Course Description
INTERDISCIPLINARY COURSES FOR CHS Cohort 2021 onwards
HS2905 CHEESEBURGER IN PARADISE: WHY WE EAT WHAT WE EAT
Why do we eat what we eat? To answer this complex question, this course takes a meal consumed around the world – the burger – and examines its component foods from multiple perspectives: from culture and history and political economy to technology, engineering, nutrition, and microbiology. As part of the course, students will be introduced to systems thinking and different methods for “making thinking visible” that facilitate understanding complex issues and producing interdisciplinary solutions to real-world problems. The result may shape not only your next meal but also the future of our planet.
GENERAL EDUCATION COURSES (COHORT 2021 ONWARDS)
GEC1048 DEATH AND DYING IN THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE *New
Preclusion(s): SE3232
Death and Dying will introduce students to the intricacies of the end-of-life journey, fostering empathy, cultural sensitivity, and practical knowledge to navigate this inevitable part of the human experience with wisdom and compassion. By delving into the historical, philosophical, and cultural aspects surrounding death and dying, students will gain a deeper understanding of the diverse beliefs, rituals and attitudes that have emerged across different civilizations and time periods in Southeast Asia. This comprehensive exploration will encourage critical thinking, enabling students to appreciate the significance of death in shaping human societies and its profound impact on shaping the human psyche and world cultures.
GEC1046 MAGIC, MYTHS AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA *New
Magic and myths are omniscient components of Southeast Asian society. Accepted as an indubitable norm yet reviled as taboo, the duality of magic is a provocative yet little-explored aspect of local culture, faith and everyday realities. This course will examine the duality that magic envelopes; at once the secret hand behind myriad facets of life, from politics to love and living; yet simply accepted as an obvious given. Magic and mythmaking alleviate fear, help people cope with change and the unknown, and make the intangible, tangible. Magic’s role in righting injustices, recording denied history, and gender inequality are also explored.
GEC1013 WORLD RELIGIONS
Preclusion(s): GEH1045
This course offers an introductory survey of major religious traditions of the world, with specific focus on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We will examine the historical development of each tradition, along with its sacred texts, basic philosophical ideas, patterns of ritual and worship, and specialized institutions. Our goal is to provide an objective understanding of each faith tradition in its own terms, and secondarily, to explore how religion is relevant to contemporary social, political and cultural issues. This is an introductory course which presumes no prior experience in religious studies.
GEC1025 THE LIFE AQUATIC: MACHINES AND THE MAKING OF THE OCEAN
Preclusion(s): GEH1068
Oceans cover most of the globe. Yet once we venture from the shore, our understanding of the marine environment is necessarily mediated by technology, from the plumb line used by sailors for millennia to measure the water’s depth, to the latest satellite imaging tracking ocean currents in real time. This course examines how different “machines,” or technologies have produced understandings of the ocean across history, and places these technologies in their social, cultural, economic, and political contexts. The result is to reveal the complex and evolving interconnections that link technology, and society and our understanding of the natural world.
GEC1034 UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMIC LANDSGPAE
Preclusion(s): GET1016
Why and how have things changed and moved so fast? Why and how has the global economy become more open and integrated? This course discusses the increasing connections and mobilities of goods (like grains, oil, cars, appliances, parts & components), services (like banking, education, tourism), money and finance, labour, technology, ideas and information. It discusses their trends and patterns and critically examines the role of various factors such as international and regional institutions, media and ICT, infrastructure and distribution networks, state intervention, and private sector involvement. It also assesses the social, economic, political and environmental impacts of increasing interconnectedness and mobilities.
GESS1035 SINGAPORE AND THE SEA
For 700 years Singapore has been a key node on world maritime trade routes. The study of maritime culture in Singapore requires integration of data from numerous disciplines including archaeology, history, economics, engineering, and ecology, to name some of the most significant. The prosperity of Singapore depends to a major extent on its port, yet few students are aware of the importance of maritime industry to the formation of the country. This course will explore Singapore’s appearance as a trading port in the 14th century, the reasons for its growth, and the sea’s influence on Singaporean society and economy.
GENERAL EDUCATION COURSES (COHORT 2020 AND EARLIER)
Human Cultures Pillar
GEH1045 WORLD RELIGIONS
Preclusion(s): GEC1013
This course offers an introductory survey of major religious traditions of the world, with specific focus on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. We will examine the historical development of each tradition, along with its sacred texts, basic philosophical ideas, patterns of ritual and worship, and specialized institutions. Our goal is to provide an objective understanding of each faith tradition in its own terms, and secondarily, to explore how religion is relevant to contemporary social, political and cultural issues. This is an introductory course which presumes no prior experience in religious studies.
GEH1068 THE LIFE AQUATIC: MACHINES AND THE MAKING OF THE OCEAN
Preclusion(s): GEC1025
Oceans cover most of the globe. Yet once we venture from the shore, our understanding of the marine environment is necessarily mediated by technology, from the plumb line used by sailors for millennia to measure the water’s depth, to the latest satellite imaging tracking ocean currents in real time. This course examines how different “machines,” or technologies have produced understandings of the ocean across history, and places these technologies in their social, cultural, economic, and political contexts. The result is to reveal the complex and evolving interconnections that link technology, and society and our understanding of the natural world.
Singapore Studies Pillar
GES1018 SINGAPORE, ASIA AND AMERICAN POWER
Singapore is a small city-state, the U.S. a continental superpower. There seems to be a huge power imbalance between the two countries, but are things always the way they seem? This introduces various dimensions of American global power - such as cultural power (Hollywood, for example, or American democracy as an inspirational model), military might and economic size. We investigate how U.S. power affects Singapore and its relations with its Asian neighbours. We also look at how Singapore and the region respond to the global projection of American power, and the ways they may exert power despite apparent imbalances.
GES1030 SINGAPORE AND THE SEA
For 700 years Singapore has been a key node on world maritime trade routes. The study of maritime culture in Singapore requires integration of data from numerous disciplines including archaeology, history, economics, engineering, and ecology, to name some of the most significant. The prosperity of Singapore depends to a major extent on its port, yet few students are aware of the importance of maritime industry to the formation of the country. This course will explore Singapore’s appearance as a trading port in the 14th century, the reasons for its growth, and the sea’s influence on Singaporean society and economy.
Thinking and Expression Pillar
GET1016 UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING GLOBAL ECONOMIC LANDSGPAE
Preclusion(s): GEC1034
Why and how have things changed and moved so fast? Why and how has the global economy become more open and integrated? This course discusses the increasing connections and mobilities of goods (like grains, oil, cars, appliances, parts & components), services (like banking, education, tourism), money and finance, labour, technology, ideas and information. It discusses their trends and patterns and critically examines the role of various factors such as international and regional institutions, media and ICT, infrastructure and distribution networks, state intervention, and private sector involvement. It also assesses the social, economic, political and environmental impacts of increasing interconnectedness and mobilities.
SE1101E THE LANDS BELOW THE WINDS: SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE WORLD
Southeast Asia is many things. Its past includes dinosaurs, ancient kingdoms and devastating wars, while its future is still being shaped. SE1101E explores this fascinating region in all its diversity: historical, cultural, economic, aesthetic, political, religious, gendered, environmental, and more. The course focuses on human experiences in Southeast Asia and how Southeast Asians engage with global processes. Lectures cover topics that move between the region’s murky past to the cyber spaces of a seemingly borderless future. It provides both an insightful introduction to the region and a foundation for future studies.
SE2210 POPULAR CULTURE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Popular culture – in forms such as music, cinema and magazines – has been seen as a way for non-elite groups to make sense of their common experiences. In the modern era, these pop culture products have also been linked with mass-production and standardised, commercialised commodities which work to entertain and distract. However, more recent scholarship has seen popular culture as a possible means of contesting dominant ideologies. This course examines the debate by considering various forms of popular culture in Southeast Asia.
SE2211 SOUTHEAST ASIAN SOCIAL HISTORY
This course addresses the social and economic history of the Southeast Asian region. It introduces the study of social and economic change over 2,000 years, the academic perspectives useful in that study, and the value of that study in understanding modern Southeast Asia. It examines precolonial society and its relationship to art, political, and economic activity; Southeast Asians’ responses to the challenges and opportunities of the region’s exposure to external influences, including China, India, Islam and Europe; heritage preservation and rchaeological research; and current developments, particularly the growth of tourism as a major industry.
SE2212 CITIES AND URBAN LIFE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Are Southeast Asian urban models unique from those of the West? This course uses historical and emerging developments to re-evaluate debates on Southeast Asian urbanisation. The particularities of Southeast Asian urbanisation will be examined both in terms of its intertwined history with the rest of the world as well as the politics of time and space. The course aims at developing a critical understanding of the interaction between historical, political-economic and cultural processes that constitute urbanization in Southeast Asia.
SE2213 DEMOCRATISATION IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Political systems in Southeast display a great variety of characteristics. Some, for example, are authoritarian while others are democratic. Some appear stable while others are subject to tumultuous change. This course examines the historical background and the nature of political competition in different countries of the region: how various groups have succeeded or failed in gaining power, the institutions that structure political contests, and the ideas behind different political agendas. The aim is to provide a multidisciplinary understanding of politics in Southeast Asia with which we can revisit ongoing debates on such issues as democracy, legitimacy, stability and reform.
SE2214 BEYOND THE FRAME: ARTS AND LIVES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This interdisciplinary course explores the diversity of the visual and performing arts in Southeast Asia and helps students to appreciate and enjoy the arts: ancient temple art, living traditional art (such as textiles, puppets, weapons, painting, theatre, and music), as well as modern and contemporary art. The focus will be on understanding the arts as they are experienced in local contexts; and on change, cross-cultural inspirations, and global flows, in the past and today. In tutorials, students will learn to play traditional music. On an overseas fieldtrip, they will explore the arts in a particular area and interact with artists.
SE2217 WAR AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
The recent strengthening of the U.S. military presence in Southeast Asia is better understood in comparative, historical perspective. This course identifies and compares a number of periods in the past when a powerful imperial force succeeded in dominating parts, if not all, of the region. This course seeks to identify the attributes of imperial domination in Southeast Asia, how it establishes itself and deals with resistance, how it maintains itself through attraction and coercion, and eventually declines. The choice of specific topics will vary in relation to available expertise.
SE2218 CHANGING ECONOMIC LANDSCAPE OF SE ASIA
The Southeast Asian economies and the region as a whole have experienced a significant change in their economic landscapes in terms of high growth rates, rising income levels, improvement in the standards of living, and the changing structures of production and trade. What accounts for the transformation? We seek to answer this question by examining the experiences and problems of the various Southeast Asian economies in the context of the leading development models and policies that they have pursued in promoting and developing their domestic sectors (agriculture, manufacturing and services) and external sectors (trade, foreign capital and regionalism).
SE2219 CULTURE AND POWER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
How do we understand culture, power and society in Southeast Asia? This course introduces students to debates on culture and power in Southeast Asia with the aim of inculcating comparative and critical reflections on cultural formations in the region. Both classical and contemporary studies of Southeast Asian cultures will be examined in order to better identify central issues around Southeast Asian cultural transformations as well as newer theoretical understandings on the relationship between power, culture, and history.
SE2221 OLD AND NEW MUSIC IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This course introduces the variety of music in Southeast Asia, from traditional to pop, and contributes to students’ understanding of the region. Lectures with audiovisual illustrations, which will emphasize cultural and contextual approaches, will be complemented by practical instruction in playing Javanese gamelan music. We will study the different musical aesthetics, changing cultural and social contexts and functions (from village and palace rituals to arts academies, the cassette industry, and concerts), musical and cultural interaction and the changing musical “landscape” of Southeast Asia. The course is appropriate both for students interested in Southeast Asian culture and anyone who likes music.
SE2223 DOING RESEARCH IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This course introduces different approaches to studying the region, with the aim of developing students’ independent research skills. It covers issues such as identifying a research question, the role of theory in research, and selecting an appropriate research design. By looking at a range of exemplary works in Southeast Asian studies as well as explicit methodological discussions, students will gain understanding of theoretical debates and practical issues related to doing research in Southeast Asian Studies.
SE2224 UNMASKED! AN INTRODUCTION TO TRADITIONAL DANCE IN SEA
This course introduces students to classical Southeast Asian dance with a particular emphasis on masked dance traditions. Drawing on an analysis of scholarly texts, videos and hands on sessions the course takes students on an exciting theatrical journey through Southeast Asia. Students enrolled in the class will be taught how to appreciate classical dance traditions in the region from a variety of angles, such as dramaturgical principles, music, aesthetics, ritual significance and change. They will also learn to perform and create compositions in a Southeast Asian dance form.
SE2225 FORBIDDEN PLEASURES: VICE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
From the betel popular across the region for millenia, to colonial opium regimes, to Bangkok's Soi Cowboy, vice has always been a part of life in Southeast Asia. In this course, students investigate the economic, political, social, ecological, and cultural significance of a variety of substances and activities, from drugs like opium, alcohol and caffeine, to activities like paid sex and gambling. Students use a range of texts, including scholarly articles, memoirs, movies and first-hand observation to investigate the ways illicit substances and behaviors are deeply imbricated in everyday life in Southeast Asia.
SE2226 MORO PEOPLES OF THE PHILIPPINES
This course introduces undergraduates to the culture and history of the Muslim ethnic minority groups collectively known as the Moro peoples of the Philippines. The syllabus exposes students to a variety of perspectives on Moro peoples - including but not limited to history, culture, politics, economics, identity, literature, and religion. It explores insights of both indigenous writers and foreign observers, scrutinizing each of these writings against wider developments in the scholarship and politics of Moro identity and, to a limited extent, Islam in the Philippines and Malay Studies. The course covers different aspects of Moro life in the past and the present.
SE2227 SOUTHEAST ASIAN GARDENS: HISTORY AND SYMBOLISM
This course will provide a historical introduction to Southeast Asian gardens, describe their situation and plan, and explore their aesthetic value (gardens as places of pleasure). Their philosophical significance (garden, microcosm, place of meditation) is equally important but less well known. Artificial gardens have existed in Southeast Asia (Sumatra, Java, Bali, Vietnam, Myanmar) since the seventh century. They contain Chinese and Indian influences, but exemplify a Southeast Asian view of the universe in microcosm. Gardens are a significant but overlooked medium of Southeast Asian symbolic representation. Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese gardens will be invoked to provide context.
SE2229 SOUTHEAST ASIA AS A FIELD OF STUDY
Pre-requisite(s): Read and passed SE1101E.
This course aims to introduce students to the rich intellectual heritage that has led to the development of Southeast Asian Studies as a distinct field of scholarly inquiry. We shall explore the critical debates, seminal texts and theoretical currents within the field in determining how different scholars have engaged with and conceptualized the region. We shall also consider teh epistemological challenges of carrying out research in the region, and how Southeast Asians themselves have contributed new voices towards the evolution of the field.
SE2230 MODERN SOUTHEAST ASIA THROUGH FILM
This course introduces students to the making of modern Southeast Asia from the late colonial era through the Cold War through fiction and film. Fiction and films provide a means to access political history in an engaging way and for what they reveal about how outsiders as well as Southeast Asians themselves came to view the region. The course covers Southeast Asia integration into the global capitalist economy, national awakenings, colonial anxieties in the 1930s, World War II and the Japanese occupation, the Cold War and neocolonialism, the Vietnam War, and the promise of modernity.
SE2880 TOPICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
This course is designed to cover selected topics in Southeast Asian Studies. The topic to be covered will depend on the interest and expertise of regular or visiting staff member in the department.
SE2880A SOUTHEAST ASIA'S CULTURAL MOSAIC
Southeast Asia is characterised by great ethnolinguistic and cultural variation. How can we make sense of and appreciate this diversity? What is an insiders and outsiders perspective? This course will introduce students to the region from an anthropological perspective. Students will be equipped with the analytical tools for the comparative study of society and culture. Ethnographic materials will be used to discuss themes that include ethnicity, identity, family and kinship systems, gender, economy, and social change. The challenge is for students to explore, conceptualise, and understand differences and similarities between social systems and human relationships, and to ask, Why?
SE3210 STUDIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARTS
The course explores in depth a particular Southeast Asian art (visual or performing arts, music, or literature). The specific focus of the course varies (to be announced). Students are introduced to theoretical approaches relevant to the topic, in the context of larger theoretical frameworks (historical, anthropological, etc.) of the study of Southeast Asian arts; and they have a chance to experience the art directly by studying the basics of the artistic practice (e.g., learning to paint, play music, dance). The course emphasizes both an in-depth study of the art and the relevance of such study for broader understanding of Southeast Asia.
SE3211 RELIGION, SOCIETY & POLITICS IN SE ASIA
Religion is a field of meanings that informs individual people's lives and also underpins social and political identities. While religions in Southeast Asia can be harnessed towards state construction or consolidation, they can also be embraced in ways that escape official control. In the past, religion has enabled people, through their local cults, religious schools, or social movements, to cope with daily existence or even voice their discontent. This course takes a comparative perspective and highlights the theoretical and practical problems related to this field of study.
SE3214 HERITAGE AND HERITAGESCAPES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This course provides critical knowledge of the historical, natural, political and socio-cultural ‘work’ underlying the making, management and marketing of heritage(scapes) in Southeast Asia. It begins by focusing on relevant concepts, before considering the contemporary material, symbolic and social uses and impacts of heritage(scapes) within the region. It offers a broad overview of how (spatial) practices, ideas, policies and technologies have been mobilised for multiple purposes, and discusses issues that emerge when planning for, and promoting, this heritage for diverse populations. Ultimately, heritage(scapes) here are also conceptualised as veritable lens to understand and further enhance Southeast Asian societies today.
SE3216 MIGRATION, DIASPORA AND REFUGEES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
*course can be counted towards GE Communities and Engagement pillar (for Cohort 2021 onwards).
This course seeks to understand the complex trajectories, meanings, and outcomes of human mobility in Southeast Asia. The main topics of this course include migration patterns, now and in the past; diasporic, cosmopolitan, subaltern, and hybrid identities; the formation of racial and ethnic, political, and, cultural minorities; citizenship; refugee crises and large-scale human displacement. Readings and discussion will include both theoretical approaches to these topics as well as empirical case studies.
SE3218 INDUSTRIALISING SINGAPORE AND SOUTHEAST ASIA
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): SE2215
Industrialising involves the promotion and development of the industrial sector. Why have some countries industrialised faster than others? In particular, the manufacturing industries in some countires have remained backward and depended heavily on the use of labour while in other countries, they have become more advanced and relied more on the use of capital. This course discusses the theory and concepts that relate to industrialisation. It also investigates the industrial experiences of other countries and the lessons from them. Focus will be on Singapore, and how it compares with other SE Asian countries.
SE3219 COUNTRY STUDIES: ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA
The main countries of island Southeast Asia are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore. This course examines one or two of these countries for in-depth study, providing a multi-stranded approach to different facets of contemporary life in that country. The course will investigate a variety of themes, such as local democracy, military power, religion, ethnic identities and conflicts, justice and reconciliation, popular culture, music and food. Each theme is integrated, with the aim of developing a more comprehensive understanding of the country in question.
SE3220 COUNTRY STUDIES: MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA
The countries of Mainland Southeast Asia are Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. This course examines one or a group of these countries for an in-depth study, providing a multi-disciplinary approach to different facets of contemporary life in these countries. The course will place emphasis on a variety of themes, such as history of decolonization and the Cold War, military power, political change, peasantry, environment, economic reforms, ethnicity and nationalism, historiography, gender and religion. Each theme is integrated, with the aim of developing a more comprehensive understanding of these countries.
SE3221 TRADITIONAL MUSIC IN A SOUTHEAST ASIAN COUNTRY
This course will give you a chance to learn to play traditional music from one Southeast Asian country, to understand how the music works, and how music functions in society and reflects cultural values, specifically in the one country. While the first-hand experience of playing ensemble music is an important part of this course, no musical background is required – all you need is a positive attitude. Discussions (with audiovisual illustrations) and readings will help you to understand the workings of the music and the historical, cultural and social setting, with an emphasis on understanding music in and as culture.
SE3222 GENDER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
What are women’s experiences during the pre-colonial, colonial and contemporary eras in Southeast Asia? How are gender identities and roles constructed? How do the interplays between local cultures, class, ethnicity, economy, politics and religion affect power relations between men and women in both the private and public spheres? Using interdisciplinary approaches, this course will examine these questions via recent literature, ethnographic studies, life histories, films and other audio-visual documentaries concerning women in different parts of the Southeast Asian region.
SE3224 THAI DRAWING AND PAINTING
Pre-requisite(s): As the emphasis of the class is on practical approaches to art as a way of appreciating and understanding Southeast Asian Studies, students should ideally have genuine interests in drawing, painting, and the creative arts.
This course introduces students to the art of Thai painting and drawing through an analysis of both scholarly texts and hands-on sessions. The course takes students on a visual journey through all the major periods of Thai classical art. Emphasis will also be placed on regional and folk styles of painting as well as with new forms of traditional art. The course focuses primarily on the Rama 3 style of Thai painting as developed in nineteenth century Bangkok and which has become the most common form of Thai classical art seen in the country today. Students enrolled in the class will be taught not only how to appreciate traditional Thai painting but also how to draw, create compositions and critique art works.
SE3226 HARD AT WORK: THE CHANGING FACE OF LABOUR IN SEA
*course can be counted towards GE Communities and Engagement pillar (for Cohort 2021 onwards).
In this class, students are introduced to the history and ethnography of work in Southeast Asia. The class focuses on a particular country in the region depending on the instructor. Students read texts that explore the social, political, economic, cultural, and technological forces that have shaped work in the region since the 1800s. At the same time, students are introduced to the practices of ethnographic fieldwork, including observing, interviewing, writing, and editing. Students also read critically ethnographies of work from the region and the world. Students then apply these practices and insights through field research projects.
SE3227 MARITIME HISTORY AND CULTURE OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
For 2000 years, Southeast Asia has been an important crossroad of world maritime trade, but the study of maritime history and culture have not been well developed on a regional level. The study of maritime culture in Southeast Asia required integration of data from numerous disciplines including archaeology, history, economics, engineering, and ecology, to name some of the most significant. Singapore's prosperity depends to a major extent on its port, yet students do not appreciate its importance. This course will explore commercial and cultural links between the Arab-Persian region, India, Southeast Asia, and China over the past two millenia.
SE3228 THE UNIVERSE UNRAVELING: NARRATIVES OF WAR IN INDOCHINA
The course takes students from the origins of revolutionary anticolonial movements in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1920s, through the years of war in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s to their legacies in today’s diasporic communities. In addition to a core text, students will read a variety of first-person accounts written by anyone from revolutionary leaders to foot soldiers to children to doctors to Buddhist monks. The objective is to see the wars from multiple perspectives and to investigate how first-person accounts may complement, complicate, or even contest orthodox narratives of revolution and war.
SE3230 SEEN AND UNSEEN: EXPLORATIONS IN BALINESE THEATRE
This class introduces students to classical theatre in Bali, Indonesia. Bali is an island well-known for its varied theatrical genres from sacred trance séances to masked dances that tell stories from Balinese history. In this class, students will learn not only the various theatrical forms on the island but also their history, ritual and social roles and transformations. Emphasis is placed on the classical genres of gambuh and topeng and students will learn how to stage a performance as Balinese actors do.
SE3231 COLONIAL SOUTHEAST ASIA THROUGH EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Through a critical reading of European fiction set in Southeast Asia, students will gain a richer understanding of the region in the colonial period, as well as European experiences and images of Southeast Asia. The course will also reflect on the medium of fiction – is there something that one can express better through fiction than through academic writing? How do the conventions of academic writing limit what is thought and said? As part of the assessment, students will write short stories. In addition to fiction, we will examine paintings, photographs and watch movies.
SE3233 MARTIAL ARTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Preclusion(s): SE3880B
This course introduces students to the study of martial arts in Southeast Asia from an academic and experiential perspective. Students analyse journal articles, books and materials from the social media in order to understand how various social, political, economic and historical forces impacted on the production and performance of martial arts in the region. Student’s learning will be complemented with hands-on sessions that further their understanding of complex historical, sociological and cultural dimensions of various combat genres. Student assignments such as essays and group video projects will reveal new ways in how Southeast Asia can be understood from multi-disciplinary perspectives.
SE3234 SEA, ISLANDS, VESSELS: A VOYAGE OF EXPLORATION
At the heart of this course is a sailing voyage. We will visit coastal/island communities, explore marine environment, and experience life at sea and on remote islands. During that time, as well as at pre- and post-voyage seminars, we will reflect on diverse but inter-related issues in historical and contemporary perspectives: the roles of the sea and boats in Southeast Asia; archipelagic spaces and nations; "sea people" and territory; colonialism; piracy; interrelation between people and natural environment; ships and the sea in myths, narratives, and visual culture; seafaring as a method of understanding Southeast Asia, and so on.
SE3235 SOUTHEAST ASIA LABORATORY: POWER AND MARKETS
How does politics affect economic outcomes and how does the economy influence political outcomes in Southeast Asia? This course explores these questions from the height of the Cold War in the 1960s until the present. Students will be introduced to different approaches to the study of political economy. We will pay particular attention to regional differences within countries – including resource endowments, social structures, economic policies and investment, labor and migration.
SE3550 SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES INTERNSHIP/ISE3550 EXTENDED INTERNSHIP
Units: 4 / 4
Prerequisite(s): Students should have completed a minimum of 24 MC in Southeast Asian Studies and have declared Southeast Asian Studies as their major.
Preclusion(s): Any other XX3550 course (Note: Students who change major may not do a second internship in their new major)
Internships vary in length and take place within organisations or companies located in Singapore or Southeast Asian countries. Internships with organisations or companies in Southeast Asian countries will occur during the semester-in-SEA programme at the SEAD. All internships are vetted and approved by the SEAD, have relevance to the major in Southeast Asian Studies, 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. Internships proposed by students will require the approval of the department.
SE3880 TOPICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
This course is designed to cover selected topics in Southeast Asian Studies. The topic to be covered will depend on the interest and expertise of regular or visiting staff member in the department.
SE3880B MARTIAL ARTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
This course introduces the student to the study of martial arts in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asian martial arts are products of hundreds of years of cultural exchange and historical interaction with various civilizations. This course offers students an exciting opportunity to experience and learn a variety of forms of Southeast Asian martial arts. Students enrolled in the course will also experience the exciting physical and cultural practices that are essential in the learning of the martial arts through hands on sessions.
SE4101 SOUTHEAST ASIA STUDIES: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE.
Preclusions: SE4101HM, All NON SE major and NON GL major students
The course prepares Honours students for their thesis exercise, particularly in the choice of analytical framework and appropriate research design. Students are introduced to various ideas about 'theory' and 'practice' in research on Southeast Asia. Different disciplinary approaches are compared and evaluated in terms of the way they formulate research questions, conceptualise research design and measure evidence. Attention will also be paid to modes of writing and representation adopted in texts under study. Seminar discussions are aimed at helping students think critically about the suitability of various approaches to their own research interests.
SE4201 SOUTHEAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AS RESEARCH TOOLS
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: (1)Level 6 module in a Southeast Asian language (or an equivalent level of skills in any Southeast Asian language, including those not taught at NUS). (2) Permission of lecturer. (3) Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE
Preclusions: SE4201HM
This course enables students to use language as a research tool. They will learn about the importance of Southeast Asian languages as primary sources for research, explore issues in translation and reflect on research methodologies involved in using foreign languages. Students may use different languages they know to explore issues studies in this course.
SE4210 ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE.
Preclusions: SE4210HM
Historical sources (writing) and archaeology (material culture) give very different perspectives on the development of civilisations. This course follows the development of classical civilisations in Southeast Asia from the first to the sixteenth centuries A.D. Data from archaeological excavations are utilised to create a picture of the achievements of early historic people of the region in such areas as the formation of kingdoms and cities; trade; architecture; and warfare. Relations with China and India are also analysed.
SE4212 ELITES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SN.
Preclusions: SE4212HM
Aristocrats, bureaucrats and tycoons are just some of the different players that have occupied elite positions in Southeast Asian societies. This course looks at these and other elite groups in terms of the roles they have played and how they have acquired, maintained or lost elite status. Why, for example, is the military an elite group in some countries but not others? Do wealthy people inevitably hold political power? The course also investigates the effects of various types of elite rule on politics, economic growth and social justice.
SE4217 SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SC or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non language modules.
Preclusions: SE4217HM
Southeast Asia has been linked to the rest of the world through various channels: historically through colonisation, geographically by land, water and air, economically through trade, financial capital, technology and foreign aid, politically through regional and international organisations, and culturally through human mobility. This course examines these linkages and the various factors that have influenced them particularly in terms of the national, regional and international policies.
SE4218 MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS or 28 Units in SN.
Preclusions: SE4218HM
This course focuses on the relations between majorities and minorities in Southeast Asia. Its aims are to understand how the relationships between the state and its peoples of different ethnicity and between the majority and the minority have brought about historical development and change, politically and economically, in the region. Discussions include the historical background of these peoples, their legends and myths of origins, cultures, relationships among ethnic groups and their perceptions of themselves and others, economic life and trade, migration, colonialism, the rise of the nation-state and its impacts on multi-ethnic societies.
SE4220 SPECIAL STUDIES ON SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE
Preclusions: SE4220HM
This course is intended to enable students to pursue in-depth readings on a topic which is relevant to the mission of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies but is not covered in the normal curriculum. It enables students to delve into a particular highly-specialized topic and engage critically in the relevant theoretical concepts that inform it. The students are responsible for defining their own research topic and composing a detailed bibliography in relation to the selected topic. Assessment for this course is primarily through seminar participation and/or project work.
SE4223 KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND COLONIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS.
Preclusions: SE4223HM
Students of history usually mine Western accounts of Southeast Asia for the facts that they may contain, assuming that such texts are simply a means of accessing a vaguely apprehended reality “out there.” This course examines the ways in which writers located themselves vis a vis the region; the kinds of images, themes and motifs they used to describe it; the ideas and doctrines that informed them; the institutions and other works they affiliated their writings with; and the power over the societies of the region that arose from their enterprise. Modern scholarship has largely inherited Orientalist ways of looking at Southeast Asia. What are the alternatives?
SE4225 THE COLD WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE.
Preclusions: SE4223HM
As Southeast Asian states achieved independence, new pressures reached the region. Between the late 1940s and the early 1980s, Southeast Asia represented an arena of competition between the communist and capitalist worlds. This competition took many forms: diplomatic, political, military, economic, ideological and cultural. Some Southeast Asians took sides, for reasons ranging from the idealistic to the mercenary. Some Southeast Asian states became battle-grounds. For all the region’s societies, the political and diplomatic history, journalism and student life, social and intellectual change, and fiction and film of the Cold War era reflected a process of reconciling international and local forces.
SE4226 DOING ETHNOGRAPHY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SC
Preclusions: SE4226HM
This course provides students with both methodological and theoretical guidance for doing critical ethnography in Southeast Asia. Students will systematically learn about the fundamentals of practising ethnography in Southeast Asia and consider philosophical-theoretical, disciplinary and ethical issues underpinning each stage of the ethnographic process. Different forms of ethnographic texts on Southeast Asia (including films) will be introduced and students will learn how to critically evaluate ethnographies. Students will have the opportunity to directly apply what they learn to their own research projects.
SE4227 NATIONALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in PS.
Preclusions: SE4227HM
The course provides a critical study of various theories and practices of nationalism in Southeast Asia from an interdisciplinary perspective. What is the relationship between colonialism and the development of national attachments and nationalist politics? What roles have ethnicity and religion played in the emergence of national and state identities in Southeast Asia? Students will address these questions and examine the rise of nationalism as a leading political principle and the fate of the nation-state in an increasingly globalised and globalising world.
SE4228 CONTENTIOUS POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE.
Preclusions: SE4228HM
This course introduces students to the study of protest and contentious politics in Southeast Asia. The course will cover different theoretical approaches (behavioralism, Marxism, resource mobilisation, political process, new social movements) as well as key analytical concepts (political opportunity structure, framing, social movement organisations, and transnational contention). Case studies, drawn from the late colonial and post-colonial periods, will examine individual social groups/sectors and major cycles of protest in the region (the Philippines in 1986 and 2001, Burma in 1988 and 2007, Indonesia and Malaysia in 1998, and Thailand in 1973, 1992, and 2006-8).
SE4401 HONOURS THESIS
Units: 8
Pre-requisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 110 Units including 40 Units of SE major requirements with a minimum GPA of 3.50.
Preclusions: SE4660, SE4401HM
Students are required to conduct research on a Southeast Asian topic under the supervision of a member of staff. Topics will be chosen by students in consultation with staff. The length of the honours thesis should not exceed 12,000 words. The honours thesis is equivalent to two courses.
SE4660 INDEPENDENT STUDY
Units: 4
Pre-requisites: Cohort 2021 onwards: Completed 100 Units, including 40 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20.
Preclusions: SE4401, SE4660HM
The Independent Study course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic 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. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer.
SE4101HM SOUTHEAST ASIA STUDIES: THEORY AND PRACTICE
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE, or 28 Units in GL or GL recognised non-language modules with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4101, All NON SE major and NON GL major students
The course prepares Honours students for their thesis exercise, particularly in the choice of analytical framework and appropriate research design. Students are introduced to various ideas about 'theory' and 'practice' in research on Southeast Asia. Different disciplinary approaches are compared and evaluated in terms of the way they formulate research questions, conceptualise research design and measure evidence. Attention will also be paid to modes of writing and representation adopted in texts under study. Seminar discussions are aimed at helping students think critically about the suitability of various approaches to their own research interests.
SE4201HM SOUTHEAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AS RESEARCH TOOLS
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: (1) Level 6 module in a Southeast Asian language (or an equivalent level of skills in any Southeast Asian language, including those not taught at NUS). (2) Permission of lecturer. (3) Completed 80MCs, including 28MCs in SE, with a minimum CAP of 3.20 or be on Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4201
This course enables students to use language as a research tool. They will learn about the importance of Southeast Asian languages as primary sources for research, explore issues in translation and reflect on research methodologies involved in using foreign languages. Students may use different languages they know to explore issues studies in this course.
SE4210HM ANCIENT KINGDOMS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4210
Historical sources (writing) and archaeology (material culture) give very different perspectives on the development of civilisations. This course follows the development of classical civilisations in Southeast Asia from the first to the sixteenth centuries A.D. Data from archaeological excavations are utilised to create a picture of the achievements of early historic people of the region in such areas as the formation of kingdoms and cities; trade; architecture; and warfare. Relations with China and India are also analysed.
SE4212HM ELITES OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SN or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SN, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4212
Aristocrats, bureaucrats and tycoons are just some of the different players that have occupied elite positions in Southeast Asian societies. This course looks at these and other elite groups in terms of the roles they have played and how they have acquired, maintained or lost elite status. Why, for example, is the military an elite group in some countries but not others? Do wealthy people inevitably hold political power? The course also investigates the effects of various types of elite rule on politics, economic growth and social justice.
SE4217HM SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2020 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SC or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4217
Southeast Asia has been linked to the rest of the world through various channels: historically through colonisation, geographically by land, water and air, economically through trade, financial capital, technology and foreign aid, politically through regional and international organisations, and culturally through human mobility. This course examines these linkages and the various factors that have influenced them particularly in terms of the national, regional and international policies.
SE4218HM MAJORITIES AND MINORITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS or 28 Units in SN or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS or 28 Units in SN, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4218
This course focuses on the relations between majorities and minorities in Southeast Asia. Its aims are to understand how the relationships between the state and its peoples of different ethnicity and between the majority and the minority have brought about historical development and change, politically and economically, in the region. Discussions include the historical background of these peoples, their legends and myths of origins, cultures, relationships among ethnic groups and their perceptions of themselves and others, economic life and trade, migration, colonialism, the rise of the nation-state and its impacts on multi-ethnic societies.
SE4220HM SPECIAL STUDIES ON SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2020 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4220
This course is intended to enable students to pursue in-depth readings on a topic which is relevant to the mission of the Department of Southeast Asian Studies but is not covered in the normal curriculum. It enables students to delve into a particular highly-specialized topic and engage critically in the relevant theoretical concepts that inform it. The students are responsible for defining their own research topic and composing a detailed bibliography in relation to the selected topic. Assessment for this course is primarily through seminar participation and/or project work.
SE4223HM KNOWLEDGE, POWER AND COLONIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in MS, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4220
Students of history usually mine Western accounts of Southeast Asia for the facts that they may contain, assuming that such texts are simply a means of accessing a vaguely apprehended reality “out there.” This course examines the ways in which writers located themselves vis a vis the region; the kinds of images, themes and motifs they used to describe it; the ideas and doctrines that informed them; the institutions and other works they affiliated their writings with; and the power over the societies of the region that arose from their enterprise. Modern scholarship has largely inherited Orientalist ways of looking at Southeast Asia. What are the alternatives?
SE4225HM THE COLD WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4225
As Southeast Asian states achieved independence, new pressures reached the region. Between the late 1940s and the early 1980s, Southeast Asia represented an arena of competition between the communist and capitalist worlds. This competition took many forms: diplomatic, political, military, economic, ideological and cultural. Some Southeast Asians took sides, for reasons ranging from the idealistic to the mercenary. Some Southeast Asian states became battle-grounds. For all the region’s societies, the political and diplomatic history, journalism and student life, social and intellectual change, and fiction and film of the Cold War era reflected a process of reconciling international and local forces.
SE4226HM DOING ETHNOGRAPHY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SC or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in SC with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4226
This course provides students with both methodological and theoretical guidance for doing critical ethnography in Southeast Asia. Students will systematically learn about the fundamentals of practising ethnography in Southeast Asia and consider philosophical-theoretical, disciplinary and ethical issues underpinning each stage of the ethnographic process. Different forms of ethnographic texts on Southeast Asia (including films) will be introduced and students will learn how to critically evaluate ethnographies. Students will have the opportunity to directly apply what they learn to their own research projects.
SE4227HM NATIONALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in PS or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020 onwards: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in PS, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4227
The course provides a critical study of various theories and practices of nationalism in Southeast Asia from an interdisciplinary perspective. What is the relationship between colonialism and the development of national attachments and nationalist politics? What roles have ethnicity and religion played in the emergence of national and state identities in Southeast Asia? Students will address these questions and examine the rise of nationalism as a leading political principle and the fate of the nation-state in an increasingly globalised and globalising world.
SE4228HM CONTENTIOUS POLITICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 5
Pre-requisite: Cohort 2019 and before: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE or 28 Units in GL/GL recognised non-language modules, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track. Cohort 2020: Completed 80 Units, including 28 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20 or be on the Honours track.
Preclusions: SE4228
This course introduces students to the study of protest and contentious politics in Southeast Asia. The course will cover different theoretical approaches (behavioralism, Marxism, resource mobilisation, political process, new social movements) as well as key analytical concepts (political opportunity structure, framing, social movement organisations, and transnational contention). Case studies, drawn from the late colonial and post-colonial periods, will examine individual social groups/sectors and major cycles of protest in the region (the Philippines in 1986 and 2001, Burma in 1988 and 2007, Indonesia and Malaysia in 1998, and Thailand in 1973, 1992, and 2006-8).
SE4401HM HONOURS THESIS
Units: 15
Pre-requisites: Cohort 2020 and before: Completed 110 Units including 44 Units of SE major requirements with a minimum GPA of 3.50.
Preclusion(s): SE4660, SE4660HM, SE4401
Students are required to conduct research on a Southeast Asian topic under the supervision of a member of staff. Topics will be chosen by students in consultation with staff. The length of the honours thesis should not exceed 12,000 words. The honours thesis is equivalent to three courses.
SE4660HM INDEPENDENT STUDY
Units: 5
Pre-requisites: Cohort 2020 and before: Completed 100 Units, including 44 Units in SE, with a minimum GPA of 3.20.
Preclusion(s): SE4660, SE4401HM, SE4401
The Independent Study course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic 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. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% Continuous Assessment and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer.