Singapore

This course examines issues concerning South Asians in Singapore through a study of the historical and socio-economic development of these communities, and issues pertaining to their identity. Topics include the migration and establishment of South Asian communities in Singapore during the colonial period, from the early 19th century to the middle of the 20th century, and the new movement of ‘professional’ migrants from the sub-continent in the late 20th century; the interplay of state policies in Singapore, local conditions, and linkages with South Asia and their impact on the social, economic and political development of these communities in Singapore; aspects of the everyday life of South Asians in Singapore including language, religion, and popular culture; and how South Asians in Singapore are portrayed and how they perceive and present themselves.

This course focuses on the functions of the biophysical environment of the city state of Singapore. The topics include geology, soils, river systems, water supply, natural reserves, green areas, land reclamation and coastal environments. The environmental problems that arise from the development of a large tropical city within a limited area, and the possible solutions for such problems are examined. The course emphasizes current events in Singapore and discusses what Singapore's environment may look like in the future.

This course explores the many forms of relationship between politics and visual culture. From the ancient world to the present, politics, whether formal or popular, has had a visual dimension. Politicians have been concerned to control their appearance; various media (from painting to theatre to television to the internet) have been used to both serve and defeat this goal. The course surveys the relationship between politics and visual culture and allows students to engage with contemporary issues surrounding politics, film, and digital culture.

This course provides an introduction to the fundamental concepts and tools needed to understand the emerging role of business analytics in business and non-profit organizations. The course demonstrates how to apply basic business analytics and data science/analytics tools (such as R) to large real-life datasets in different contexts, and how to effectively use and interpret analytic models and results for making better and more well-informed business decisions. This course provides both the organizational and technical aspects of business analytics and serves to provide students with a broad overview of how and why business analytics can be implemented in organizations, and the various approaches and techniques that could be adopted for different organizational objectives and issues.

This course examines concepts, methods and tools to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of marketing activities and to leverage on data and marketing analytics to make better and more informed marketing decisions. Course topics covered include customer lifetime value, segmentation, targeting, positioning, forecasting, conjoint analysis etc. The course requires students to take prerequisites.

Through case studies, this course explores the port city and the 'maritime world' in Asia. It introduces the history of China's maritime world with a focus on the challenges it faced through encroachment by Western imperial powers. This course also examines Asia's colonial port cities, including Calcutta and Singapore, as sites of Western influence and modernization and also as sites of local resistance and transformation. 

This course introduces the main issues in contemporary philosophy of religion. Topics include (other topics may also be considered): arguments for the existence of God (cosmological, ontological, teleological), argument for atheism (problem of evil), religious pluralism, nature of mystical experiences, the nature of miracles, and the nature of religious language.