Additional Graduation Requirements

The additional graduation requirements below apply to students from AY2019/20 to AY2023/24 cohorts. For students who are commencing their SMU undergraduate studies from AY2024/25 onwards, a new set of additional graduation requirements will apply. This page will be updated by June 2024 to reflect the new requirements.

Students will be able to fulfil the additional graduation requirements through Big Questions for Singapore Studies (for students from AY2020/21 through AY2023/24 cohorts) and Economics and Society for Asia Studies (for students from AY2021/22 through AY2023/24 cohorts).

THE LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR ALL COURSES UNDER ASIA STUDIES ARE:

  • Students should be able to demonstrate a keen understanding and appreciation of the most salient issues and challenges confronting Asia;
  • Students should be able to articulate frameworks and perspectives for analyzing different aspects of Asian society;
  • Students should be able to possess a strong sensitivity towards the particular sociocultural-economic political environments within which these individual Asian societies are situated;
  • Students should be able to leverage the acquired knowledge and skills to recommend strategies and policies that will benefit Asia as a whole, with an appreciation of the limits, risks and trade-offs associated with these strategies and policies.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Why Indonesia? Made up of a chain of thousands of islands between Asia and Australia, Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state, and has one of the densest population with a young workforce. Half of its total population is below the age of 30 years. Indonesia is the largest economy in Southeast Asia and is part of the G20 group of the world's richest nations.

The Indonesian government launched its Indonesia 4.0 Roadmap in 2018, part of efforts to make Indonesia one of the top 10 largest economies in the world by 2030. Even so, the country faces social challenges such as access to education and rising inequality, lax enforcement, and the need for infrastructure development is high.

The purpose of this course is to provide participants with an appreciation of business and investment opportunities in Indonesia, and an understanding of its social, cultural, economic, and political landscape.

At the same time, this is an SMU-XO module, which offers an overseas experiential learning opportunity for students. The course allows students to translate classroom knowledge and theory into practical solutions for real organizations. In addition to visits to companies and organizations, student will also participate in a consultancy project. Through the project, students will learn how to solve business problems with guidance from the faculty and project sponsor mentors, from problem definition to final client presentation – while simultaneously testing their skills in real world settings.

The project will focus on evaluating problems faced by the accounting/finance and other functions of one company in Indonesia and recommending/applying solutions to these problems. The course qualifies for one credit unit and encompasses seminars, guest lectures and presentations all held in Singapore. Grading is on a Pass/Fail basis.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Develop a better understanding of the Indonesia economy, key industries (especially technology related, financial and banking sectors, capital market, and regulatory and tax regime.
  • Gain an insight into business and investment opportunities in Indonesia.
  • Solve real-world business problems through a student consultancy project.
  • Learn how to handle uncertainty in project groups.
  • Develop networking, and other life skills by interacting with business leaders.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The course focuses on world-changing ideas that have shaped the business world and the thinking of people in East and Southeast Asia. It analyzes the relevance and impact of selected readings in history and philosophy on economic, social and cultural changes in East and Southeast Asia. It will examine issues including state and corporate governance, work and organizations, gender, inequality and religious beliefs, and evaluate the trade-offs Asian societies make between individual liberty, national progress, regional imperatives and global capitalism.

Please note that this is a 300 level course: 300 level courses are more advanced courses that require students to be demonstrating coherence and breadth or depth of knowledge and skills. They are usually taken by more senior students.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Develop a deeper appreciation of the enduring influence of ideas drawn from selected texts on business, history and philosophy, and how they have shaped individual and national challenges in Asia.
  • Develop an ability to understand their lives as students and their role as citizens in Asia from a wider and a longer-term perspective.
COURSE OVERVIEW

In this course, we introduce students to the economic way of thinking about societal issues. We use the themes of incentives and empiricism to illustrate the power of simple economic ideas, and their ability to explain, predict, and improve what happens in the world.

The course will examine how market activities are shaped by both the private and public sector. It will allow students to appreciate how free markets and government policies affect society, creating winners and losers, and to understand the societal trade-offs implicated in an economy.

The course will also examine debates on the importance of social institutions in contributing to economic growth, and on economic policies surrounding the world financial crisis.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Use evidence-based economics approach to explain real-life issues and phenomena as it plays out in our society.
  • Develop critical thinking skills to analyze local and global societal issues using key economic principles.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides an introduction to the development economics in Asian countries. In particular, we investigate whether and to what extent nutrition, health, education, credit, and insurance explain the poverty trap. We pay close attention to behaviors of the poor and the incentives created by institutions and policies to get a deeper understanding of the challenges of poverty. We discuss issues of current interest to policy makers based on the analytic tools we develop throughout the course.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand key questions and findings in poverty research.
  • Discuss intended and unintended consequences of proposed policies.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course explores various models of diversity management in Asia. It examines a range of theoretical and applied approaches to the management of diversity from various disciplines. In this course, we will also critically analyze various policy frameworks that have guided the interactions of cross-cultural groups in Singapore, Asia, and globally. The principal focus of the course will be on how diversity is managed at the institutional/organizational level within the Asian societal context.

The course will take students through contemporary discussions, as well as contemporary studies and findings, in multiculturalism and diversity management research. Throughout the course, we will analyze the power structures and assumptions that lie behind ongoing debates on gender/sexuality, race/ethnicity, citizenship, religion, and disability. Students are expected to apply theoretically informed approaches to case studies, while also considering the interplay of demographic, historical, cultural, and ideological particularities.

Conducted in collaboration with an external partner organization, a core element of the course is a major group project where students will act as diversity management consultants to the partner organization as the ‘client’. In groups, students will propose solutions to real-life institutional problems pertaining to diversity and inclusion at the client’s organization. At the conclusion of the course, students will present their findings to representatives of the partner organization in a professional setting.

Through project consultations with the partner organization, guest seminars by practitioners and experts, as well as class excursions, the course will explore applications of diversity management in different types of institutional and societal settings.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the great diversity of cultures and societies in Asia.
  • Critically evaluate theories that seek to explain equity and diversity.
  • Identify rhetoric, as well as dominant and normative discourses on diversity issues.
  • Research and evaluate the legislation, government policies and cases that relate to issues such as anti-discrimination, harassment, and mutual respect within multicultural societies.
  • Critically engage with case studies from both theoretical and practical perspectives.
  • Employ macro and organizational-level data to critically analyze both the strengths and weaknesses of the diversity policies of institutions.
  • Select and design the key elements of an organization's diversity strategy incorporating best practice examples and technical or process skills for managing diversity.
  • Identify, analyze, evaluate and communicate information reflective of professional practical formats and contexts.
  • Express ideas effectively through writing, presentations, class dialogues and discussions.
  • Approach a topic with an open mind and a sense of tolerance.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Historical studies of Southeast Asia (the area comprising Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Timor Leste, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Cambodia, and Laos) are often overshadowed by those of its neighbours in East Asia (China, Japan, and Korea) and South Asia (India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). Yet, despite being historically influenced by Indian and Chinese civilizations, Southeast Asia constitutes an important and distinctive world region in its own right, one marked by its own historical and geographical patterns and processes.

This course explores Southeast Asian history, from antiquity to the present day. We will begin with a critical examination of the region’s geo-politics before moving on to consider processes of migration, trade, and socio-political development throughout different time periods.

Rather than strictly following a conventional chronological narrative, we will explore different approaches to learning about Southeast Asia’s past by looking at specific themes pertinent to the region’s history. We will also be utilizing a diversity of sources such as academic history, local history, oral history, autobiography, and film. The course will concentrate on the historical experiences of individuals and groups in the region at different places and times, and these will include: pre-colonial maritime interconnectivities, gender in the pre-colonial era, the spread of global religions, colonial life and hierarchies, and contemporary issues such as shifting regional geopolitics and intra-Asia migrations.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the historical origins of Southeast Asia as a geopolitical entity.
  • Approach contemporary topics from a historical perspective.
  • Develop research skills by collecting, reading and analyzing primary and secondary data.
  • Express research findings and ideas coherently and logically in writing.
  • Express ideas and appraise the ideas of others orally through presentation, active participation and discussion in seminars.
COURSE OVERVIEW

In this course we will engage in a study of contemporary India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. Planned topics of study include urbanization and economic development; literature, music and film; caste and religion; language and ethnicity; gender; and peace and conflict. We will draw on a wide variety of sources including academic writing, fiction journalism, poetry, novels, documentaries, films and music. This course is cross-listed for both the Sociology and Global Asia majors, and it counts towards the SMU core curriculum requirement for Asian Studies (as well as Global and Regional Studies in the earlier curriculum).

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should:

  • Trace the history of caste and class in South Asia.
  • Explore the faith traditions of South Asia.
  • Examine the politics of ethnicity and nationalism.
  • Write a short paper presenting a clear argument with supporting evidence.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Corporate and securities laws are the important areas of law that bear directly on the economic activities of business entities. The Chinese economic growth in the past three decades is accompanied by the evolution of its corporate and securities law. In this course, we will have a closer look at the corporate and securities laws China from a comparative perspective. In particular, constant comparisons will be made between China and the U.S. These two jurisdictions are chosen first for their economic prominence. Knowledge about the corporate laws of the two largest economies in the world will get students better prepared for cross-border transaction practices. At the same time, the U.S. law in these areas exert increasingly noticeable impacts on the legal and business practices in China due to the large number of regulators and business leaders studying in the U.S. The course is organized around selected topics of interest to law, economics, and business students. Real cases will be used in class to illustrate the key legal and business issues occurring the two jurisdictions.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Learn the basic rules of corporate and securities laws in the China and some of their counterparts in the U.S..
  • Understand the cultural, political and economic backgrounds in China underlying its rules and practices that explain the difference between China and the U.S.
  • Using corporate and securities laws as a gateway, explore some important business and financial interaction actions between the two largest economies in the world.
COURSE OVERVIEW

A constitution is a country’s most important text: it creates State institutions, allocates powers and recognizes rights and responsibilities for those within its territory. More than that, constitutions express a state’s identity and provide the framework for all other laws and policies. This course will expose students to the challenges attendant on making constitutions work in real life to address present-day societal problems and challenges. At the same time, it will sensitize them to the extent to which the wider social, political and economic context and a country’s underlying culture affect the implementation of constitutional rules and values. 

Instead of exploring models and constitutional solutions in the abstract, the course invites students to explore the practical impact and outcomes particular constitutional models and ideas produce in daily life. To that end, we will amongst others compare the responses that different countries provide to contemporary challenges such as how to ensure effective public participation in governance without encouraging populism; the pervasiveness of migration for our understanding of citizenship and its entitlements; ensuring that everyone is treated equally while respecting individual autonomy and personal life choices; the role of technology in public life and the implications for privacy and free speech; and the role of a constitution in fostering economic development. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a sound understanding of the manner in which a country’s social, economic, political and cultural context affect the daily operation of the constitution.
  • Develop a critical awareness of contemporary challenges faced by constitutions.
  • Identify possible responses that State organs, agencies and others may take in ensuring the effective protection of constitutional rules and rights.
  • Be comfortable in tackling the previous objectives from a comparative perspective.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is about social changes in contemporary China. China’s rise as an economic power is the world-transforming event of this new century, yet it remains fundamentally misunderstood in the English-language literature. Both the Western media and academic research have consistently and persistently predicted China’s economic and political collapse for two decades, and are still incapable of abandoning their ideological framework and reluctant to fully revise their misunderstanding, even in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence.

This course tries to offer a different understanding of China’s experiences – one that looks at China’s experiences in her own terms, rather than from a pre-determined and simplistic ideological perspective of democracy (good) vs. authoritarianism (evil). This course situates China’s experiences in three broad and unique historical contexts – the history of a civilizational state formed over three millennia, the history of revolution over the past century, and the history of reform in the last three decades – and presents that China’s economic development and social change are best explained with actors, traditions, institutions, and conditions that were formed in these three historical processes. In contrast, the dogmatism in the prevailing Western perspective, which emphasizes political regime type, “universal values”, and liberal economic institutions, obscures – rather than illuminates – the real interesting lessons, questions and challenges that China’s experiences offer.

This course takes you beyond China’s economic growth record, which everybody can find in news headlines. It situates China’s economic growth in the transformation of the Chinese society—of which economic growth is part and parcel—to understand the broad social changes that are happening in China and how these changes are intricately connected with China’s economic growth.

This course will primarily focus on China’s domestic issues, but also covers issues of international importance such as China’s impact on the global economy and China’s outward investment, especially the Belt and Road Initiative. Foreign relations, however, will not be covered in the course.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a sound understanding of the social changes that are transforming the Chinese society.
  • Know the social impact of China’s economic growth and the implications for future development.
  • Learn an analytical framework that help to understand the development experiences and challenges in any country.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Since the establishment of two stock exchanges in Shanghai and Shenzhen in early 1990s, China’s capital markets have experienced amazing growth and become one of the largest capital markets in the world. The equity market is the dominant capital market and has been evolving and growing towards a more even mix of investor classes, with institutions such as investment funds, pension funds, insurance companies, investment and trust companies, corporates, sovereign wealth funds and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) playing a more prominent role. With the newly introduced Shanghai/Shenzhen‐Hong Kong Stock Connect, the inclusion of China A-shares in the MSCI emerging markets index and the in-progress IPO registration reform, the Chinese equity market is expected to be more open to the international investor community. The bond and derivates markets are emerging as well there is huge growth potential in the near future.

However, the evolving China's capital markets are characterized with all sorts of problems: severe opportunistic corporate reporting practice which may cause resources misallocation; tight control of the government which may change the rule of the game halfway; inefficient financial intermediaries such as financial analysts and the mass media which may increase information asymmetry; severe financing constraints for all but the largest State Owned Enterprises; under-developed legal and institutional frameworks with insufficient protection to minority shareholders against insider expropriations, the capital flows from shadowing banking system which may increase market volatility, the financial fraud and political corruptions, etc. 

This course is designed to offer a detailed analysis of China's capital markets, ranging from the overall assessment of the macro-economic environment and political context, to the detailed micro level study of the specific players, instruments, and individual transactions. Through seminars, cases, discussions, and group projects, students explore the opportunities and challenges presented by the quickly evolving capital markets in China.

This course is designed for students who are interested in understanding the unique aspects of the capital markets in China. This certainly includes not only those who anticipate some interactions with Chinese companies (in China, Singapore or other part of the world) and Chinese investors later in their careers but also those who want to work in China. Many of the insights gleaned from the course can be readily applied to other emerging markets, thus this can also be a good course for students interested in understanding the functioning of emerging capital markets in general. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Qualitatively understand the political and macro-economic context of China’s capital markets.
  • Qualitatively understand various players, instruments, market segments and representative transactions on the markets.
  • Qualitatively understand some of the hot issues that highlight the challenges as well as opportunities facing market participants going forward.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The objective of the course is to provide students with a multi-disciplinary perspective into the diversity of cultures and societies in Asia and to critically evaluate the various meanings and representations of Asia and Asians. The course considers the interplay between history, culture, politics and economics in the development of the complex and contested postcolonial Asian nation-states. It explores how identities based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, class and nation-state have shaped and defined the lives of individuals and types of societies in the region. Students will be equipped with a high level of cultural competence and global awareness. Central themes of the course highlight the interconnected yet culturally diverse nature of the world in which we live.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the great diversity of cultures and societies in Asia.
  • Evaluate the various meanings and representations of Asia and Asians.
  • Identify how identities based on nationality, religion, ethnicity, class and gender (to name a few) have shaped and defined the lives of individuals and societies in the region.
  • Approach a topic with an open mind and a sense of tolerance.
  • Develop research skills by collecting, reading and analyzing data.
  • Express your research findings and ideas coherently and logically in writing.
  • Express your ideas and appraise the ideas of others orally through presentation, active participation and discussion in seminars.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Films are more than just entertainment products. As cultural materials, they provide insights to the historical narratives, politics, economy, and ideological complexities of societies. This course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary and visual approach to understanding Asia using films about Asia produced by Asians themselves as well as those films about Asia produced by non-Asian filmmakers. First, we will briefly explore the history of film in the Asian region and discuss various methods of reading films as texts. Second, we will critically examine what films reveal about the history of Asia - the period of colonialism, decolonization and nation-building, the Cold War, and globalization in the Asian region. Next, we will explore contemporary topics and issues in Asia such as traditional and non-traditional security issues such as maritime issues, climate change, and migration, among others. Finally, we will explore the contemporary role and significance of films against the rapid technological disruptions taking place within Asia and beyond.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Explain how the films discussed in class reflect the history, politics, and society in Asia.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Apply the lessons learned in this class to other fields such as business, public policy, social history, and economics.

Global Citizenship

  • Describe and interrogate the power and significance of films within the historical, political, social, and the economic context of Asia.

  • Critically examine Asian films as a site of historical-cultural discourse and social interpretation.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The world is rapidly urbanizing. More and more cities in Asia and around the world are becoming increasingly popular as economic powerhouses and magnets for rural migrants. All big cities in both First and Third World countries such as New York, London, Tokyo, Paris, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Delhi, Jakarta etc. have to cope with high population density and serious challenges such as air pollution, traffic congestion or waste management. How do we pack more people into big cities and yet continue to achieve a high quality of life? How do we create and manage ‘good cities’ which are safe, spacious, green, connected, fair and resilient? How can cities create economic wealth while still fulfilling the CSR responsibilities of sustaining a “Green Planet”? What are the best practice designs and technical ‘smart city’ solutions which could be leveraged to tackle these challenges and how can they be successfully commercialized? This course will provide answers to these questions with special emphasis on the managerial and commercial aspects of smart city concepts.

The key lies in creating and effectively managing innovative and sustainable smart cities able to leverage on new technologies such as smart grids or sensor networks to create a place where people can live, play and work well. Starting from the stakeholder requirements of citizens and planners of innovative cities, the course will introduce students to urban design concepts as well as commercialization, management challenges and implementation issues of the smart city model. There will also be a focus on how good governance and enabling technologies such as sensor networks can facilitate the creation, management and sustainability of ‘good’ cities. 

With the help of case studies and resource persons such as industry leaders, innovative city designers, tech experts and business development experts from local and international companies, students will be familiarized with the opportunities and challenges of the ‘smart city business’ which represents a key element in the value creation and extraction strategy of the Singapore Government and related businesses. Local site visits to ‘smart’ urban components in Singapore will complement the learning experience (note: due to the Covid-19 situation, these will be virtual site visits).

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Taxonomy of Innovative & Sustainable Cities

  • Describe the core characteristics of a Smart City and respective concepts.

  • Explain the unique characteristics of each component and how it adds value to innovative and sustainable (smart) cities.

Design of Innovative & Sustainable Cities

  • Understand the planning and design principles of Innovative & Sustainable Cities.

  • Explain the workings of each component of Innovative & Sustainable Cities.

In-depth study of selected (Mega) Cities

  • Be familiar with the challenges of selected mega cities around the globe and understand how the smart city concept can add value in terms of livability.

Commercialization of the Smart City Concept

  • Appreciate the challenges in successfully commercializing smart city concepts and applications.
  • Know some of the key players in the Singapore context which are involved in this service sector and establish network contacts.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course focuses on various aspects of economic globalization in general, but with specific reference to Asia. Students could learn both positive and negative aspects of the many globalization issues in Asia, such as “Choosing the Right Exchange Rate Regime for Small and Open Economies in East Asia”, “Trade liberalization and poverty in Asia” as well as “Singapore's Drive to Form Cross-regional Trade Pacts”.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have the basic knowledge and skill to understand global economic issues in Asia such as trade, finance, factor mobility and exchange rates.
  • Understand the major issues in the Asian economy today and understand the economic benefits and problems of globalization.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Historically, culture has been pivotal in building connections and consolidating associations between peoples, regions, and nation-states, across the globe. Whether in the form of informal and organic relations (e.g. J-pop and K-pop cultures), or as part of carefully devised diplomatic strategies (e.g. China’s ‘going out’ policy), culture has often played active roles in our societies and influenced political, social, and economic processes.

This course will introduce students to the notion of culture as an integral component of international relations and will explore the relevant concepts and practices ascribed to it. In particular, it will focus on understanding the importance of culture to contemporary governance and socio-political relations, principally within the context of Asia. This will be established through the exploration of the distinctive role played by culture during crucial historical moments, such as World War II, the Cold War, the post-Asian Financial Crisis, and our contemporary digitally interconnected societies. Emphasis will be placed on the associations of culture with concepts such as soft power, development aid, and identity-building, among others.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have in-depth knowledge of the historical evolution of cultural relations and diplomacy in Asia.
  • Demonstrate knowledge of the complexities of collaboration in the cultural field, and contextualize them in relation to concepts such as soft power, nation-branding, development aid, and identity-building.
  • Examine the role of culture in a variety of frameworks, with a particular focus on contemporary governance in Asia.
  • Critically engage with fundamental scholarly approaches to collaboration in the cultural field, and apply them to real-life case studies.
  • Develop good thinking and analytical skills, especially in relation to the evaluation of the role of culture in international relations.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course explores major events and developments in Southeast Asia’s encounter with empires in the twentieth century. Students will learn to critique the involvement of western and Asian colonial powers in the Southeast Asian region, paying particular attention to the responses of Southeast Asian peoples. More than simply a political and diplomatic history, or a study of international relations, this course focuses on how culture—race, religion and gender—shapes the region’s encounter with western and Asian powers. Seminal events that will feature in this course include the rise of communism in Europe and China, the ascension of the Japanese Empire, the outbreak of the Pacific War, the neo-colonial/ recolonization efforts of the European powers, the surge in Southeast Asian nationalism that intertwined with the Cold War, and major developments in the post-Vietnam War era.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Intertwine cultural approaches with the perspectives of political and diplomatic history, and international relations, to critique the experience of Southeast Asia and empires in the twentieth century.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Pivot agilely across disciplinary perspectives to critically assess Southeast Asia’s experience of empires in the past and consider potential pathways for the region and the big powers in the new century.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Since the mid-1980s intra-regional trade and investment links in East and Southeast Asia have expanded rapidly with the shift of production by firms from Japan and newly industrializing countries to lower-cost, neighboring countries. Ethnic Chinese from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Indonesia are actively involved in these massive transformation and integration processes. The course will scrutinize their role as well as some of the (culturally biased) misperceptions about their business leadership conduct. The degree, to which their extensive business networks succeed because of ethnic characteristics, or simply because of the sound application of good business practice, is a key issue that will be discussed throughout the course. Based on various corporate case studies and a multi-disciplinary explanatory framework, we will assess the role, characteristics and challenges of Chinese entrepreneurial leadership and business networks in the People’s Republic of China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia in an era of global market expansion.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Explain what makes ethnic Chinese business in Asia tick.
  • Appreciate both structure and functions of Chinese business organizations, networks and their global reach.
  • Challenge some of the culturally biased misperceptions about the business conduct of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurial leaders in Asia such as their homogeneity, tribal image and socio-economic exclusivity.
  • Critically discuss the challenges, which the rapidly progressing integration of East and Southeast Asia’s market cultures into the global market system pose, for ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs, their family businesses, conglomerates and network ties.
COURSE OVERVIEW

“In the past decade, the United States’ economy grew by an average of 1.6% a year, the European Union’s by 1.7%, Latin America’s by 4.6%, East Asia's by 5.4% and South-East Asia's by 5.9%. The 21 economies of the largest trans-Pacific grouping, Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC), account for nearly half of global trade. The region comprises not only the world’s ‘factory floor’ but also its most important sources of services, technology and investments, and final goods markets,” writes Peter Petri, an international trade economist. Yet despite the much celebrated economic progress of the region and the potential to be reaped from it, there are clear strains and risks resulting from geopolitical and economic trends which impact businesses that operate here.

This course consists of a set of core lectures which will introduce students to: (a) economic, political and socio-cultural theories and frameworks for understanding the context of business in the Asia Pacific region; and (b) the application of international business theories and frameworks to understand the decision-making processes of companies investing in the region. Course participants are expected to apply theories and frameworks to assess business environments of specific Asian economies. Participants are expected to analyze and make presentations about issues and challenges that are relevant to companies operating in large emerging economies such as China, India, Taiwan, and South Korea but also other economies such as Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Identify motivations for companies to seek internationalization within the Asia Pacific region.
  • Explain socio-cultural, political and economic systems in the Asia Pacific region and the resultant risks.
  • Identify different international strategies of multinational firms in the Asia Pacific region.
  • Evaluate different market entry strategies, organizational structures and human resource approaches for Asia Pacific business.
  • Integrate other business and management courses into the international context.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course will provide a detailed coverage of the most important works of classical Chinese philosophy from the Spring and Autumn period to the end of the Warring States Period, that is from roughly 722 until 221 BCE. We will look extensively at the two major philosophical schools, Confucianism and Daoism, and relate these two to the other important thinkers of the era. The course will include close readings of the major texts of the time, in selected passages from English translations of The Analects, Mencius, Laozi/Daodejing, Zhuangzi, as well as passages from the Xunzi, Mozi, and Hanfeizi. From these readings we will endeavour an understanding of the most important differences between Western and Chinese philosophy, the differences in interpretation and worldview, how classical Chinese thought has contributed to what China is today, and relate these ways of thought to some current affairs.

Near the end of the course we shall take a closer look at the Sun-tzu: The Art of Warfare, a philosophical/military work from the classical Chinese era, popular in Business and Management practices, and relate this work to the philosophical background of the major texts studied. From this we will learn how and why the combination of politics/warfare and philosophy was a natural one in the Classical Chinese worldview, and explain the philosophy behind this combination with a view to the popularity of this work in business and management.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate that you understand the most important schools of thought in Classical China.
  • Evaluate these schools in relation to each other.
  • Understand the most important themes of philosophical inquiry in Classical Chinese thought.
  • Explain the major differences between Chinese and Western approaches in philosophy in terms of their perceived strengths and weaknesses.
  • Coherently write and present your individual views in logically sound and rationally structured ways.
  • Relate the philosophical issues and ways of thinking discussed to modern day China and problematics in politics and society.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Contract law is of primary importance to business and commercial activities. It is one of the most established areas in China's civil and commercial law system. We will first study the economic and political reforms leading to the unprecedented economic growth in China in the past three decades. compare the major rules and principles of contract in common law and Chinese law. Then, the course will introduce the main features of Chinese legal system and its practice of private law. After these background introductions, the students will be provided with a unique chance to probe in-depth into selected issues in Chinese contract and related laws. It will cover, among others, contract formation, contract policing, contract performance, contractual remedies, law of sales, secured transactions, and employment contracts. At the end of the course, students will obtain knowledge about the basic framework of Chinese contract law, the key attributes of the commercial law practice, as well as the overall judicial environment, in China.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the basic framework of Chinese contract law as applied by courts.
  • Understand the general civil justice system in China.
  • Use contract law as a gateway to the knowledge of the broader commercial law practice in China.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course will explore the legal system of Taiwan, officially known as the Republic of China (ROC). The Ching Dynasty ceded Taiwan to Japan under the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. The ROC was founded in 1912 after overthrowing the Ching Dynasty. Pursuant to the Cairo Declaration, the ROC took over Taiwan after WWII. In 1949, due to its defeat in the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party that established the People’s Republic of China (PRC), the ROC government relocated to Taipei. In 1971, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 2758 that transferred the China seat from the ROC to the PRC, hence making Taiwan a unique case under international law.

Taiwan’s legal system is based on the ROC Constitution that was promulgated in 1947. The ROC transplanted the Chinese legal system to Taiwan, which was under Japanese influence. In the fields of constitutional law, civil law and commercial law, Germany and the United States have played a significant role in Taiwan’s legal development. As one of the five branches of the government, the Legislative Yuan (Parliament) is Taiwan’s unicameral legislature. The power to interpret the Constitution is vested in the Council of Grand Justices (Constitutional Court) of the Judicial Yuan. The Executive Yuan is the executive branch of the government and the Premier is appointed by the President, who is elected by universal suffrage every four years.

Today, Taiwan is one of largest Asian economies. The nation has also been transformed into a dynamic democracy based on the two-party system since it lifted Martial Law. In this Law Study Mission (under the SMU-XO model), students will examine certain areas of Taiwanese law and understand the legal aspects of Taiwan’s relations with the United States, China and Singapore. They will also gain hands-on experience by working with lawyers and legal counsels to solve real-world legal issues.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand Taiwan and civil law jurisdictions.
  • Solve real-world legal issues through a student consultancy project.
  • Incorporate active mentoring by faculty and project sponsors.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course surveys the complex cultural and political relationships that exist between Asia and World Literature, exploring how canonical works of prose, poetry and drama have been used (and continue to be used) to advance divergent imperialist, nationalist and intercultural goals. We begin by tracing the formation of ‘Orientalist’ stereotypes about Asia in World Literature, illuminating the role these texts played in the Western colonial project. Next, we interrogate how Asian nationalists and creative practitioners sought to move beyond these Orientalist tropes by adapting Shakespeare’s plays to create bold, new intercultural performances. We then dive into a range of canonical Asian texts and their contemporary adaptations. We ask what these texts can tell us about the connected political, cultural and technological histories of Asia and Europe; probe how these texts play shape our perceptions of racial, religious, national and gender differences; and ponder the place Singapore writers have in world literature today.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Gain an introduction to the tools of literary and historical analysis, broadening their awareness of the inter-disciplinary connections between literature, history, politics and communication technologies.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Strengthen their critical thinking skills as they analyze the diverse ways texts and cultures intersect.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Hone their written and verbal communication skills as they practice formulating and delivering their independent interpretations of the texts; students will also enhance their collaborative skills through group analyses of the texts.

Global Citizenship

  • Gain greater inter-cultural understanding and sensitivity, particularly towards cultural developments in Asia and Europe.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Asia has been steadily gaining a strong foothold in the global economy over the past few decades. The region is expected to continue growing in influence and power. Academics and business leaders alike are of the mindset that Asia will play a significant role in shaping the next phase of globalization. It is, therefore, imperative to gain an understanding of the Asian psyche in terms of values and norms.

The course introduces students to the cultural diversity inherent in Asia. Students will be provided with a cultural toolbox that equips them with strategies on how to read a person’s culture. Features of culture such as individualism/collectivism, power distance, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance and issues related to intercultural adaptation, ethnocentrism, prejudice, and stereotyping will be discussed. The aim of this course is to develop intercultural competence which will forge stronger and more meaningful business relationships between Asia and the rest of the world.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Read a person’s culture using the axioms of intercultural communication.
  • Demonstrate intercultural communication competence.
  • Develop knowledge and skills in managing multi-cultural communication.
COURSE OVERVIEW

COMM334 is an advanced elective module designed for graduating students majoring in corporate communication. With Asia’s economic ascendancy and modernization, corporate communication in Asia has taken on a new importance in the past two decades. Home to over half of the world’s population, unprecedented political, social and technological forces in an age of discontinuities are creating a new world order for Asia. The importance of communicating strategically and the need for greater cross-cultural understanding have never been more critical for organizations struggling to effectively communicate with diverse stakeholder groups across different geographies in this new multi-polar business environment. This course aims to equip graduating communication students with the ability to apply theory and understand how strategic communication has evolved to influence the integration of paid, earned, shared and owned media which are vital to unearthing unique characteristics that drive communication practice in selected developed and developing nations in Asia. In addition to gaining insights from top Asian practitioners in the region, students will also acquire in-depth knowledge of the socio-political-cultural-economic factors that underpin the practice that influence business outcomes in the world’s most populous continent. This course will prepare students with a corporate communication major to readily transit and take on responsibilities to manage communication for businesses operating across Asia.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the political social and cultural factors that influence corporate communication in different countries in Asia.
  • Apply the principles and theories of intercultural communication when examining the industry practices.
  • Analyze the effectiveness of different strategies when engaging with multicultural, multi-ethnic stakeholders in today’s technologically driven business environments.
  • Gain valuable insights from guest speakers who manage communication in Asia-Pacific.
  • Integrate many communication modules and apply knowledge to align business objectives and communication strategies for effective engagement with the highly diverse Asian audience.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course examines popular culture in a range of Asian countries in light of recent economic and political transformations in the region. It explores the ways in which popular practices, entertainment and media messages are shaped by class, gender, sexuality, ethnicity and generational relations, as well as by rural-urban differences and contending political ideologies. It considers how globalization and westernization intersect with indigenous and national traditions in the region.

This course aims to cultivate in students a critical understanding popular culture in Asia, in terms of content and audiences, as well as the social, political, economic, historical and institutional contexts in which various forms of popular culture are produced, practiced and consumed. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the various ways of defining popular culture.
  • Understand how texts and practices of popular culture in Asia may reinforce divisions in gender, ethnicity and social class, and how they may constitute a form of resistance towards the established social order.
  • Understand the historical, social, political and economic contexts of production, distribution and audience reception of popular culture in Asia.
  • Gain a critical awareness of the multi-directional transnational flows of popular culture in Asia, and grasp the theories and conceptual frameworks for explaining audience consumption of foreign cultural products.
  • Appreciate how fan subcultures form around the consumption of Asian popular culture and how fans challenge media production with their own fan works.
  • Develop skills in analyzing popular culture texts.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This business study mission aims to expose students to globalization, innovation, and transformation in Japanese firms and in Japanese business. Japanese firms are known for their innovations in product development services. At the same time, Japanese firms are also facing rising pressure to globalize and become even more innovative in their businesses due to the aging and shrinking domestic population. Students will learn about how Japanese firms are coping with such pressures by visiting companies, both traditional and new companies. We will also visit some facilities that showcase Japanese culture and technology.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a deep understanding of how the national environment fosters innovation and creativity in business.
  • Identify key sources of innovation and creativity for/in Japanese firms and Japanese business.
  • Learn how Japanese firms are trying to globalize their businesses.
  • Compare the practices and key elements of the national environment for innovation, creativity, and globalization among different countries.
  • Discuss what Singaporean firms can learn from the Japanese practices and experiences.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Corporate governance is about the relationship between the managers/executives of a firm and its various stakeholders including shareholders, employees, and larger community. Different countries have different systems of capitalism and deal with this relationship in very different ways. Because of these differences, specific systems and practices of corporate governance differ greatly around the world and in Asia. These differences, however, have been under pressure, as capital, management, and business practices become more global. Indeed, many Asian countries have revised their corporate governance system that is more consistent with global rules and expectations of investors who invest globally.

This course aims to make participants aware of the key issues that are related to corporate governance in especially the Asian context by examining corporate governance practices in various Asian countries and comparing them with non-Asian models, specifically the US and Germany. Participants will be equipped with the conceptual frameworks and tools to understand and analyze the issues that are pertinent to corporate governance practices as well as their impacts on other issues such as firm performance, business ethics, and firm strategy.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand different corporate governance models around the world, especially in Asia.
  • Demonstrate a deep understanding of how corporate governance affects corporate decisions including the formulation of strategy.
  • Evaluate how specific board practices, managerial compensation policy, and other governance practices affect firm performance and strategy.
  • Understand how management has to respond to different types of pressures and expectations from different stakeholders.
  • Describe how different corporate governance practices may be more effective (e.g., in strategy formulation and performance improvement) in different institutional environments and contexts.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The course focuses on world-changing ideas that have shaped the business world and the thinking of people in East and Southeast Asia. It analyzes the relevance and impact of selected readings in history and philosophy on economic, social and cultural changes in East and Southeast Asia. It will examine issues including state and corporate governance, work and organizations, gender, inequality and religious beliefs, and evaluate the trade-offs Asian societies make between individual liberty, national progress, regional imperatives and global capitalism.

Please note that this is a 300 level course: 300 level courses are more advanced courses that require students to be demonstrating coherence and breadth or depth of knowledge and skills. They are usually taken by more senior students.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Develop a deeper appreciation of the enduring influence of ideas drawn from selected texts on business, history and philosophy, and how they have shaped individual and national challenges in Asia.
  • Develop an ability to understand their lives as students and their role as citizens in Asia from a wider and a longer-term perspective.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The objective of this course is to develop a deeper understanding of sustainability practices as an outcome of complex dynamics between industry actors in the value chain. To develop these insights, the course will examine these dynamics in the palm oil and oleochemicals industry.

Palm oil is a high-yielding source of oleochemicals that are ubiquitous in our daily lives and for industrial use. Furthermore, it is a significant economic contributor, either directly or indirectly, to South-East Asian countries, as well as to India and China. However, the industry has been accused of environmental harm while claiming to be victims of eco-terrorism and foreign agricultural protectionists.

To explore these dynamics, this course will examine the players involved in the value chain (e.g., small holders, conglomerates, refiners, buyers, etc), as well as peripheral but influential players such as NGOs. To develop a balanced perspective of the industry, we will also examine the dark side of the sustainability movement – rogue activists, eco-terrorists, and protectionism.

Students will develop a more nuanced understanding of the institutional dynamics that firms are faced with, which will improve their ability to strategize and implement sustainable practices in organizations and to identify entrepreneurial opportunities.

Guest speakers for the course will include key decision-makers from the palm oil and oleochemical industry, FMCG companies, environmental consultants, NGOs, and impact investors. The study mission to Malaysia will involve meetings with senior management of the world’s largest producers and NGO leaders, field trips to an RSPO-certified palm oil plantation, R&D facilities, factories, and various institutions that have played a crucial role in developing sustainable practices in the industry.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the complex interdependencies between history, politics, markets, and sustainable organizational practice in oleochemical industry.
  • Cultivate an appreciation of inter-connectedness across temporalities (e.g., past, present, future, short-term, and long-term) and actors in the value-chain (e.g., producers, refiners, distributors, market intermediaries, etc).
  • Develop a broader, holistic view of impact beyond short-term, quantifiable metrics.
  • Evaluate organizational design to identify opportunities for incorporating sustainable practices.
  • Evaluate value chains to identify entrepreneurial opportunities for introducing innovations that can enhance sustainable impact industry-wide.
  • Develop an approach to change-making that aims to maintain harmony and inclusion vs. disruption and exclusion.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course, Understanding Chinese Culture and Business Environment is designed to develop students’ appreciation of the nuances of culture and business environment in China (especially South China). The course explores the various unique aspects of China’s history, culture, society, value system, business practices, and its implication to culture exchange and doing business in this emerging economy.

The course seeks to understand the knowledge and behaviours necessary to successfully meander through China’s business environment, encouraging the student to take a truly local perspective in dealing with culture identity and dynamic management issues in this diverse eco-system. It emphasizes how the variables of politico-socio-cultural practices interact with other national and international factors to affect managerial processes and behaviours and illustrates current developments and trends. In addition, the growing competitive influence of e-commerce will also be considered. The highlight of the course is its emphasis on experiential education – interaction with inheritors of intangible cultural heritage, government representatives and business practitioners.

The scope of the coursework includes assessing China’s unique cultural context and business eco-system (political, economic, legal), appreciating China’s leadership, understanding various aspects of culture background and business environment, learning Chinese etiquette, fostering successful relationships (the importance and the art of relationships 关系), and getting a glimpse of China’s cultural and economic development in future.

Throughout the course, the students are expected to apply what they have learned in the course and assess the relevance of these factors in culture exchange and commercial intercourse.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

The intended learning outcomes of the course:

Learning Objectives (knowledge units/ skill specification) Knowledge points or skills Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
1. Learn about Chinese mindset To acquire the basic knowledge of Chinese history, Confucianism, and key Chinese values and mindset that informs business behaviour. Apply this knowledge and translate them into implications for cultural exchange and doing business.
2. Learn about cultural tradition and business ethics in Chinese context To acquire the features of Chinese business ethics and discover the relationship between cultural tradition and business ethics under Chinese context. Verify and adapt to China’s cultural tradition and business ethics in cultural exchange and business conducts.
3. Integrative Thinking Skills To discover issues and learning points; to analyze and apply them through field visits. Be able to apply this new body of knowledge and skills as well as to use it interactively.
4. Learn about Chinese etiquette, the art of ‘Guan Xi’ 关系, and Chinese business practices To acquire the basic knowledge and skills in Chinese etiquette, developing Guan Xi and other practices that influence cultural exchange and business conduct. Apply this knowledge through active interaction with government representatives, business practitioners and Chinese students.
5. Understand China’s business operating environment To acquire the basic knowledge of China’s business operating environment including the economy,culture, laws, etc. Relate knowledge of China’s business environment, be aware of and apply such knowledge and skills in business conducts.
COURSE OVERVIEW

While often overshadowed by their neighbors to the north, the nations of Southeast Asia offer scholars a veritable smorgasbord of political topics to study. Variation both between and within countries provides the perfect opportunity for social scientists to learn about the role of institutions, individuals, and cultures in political interaction.

This course will provide a brief introduction to some of these issues. We’ll consider diverse topics such as the state’s role in economic development, national identity formation, the persistence of authoritarian regimes, transitions to democracy, and the role of Islam in politics. Each of these topics will be driven primarily by a recent articles or book excerpts on Southeast Asia countries. Most are written by political scientists, but a few come from the realm of political anthropology, history, or sociology. Some of these incorporate comparative case studies while others focus on a single country.

For each subject in the course, we will discuss the political science literature and theory regarding the topic before discussing the assigned readings. We will consider the author's methodology, research design, and whether or not her argument is persuasive in light of other possible approaches. While it is important to be analytic regarding the literature, I encourage you to avoid merely criticizing the approach. You should learn from it and gain ideas of how to ask your own research questions and about what types of evidence you might need to answer them.

One negative of this class is that, in learning about a region of eleven countries, there’s just too much to cover in one term. We will focus on Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, and Singapore.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Develop a deeper understanding of politics in Southeast Asia.
  • Understand the challenges facing the region.
  • Apply political science theories to understand events in the region.
  • Be able to critically evaluate the information presented in newspapers, academic
    literature, and policy pieces.
  • Demonstrate their analytical skills by developing a literature review.
COURSE OVERVIEW

In this course, we will explore spaces that might be marked as ‘publics’ and ‘privates’ in an area of the world popularly known as the ‘Pacific Rim.’ Plotted around the geological formation of the ‘ring of fire,’ the Pacific Rim is a geography of aspiration. The hope, for those who buy into this formation, is that integrating the markets of the Asia-Pacific in East and Southeast Asia and the west coast of the Americas would result in world peace wrought by multicultural harmony brokered through trade. In such a market-driven region, we will explore how the terms ‘publics’ and ‘privates’ might be used to mark out different kinds of places, with both historical and contemporary case studies. The purpose of this course is to understand the cultures around the terms ‘public’ and ‘private’ as an asset to comprehending how things might be done in this region.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Discuss public and private spheres and spaces on the Pacific Rim from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
  • Pivot agilely across disciplinary perspectives; be able to synthesize, draw parallels and contrast these perspectives as they are deployed to critically engage practices that construct and contest publics and privates on the Pacific Rim.
  • Draw connections across a wide variety of cultural and historical renditions of publics and privates on the Pacific. Students' own perspectives as socially-embodied subjects will be encouraged as a site of meaning production as well, especially in class discussions.
  • Be mindful of how they themselves construct public and private spheres and spaces on the Pacific Rim as citizens and future professionals to influence the well-being of their societies more generally.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course explores what literature can tell us about the changing nature of gender and ethnic identities across modern Asian cultures. We interrogate what ‘selfhood’ means to a range of established and emerging Asian writers, asking how and why they construct gender and ethnic identities in their works, and what insights this provides into the Asian psyche. We begin by interrogating gender in Singapore, asking how dramatists and novelists envision life as a ‘woman’ or a ‘man’ here. We then circle outwards across Indonesia, India and Iran, tracing how letters, novels, films and graphic novels have been used to create and challenge gender norms from the colonial 19th century to the postcolonial 21st. Next, we look at ethnicity, debating its relative mutability, and querying the importance of physical markers of ‘racial’ difference relative to evolving national borders and spiritual and societal practices. We trace how Singaporean and Malaysian writers construct ethnicity in their prose fiction, before considering how authors further afield in East Asia (Japan and China) and West Asia (Turkey and Afghanistan) have re-interpreted communal identities over time. We conclude by considering the future of ethnic and gender identities in Asia. By the end of this literary odyssey, students will have gained a wide-ranging appreciation of how modern Asian writers envision gender and ethnicity, and contemplated the relevance of these fictive visions to their own sense of selfhood as young adults living in Asia.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Gain an introduction to the tools of literary and historical analysis, broadening their awareness of the inter-disciplinary connections between literature, history and society.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Strengthen their critical thinking skills as they analyze the diverse ways texts and cultures intersect.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Hone their written and verbal communication skills as they practice formulating and delivering their independent interpretations of the texts; students will also enhance their collaborative skills through group analyses of the texts.

Global Citizenship

  • Gain greater inter-cultural understanding and sensitivity, particularly towards issues relating to ethnicity and gender.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This is a basic Mandarin Chinese course starting from the fundamental concepts of the language. The course will cover the phonetic system of Mandarin Chinese, namely, Hanyu Pinyin, including the phonetic symbols and tones. More importantly, the written Chinese characters, Hanzi, will be introduced with rationale contributing to the ways of writing, to equip the students with knowledge and skills on the form of the language. The students will learn various basic sentence patterns to obtain the skills for simple conversation. Meanwhile, they will gain some perspective of the Chinese culture through their exposure to the language.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Understand basic language items in Mandarin with correct pronunciation and tones.
  • Recognize the single-component written characters representing the basic concepts of the language.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Grasp the concept of radicals (pianpang bushou) and analyze the rationale in the written Chinese characters.
  • Learn basic sentence patterns in daily Chinese conversation.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Communicate with Mandarin speaking people in Singapore, as well as those from different regions in the world. 

Global Citizenship

  • Be equipped with some Chinese cultural perceptions, thus understanding and appreciating the Chinese customs and practices.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The basic Thai language course aims to provide students with a good foundation of Thai pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. This course will introduce students to Thai alphabet, vowels and tones, and teach students to construct sentences using basic vocabulary and expressions commonly used in daily communication situations. The students will develop the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Use language skills — listening, speaking, reading and writing to communicate in Thai on topics regarding daily life.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Express themselves to be understood by local Thai who may only possess basic level of proficiency in English (or Chinese) language; and gain insights through Thai language interaction.

Global Citizenship

  • Understand and gain some knowledge and appreciation of Thai culture and customs which are related to other Indochinese countries such as Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar which are closely interlinked with Thailand economically, historically and socially.

Personal Mastery

  • Achieve a good foundation in Thai pronunciation in speaking and be able to read and write simple Thai via recorded-video clips on Thai reading and writing (as a self-directed lesson required prior to lesson every week on E-learn).
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides students with basic Korean speaking, listening, reading and writing skills necessary to communicate in a Korean-speaking environment. In particular students will be able to understand and carry out basic Korean conversation such as greetings, making and answering basic queries, exchanging information on everyday life and discussing topics of general interest. Students will also have the opportunity to experience Korean culture first hand. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the culture and language of Korean, for greater adaptability to a fast moving, globalised world.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Express themselves in basic Korean using simple structures, write short essays and dialogs in basic Korean, understand and know vocabulary used in daily life. They will then be equipped with the foundation to learn and master the language at higher levels later on.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Communicate with Korean speaking people and understand the nuances in verbal and non-verbal interactions in this unique culture, thus enhancing their ability to engage and connect with people from Korea and other north Asian cultures.

Global Citizenship

  • Understand and appreciate the culture of Korea, and the history, geo-political and economic background that has contributed to the current spread of the Korean cultural phenomenon.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is designed for students with no previous background in Japanese. It provides a foundation for the practical knowledge and ability to communicate effectively in both spoken and written Japanese. Lessons will evolve along topics such as self-introduction, family and home, neighborhood, daily activities, shopping, holiday activities, and Japanese culture will be incorporated in each lesson. This course is the equivalent of CEFR A1 level. Japanese scripts (Hiragana and Katakana) is used throughout the course, and basic Kanji readings would also be introduced. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Understand the culture and language of Japanese speaking societies using the foundation of vocabulary and grammar of the Japanese language. 

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Develop the intellectual and creative skills required to acquire the Japanese language.

Interpersonal Skills

  • Know more about themselves, express themselves effectively, and learn how to listen and understand others in a more comprehensive way.

Global Citizenship

  • Know how to appreciate other cultures in this diverse global world.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Background Information on Malay language such as a brief description of the Malay language: its historical development and present status-quo as well as the special features of the language. The content progresses from the easier aspects of the language to the more difficult ones. The content covers aspects of linguistics such as phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. The content takes into consideration lexicogrammar which will enable students to learn through identifying patterns and characteristics. The content of this course is also designed to introduce some aspects of Malay social, cultural and religious practices through the use of texts and exercises in the course materials.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become familiar with the culture and language of Malay speaking countries for greater adaptability to a globalised world.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Express themselves in basic Malay using simple structures, write short essays and dialogs in basic Malay, understand and know vocabulary used in daily life forming the foundation to learn the language at higher levels later on

Interpersonal Skills

  • Communicate in formal Malay and formal Indonesian through having competence in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing by understanding the workings of the language as follows:
    • The spelling system of the Malay language.
    • Greetings and basic phrases in interactions.
    • Basic vocabulary such as numbers, days, months, time, colours, occupations, parts of the body, family members and addresses.
    • Morphological and syntactical aspects of lexicogrammar of Malay language. 

Global Citizenship

  • Develop intercultural understanding and sensitivity of communities and countries of the Malay/Indonesian speaking world. This understanding could be the catalyst in enhancing their ethics and social responsibilities.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The control of water matters. From agricultural production to fishing to national security, water is political. As population centers shift toward urban centers, international demands on water expand, food prices increase, and climate changes alter weather patterns, this precious, limited resource will only become more contentious in the future.

In this course we examine the underlying political issues that shape water management and the policies that governments make to deal with them. We will begin with domestic water issues, such as water management for food security, before turning to international water conflicts, like those brewing over the Mekong River and the South China Sea. In doing so, we will engage with theories of common pool resource management, policy making, and international relations. Most of our readings will focus on Southeast Asian cases. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Become familiar with the political science theories and concepts related to common pool resource management. They should also demonstrate some understanding of International Relations theories.
  • Understand the policy issues related to water management.
  • Be able to apply their theoretical understanding of politics to real-world situations, especially in relation to water issues. 
  • Be able to critically evaluate the information presented in newspapers, academic literature, and policy pieces.
  • Demonstrate their analytical skills by producing an original research paper.
COURSE OVERVIEW

In this course, we will explore why the polities and economies of six countries and regions in East Asia are so strikingly distinct. East Asia has developed rapidly, in ways unmatched in the other areas of Asia or beyond. Within East Asia, most economies showed rapid economic success, punctuated by puzzlingly protracted periods of stagnation. What factors explain the miracles and malaise experienced in this rapidly changing region?

In focusing on this question, we will explore the role that the state and market have played in these countries’ development. In addition, we will explore additional explanations for the economic, political and social differences between these countries, including institutional, cultural and international factors. In doing so, we will look at the role that issues like democracy, authoritarianism, human rights, colonial history, ethnicity, gender and other political factors played in shaping the experiences of six East Asian polities—Japan, China, North and South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Which policies, approaches, and practices have been effective in helping to develop economies and improve people’s livelihoods, and which have failed to produce positive results? 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Sensitivity to Developments in Asia: Enhance their understanding of the dynamic political, social and economic situation in six East Asian countries/regions: Japan, China, South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. 
  • Disciplinary Knowledge: Critically evaluate approaches these countries and regions in East Asia have adopted to developing their economies and political systems, and the effects of such efforts.
  • Critical Thinking: Generate and defend arguments that evaluate potential explanations for the differences between the political economies of various countries.
  • Intercultural Understanding and Thinking: To understand how political and economic changes have affected the lives of women and ethnic minorities in these countries and regions.
  • Communication: To master the steps needed to write a research paper and to defend academic arguments in oral and written form.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course examines political actors, processes, and issues in domestic politics and foreign relations of South and North Korea since 1945. It will begin with a brief overview of the shared historical origins of political institutions in the two Koreas, and move onto in-depth surveys about the divergent institutional, economic, and foreign relations paths that North and South Korea took after the Korean War. The third part of the course is devoted to the analysis about the contemporary inter-Korean relations, focusing on the causes and consequences of military tensions, nuclear crises, and various dialogues and cooperation initiatives since 1990. Lastly, it will discuss how the political and economic developments in the two Koreas affect and are influenced by the regional and international relations.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Apply key theoretical concepts of International Relations and Comparative Politics to analyze major trends and issues in the inter-Korean relations.
  • Compare and contrast the historical evolution of political regimes, economic systems, and social relations in the two Koreas.
  • Critically engage the debates regarding the competition, conflicts, and cooperation between the two Koreas since the end of the Cold War.
  • Explain how the inter-Korean relations interact with the Northeast Asia’s security and economic
    dynamics.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This Psychology Study Mission, also a SMU-XO course, is offered in collaboration with the Institute of Creative Industries Design at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Taiwan. We design the course in order to benefit students through four learning goals:

  1. Provide an advanced understanding of the theoretical and empirical work on the psychological science of creativity/innovation and relevant areas at both the individual and collective levels (e.g., creative cognition, the roles of bicultural identity and multicultural experience in creativity, multicultural teams).
  2. Receive hands-on experience in utilizing design thinking to generate ideas and design prototypes.
  3. Apply both theoretical knowledge and design thinking skill in a project that involves a business client in Taiwan’s cultural and creative industry.
  4. Engage SMU students in cross-cultural collaboration experience with Taiwanese students through working together on client-based projects.

This elective will feature a visit to Tainan, Taiwan. The field trip will provide students first-hand experiences about how the topics they learn in class can be exemplified and applied in the real world. The course also introduces design thinking as a process of creative problem solving. Design thinking has been identified as a powerful tool for problem identification, idea generation, prototyping, and testing, which is an extremely important skillset to acquire for study and work. This course bridges critical discussion of academic articles with practice of design thinking and in-the-field experience to provide students a well-grounded understanding on the cultural dynamics in creative industries.

This course comprises three components: three seminar sessions and a one-day workshop on design thinking at SMU, and a one-week study mission to Tainan, Taiwan.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Enhance their understanding on how people can utilize their cultural knowledge to generate creative and innovative ideas, by means of integrating different perspectives, theories, strategies, and technologies. In this multicultural environment, people must collaborate effectively across cultural borders, broadly defined, to solve pressing problems and develop new products and solutions that will appeal to the global market. Cultural and creative industries are one of such sector that emphasizes culture as the foundation for developing and supporting industries through creativity (e.g., cultural tourism, community cultural development, performing art, product design). Via collaborating with the students and faculty members in the Institute of Creative Industries Design at the National Cheng Kung University, SMU students will have hands-on cross-cultural collaboration experiences with their Taiwanese counterparts. Through participating in class discussions and learning different case studies of Taiwan’s cultural and creative industries during the field trip, students will receive ample opportunities to sharpen their cultural knowledge and skills and to apply these new insights to benefit creative productions in the real world. Students will also gain cultural immersive experiences through conducting in-depth analysis of the business client in their SMU-NCKU work team. At the end of the course, students will be able to integrate theories of culture, psychology, and design thinking to broaden their knowledge about the development and sustainability of cultural and creative industries. They might also identify from the insights gained from the Taiwan cases to benefit the cultural and creative industries in Singapore.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Penetrating Southeast Asia during the age of Euro-American conquest, photography has since embedded itself in all kinds of cultural and socio-political projects. In this context, it is implicated in the violence of colonialism and the promise of nationalism / internationalism. At the same time, photography offers ways to engage in personal issues, and address broader concerns relating to one’s immediate environment or the imaginary of Southeast Asia. In this sense, photography provides the means to unpack or even unmake some of these issues and concerns.

This is not a technical course to teach you photographic skills. You are expected to come to class with a critical mindset, and a broad understanding of the histories, politics and cultures of Southeast Asia. The course will help you develop ways of using photography and text to engage in the worlds of Southeast Asia.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Use photography to analyze the affects / effects of colonialism, nationalism, internationalism and Cold War in Southeast Asia.
  • Think and write with / about photography using different materials, including (but not limited to) archival photographs, family snapshots, found images (i.e., from flea markets), and mass media imageries (in periodicals and newspapers).
  • Produce photographic images and text to engage personal issues or broader concerns relating to one’s immediate environment or the imaginary of Southeast Asia.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The creative industries are important agents of economic growth and socio-cultural change. This course will familiarize students with the business models of cultural content producers and with how digital platforms enable them. In addition, they will learn about the key characteristics of the emerging creator economy and the social media entertainment that is associated with it. Finally, they will apply their knowledge to a substantial real-world client project.

The course will culminate in a study mission to Seoul, where students will visit companies and make a presentation to their project client.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Explain the key drivers of the creative industries.
  • Explain the business models of cultural content producers.
  • Explain the key features of the creator economy and social media entertainment.
  • Explain how place and culture influence the success of the creative industries.
  • Apply their knowledge and skills to a real-world client project.
  • Develop networking and communication skills through interactions with company executives and company visits.
COURSE OVERVIEW

With the rise of China as an economic superpower, foreign businesses have been rushing to do business in or with China. However, many businesses encounter various problems in China. This is mostly due to their limited knowledge and understanding of China, even if
they can speak Chinese. This course aims to address this problem by enhancing the students’ understating of the unique history, culture, economy, politics and law in China. To help the students understand the nuances of doing business in/with China, interesting cases and events will be used to illustrate how things work in China in real life. With the knowledge acquired in the course, the students will gain a better understanding of how business is conducted in China; the interaction between business on the one hand, and culture, politics and law on the other hand; as well as how foreign firms may survive and prosper in China.

COURSE OVERVIEW

The economic significance of major Asian economies is overwhelming, and so are their intellectual property (IP) industries. However, insufficient attention has been paid to Asian IP laws and their relationship with intellectual assets. The course sets to take a cross-border and integrated approach to explore “Why Asian IP assets and laws?”, “What Asian IP assets and laws?” and “Can Asian IP laws/industries hold any light to the rest of the world?” Can major Asian economies be IP norm-setters, rather than norm-takers? This course will discover features of intellectual assets and laws unique to Asia, and examine the interaction between intellectual industries and IP laws. The course will also deal with the protection and the issue of over-protection of trade secrets in major Asian economies.

This course will mainly look into IP laws in China, India, Japan, Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. It will also touch upon HK, Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Be motivated to broaden their vision to go beyond law in Singapore.
  • Study and appreciate the many facets of Asian intellectual assets and IP legal systems, including differences and commonality.
  • Be prepared  for their IP practice in major Asian economies in the 21 century Asia.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The Cold War is probably one of the most significant periods in contemporary world history that permeated almost all aspects of life from the global to the local level. The Cold War - the tension, fears, and anxieties - manifested not only in great power competition, geopolitics, arms race, and the rise of military industries but also in the realm of culture. In the 1950s onwards, we have seen the emergence of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in literature, James Bond’s futuristic gizmos have invaded cinematic-scapes, and Bob Dylan sang songs about the war and the need for peace. Fashion, architecture, family life, sports, education, and even religion were all impacted by the Cold War.

This course explores the Cold War through an in-depth and interdisciplinary analysis of the cultural materials, transformations, and modalities in Asia. First, we will explore the origins and historical background of the Cold War in Asia and examine key departures and convergences with the broader global narratives. Second, we will examine various aspects of culture - films, music, art, sports, fashion, race, gender, among others and probe into how the Cold War manifested in or can be analyzed through these cultural references and also to investigate how the cultural transformations, in turn, shape the nature of Cold War. Finally, we will evaluate contemporary Asian culture and identify the lasting legacies of the Cold War that still persist up until today.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Explain the cultural dynamics and transformations in Asia during the Cold War.
  • Evaluate how culture reflected, interrogated, or shaped the Cold War in Asia.
  • Assess the wide-array of legacies that the Cold War left manifesting in contemporary Asian societies.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides students with an overview of the many concepts, techniques and algorithms in data analytics and machine learning. Students will acquire knowledge on classification and regression models such as support vector machines and linear regression etc. The emphasis in this course will be on the application side of data analytics which includes not only creating the predictive model but also deploying and visualizing the output from the models.

More importantly, this course allows students to apply cross-disciplinary and project management approaches while learning and applying machine learning techniques to help Thai companies to effectively and efficiently apply data analytics and machine learning to improve their competitiveness and business efficiency. It hones students’ problem-solving skills and prepares them for the complex regional business environment today.

Thailand, as part of ASEAN, is rich in natural resources eg. gems and precious metals and is considered to be one of the vital exporters of resources globally. Other than the 2 traditional sectors of agriculture and tourism, it is also a prime manufacturing hub for investors in vehicles, electronics and medical equipment. In recent years, Covid-19 has become a key accelerator for digital transformation globally and the Thai government has also been relentlessly encouraging its businesses to adopt digital technologies and the use of data analytics.

This course is not biddable. Students will be shortlisted for interviews and selected students will be enrolled via offline enrolment (e$20 will be deducted).    

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Cleanse and prepare data to be in a form adequate for machine learning.
  • Outline the steps involved in developing and consuming a machine learning model.
  • Develop adequate machine learning models to meet different business objectives.
  • Tune the performance of machine learning models.
  • Create visualizations to consume the output from machine learning models.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The better any organization can manage the relationship with its customers, the more successful it will become. IT systems targeting the problems of dealing with customers are growing in popularity. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is not just the use of a technology, or a hardcoded business process, it is a management strategy to help organizations understand and learn about customer behaviors, needs, preferences and expectations in order to improve and maintain a strong relationship with them.

Managing Customer Relationship with Analytics: Asian Insights presents the concepts and methodologies required to execute a methodical approach to apply analytics and CRM principles into a business. The course will cover the customer-centric business culture, and the customer relationship process to attract, convert, retain and amaze customers with the help of IT tools.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Recognize the value of using analytics in the management of customer relations.
  • Explain the customer relationship process.
  • Understand management strategies to create a customer-centric business culture and adapt the
    pre-sales and post-sales process based on the culture with emphasis on Asian region.
  • Create analytic dashboards to manage the customer relationship process.
  • Use appropriate digital business tools to attract, convert, retain and amaze customers.
  • Apply cultural and management strategies within the Asian context.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Financial Market plays an important part in assuring the efficiency of the economy, creating economic growth and development for many countries. However, we are also experiencing more and more economic turbulence erupts from the activities of financial markets which raising questions regarding the essential roles of the Central Bank especially in conducting Monetary Policy as well as managing the banking system and financial markets

There are two main parts to this course. The first part explains the functions and structure of Financial Markets (including both assets market and market for money), helping students to understand the meaning and behavior of interest rates, money demand, and money supply. That serves as the background for the second part, in which the banking system and monetary policy theory and strategies will be introduced. Both parts will highlight the management roles of the Central Bank.

This is an SMU-X course hence students will have a chance to work on real-world projects faced by the Central Bank of Vietnam. That allows students to further apply classroom knowledge and theory to practical problems for real organizations. At the same time, as the operation of a central bank is very broad and complicated, you should expect that the projects will require more knowledge that is outside of this course curriculum, even might be the knowledge in other disciplines.

The course is also an SMU-XO course, meaning students will have a chance to expose to another country, which is Vietnam in this case. During the course, they will have opportunities to find out about Vietnam's culture and learn about Vietnam's economy from guest speakers. The course will include a study mission to Vietnam in week 17 (after exam weeks). Please note that the trip is subject to the international travel condition between Singapore and Vietnam. This course will hence, help to clear the Global Exposure requirement.

The course also emphasizes teamwork skills as the groupwork component comprises 50% of the final grade. Students will have to learn to work as a team to complete a difficult task under time pressure. Effective communication and collaboration, taking initiatives, and fulfilling of responsibilities are essential to success in teamwork. Peer Evaluation will be imposed to reward those with extra effort as well as to identify freeloaders if any.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the keys theories and strategies in Monetary Policy and Financial Markets Management especially from the Central Bank's point of view.
  • Solve real-world problems to a Central Bank (related to Monetary Policy or Financial Markets) and learn how to work in a project group.
  • Gain insight into financial markets as well as the business environment and culture in Vietnam through mini cultural activities and Vietnam theme presentations.
  • Develop potential networking, and other life skills through the study mission (if travel allowed) and by interacting with business leaders in Vietnam (through guest speaker sessions).
COURSE OVERVIEW

India and the rest of Asia share historical connections. Over the years, Indian cultural practices and belief systems, especially those related to religion, the performing arts, and architecture have influenced large parts of the Asian continent Today, India is experiencing a period of rapid evolution on many fronts, economic, political and cultural, after many decades of relative isolation and very slow economic growth and development. This course will provide the cultural background required for a closer understanding of the vast Indian subcontinent and its people, including its diaspora across the world. It will introduce the cultures of the different geographical regions of India, and will highlight the role of religion, the arts (including classical music, dance, sculpture, architecture, visual arts), food, language, literature and media (including the press, broadcast television, films and the internet) in shaping the psyche of the Indian mind. Students will participate in in-class workshops, will watch documentary and feature films, and visit different Indian institutions and cultural events in Singapore. The course will be especially helpful to those intending to travel to India on leisure or business, and those intending to do business with India or with the Indian diaspora across the world.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Describe India’s diverse regional, religious and cultural traditions and practices.
  • Understand the influence of Indian belief systems and practices on other parts of Asia and the rest of the world.
  • Apply their knowledge of Indian culture to become a more knowledgeable traveler in India, to network with Indian students and managers, and to work in India or with Indians.
  • Analyze business and political news about India in the appropriate cultural context.
  • Appreciate the symbolism and meanings of various Indian practices, icons, motifs, and slang.
  • Understand how Indian culture affects the ways in which the Indian government, and managers and consumers of Indian origin make decisions, do business and work in teams.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course is designed to help students develop an in-depth understanding and analysis of strategic business challenges and opportunities in the dynamic and complex environment of Digital Media and Entertainment ECommerce Ecosystem (DMEEE) in Asia. Value co-creation is an integral performance outcome in digital platform ecosystems. In developing their digital strategies, leading companies in these systems increasingly aggregate and analyze data from both e-commerce activities and media content consumption to gain a multifaceted understanding of their customers, and to develop deep knowledge about media, entertainment and e-commerce. As tech titans like Amazon, Netflix, Alibaba, Tencent, and Bytedance redefine the DMEEE landscape in Singapore and Southeast Asia, other ecosystem players including media firms, entertainment firms, manufacturers and retailers are presented with the challenge of developing their own digital strategies to thrive. This elective will introduce key concepts in strategic management in DMEEE and involve students in a real-life strategic business challenge from Singapore's media and entertainment group, MediaCorp.

Participants will have the opportunity to engage business leaders in project discussions. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a deep understanding of the key concepts in Strategic Management in Digital Media and Entertainment E-Commerce Ecosystem (DMEEE). 
  • Identify key learning and experiences from the real-life strategic business challenge proposed by Mediacorp.
  • Explain how changes in the DMEEE could lead to new high-growth opportunities for Singapore.
  • Explain how the differences in the consumer consumption of digital media, entertainment and ecommerce for Asians and non-Asians will impact the digital strategy in DMEEE.
  • Identify and analyze potential strategic business opportunities in Asia.
  • Develop an innovative digital strategy to compete in DMEEE in Asia.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course provides technology-savvy students, preferably at senior undergraduate level, with a set of strategy-innovation-entrepreneurship concepts from social science and management g (including fundamentals of corporate strategy, social context, design thinking, blue ocean strategy) to support idea generation for Social Technopreneurship: application of technology to serve social outcomes and in an entrepreneurial manner (proposed startup can be tech, non tech business, social enterprises or even non-profit enterprise). This course has an Asian focus for learning of best practices from Asia (with emphasis on Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand) on how they applied technology towards social outcomes yet practically relevant to apply and adapt overseas practices to Singapore’s context in social technopreneurship. Student will be empowered to work on their choice problem statements in a coached environment. The final pitch will be in Singapore and could be floated to relevant organisations for possible funding after the course. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Apply technological skills learnt from School of Information Systems to interdisciplinary problem-solving (strategy-innovation-entrepreneurship) in smart city context with a focus on societal issues.
  • Gain experience from Asian organisations on how they address societal issues using technology.
  • Crystallise useful ideas for Singapore’s context and ideate technological-based solutions for a Singapore organisation focusing on social issues, of choice. Solution proposed should be worthy of funding for future implementation (after this module).
COURSE OVERVIEW

Film is one of the most important cultural materials through which we learn about people, places, and ideas past and present. Film mirrors and co-produces our understanding of the world and our place in it. Through film, we encounter societies and cultures beyond our own; and the world sees images of who we are through filmic representations of ourselves. In this course, we explore the ways in which film has served as a space for the production, contestation, and meditation of representations and images of Asia in the United States through the lens of Hollywood films.

This course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary and visual approach to understanding Asia's representations and images on/in Hollywood films. First, we will briefly explore America’s perceptions and ideas about Asia in the late 19th century and discuss various methods of reading films as texts. Second, we will critically examine what Hollywood films reveal about America’s perceptions and ideas about Asia within the context of Asia’s entangled history with the United States from the late 19th century to 1990s - from the period of American imperial expansion, America’s orientalism, US occupation of Japan, the Cold War, and America’s involvement in Vietnam. Next, we will explore the recent trajectories in Hollywood that shaped/reconfigured Asia’s filmic representation - the commodification of Asia in Hollywood, the impact of 9/11 on Hollywood’s image of Asia, and the shifting aspects of Asian identities (gender and race) in contemporary Hollywood films. Finally, we will examine the rising influence of Asia (its film industries, states, and societies) in global/Hollywood filmmaking and discuss how these disruptions and changes will impact Asia, the United States, and the rest of the world.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Develop a broad historical understanding of the trends and transformations in the filmic representations of Asia in Hollywood films.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly between perspectives and evaluate how film reflects, interrogates, and/or shapes the representations and images of Asia in American/Western societies.

Global Citizenship

  • Reflect on how the discussions in class shaped their understanding of their identity, their place in the world, and their understanding of Asia’s entanglement with the Unites States in the past, present and future.

COURSE OVERVIEW

Home to more than 90 million people, the Philippines is one of the founder members of ASEAN. Over the past few years, the Philippines has enjoyed a surge of economic growth. Duterte’s presidency ushered in a massive infrastructure building program. Exports are on the rise and manufacturing has expanded the economy, attracting foreign investments. Programmes promoting community development and social transformation are also underway.  

The course focuses on organisations that have empowered the local communities via the community development programmes that they have initiated. The course provides a platform for students to learn about the thought leadership of these organisations and also creates opportunities for students to examine the relationship between success and good corporate culture. Do these organisations rely on one or two individuals or do the staff function as a team, regardless of rank? Is being competitive and aggressive prized over nurturance and social support? Is the chain of command lauded or is less hierarchy appreciated? Features of culture such as power distance, individualism/collectivism, masculinity/femininity, uncertainty avoidance, and issues related to episodes and relationships in intercultural communication will be discussed. The course will focus on the theme of Sustainability, Innovation and/or Entrepreneurship.

Aligning itself to the SMU-X experiential learning pedagogy, the course will provide students with the opportunity to meet up with community development practitioners. Students will work on research projects sponsored by these practitioners and present their research findings and recommendations to their management teams. This year, we have specially curated a joint programme with Ateneo de Manila University, one of SMU’s partner universities in the Philippines. Students will get to interact with and learn alongside Filipino students and faculty from Ateneo de Manila University.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Describe how various organisations in the Philippines have forged positive values in their corporate culture.
  • Interpret corporate culture using the axioms of intercultural communication.
  • Demonstrate intercultural communication competencies while managing the needs of various demographics.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The way in which generational cohorts behave at the work place and perceive engagement may differ in many aspects. Millennials are best positioned to provide insights into how millennial employees are recruited and how they should be engaged in the work place.  In the context of a human resources related issue proposed by a client organization (e.g., Millennial talent management and engagement, Employer branding and recruitment), participants from Singapore and Indonesia are to collaborate with each other to present proposals to the client organisation. These issues are reflective of human resources challenges faced by organisations today, as seen in the following articles:  

https://hbr.org/2015/05/ceos-need-to-pay-attention-to-employer-branding
https://iveybusinessjournal.com/publication/the-millennials-a-new-generation-of-employees-a-new-set-of-engagement-policies/
https://hbr.org/2018/03/the-new-rules-of-talent-management

This is a SMU-X overseas course where SMU will collaborate with organisations and institutions in Indonesia to study projects faced by our overseas partners. Participants will be equipped with human resources theories and cultural context from faculty. Participants will also need to be physically present in both countries for meetings, discussions, briefings and presentations during the required module phases.

Looking at the case study of Bali, this study mission is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of the social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of mass-tourism.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Identify relevant theories in talent management with a focus on millennial engagement and recruitment.
  • Understand cultural principles and processes working in a cross-border (Indonesia vis-à-vis Singapore) setting.
  • Develop effective skills to present proposals to respond to the needs of the client organisation.
COURSE OVERVIEW

For tourists all over the world, the island of Bali in Indonesia is a “tropical paradise” and one of the world’s great romantic destinations. Western popular culture depictions such as the 2010 Hollywood blockbuster Eat, Pray, Love idealize the island as a spiritual refuge for those who are weary of the challenges of high-paced modern life. These romanticized images of Bali have turned it to a major tourist destination with over 5.5 million tourists visiting the island each year. As a result, over the last three decades, the tourism and hospitality industry has overtaken agriculture and fishery as Bali’s number one source of income.

However, the economic success brought about by tourism has come at a high price. Over-development has resulted in environmental degradation and disruption to the local ecology and complex systems of irrigation. Furthermore, keen to be part of the lucrative tourism industry, younger Balinese leave their villages in order to get jobs at tourism centres in the southern coastal areas of the island. As a result, Bali’s capital city of Denpasar has been experiencing high levels of urbanization and over-crowding, and traditional occupations such as farming and fishing are at risk of dying out.

Looking at the case study of Bali, this study mission is designed to provide students with a deep understanding of the social, cultural, economic, and environmental impacts of mass-tourism.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand the complex social and environmental issues brought about by mass tourism and over-development.
  • Gain first-hand experience of Balinese culture, history, and society (within the context of the modern Indonesian nation-state).
  • Develop ethnographic research skills by collecting, reading and analyzing data.
  • Apply the knowledge and experience gained in the course to your own social reality. 
COURSE OVERVIEW

This SMU-XO course takes students to a country in Asia to study the cultural, economic, social and political life of the country at first hand. Each course will be designed around a theme or a set of issues to offer students an overseas experiential learning opportunity. Students will be given a number preparatory sessions in SMU in which they will discuss research materials and related literature centered on the chosen theme. This will lay the theoretical foundation for the parts of the course that will be carried out in the country they will be visiting. The purpose of the course is to allow students to unify theory and practice by combining what they have learned in the class room with on the ground empirical studies and fieldwork in a foreign country.

* Not all courses are offered in every semester. Please refer to ISIS for course offerings and the most updated version of the course outlines.

Students will be able to fulfil the additional graduation requirements through Big Questions for Singapore Studies (for students from AY2020/21 through AY2023/24 cohorts) and Economics and Society for Asia Studies (for students from AY2021/22 through AY2023/24 cohorts).

THE LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR ALL COURSES UNDER SINGAPORE STUDIES ARE:

  • Students should be able to demonstrate a keen understanding of the most salient issues and challenges confronting Singapore;
  • Students should be able to articulate frameworks and perspectives for describing different aspects of Singapore society;
  • Students should be able to harness the acquired knowledge and skills to recommend strategies and policies that will benefit all Singaporeans, with an appreciation of the limits, risks and trade-offs associated with these strategies and policies.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Despite globalization and increasing legal convergence, the profession of law is one which remains grounded in a sense of place. Law students do not study “the law” as an abstract concept; instead, they focus on learning the substantive and procedural law of a particular jurisdiction, and typically aim to qualify to practice in that jurisdiction. Localized understanding is the foundation not only of their eventual practice (in most cases) as domestic lawyers, but also of their study of other national laws and international law in its various forms. For that foundation to be strong and stable, students must understand not only the substantive law and technical features of their own legal system, but also the historical forces and context that produced them – in other words, the how and why of the legal system, not just the what.

To that end, students in this course will explore Singapore’s legal rules (in particular, the sources of Singapore law and their interactions), its constitutional and institutional frameworks, and the place of lawyers (individually and collectively) in the administration of justice. Attention will be given to the future challenges facing the legal industry and how key stakeholders are responding to those challenges. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a working understanding of Singapore’s legal landscape and, as a result, a better sense of the profession which they have chosen to enter: where it has been, where it stands now, and its possible futures, individually and collectively.
  • Consider how the current issues affecting the legal sector, and the responses to them, may shape the practice of law. These issues include the strategic positioning of Singapore as a legal services hub (e.g. international dispute resolution, debt restructuring), alternative business models, the challenges of community law, concerns of access to justice, the sustainability of the profession, and technological disruption.
  • Reflect on what this may mean for their own future practice as lawyers (or even in other roles), and how best to take ownership of their learning in their time as law students so as to equip themselves for the dynamic legal environment which they will find themselves in when they embark on their legal careers.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Law is a tool for problem-solving. This course examines the underlying problems that law is meant to solve, and how existing legal structures are a response to these problems. The focus is on principles of law and their application

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a working understanding of the Singapore legal system, including:
    1. Constitutional structure, including separation of powers;
    2. The common law system, and the relationship between legislation and case law;
    3. Hierarchy of courts, and the doctrine of stare decisis;
    4. The division between criminal and civil law, and the role each type of law plays in society;
    5. The role of Organs of State (e.g. The Attorney-General’s Chambers) in making, administering, and enforcing the law; and
    6. Practical implications of the legal system, on both lawyers and non-lawyers.
       
  • Develop competence in basic legal skills, including:
    1. Basic logic;
    2. Legal analysis;
    3. Legal research and interpretation;
    4. Legal writing (advisory and litigation); and
    5. Practical application of legal skills to real-world problems.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course aims to impart knowledge and understanding in the Singapore social and fiscal policies, workings and basic principles of income tax, stamp duty, social security system and GST.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a broad understanding of Singapore’s social and fiscal policies.
  • Have an understanding of principles of Singapore’s retirement schemes.
  • Demonstrate the ability to identify tax issues.
  • Have an understanding of the social background of the introduction of various tax and fiscal policies.
  • Have an understanding of tax law and practices.
  • Demonstrate the ability to compute tax liabilities and evaluate tax alternatives to maximize taxpayer’s net cash flow. 
COURSE OVERVIEW

Singapore is both a city and a country contained in a small geographical space located in Southeast Asia. It houses a diverse population in terms of race, language, religion, class and nationality. It possesses no natural resources, but has a highly educated labour force. Its economy has experienced significant growth rates, particularly in the late 70s and early 80s, coupled with low unemployment.

Like most other more developed economies, Singapore now confronts a range of socioeconomic issues (e.g. rapidly ageing population, declining fertility rates, widening income inequality, rising costs of living) amidst increasing global competition, technological advancements, and security threats. At the same time, Singaporeans have become more of a people with a stronger national identity, a greater propensity to participate in the decisions that affect the destiny of the country, and a wider range of views and voices on the future direction of Singapore, the challenges it confronts, and the strategies and means by which to achieve their preferred goal(s) for themselves, their children, and the country.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Become well-informed individuals who are able to develop new frameworks and perspectives in understanding different facets of Singapore society and life in Singapore.
  • Become critical and knowledgeable individuals with a good grasp of the issues and challenges confronting Singapore.
  • Become thinking and active individuals who are able to harness the acquired knowledge and skills to develop strategies and policies that would be beneficial to all Singaporeans in the Singapore they envision for the future.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This module is designed to introduce students to some key concepts within environmental history and STS studies, especially the impact and control of science and technology, with particular focus on the risks that these have posed to environmental sustainability and society in parts of Asia historically. Focusing on the history of the British Empire in Asia as a way of thinking around such issues, it uses imperial history as a lens into the development of ideas in environmental, medical and climatic science. It also considers the technological transformations that enabled and facilitated global imperial expansion. In so doing, it considers imperialism’s role in environmental change in Asia; the transposition of scientific thought between West and East and, the evolution of environmentalism as a movement. It also seeks to promote interdisciplinary thinking about critical contemporary challenges by thinking through the complex historical interconnections of society, environment and science.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a firm grasp of the multi-disciplinary and historical concepts and theories that inform the broad field of environmental history within the context of nineteenth century imperialism.
  • By undertaking primary source analysis, become confident in rapid critical thinking, objective analysis and the articulation of varying viewpoints. While based on historical sources, these skills are transferable across a range of disciplines and job roles.
  • Develop a greater appreciation of some of the environmental issues and challenges that face us in Asia, and the world, today, with the benefit of a long-view.
  • By taking part in group activities and presentations, develop skills in effective collaboration, teamwork, and communications.
  • Develop independent thinking and a readiness to challenge or critique accepted narratives.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course introduces students to climate change, both within cities and globally, through a predominant Science, Technology and Society (STS) perspective. After first understanding basic local and global climate science, students will examine case studies from Singapore and the region. Students will understand up-to-date research on how

  1. Socio-economic inequalities heighten risks towards urban populations, and
  2. Technological innovation evolves with applied nature-based solutions in reducing climate vulnerabilities. We conclude the course by examining the relevant interactions between (i) and (ii) across spatial and temporal scales.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Understand how the confluence of scientific, social scientific, and humanities knowledge are essential to understanding climate change.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Through critical thinking engendered from class discussions, lead them to applying effective management and innovation principles towards managing climate change impacts.

Global Citizenship

  • Become cognizant on how personal actions and group decisions can impact upon the larger global community through the larger scale climate system.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course conceptualizes cities as spatial, political, economic and socio-cultural phenomena. Through interdisciplinary perspectives from anthropology, geography, political economy, planning and cultural studies, we will explore diverse case studies, problems, politics and perspectives. Students will explore the possibilities and challenges of urban life over time and space – the centrality, complexity, creativity and conflicts that cities embody. The examination of cities, with particular attention to Singapore, will encompass spaces of social and cultural order/disorder, problems of social difference and the possibilities of creative responses, and the challenges and evolving meaning of individuality and collectively in dense population spaces. Students will also examine contemporary global alternatives and pay special attention in readings to the urban experience in Singapore as the metropolitan laboratory in which we are active participants in creating and shaping. Through readings, focused questions, discussions and assignments, students are also invited to reflect on the privileges and demands of urban citizenship itself.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a firm grasp of the basic concepts and theories that inform the broad field of urban studies.
  • Be able to provide insights into the nature of cities, and the processes and politics through which urban cultures/spatial patterns have evolved over time.
  • Be knowledgeable of experiences of urban life and urbanity across different socioeconomic-political contexts, with particular emphasis on Singapore.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The contemporary world is usually described as ‘globalized.’ Although some claim that this ‘global village’ can be our home and that human life is improved by globalization, others complain that the local sense of groundedness that they argue is essential to human flourishing is becoming harder to attain. In this course, we explore the big question of whether these two concepts – the global and the local – are really opposites and whether it is possible to find a home in a world that is global. These explorations will transpire through analysis and discussion of readings drawn from business, scientific, legal, philosophical, and aesthetic sources illuminating the intersections of the global and local. By the end of the course, students will be expected to able to articulate their responses to whether they can find home in a globalized world by integrating the course material with their own personal experiences. This course should be of special interest to students embarking on endeavours that will take them far from home, as one objective will be for them to articulate what ‘home’ is.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates about the globalized world.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly across these perspectives, synthesizing and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they construct and refine their own critical perspectives about the intersections between global and local.

Global Citizenship

  • Gain understanding and appreciation of a variety of cultural, disciplinary, and historical points of view about the merits and demerits of the local, in comparison with the merits and demerits of the global. In this way, students’ capacities as local and global citizens will be enhanced, and their sense of responsibility in each of these spheres – and in their intersections – will be strengthened.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course conceptualizes food and food consumption as a deeply spatial, political, economic and socio-cultural phenomena. Through interdisciplinary perspectives from anthropology, geography, political economy, sociology and cultural studies, we will explore diverse case studies, problems, politics and perspectives about food. Students will interrogate the centrality, complexity, creativity and conflicts surrounding food over societies, time and space. The examination of food, with particular attention to Singapore, will encompass discussions on issues including the ethics of food production/consumption, patterns of diet and dieting, the politics of sustainable food production, and hybrid food cultures. Students will also examine contemporary global responses to the global food shortage and pay special attention to food cultures in Singapore as the metropolitan kitchen in which we are active participants. Through readings, focused questions, discussions and assignments, students are also invited to reflect on their own patterns of food consumption.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have a firm understanding of the basic concepts and theories that inform the study of food and consumption.
  • Provide insights into the patterns of food production, distribution and consumption, and the processes and politics through which food cultures and their associated spatial patterns have evolved over time.
  • Be knowledgeable of food cultures across different socio-economic-political contexts, with a particular emphasis on Singapore.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course aims to equip young leaders with an understanding of the impact of an ageing population on society, and in particular the emerging cohort of Singaporeans in their Third Age. The notion of the third age was introduced by gerontologists as it became clear that the discourse on ageing covers a heterogeneous group of individuals who may be of the same age chronologically, but who in terms of personal characteristics and life experience are quite different. This third age of human existence is characterized by retirement from full-time work and a new way of spending time (Carr & Komp, 2011). Through class discussions and group projects, students will dive deeper into disciplines like gerontology, social sciences (intergenerational; social connectedness), public policy (successful ageing), economics (retirement) and technological developments in the ageing space. Students will explore case studies and challenges of a rapidly ageing society in Singapore and around the world such as Japan, China, USA, Australia, Netherlands etc.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Have an understanding of the theoretical and empirical work on studies of older adults in the field of gerontology, and related studies eg. global ageing phenomenon, ageism, retirement, the notion of a Third Age, concept of social connectedness, active and successful ageing, social policies, economic of ageing, ethical issues in ageing.
  • Be knowledgeable of life experiences and challenges of third agers in Singapore from the socio-economic-political perspectives.
  • Make innovative recommendations that promote social connectedness, and engage third agers in Singapore.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course explores the idea(l) of technological and innovative ‘solutions’ in the context of the contemporary social, political, and economic challenges facing cities. It situates these technological solutions, and the global suppliers thereof, in the wider relationship between processes of problem-solving and metropolitan governance. It adopts interdisciplinary perspectives from science and technology studies, urban studies and urban planning, critical policy studies, geography, and sociology to evaluate the nature, scale, and effectiveness of these solutions to city challenges locally and globally.

Drawing on case studies internationally as well as from Singapore, students will learn about:

(a) different technological tropes of urban solutions;

(b) the history and culture of technocratic problem solving in the urban context;

(c) the global capitalist landscape of urban solutions providers, in particular technology companies; and

(d) Singapore’s peculiar standing as a self-styled, ideal-type ‘model’ of urban solutions, particularly for countries and cities in the Global South. Particular emphasis will be laid on the increasingly important role of technology companies as suppliers of (claims to)  ’solutions’ for urban challenges, as well as on critical perspectives of place, politics, and power, to continually ask questions of who has the power to define ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ (and for whom?).

Over thirteen weeks of readings, field-trips, and seminar discussions, students will learn to problematize and critically reflect on the contradictory conceptions of ‘solutions’ and ‘problems’ in the context of (global) metropolitan governance from the distinctive position of a ‘model’ city.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Be cognizant of how technology is embedded within the processes and politics of contemporary urban policymaking.
  • Be critically aware of how cities came to be constructed and viewed as problem-solving sites of urban governance, and the challenges as well as opportunities created by technological innovation in this regard.
  • Be knowledgeable of experiences of urban governance across different social, political, and economic contexts, especially in the Global South.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The pursuit of wealth in its various forms has been prominent throughout recorded history. The desire to accumulate resources is found across civilisations. Yet, should wealth be simply measured in economic and financial terms? Should poverty be only measured through the same lens? Many cultures promote the virtues of prudence and fortitude, peppered with ideals of justice and equality in its various guises. Wealth and poverty are often seen as diametric. Despite this, several traditions point to the need for thinking through forms of wealth (and poverty) beyond the conventional lens of economics, and to consider the pursuit of wealth of time, happiness, peace, relationships, and other elements that enrich the human experience. It is little wonder that in our contemporary age, several scholars have pointed towards the reprioritisation of wealth accumulation towards one that places happiness, health and other non-monetary goals as the ideal. In this course, we will be exploring substantially several forms of wealth (beyond the conventional), and to consider carefully the causes and strategies to address the challenges related to wealth and poverty in our contemporary world. 

Through critical engagement with a variety of disciplines and empirical contexts, we will consider the intertwined phenomena of wealth and poverty in theory and practice. The course explores the value systems we attach to each, why, and with what consequences for ourselves and others. We investigate how our notions of wealth and poverty contribute directly to the construction of our identity as well as ideas about inequality, power, justice, progress, and more. In so doing, we look into the ways people, their customs, laws and culture respond to their perceptions and experiences of wealth and poverty; reflect on how they debate the purposes and outcomes of wealth and poverty; and discuss how they compete and cooperate for limited resources in our contemporary world. Also, we will study how our knowledge and conception of wealth and poverty may continually change over time. By the end of the course, students will have an expansive understanding of how these two phenomena come together in ways that structure and define their everyday lives.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates concerning different conceptions of wealth and poverty.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly and critically between perspectives, synthesizing and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they refine their perspectives about the intersections between wealth and poverty.

Global Citizenship

  • Problematize their value systems with regard to the accumulation of wealth and the disdain for poverty and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The pursuit of wealth in its various forms has been prominent throughout recorded history. The desire to accumulate resources is found across civilizations. Yet, should wealth simply measured in economic and financial terms? Should poverty be only measured through the same lens? Many cultures promote the virtues of prudence and fortitude, peppered with ideals of justice and equality in its various guises. Wealth and poverty are often seen as diametric. Despite this, several traditions point to the need for thinking through forms of wealth (and poverty) beyond the conventional lens of economics, and to consider the pursuit of wealth of time, happiness, peace, relationships, and other elements that enrich the human experience. It is little wonder that in our contemporary age, several scholars have pointed towards the reprioritization of wealth accumulation towards one that places happiness, health and other non-monetary goals as the ideal. In this course, we will be exploring substantially several forms of wealth (beyond the conventional), and to consider carefully the causes and strategies to address the challenges related to wealth and poverty in our contemporary world.

Through critical engagement with a variety of disciplines and empirical contexts, we will consider the intertwined phenomena of wealth and poverty in theory and praxis. The course explores the value systems we attach to each, why, and with what consequences for ourselves and others. We investigate how our notions of wealth and poverty contribute directly to the construction of our identity as well as ideas about inequality, power, justice, progress, and more. In so doing, we look into the ways people, their customs, laws and culture respond to their perceptions and experiences of wealth and poverty; reflect on how they debate the purposes and outcomes of wealth and poverty; and discuss how they compete and cooperate for limited resources in our contemporary world. Also, we will study how our knowledge and conception of wealth and poverty may continually change over time.

By the end of the course, students will have an expansive understanding of how these two phenomena come together in ways that structure and define their everyday lives.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates concerning the many conceptions of wealth and poverty.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly and critically between perspectives, synthesizing and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they refine their perspectives about the intersections between wealth and poverty.

Global Citizenship

  • Problematize their value systems with regard to the accumulation of wealth and the disdain for poverty and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Hailed as “the greatest book on democracy ever written,” Tocqueville’s Democracy in America offers a window into much more than the United States visited by Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1830s. Indeed, Tocqueville believed he “saw in America” an image of the future everywhere, for he believed that equality of conditions from which democratic society grew was the world’s inevitable future. Having reached its most developed form in the United States, equality of conditions modified and transformed all aspects of life, from politics to social relations, to personal relations, to intellectual life, to individual character and values. Given this radical transformation of the world, Tocqueville believed that “A new political science is needed for a world entirely new,” and Democracy in America articulates this new political science. Tocqueville’s masterpiece, then, looks beyond its US context, for Tocqueville hoped to teach his readers what they could hope and fear from democracy, as well as how democratic society might be “educated” to avoid some of the dangers to which it is prone.

This course takes its inspiration from Tocqueville’s ambition, by approaching Democracy in America thematically and using Tocqueville’s study as a basis for broader inquiry into features of contemporary democratic society. Each week of the course will focus on a key theme in Democracy in America, and each week will pair that theme with current scholarship applying and extending elements of the Tocquevillian perspective to contemporary contexts. By the end of the course, students will have gained familiarity with key elements of the Tocquevillian analysis of democratic society as well as critical perspectives on how these themes have continued to play out in current scholarship and debates.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Have a sound understanding of the key concepts in the Tocquevillian analysis of democratic society (i.e., point of departure, mores, equality, associative life, etc.). Students will be also be able to extend and apply Tocqueville’s analysis to a variety of contemporary global contexts.

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

  • Reflect critically upon democracy’s strengths and weaknesses, and the salience (or lack thereof) of Tocqueville’s analysis.
COURSE OVERVIEW

Humans have been making war and peace throughout their recorded history. We can be fairly certain this was the case well before civilization emerged. Conflicts always seem to erupt over scarce resources, contentious values and ideas, fissures in relationships, fault-lines in societies, the list goes on. And, intertwined with these conflicts are efforts to end violence, to heal wounds and reconcile, to share resources, to create or re-establish a semblance of harmony between peoples. Most of all will perceive these human activities as binary opposites, as mutually exclusive, leading us to invest particular meanings in each to distinguish them further from each other. Indeed, thanks to influences from culture, media, from our communities, families and leaders, we typically perceive war and peace as suffering versus happiness, action not stillness, a zone of masculine combat versus one of safety for women and children, and much more. These ingrained perceptions shape our decisions, actions and relationships in fundamental ways, determining our behaviour and experiences in all spaces and times, whether we have construed them to be in the context of war, peace, and anything beyond or in-between. Since our views of war and peace are so fundamental to our life experience, this course asks us for a deeper engagement of our prior knowledge.

Through critical engagement with a variety of disciplines and empirical contexts, we will consider the intertwined phenomena of war and peace in theory and praxis. The course explores the value systems we attach to each, why, and with what consequences for ourselves and others? We investigate how our notions of war and peace contribute directly to the construction of our identity as well as ideas about belonging, power, justice, progress, and more. In so doing, we look into the ways people, their customs, laws and culture respond to their perceptions and experiences of war and peace; reflect on how they debate the purposes of war-making and peace-making; and discuss how they compete and cooperate for the spoils of both war and peace. Also, we will study how our knowledge of war and peace may continually change over time. By the end of the course, students will have an expansive understanding of how these two phenomena come together in ways that structure and define their everyday lives.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates concerning the many conceptions of war and peace.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly and critically between perspectives, synthesizing and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they refine their perspectives about the intersections between war and peace.

Global Citizenship

  • Problematize their value systems with regard to war-making and peace-making and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
COURSE OVERVIEW

This course aims to introduce Politics, Law and Economics (PLE) students to how law operates in Singapore. To study law is to study power and the regulation of power. The challenge, for the purposes of this course, is that the state both wields power and limits its own power. In other words, the state is both the ruler and the ruled. In this course, we will interrogate the tension between the two, exploring the role of law in Singapore in the management of both public power and the sphere of private dealings between persons. This will be done through a study of the various sources of law and their nature; the legal institutions and the relations between them; and foundational principles and values.

We will explore the concept of law and the ideals of constitutionalism, democracy, the rule of law, and the separation of powers – all of which pertain to the ways in which power is defined and limited by law. Besides studying what law is, we will study tools and concepts which have some degree of formality but are not law, such as policies and decisions by those who hold discretionary powers. We will study these ideas not only on a conceptual level, but in the particular context of Singapore’s legal system.

Having inquired into these ideas, we will go on to explore the various institutions of the state and their roles, as well as the values that animate them. This is important because law does not put itself into action; legal institutions breathe life into laws by interpreting them, executing them, and serving as sites of contestation as to how they are to be interpreted and executed. We will discuss matters such as different modes of lawmaking and their relative advantages and disadvantages; the role of the state in controlling its own power; and the limits to law as a means of governing society. We will apply all this knowledge by focusing our attention on a few discrete areas of law as case studies.

While this course will focus on Singapore, comparisons will be drawn with other legal systems, particularly the UK’s, where appropriate.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Explain the importance of the rule of law, and discuss the usefulness of, and limits to, law as a tool of governance.
  • Appreciate how to read and understand sources of law.
  • State the main actors in Singapore’s system of governance, describe their functions, and explain how the actors relate to each other.
  • Discuss the values (whether or not explicitly articulated) that underlie governance in Singapore.
  • Give an evaluative account of judicial and non-judicial controls over the uses of executive and legislative power.
  • Explain the role of the state in the management of challenges unique to Singapore.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The pursuit of wealth in its various forms has been prominent throughout recorded history. The desire to accumulate resources is found across civilizations. Yet, should wealth simply measured in economic and financial terms? Should poverty be only measured through the same lens? Many cultures promote the virtues of prudence and fortitude, peppered with ideals of justice and equality in its various guises. Wealth and poverty are often seen as diametric. Despite this, several traditions point to the need for thinking through forms of wealth (and poverty) beyond the conventional lens of economics, and to consider the pursuit of wealth of time, happiness, peace, relationships, and other elements that enrich the human experience. It is little wonder that in our contemporary age, several scholars have pointed towards the reprioritization of wealth accumulation towards one that places happiness, health and other non-monetary goals as the ideal. In this course, we will be exploring substantially several forms of wealth (beyond the conventional), and to consider carefully the causes and strategies to address the challenges related to wealth and poverty in our contemporary world.

Through critical engagement with a variety of disciplines and empirical contexts, we will consider the intertwined phenomena of wealth and poverty in theory and praxis. The course explores the value systems we attach to each, why, and with what consequences for ourselves and others. We investigate how our notions of wealth and poverty contribute directly to the construction of our identity as well as ideas about inequality, power, justice, progress, and more. In so doing, we look into the ways people, their customs, laws and culture respond to their perceptions and experiences of wealth and poverty; reflect on how they debate the purposes and outcomes of wealth and poverty; and discuss how they compete and cooperate for limited resources in our contemporary world. Also, we will study how our knowledge and conception of wealth and poverty may continually change over time.

By the end of the course, students will have an expansive understanding of how these two phenomena come together in ways that structure and define their everyday lives.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

Disciplinary and Multidisciplinary Knowledge

  • Become conversant with the various disciplinary discussions and debates concerning the many conceptions of wealth and poverty.

Intellectual and Creative Skills

  • Move fluidly and critically between perspectives, synthesizing and drawing comparisons/contrasts between them as they refine their perspectives about the intersections between wealth and poverty.

Global Citizenship

  • Problematize their value systems with regard to the accumulation of wealth and the disdain for poverty and, thereby, reformulate and defend their new worldviews.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The island city-state of Singapore is unique in its social, political, and economic development. From its roots as a British colony and independence as a developing country, Singapore has developed to become one of the world’s most successful economies with a unique blend of political authoritarianism, social engineering, communitarianism, and state-led capitalism. This course examines central aspects of Singapore society from the perspective of how its social democratic constitution challenges the core tents of Western political and social liberalism. At this stage of its development, Singapore society’s social democracy and communitarian governance significantly challenges the individualist ethos of liberal democracy as the only or best path to social and economic development. How has Singapore’s rapid development been achieved without recourse to Western liberal ideology? Are there limits to Singapore’s social democracy and is communitarianism a sustainable governing ideology? To answer these and other questions, this course examines issues such as public housing, state capitalism, race and multiculturalism, cultural liberalization, immigration, and social inequality.

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Analyze liberal and counter-liberal approaches to governance.
  • Evaluate the Singapore state’s policy decisions and outcomes.
  • Explain how state strategies have shaped Singapore’s development in key social areas.
  • Discuss the role of non-state actors in Singapore vis-à-vis the state.
  • Assess the sustainability of Singapore’s communitarian governance model.
COURSE OVERVIEW

The efficient management of our shared resources and the way we dispose of waste and pollutants are crucial to achieving responsible consumption and production. Encouraging industries, businesses and consumers to recycle and reduce waste is necessary, as is supporting consumers to move towards a more sustainable pattern of consumption. This forms the basis of SDG12: Responsible consumption and production, which includes the following targets:

1. Substantially reducing waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
2. Reduce food waste along the supply chains, retail and consumer levels
3. Ensure that people have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development.

Digital Technologies for Environmental Sustainability (in the Singapore context) is a hands on module which allows students to employ problem solving and prototyping skills using digital technologies to address the above targets. In addition to case studies of how the issue of Responsible consumption and production is tackled by various Singapore organizations, communities and businesses, they will also be exposed to design thinking, hardware and software prototyping, prototyping tools and technologies (IoT, Microcontrollers, App development, Artificial Intelligence, AR/VR, Metaverse) and will gain first hand experience in using these tools to prototype a solution to address a challenge statement around environmental sustainability. 

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course, students should be able to:

  • Understand SDG12: Responsible consumption & production and how worldwide consumption & production uses natural environment and resources in a way that leaves a destructive impact on our planet.
  • Understand the spectrum of innovative digital technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mixed reality, Metaverse and how they can be used as tools to address challenges around responsible consumption and production.
  • Apply the concepts of Design thinking and Business Model generation to develop and validate a product idea that uses innovative technologies to address sustainability related problems.
  • Design and develop prototypes using digital technologies to address challenges of responsible consumption and production, especially in the Singapore and regional context.

* Not all courses are offered in every semester