Undergraduate Course Description

Students are introduced to the concepts used in Sociology and Anthropology. The main objective is to train students to use Sociology in analysing social institutions and processes. For this reason, students are encouraged to relate their experiences in society to the discipline of Sociology and Anthropology. The topics covered in the course are the logic and methods of social investigation; family, work and organisation; power and the state; social inequality (including gender and ethnicity); mass communication and popular culture; values and beliefs; and deviance and social control.

Precludes: GEK1041, GEC1012

This course proposes to examine the processes of globalization and seeks to provide a deeper understanding of it. The world is globalizing both culturally and economically. We need to ask whether this process is creating a single world without borders or intensifying cultural differences between societies. By discussing various trends of the interdependent world, the course helps us in understanding the various processes of globalization. Since the processes of globalization involve societal, cultural, technological, political, and economic processes, we will take an inter-disciplinary framework in understanding this diverse experience. The course will specifically highlight the problems and prospects of the contemporary world.

Precludes: GEK1005, GEC1020

This GE course introduces the diversity of human cultural experience in the contemporary world. It offers an anthropological lens for understanding cultural diversity with concrete cases. We will read articles and analyse ethnographic films on kula exchange, cannibalism, oracle, feud, animism, sacrifice, initiation, incest, spirit-possession, statelessness, potlatch, genocide, and so on, found in Melanesia, Amazonia, sub-Sahara, Siberia, Zomia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. We will gain a sensitivity toward stereotypes and ethnocentrism, understand the connections and processes that shape social life at different levels, and learn the skills to appreciate and analyse differences in the changing world.

Ghosts and spirits have been subjects of perennial interest in different human societies. At the same time, beliefs about persons with powers to initiate injury or good, and their relationship with spirits are found in almost all cultures throughout human history. This course introduces students to the scholarly study of ghosts and spirits, and the specialists and practitioners involved with these forces. These include shamanism, spirit possession, witchcraft and sorcery, and other supernatural entities such as zombies, vampires and werewolves, and how these intersect with issues of class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, citizenship, popular culture, modernity and social change.

Precludes: SSA1201, GESS1020

In this course, we seek to reflect on some taken-for-granted understandings of “Singapore society” and to dialogue with the readings, lectures and tutorial materials. We hope you will be able to appreciate the diverse social, political, historical processes and legacies, problems and contradictions that have constructed Singapore society. Ultimately, we aim to equip you with varied viewpoints that will enable you to think critically about Singapore society, its past, its present and its future.

Precludes: GESS1025

As an economically-developed nation with a diverse population, Singapore now confronts a range of socioeconomic issues, a rapidly ageing population, declining fertility rates, widening income inequality, and rising living costs amidst increasing global competition, technological advancements, and security threats. Singaporeans have also become a people with a greater propensity to participate in the decisions that affect the nation. This course aims to encourage undergraduates to reflect on Singapore’s post-independence history, imagine the kind of Singapore they would like to co-create, and deliberate on the ways to achieve the future visions they have for Singapore. All lectures will be mounted online.

Precludes: GET1041

This general education course will explore the world of theme parks, originally inspired by the films and vision of Walt Disney. The course will examine a history of this leisure form, and examine how theme parks and theming offer us an interesting lens to understand the contemporary world. What are the values and ideologies that are inscribed within theme parks? Is there a specific “culture” associated with Disney? By examining the Disney phenomenon and the world of theme parks, students will be challenged to think critically about aspects of leisure and popular culture that shape our world views.

Precludes: Other Freshmen Seminar courses

This freshman seminar will engage students in critical understanding of romantic love. The notion of romantic love, expressed through courtship and marriage, is ubiquitous in popular culture. In our everyday lives, we embrace being in love as a pre-condition for couple-hood and marriage. But what is love? The seminars will investigate love as a social construct, and examine the various social and cultural factors that influence how we appreciate and understand romantic love in contemporary societies.

Precludes: Other Freshmen Seminar courses

This freshman seminar offers a sociological and historic look at the theme park, a type of leisure increasingly ubiquitous in the contemporary environment. Through the examination of various theme parks, and studies that critically assess their meanings and roles in contemporary society, students will be challenged to think critically about aspects of leisure and popular culture that shape our world views. They will also be challenged to think about questions such as “What is culture?”; “What is authentic culture?”; and “How does culture change and adapt across the globe in this age of mobility?”.

Preclusion: SC2218

See the world afresh through the lens of anthropology and its distinctive ways of studying, thinking and understanding the social and cultural underpinnings of human behaviour, institutions, and practices. Once described as a science of man, anthropology confronts the facts of human diversity, inviting you to delve deep into questions of what it means to be human. How do language, culture and the environment shape us? How do we understand people and societies vastly different from our own? Anthropological thinking offers a grounded, human-centred approach to contemporary problems in fields like education, health, media, urban planning, organisations, policy, and businesses.