Course Information
**Please note that some courses may be unavailable in a particular academic year.
Graduate Diploma / Masters by Coursework
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Course Code |
Course Title |
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CORE COURSES |
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SEA5101 |
History, Politics and Economics of Modern Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course provides students with an overview of major events/dynamics in the politics and economics of modern Southeast Asia, with a focus on the period from 1900 to the present. The first set of topics covers colonial rule, the rise of national consciousness, rebellion, and pathways to independence. The second section covers democratic breakdown in island Southeast Asia and war and the rise of communist states in Indochina. The third section examines the long economic boom and 1997 financial crisis. The final section covers democratization, environmental issues, populism, and markets. Each week one or two countries will be featured. |
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SEA5102 |
Societies and Cultures of Southeast Asia Units: 4 Southeast Asia is a region that has been deeply shaped by flows of ideas, peoples, and technologies, while retaining a cultural distinctiveness of its own. This course is an introduction to the complexity of Southeast Asian cultures and societies: ethnic and gendered identities that are often fluid and diverse; religious beliefs being reinterpreted and adapted to local needs; popular culture welcoming outside influences and cultivating local flavours. In this course, Southeast Asia is discussed as peoples, cultures and societies on the move, experiencing transformations and ever adapting to changes. |
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THEMATIC COURSES |
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Environment and Sustainability |
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SEA5201 |
Politics of Environment in Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course will examine the complexities of environmental issues in Southeast Asia. There is a need to unpack what really lies behind all sides of environmental problems. A political ecology approach will be used to examine the multiple layers of politics, money, power and neglect that lie behind these issues. We will travel across Southeast Asia, dive deep into its rich biodiversity and explore the extent of the environmental threats the region faces, as well as the plight of the people whose identity, lives and livelihoods depend wholly on the health of these highly endangered ecosystems. |
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SEA5202 |
Southeast Asia by Sea Units: 4 In this course, students will garner an alternative view of Southeast Asia, where land is pushed to the periphery and water becomes the central element that unites, not divides. Student will examine this maritime region with a line of sight that begins at sea, before traveling upriver to the hinterlands. From an understanding of both fresh and saltwater to an examination of connected people, fauna, cultures and histories, students will explore myriad areas of marine amalgamation; from the Moluccas to Makassar and Madura, through the Tebrau and Melaka Straits, then northwards towards the Mergui Archipelago and into the Mekong. |
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SEA5203 |
Natural Disasters in Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course analyses how Southeast Asian societies, past and present, perceive and interpret natural disasters. How have these societies coped with extreme climatic events? How natural are natural disasters? What do these events reflect and reveal about socio-economic structures such as inequality? Exploring literary narratives, ethnographic accounts, historical and policy case studies of natural disasters, this course focuses on disasters as agents for societal change, engaging with debates on environmental determinism and collapse. This course also invites us to examine and critique present approaches to climate policies that hedge against environmental risk and seek to build societal resilience. |
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Heritage, Arts and Culture |
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SEA5211 |
Landscapes of Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course will provide an overview of the diversity of peoples and places in Southeast Asia, with the aim of examining its regional identity. It is grounded conceptually in the notion of “landscape”, situated across multiple scales of reality from the local to the global. Empirically, aspects of material and non-material cultures and dimensions of Southeast Asia will be discussed, including the economy, religion, environment and politics. The potential and limits of “landscape geography” in critically understanding Southeast Asia will also be assessed. |
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SEA5212 |
Arts in Southeast Asia Units: 4 Southeast Asian images, objects and events lead us to rethink art-historical methods and dominant modern ideas about what is art. We will study particular kinds of objects, architecture, institutions, performances and events with attention to how they exist(ed) and function(ed) in their world, to continuities and change, and to the methodological issues involved. This will involve a critical reading of selected studies of Southeast Asian arts and reflection on artistic phenomena in their world. Topics include: art-historical preconceptions about art; temples and landscape; palaces and museums; collecting; textiles; masks and puppets; music and theatre; and modern and contemporary art. |
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SEA5213 |
Food History of Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course provides a systematic introduction to eating practices and associated ideologies in Southeast Asia from the early modern period until the present. Central to this course is the story of how the world changing phenomenon of modern middling cuisines translated within Southeast Asia, and the phenomenon’s impacts on social inequality. The course will trace the transformation of the region’s cuisines through the historical workings of societies, politics, empires, businesses, technologies, and environments in Southeast Asia. One core aim is to critically evaluate contemporary Southeast Asian food practices, using perspectives informed by both history and the social sciences. |
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SEA5214 |
Cultural Resource Management in Southeast Asia Units: 4 In this course, students will consider standing practices and politics, as well as identify problems, associated with managing specific cultural/heritage resources (including but not limited to archival materials, oral history interviews, film and digital works, intangible cultural forms such as the arts and other cultural practices, archaeological landscapes, sites and built environments, natural heritage, etc.*) over a variety of contexts in Southeast Asia and beyond. In doing so, students will engage with relevant theories, develop a critical eye, and pick up information and practical skills towards interpreting/displaying/evaluating such cultural/heritage resources for public consumption, be it for tourism, education, conservation and/or nation-building, whilst also devising creative interventions to mitigate issues/challenges emerging out of these processes. *Different years may cover different themes. |
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Regional Futures |
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SEA5221 |
Revolt and Revolution in Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course examines the causes, processes and outcomes of the conflicts that have occurred in Southeast Asia. Consideration will also be given to the role of ideology and leadership. The course will attempt to cover as much ground as possible but emphasis will be placed on the major attempts at revolt and revolution |
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SEA5222 |
Technopolitics in Southeast Asia Units: 4 Technopolitics refers to the strategic practice of designing or using technology for political ends as well as to intersections of technology and politics that lead to new modes of power. This course offers an overview of technopolitics in Southeast Asia and beyond with particular attention to contemporary digital platforms, innovation and industry, and developments in medicine, genomics and public health, among other topics. No prior knowledge is necessary; there are no pre-requisites other than a desire to understand better how technology shapes us and the world around us. |
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SEA5223 |
Southeast Asia and Regionalism Units: 4 The course focuses on ASEAN regional integration, its linkages within the region (intra-ASEAN) and with the rest of the world (extra-ASEAN). It discusses its historical, social/cultural, political and regional security, and economic dimensions. It examines the trends, patterns, determinants, challenges and prospects of ASEAN. |
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SEA5224 |
Political Economy of Southeast Asia Units: 4 This course traces the history of development in modern Southeast Asia by focusing on capitalism and its interplay with political, technological, environmental, and cultural factors. This course takes a transnational approach, seeing development both as embedded in local political economies and as integral to regional and global processes of political and economic change. Through the use of case studies, we will explore the various roles states have played in processes of development and the ways that state, capitalism, society, and environment are co-produced. |
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COUNTRY STUDIES COURSES |
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SEA5231 |
Country Studies: Mainland Southeast Asia Units: 4 Geographically, the countries of Mainland Southeast Asia are Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. The course first aims to examine the space of Mainland Southeast Asia and to explore its many names and forms, such as ‘Indochina’ and ‘the Golden Peninsula.’ Designed as an introduction to these countries and reflecting the lecturer's areas of expertise, this course has the dual objective of exploring not only these countries' unique traits but also their key commonalities, through the study of transversal themes such as revolution and nationalism, ethnic and religious identities, rural and urban change, and mobility and migration. |
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SEA5232 |
Country Studies: Thailand Units: 4 This course aims to study contemporary and recent economic, social and political trends in Thailand. In doing so, it will draw upon models and interpretations of Thai socio-economic and power structures which have been developed by political scientists and anthropologists. Topics for study will include the role of key institutions and interest groups - the monarchy, Buddhist Sangha, bureaucracy and military, political parties and the new middle class. |
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SEA5233 |
Country Studies: Indonesia Units: 4 This course aims to study contemporary and recent economic, social and political trends in Indonesia. In doing so, it will draw upon models and interpretations of Indonesia socio-economic and power structures which have been developed by political scientists and anthropologists. Topics for study will include the role of key institutions and interest groups - monarchy, bureaucracy, military, political parties and the new middle class. |
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SEA5234 |
Country Studies: Philippines Units: 4 This course provides students with the foundations and tools to know and understand the problems and challenges the Philippines faces today. Using a multi- and inter-disciplinary framework, it aims to discuss the various dimensions of the Philippines: its geography, politics and history, religion and culture, media and society, uneven development, international migration, and its trading and investment relations. |
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SEA5235 |
Country Studies: Malaysia Units: 4 This course provides a multi-stranded approach towards understanding major political, economic and socio-cultural transformations in Malaysia. Topics such as ethno-religious conflicts, electoral politics, developmentalism, Islamism, arts and cultural activism, feminism and gender politics, and civil society mobilisation will be among those covered. The course aims to provide students with a critical, sensitive and perceptive understanding and appreciation of a uniquely ‘Malaysian’ process of nation-making and contestation. |
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SEA5236 |
Country Studies: Myanmar *New Units: 4 This course offers an in-depth and focused study of the socio-economic, political and cultural life of Burma-Myanmar. It will facilitate understanding of how historical, political and socio-cultural transformations in Myanmar, normally studied in disciplinary terms, are interconnected. Issues will be explored with the aim of developing integrated and critical perspectives on the various problems faced by the Myanmar state and its people. |
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SEA5237 |
Country Studies: Vietnam Units: 4 Vietnam is a country of apparent contradictions, where a ruling Communist party espouses freemarket economics, a young and optimistic population traces its origins back more than 4000 years, and a sustained engagement with China coexists with a fierce commitment to national independence. This course makes sense of some of these contradictions by exploring key issues in Vietnam’s past and present such as imperialism, nationalism, regionalism, Confucianism, colonial rule, war, Communism, economic reform, and the environment. |
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SEA5238 |
Country Studies: Singapore Units: 4 The Singapore Story, according to popular renditions of the island state’s development, has been one that focuses on its spectacular growth and how it succeeded against all odds. Yet, there are parts of the Story that are less well known and understood. The Story is also one that is still unfolding. This course examines the Singapore Story from different perspectives and approaches, ranging from the historical, politico-economic and socio-cultural. Through an interdisciplinary exploration of the concepts of nation, identity, culture and society in Singapore, students will gain a more informed and in-depth understanding of Singapore’s past, present and future trajectories. |
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ELECTIVE COURSES |
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SEA5301 A/B |
Masterclass Units: 1/2 The total workload hours is 32.5 hours and 65 hours for 1 unit and 2 units respectively, but the precise breakdown of contact hours, assignment and preparation varies depending on the lecturer and is subject to Department approval. The MA in Contemporary Southeast Asia proposes to include masterclasses on topics of particular interest or importance to students. Each masterclass will be taught by a specialist instructor and will be conducted over 3-5 sessions of between 2-3 hours each, depending on the topic being covered. They will include pre-event preparatory materials and appropriate evaluation mechanisms (e.g. test or term paper) at the conclusion. |
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SEA5302 A/B/C |
Field Trip Units: 1/2/4 The total workload hours is 32.5 hours, 65 hours and 130 hours for 1 unit, 2 units and 4 units respectively, but the precise breakdown of contact hours, assignment and preparation varies depending on the lecturer and is subject to Department approval. The MA in Contemporary Southeast Asia proposes to include field trips within and beyond Singapore as a novel elective component of the degree course. Each fieldtrip will be led by at least one specialist instructor and will be conducted over a day, weekend or as long as a week, depending on the place being visited and the distance from Singapore. Field trips will include prevent preparatory materials and appropriate evaluation mechanisms (e.g. diary entry, photo essay, group project, or term paper) at the conclusion. |
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SEA5303 A/B |
Southeast Asian Studies Studies Specialised Workshop Units: 1/2 The total workload hours is 32.5 hours and 65 hours for 1 unit and 2 units respectively, but the precise breakdown of contact hours, assignment and preparation varies depending on the lecturer and is subject to Department approval. The MA in Contemporary Southeast Asia proposes to include short term (1-2 days) specialized workshops on topics of particular interest or importance to students. Each workshop will last for one or two days, depending on the topic being covered and will include pre-event preparatory materials and an evaluation mechanism (e.g. test or term paper) at the conclusion. |
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SEA5401 |
Thesis Units: 8 This is a dedicated research course for MA coursework students designed to enable them to complete a research-based thesis. **Please note that some courses may be unavailable in a particular academic year. ***Thesis is optional for MA students and not required at all for Graduate Diploma students |
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SEA5660 |
Independent Study Units: 4 The Independent Study course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Southeast Asian Studies 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, study programme, assignments, evaluation, and other pertinent details. Head's and/or Graduate Coordinator's approval of the agreement is required. Regular meetings and reports are expected. Evaluation is based on 100% CA and must be worked out between the student and the lecturer before seeking departmental approval |
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SEA5880 |
Topics in Southeast Asian Studies Units: 4 This course is designed to cover specialised topics in Southeast Asian Studies. The topic(s) to be covered will depend on the interest and expertise of regular or visiting staff. |
MA/PhD by Research
LEVEL 5000
SE5151 APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Important contributions to the study of Southeast Asia in fields as diverse as archaeology and history, ethnography and anthropology, economics and political economy, and sociology and geography are surveyed in this course. It seeks both to familiarize students with the contributions of these disciplines to various contemporary and historical understandings of the region and with the assumptions and interests inherent in those understandings.
SE5224 RELIGION AND SOCIETY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Southeast Asia is located at the historical cross-roads of world religious traditions. From its pre-modern and modern colonial pasts to postcolonial and 'globalisation' times, various religions have continued to shape the region's cultural, economic, and political outlooks. The course explores religion - especially major world religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and Islam - as a major venue to understand past and present of Southeast Asian societies. Its coverage deals with how and why religious traditions have persisted and continued to interact with changing societies across the region. It will focus on major religious traditions or a combination of many religions or common religious characteristics found across Southeast Asian countries.
SE5226 RACE AND ETHNICITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course deals with specialised topics reflecting the teaching expertise available. The aim is to study in detail one major ethnic group in Southeast Asia or a set of related ethnic groups. The emphasis will be placed on cultural values and the course may address how these are expressed in institutions, the way of life, and the mode of interaction with other ethnic groups in host societies.
SE5229 ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SE ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course looks at the relationship between culture, society and politics in Southeast Asia from an anthropological perspective. It highlights the main shifts in anthropological approaches to culture and society that have emerged with the newer understandings about power and history in social sciences. In particular, it examines changes within the interpretive perspective - a perspective most closely associated with Clifford Geertz, a celebratory figure in Southeast Asian anthropology - to bring out the problems in the anthropological construction, interpretation and representation of culture to enable a more critical conceptualization of culture and society in Southeast Asia.
SE5235 INFRASTUCTURES AND MOBILITIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Infrastructures enable and constrain the movement of people, goods, information and values across wide swaths of space and time. This course examines the dynamic interplay between infrastructures and mobilities across shifting historical and geographic settings in Southeast Asia. First, we survey influential approaches to the study of infrastructures, examining how they mediate and shape movement, mobilities and everyday modes of communication. We then explore these issues with reference to historical and contemporary case studies throughout Southeast Asia.
SE5264 ARCHAEOLOGY AND ART OF ANCIENT SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
New techniques of research and analysis regularly yield important new insights on the forebears of modern Southeast Asia. Research projects currently in progress focus on such topics as prehistoric human demography, relationships between humans and the environment, early urbanization, the development of monumental architecture, and maritime trade with neighbouring regions. This course surveys the most important recent discoveries of sites and artefacts, and the new perspectives on Southeast Asian cultures and societies which these finds have already revealed or are likely to open up in the near future.
SE5660 INDEPENDENT STUDY
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-0-10
Preclusion(s): SE5201
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Southeast Asian Studies in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the course. Head's and/ or Graduate Coordinator's approval 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.
LEVEL 6000
SE6214 STUDIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN POLITICS
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course offers theoretical and comparative perspectives on contemporary Southeast Asian politics. It explores the specificities as well as transformations of government institutions, political parties, military institutions, electoral systems, interest groups, and civil society in Southeast Asia in the light of domestic, regional, and international forces and examines some of the theoretical and comparative challenges in analysing contemporary political dynamics and configurations in the region.
SE6219 VARIETIES OF THE STATE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
What forms has the state taken in the Southeast Asian region? The course considers pre-colonial states and their ideological and material bases, the construction of colonial-style states in the nineteenth century, and the reshaping of those states during the late colonial era. It addresses efforts at “nation-building” and post-independence regime types in their Southeast variants. It introduces students to major works on Southeast Asian politics in critical perspective. The approach of the course is comparative rather than chronological.
SE6220 APPROACHES TO SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARTS
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
In Southeast Asia, visual images and performance events lead us to rethink dominant ideas about art and require new ways of studying art. In this course, students will study particular artistic phenomena (artistic media, monuments, events, etc.) with special attention on the methodological issues involved. This will involve a critical reading of selected studies of Southeast Asian arts, close study of the artistic phenomena in their world, and search for possible new approaches that would allow us to understand Southeast Asian arts in the ways they are experienced in their worlds.
SE6221 GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
The course examines issues of gender and sexuality in historical and contemporary Southeast Asia, and considers how key texts and theories in the field of gender and sexuality studies might be applied in the Southeast Asian context. It shows that categories of gender and sexuality have long been implicated in the formation of such dichotomous cultural paradigms as ‘East’ and ‘West,’ modern and traditional, and religious and secular that continues to serve as constitutive sources of power, identity, and knowledge.
SE6227 POSTCOLONIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course explores ways of understanding the specificities and social realities of thought, action, and cultural subjectivities in Southeast Asia and how postcolonial approaches offer some answers but also pose further questions to the project of understanding local difference in Southeast Asia. It offers an introduction to major controversies in the study of local difference in Southeast Asia and explores their linkages as well as challenges to postcolonial premises, analytical concepts, and critical procedures.
SE6251 SPECIAL READINGS IN A SE ASIAN LANGUAGE
Units: 4
Workload: 0-2-0-8-0
Pre-requisite(s): Students must be enrolled in the MA or PhD Research programmes
Preclusion(s): SE6660
Cross-listing(s): Nil
This Independent Study course offers an opportunity for students to develop and design their own special topics/contents pertinent to Southeast Asia’s history, politics, economics, and culture. The emphasis is on critical reading and discussion of scholarship written and published in Southeast Asia’s vernacular languages, e.g., Bahasa Indonesia, Burmese, Khmer, Laos, Malay, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese. It encourages students with advanced training or fieldwork experience to further engage critical and comparative scholarship from different perspectives..
SE6233 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ISSUES IN SE ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is designed for Ph.D. students who seek to understand the similarities and differences between the economies of the Southeast Asian states. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of their growth and development experiences. The various domestic and external factors affecting the growth and development performances of these economies, non-economic factors included, are also covered. The course also examines the contemporary political and social issues affecting the economies of the region. An interdisciplinary attitude towards the study of economic development issues is encouraged.
SE6265 STUDIES ON EARLY SOUTHEAST ASIA
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-0-7
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
To understand the origin of Southeast Asian traditions requires a multidisciplinary approach including history, art history, and archaeology. This course will equip students to transcend gaps between various fields which share the goal of understanding the origins of modern Southeast Asian cultures and to make use of data from all of these fields in order to solve specific problems. Major topics covered include research priorities and methods of these fields, and exploration of methods to combine various kinds of data to create a holistic image of this region.
SE6660 INDEPENDENT STUDY
Units: 4
Workload: 0-0-0-0-10
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
Independent research plays an important role in graduate education. The Independent Study course is designed to enable the student to explore an approved topic in Southeast Asian Studies in depth. The student should approach a lecturer to work out an agreed topic, readings, and assignments for the course. Head's and/ or Graduate Coordinator's approval 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.
SE6770 GRADUATE RESEARCH SEMINAR
Units: 4
Workload: 3-0-0-1-6
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This is a required course for all research Masters and Ph.D. students admitted from AY2004/ 2005. The course provides a forum for students and faculty to share their research and to engage one another critically in discussion of their current research projects. The course will include presentations by faculty on research ethics and dissertation writing. Each student is required to present a formal research paper. Active participation in all research presentations is expected. The course may be spread over two semesters and will be graded "Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory" on the basis of student presentation and participation.
SE6880 TOPICS IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES
Units: 4
Workload: 0-3-0-3-4
Pre-requisite(s)/Preclusion(s)/Cross-listing(s): Nil
This course is designed to cover specialized topics in Southeast Asian Studies. The topic(s) to be covered will depend on the interest and expertise of regular or visiting staff members.