National University of Singapore

This course introduces the topic of gender by using basic concepts like biological sex, nature, nurture, roles, norms and culture. The meaning of gender categories is examined in relation to difference, exchange, reproduction, knowledge and social change. Although the main perspective is ethnographic, this course is intended to be an exercise in interdisciplinary thinking. Understanding gender provides a foundation to analyze social structures (power and inequality), social institutions (family, kinship, education, economy, the state, health) and cultural issues (science, food, emotions, popular culture).

This course examines key issues pertaining to international security including: the various approaches to studying international security, the nature of interaction among various levels (national, regional, international) of security, and the major security threats caused by the expansion of conventional arms, proliferation of nuclear arsenal and the spread of biological and chemical weapons. The rise of non-traditional security threats in world politics, especially Southeast Asia, and of Asia, particularly China, as a security concern internationally is also analyzed.

The course explores how humanity’s political, cultural, social, environmental, and economic issues transcend the way the world is divided through borders and how relations are interconnected across space and time. Students examine various aspects of globalization and key global issues emerging out of interconnectedness and interdependency across borders. Topics include contemporary and historic case-studies, broader trends, and through learning and applying theoretical-frameworks to better understand and analyze how international interdependence emerges, changes, and is governed.

The course introduces the use of materials related to artistic expression, color, and perspective to create a 3-dimensional illusion and technology for dating and attribution of objects of art. Scientific principles of various forms of art are explored.

This course deals with the theory and practice of international macroeconomics and finance. The objective is to provide a theoretical framework to think about a wide variety of current issues in international finance: current account deficit, global imbalances, exchange rate determination, monetary policy in an open economy setting, and global financial crisis in 2008.

This course covers the economic causes of environmental and resource problems. Economic theory is applied to environmental questions associated with resource exploitation; the problem of externalities and their management through various economic institutions, economic incentives and other instruments and policies. Means of analyzing the economic implications of environmental policy are also discussed as well as the valuation of environmental quality, assessment of environmental damages, and tools needed for the evaluation of projects such as cost-benefit analysis, and environmental impact assessments. Selected topics on international environmental issues will also be discussed.

This course improves visual communication skills and stimulates creative thinking. Through hands-on practice, students are taught how to use the stylus and tablet to create sketches and paintings in Photoshop. Major topics include dynamic sketching; introduction to stylus, tablet and Photoshop; understanding and applying values and light; rendering with color; silhouetting for ideation; layout for presentation. 

This course discusses the basic concepts and methods of information retrieval including capturing, representing, storing, organizing, and retrieving unstructured or loosely structured information. 

This course introduces major themes in environmental history along with the historical study of the mutual influences of humans and the environment. After critically evaluating how the discipline of environmental history has developed, lectures and discussions focus on topics such as disease, agriculture, gender, and modern environmental problems. The course combines lectures with research assignments to understand how a historian approaches such a topic concerning the environment. 

This course introduces students to the sociological study of deviance and social control, distinguishing it as a field of research from biological and psychological explanations of deviance. It traces the historical development of sociological theories on deviance and introduce students to contemporary approaches to deviance and crime. These perspectives are utilized and illustrated through a study of the changing patterns of defining and controlling deviance in modern societies with reference to selected substantive issues.