Singapore

This course offers a broad survey of the evolution of travel and tourism, delving into its historical foundations and contemporary complexities. Students examine the history of travel and exploration and its impact on cultural exchange, empire-building, economic development, and global connectivity. Students trace the historical roots of the booming travel and tourism industry, and are introduced to contemporary issues related to travel consumerism, sustainability, and the influence of technology and social media. Students develop an understanding of the multifaceted nature of travel and tourism within the broader historical and contemporary context of societal, cultural, and environmental dynamics.

This course introduces students to the diversity of major groups of living organisms, and the importance of maintaining diversity in natural ecosystems. With emphasis on the need for conservation of biodiversity to maintain a balance of nature, the course highlights the biodiversity in the major habitats and vegetation types in and around Singapore.

This course traces the business history of Singapore from its origins as an East India Company outpost, as an entrepôt for regional and international trade routes to its current status as a global city and center for international finance and business. The course offers an introduction to business history and explores different case studies in the local context. These case studies range from ‘rags to riches' stories of early migrant communities, popular local brands, and present day entrepreneurs. Major topics include: trading communities, commodities, networks and migration, entrepreneurship, business culture, heritage, globalization, state, politics and business.

The course introduces students to important grammatical features of Classical Chinese. Lexical study and some knowledge of Chinese writing system will also be examined for their contribution to the understanding of Classical Chinese. The course focuses on the analysis of Pre-Qin literature. Classroom activities include lectures, group discussions and some take-home assignments. The course requires students to take a prerequisite.

This introductory level course familiarizes students to a variety of local Singapore texts from a variety of genres - poetry, short stories, plays, novels, and film. Students gain a deeper understanding of major themes, cultures, identities and lifestyles represented in Singapore literature, as well as national issues and perspectives. It introduces students to Singapore literature and culture through a literary lens. It includes major works of literature by Singaporean authors, such as Edwin Thumboo, Catherine Lim, Kuo Pao Kun, Haresh Sharma, Gwee Li Sui, Claire Tham, Philip Jeyeratnam, Tan Tarn How and films by Eric Khoo, as well as a wide range of critical essays and commentaries. Students analyze works by the authors from a variety of perspectives, in an effort to evaluate how the artistic community frames images of Singapore. This is a suitable course for students that do not have a background in Singapore literature. 

This upper-level seminar course focuses on the history and historiography of the most consequential imperial nation-state in the world today, from its founding at the supposed end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 to the Tiananmen Square protests and massacre in 1989. After a brief, synoptic overview of modern Chinese history until 1989 in the first two weeks, students spend the rest of the semester working through chronologically and thematically the major periods and issues in PRC history.

This course provides an analysis of multi-sided platform businesses like those run by Alibaba, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Tencent that dominate the current economy. Students will examine the economic and strategic questions these business raise that that policymakers and market participants are grappling with and the unique economic issues pertaining to these businesses. Topics include (i) the economic features of multi-sided platforms (e.g.., definitions of platforms, network externalities, pricing and competition between platforms); (ii) strategic issues faced by platforms (e.g., launching, platform design, leakage, revenue model); (iii) emerging policy issues (e.g., platform mergers, self-preferencing, abuse of dominance). This course has pre-requisites in microeconomics. 

This course introduces and develops a financial geography perspective, understood as the study of the spatiality of money and finance, and its implications for the economy, society, and nature. It introduces students to the complexity and controversy of financial globalization, vocabulary of finance, drawing on research relating to the global financial system, financial centers of London, New York, Shanghai, and Singapore, and their geographical footprint. 

This course provides business and accountancy students with a rigorous appreciation of the issues and methodologies necessary for ensuring the competitiveness of the operations function in a firm. The course takes an analytics based 'process management' viewpoint while addressing a range of strategic and tactical issues. The course examines the key tradeoffs required for designing, managing and improving operations and processes in both manufacturing and service industries. Students gain an analytical background for further courses in Business Analytics Specialization and managing operations or its interface with other business functions such as marketing, finance, accounting, human resources and information technology.

This course introduces the knowledge and tools to record and arrange popular music. Using one of the most ubiquitous music-making tools in the market, GarageBand, this practical based course allows students the opportunities to explore recording and editing of melodies, harmonies, and basic bass & drum patterns using software instruments. Students explore the use of Apple Loops to enhance arrangement ideas. In addition, students learn about the specific musical terms and concepts to better understand and describe music arrangements. This course deepens technological content knowledge and improves self-efficacy in the development of students' musical abilities. No audition is required.