and ritual objects as well as artists’ engagement with contemporary issues.
Units: 4
Pre-requisite(s): (1) AH2101 and (2) 1 AH-coded module
Internships take place within the National Gallery of Singapore and relevant museums in Singapore and are vetted and approved by the Minor in Art History’s convenor. All internships will focus on an aspect/aspects of art history to be decided by the student in consultation with his/her academic advisor and the museum of choice. The internship must involve the application of subject knowledge and theory in reflection to the work done.
Research Methods
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-2-3-5
Pre-requisite(s)/Co-requisite(s): Must be HY majors and have completed at least 40 units of which at least 16 units in HY, including HY1101E. For EU majors, must have completed at least 40 units of which at least 16 units in EU/LA [French/German/Spanish]/recognized modules, including EU1101E and HY1101E.
Preclusion(s): YHU2217 and YHU3276
This course introduces students to some of the important methodologies, approaches, and themes in historical research through weekly seminar-style sessions in which students analyze academic work and develop their own research plans. In other words, this course aims to provide students with the fundamental skills needed for academic historical research, such as how to interpret scholarly work, how historians have approached the past, and how to develop a research question and place it within broader historiographical currents.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-4-3-3
Pre-requisite(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Preclusion(s): Nil
This course introduces students to public history theory and practice. A fundamental premise of the course is that practicing public history well requires an outlook, ethical stance, and set of skills that go beyond what is usually required of historians. This course will focus on five key concept areas that inform the world of public history: History and Memory; Shared Authority and/or Inquiry; Agendas and Audiences; Media Technology; Interpretation and Preservation.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-3-3-5
Pre-requisite(s): HY2259
Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This class will introduce students to the process of conducting research on historical topics. They will discuss and critique examples of publishable research, and then work independently to develop their own topics and interests. In the process students will explore different methods and approaches of historical inquiry, learn how to identify, access, and use records in the archives and in digital humanities, and produce research on their own.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-0-0-0
Pre-requisite(s): Students should have complete a minimum of 24 unites in History (HY); and have declared History (HY) as their major.
Preclusion(s): Any other XX3550 internship courses (Note: Students who change major may not do a second internship in their new major.
Internships vary in length but all take place within organisations or companies, are vetted and approved by the Department of History, have relevance to the major in History, involve the application of subject knowledge and theory in reflection upon the work, and are assessed. Available credited internships will be advertised at the beginning of each semester. In exceptional cases, internships proposed by students may be approved by the department.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-2-5
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 units, including 20 units in HY or 28 units in EU/LA (French/ German/Spanish)/recognised courses or 28 units in MS or 28 units in SN or 28 units in SC or 28 units in GL or GL recognised non-language courses.
Preclusion(s): HY4101 and HY4230HM
The objective of this course is to introduce Honours students to the emergence of the discipline of history. The history of history will also be used to convey some of the key historiographic and theoretical issues which shape contemporary historical writing. Major topics will include: philosophies of history, professionalization, traditional history, metahistory and postmodernism. Finally, Honours students will explore different methodologies.
Units: 8
Workload: 0-0-0-0-20
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 110 units including 40 units of HY major requirements with a minimum SJAP of 4.00 and a GPA of 3.50. Students may seek a waiver of the SJAP pre-requisite from department if they have a minimum GPA of 4.25 after completing 110 units.
Preclusion(s): HY4660, HY4401HM
Honours students in History are required to produce an original piece of historical research based on primary and secondary sources. Students select and develop research topics with the approval and guidance of the History Department. Students are assigned thesis advisors who provide guidance in conducting research and writing up research materials.
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-0-10
Prerequisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 100 units, including 40 units in HY, with a minimum GPA of 3.20.
Preclusion(s): HY4401, HY4660HM
The Independent Study Course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic within the discipline in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the course. A formal written agreement is to be drawn up, giving a clear account of the topic, programme of study, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head’s and /or Honours Coordinator’s approval of the written assignment is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer prior to seeking departmental approval.