National University of Singapore

This course focuses on the concepts and practical use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for problem solving in both the social and physical sciences. Topics include vector and raster data formats and their analytical functions. Practical laboratory exercises utilizing GIS software such as ArcGIS are a core component of the course.

This beginning-language course in standard (Mandarin) Chinese is a continuation of Chinese I. It consists of three components: grammar, conversation and Chinese characters. The course introduces another 280 Chinese characters and 250 phrases. Emphasis is placed on listening, speaking, reading and the writing of Chinese characters. Students are required to give short speeches and to conduct projects in tutorials. Assessment: attendance, participation, assignments and exercises, oral presentation, quizzes, midterm, final exam.

This course covers the politics of democratization in South Asia, a region with a long history of inter-state and intra-state conflict. The post-colonial separation of India into India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh has caused cross border tensions and paved the way for military intervention in the domestic politics of Pakistan and Bangladesh. The diverse interests of ethnic and religious communities are testing the legitimacy of majoritarian democracy and the limits of claims for autonomous government. This course examines the institutional structures, state-citizen relations, and identity politics in South Asia’s democratic experiments to find hope for democracy in a polarized world.

This course explores how variation in language use relates to broader variation in the daily experiences of individuals and groups. It examines how language constructs cultural abstractions such as social class, gender, and power relations and how these abstractions play out in language varieties and shape their defining characteristics. 

This course examines kinship, a foundational concern of anthropology. Kinship is, essentially about, relationships. The course investigates the forms, meanings and manipulations of relationships that people have constructed across various historical and cultural contexts. Comparing the diverse ways in which people live, labor and love, it examines the centrality of kinship to understandings of what it means to be a person. Concurrently, kinship is a medium for grappling with the interactions between intimate life and public culture, domestic production-reproduction and political economy, everyday practices and conceptual structures and affection and moral obligations. The focus of the course is on how kinship is a vital force in contemporary societies.