National University of Singapore

This course considers science fiction as a mode of philosophical inquiry. Science fiction stories are used to examine fundamental questions of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Topics include the nature of time, space, religion, nature, mind, and the future. Specific topics may include such issues as genetic enhancement, environmental ethics, and implications of encounters with non‐human life forms.

The course is the continuation of Advanced Chinese 1 and prepares students to take further courses in advanced-level Chinese. It is designed for students who have studied at least two-and-a-half years of Chinese at the college level to achieve greater proficiency in oral and written uses of modern Mandarin. The course further develop language skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing, with particular emphasis on enhancing reading and writing abilities. It builds upon the foundations of Advanced Chinese 1 yet differs in giving the students increased exposure to authentic written (and audio-visual) materials not specifically designed for classroom learning.

This course provides an introductory understanding of social work education as a profession. The course includes both cognitive and experiential knowledge on the needs of individuals, families and society, and the social work response in meeting these needs. Included are the mission, values and principles of the social work profession and its roles and functions in contributing to human well-being. As an integral and compulsory part of this module, students will visit social service organization. 

This course surveys the diverse meanings and functions of money, debt, finance, and corporations as intrinsic parts of social life. Students study ethnographic works that document people’s lived experiences in contemporary capitalism from across the world and discuss why people create different currencies, what social networks form in the finance world, and what role corporations play in contemporary societies. The course reflects on class inequality, challenge common beliefs about debt and morality, and explore alternative economic imaginations. Students learn how to think critically about contemporary capitalism—its heterogeneity, current transformations, and alternatives.

What most people think they know about Darwin, his life and his famous book ‘On the origin of species’ is wrong. This course provides a solid background for understanding how the theory of evolution unfolded. It covers the history of geology, paleontology and biology from the 1700s to the 20th century. The central focus is on the life and work of Charles Darwin and how biological evolution was uncovered, debated and accepted by the international scientific community in the 19th century, and beyond. 

This course uses an integrated approach to teach the basic skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing to maintain communication on common topics. Students acquire language skills through participation in various communicative tasks. Through exposure to the language, students develop a general understanding of the culture, the sociolinguistic and pragmatic aspects of the language. 

This course introduces the history of art in China, from its earliest manifestations in the Neolithic-period to the contemporary period. Major art forms to be studied may include ceramics, jade, architecture, painting and calligraphy. The social and cultural contexts of important art works from different periods in Chinese history are discussed. The course is intended for all students who are interested in Chinese art and culture.

Through the close study of films by great directors, this course explores how film as an artistic medium can be used to engage with significant socio-cultural and existential concerns. The course teaches how to analyze film as an artistic medium and, further, how film directors use the aesthetic elements of film to engage with important subjects. Through films by directors like Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, Wong Kar-Wai and Zhang Yimou, students get a chance to reflect on issues like the human condition, the family, the urban condition, love and society, and the nation.

This course studies how theories of social psychology can be applied to the understanding of how new media is produced, marketed, resisted, adopted, and consumed. It highlights key stages in the development trajectory of new media and introduces relevant theories, while considering such issues as why some technologies succeed where others fail, how marketers should promote new technology, which services are likely to become tomorrow's dominant applications, what goes through the minds of new media adopters, and who are most likely to engage in deviant media use.