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4.2.2 Description of Courses
Chinese
HC101 Introduction to the Study of Literature and Culture
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
An introductory course to provide students with the understanding of Chinese literature and culture with respect to classical Chinese literary theories and more recent western critical theories. Basic concepts such as the definition of literature and culture, literary genres, themes, the reading of literary and non-literary texts, cross disciplinary approaches in the studies of literature and culture, etc., will be presented. This is an essential course serving as the foundation to classical and modern Chinese studies for students reading the Chinese major.
HC102 Introduction to Chinese Language
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
In this course, students will be guided through a survey of the Chinese Language using basic concepts of modern linguistics (such as sound system, word formation, syntax, and meaning). Students will study the nature of the human languages, the social and functional aspects of language and developmental issues with reference to the Chinese Language. The Chinese writing system and dialects of the Chinese will also be introduced.
HC201 Literature of Pre-Qin, Han, Wei and Jin
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a general survey of the literature during the pre-Qin period and Han, Wei and Jin dynasties. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the major genres and themes of the literature of these periods. Students will acquire the knowledge through guided close reading of selected works by major writers.
HC202 Critical Reading and Writing
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course aims at advancing language skills for academic writing. We will work on skills that will allow students to read texts critically and insightfully and to write articulate, persuasive arguments appropriate to the academic setting. The course assumes a process approach to writing with research skills integrated throughout as well as addressing language concerns such as style, tone, diction, grammar, and mechanics contributing to a confident and purposeful humanities writing voice. The critical reading component serves to help students in evaluating and selecting research material.
HC203 Literature of Tang and Song
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a general survey of the literature during the Tang and Song dynasties. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the major genres and themes of the literature of these periods. Students will acquire the knowledge through guided close reading of selected works by major writers.
HC204 Literature of Yuan, Ming and Qing
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a general survey of the literature during the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. The objective of the course is to introduce students to the major genres and themes of the literature of these periods. Students will acquire the knowledge through guided close reading of selected works by major writers.
HC205 General History of China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a general survey of historical changes and continuities in China from the ancient times to the present, focusing on social, political, and cultural developments of different periods, significance of major historical events and figures, and China’s relations with foreign civilisations and countries. This course aims to nurture interest in Chinese civilisation and development through enhancing knowledge of various aspects of Chinese history.
HC301 Modern Chinese Literature
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course provides a survey of modern Chinese literature from around the May Fourth Movement (early 20th century) to the present. Through critical reading of literary texts, students will have an in-depth understanding of the literary and aesthetical trend in writing, social and intellectual concerns of the writers, cultural and political contexts of the writers and their works, etc.
HC302 History of Chinese Thought
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a historical review of the development of different schools of thought in China. It introduces students to the important figures and ideas associated with such schools of thought like Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. It studies the political and social conditions that gave rise to and influenced the development of these schools of thought. The discussion also extends to the introduction and impact of Western ideas in the19th and 20th centuries.
HC303 Southeast Asian Chinese
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
The course traces the factors leading to the migration of Chinese to Southeast Asia in the 19th century. It also examines their economic, cultural and political activities and contributions in the 20th century. Discussion includes such important issues as local anti-Chinese movements, development of Chinese education, changing consciousness and identities, and the relations between Southeast Asian Chinese and China.
Prescribed Electives
Category A: Chinese Literature and Culture
HC110 Literature in Taiwan and Hong Kong
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
A survey of literary works by Taiwanese and Hong Kong writers from the 1950s to the present. Writers to be studied include Bai Xianyong, Wang Wenxing, Zhang Dachun, Huang Chunming, Zhu Tianwen, Xi Xi, Liu Yichang, etc. Topics discussed are modernism and localisation, urban and global experience, influence of Taiwanese and Hong Kong literature on Singapore and Malaysian writers, etc.
HC210 Classical Chinese Fiction
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Studies of the traditional Chinese short stories and novels of Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing periods. Topics such as the analysis and interpretation of texts, themes, and sociological studies of selected works will be covered. Works discussed include short stories such as Tang chuanqi and Song huaben, and novels such as Dream of the Red Chamber, The Journey to the West and The Three Kingdoms.
HC211 Tang Poetry
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course offers a chance to savor and analyse Tang poetry (shi) through close reading and discussion. The Tang dynasty (618-907) is generally considered by critics as the highpoints of mature Chinese poetic composition. Poets such as Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Li Shangyin, Li He, etc., and topics on poetic language, grammar, rhetoric, and textual criticism will be discussed.
HC212 Chinese Folk Literature
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course surveys Chinese folk literature through close reading of selected oral-derived texts. Students will learn how to identify, analyse and interpret folk literature. Topics include historical development and transmission of oral literature; the gradual synthesis of folk and written traditions; Intertextuality; orality and literacy; oral and literary features and compositional process. Representative works of different genres such as the bianwen, singing narrative, drum songs, medleys, precious scrolls and zidishu, as well as popular forms such as the folk tale, legend, folk ballads will be among the texts examined.
HC213 Critical Approaches to Chinese Literature and Culture
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
This course is a critical introduction to major paradigms of thinking and comparative studies. It aims at exposing students to Western literary and cultural theory, including Marxism, feminism, deconstruction, New Historicism, postcolonialism, and postmodernism. Discussions also involve the possibility of dialogue between Western theory and Chinese texts.
HC214 Chinese Theatre and Performance
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course introduces basic concepts and techniques employed in the theatre and those for performance with emphasis on contemporary works written and produced in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Topics discussed include Western and traditional influence on Chinese theatre, social, aesthetical, and political aspects, theatricality, performance, and the issue of Chinese language.
HC310 Classical Chinese Drama
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course studies the Chinese drama of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing periods, and gives unique insights into Chinese culture and history. Selected topics include: cultural atmosphere and the emergence of Chinese drama and theatre; the position of Chinese drama in Chinese literature; the interaction between drama and fiction; studying Chinese drama from a performing perspective. Major theatrical forms, such as Nanxi, Yuan zaju, and Ming-Qing chuanqi will be examined as well.
HC311 Studies of Selected Poets
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course investigates the historical and cultural contexts of selected classical Chinese poets such as Qu Yuan, Tao Yuanming, Xie Lingyun, Su Shi, Xing Qiji, Li Qingzhao, etc. Two or three poets will be selected for in-depth analysis. The course will focus on the writing style and themes of representative works of selected poets by way of close reading and critical analysis.
HC312 Creative Writing Workshop
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC110 or HC301 or HC261, Semester: NIL
This course provides training for students to acquire literary writing skills. It examines how writers and readers interact with literary works in general and considers how meanings and effects are generated in prose, short-short stories and free verse in particular. The overarching theme of the course is hands-on practice in writing.
HC313 Modern Poetry, Modernism and Modernity
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
This course examines modern Chinese poetry since the early 20th century in the context of western influence and the reassessment and assimilation of classical Chinese poetics. Works by modern poets such as Xu Zhimo, Wen Yiduo, Guo Moruo, Yu Guangzhong, Zheng Chouyu, Lin Yaode, etc., will be discussed with special reference to the issues of modernism as a style and modernity as a socio-cultural condition.
HC314 Cultural Study of Chinese Cinemas
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
This course introduces some fundamental ways of looking at Chinese Cinemas from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China, and aims to familiarise the students with some of the major critical approaches in the field, e.g., generic conventions, auteur theory, narrative theory, cultural studies, etc. The students will be exposed to important cinematic masterworks in the history of Chinese Cinemas and taught how to make meaning of the developments of various recurring themes and concerns, and also how Cinematic representation relates to and is influenced by Chinese culture.
HC410 Classical Chinese Literary Theory
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course examines the evolution of Chinese theories of literature and the arts in the classical periods. A variety of issues including the philosophical foundations of theory of literature, question of ethical judgment and artistic judgment, lyrical poetics and representational poetics, and the questions of sensuality and vision will be discussed through readings of critical texts on poetics.
HC411 Love and Desire in Late Ming Culture
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
This course involves the in-depth study of qing (love, desire, feeling, etc.) as an essential aspect of late Ming culture. Topics to be covered include: philosophical context such as the influence of Wang Yangming school; the prevalence of courtesan culture; the pursuit of literati. Selected literary works such as The Peony Pavillion, The Golden Lotus, Du Shiniang Sank her Jewel Box in Anger will be explored.
HC412 Fictional Narratives in Chinese Fiction
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
This course investigates the narrative tradition in Chinese literature, including story-telling tradition, fictional narrative, and the novels. Primary emphasis will be on the late imperial period. Major genres and texts of this tradition will be covered and approached from different perspectives. In particular close attention will be paid to narrative structure, rhetoric, narrative themes, and issues such as gender relations, moral values and conflicts, societal and individual ideals and aspirations.
HC413 Gender and Sexuality in Chinese Literature
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
From selected literary works and critical essays, the course explores topics pertinent to gender and sexuality in Chinese literature, such as the construction of gender roles in Chinese classics; sexuality in Confucian and Daoist contexts; sexuality from modern and traditional perspectives; scholar-beauty romance; the so-called Sensitive New Man and New Woman, etc.
HC414 Special Topics in Chinese Literary and Cultural Studies
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC101, Semester: NIL
The emphasis of this course is on cross-disciplinary critical approaches to the study of Chinese literary and cultural texts. Selected topics are specially designed to link issues from different territories together, such as “The Images of City in Chinese Literature and Films,” “The Making of the Nanyang Myth in Chinese Literature and Films,” “Political Theatre and Social Activism.”
HC415 Special Topics in Classical Chinese Literature
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course provides analytical and in-depth study of selected topics in classical Chinese literature. Examples of topics are Chinese poetry and painting, the study of The Dream of the Red Chamber, prose writing of Ming and Qing.
Category B: Chinese History and Thought
HC230 Pre-Qin Thought
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course addresses the many different schools of thought that emerged in the period before the Qin Dynasty, including Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Mo thought. It introduces students to the important figures and texts of these schools of thought. Also discussed are issues such as historical context for the development of various schools of thought and influences they have since generated on governments and people in China.
HC231 Confucian Thought
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course traces the genesis of Confucian thought in China. It also examines the development of Confucianism in different historical and geographical context. It touches on the important figures that advocated and changed this school of thought and the reasons behind such changes. It introduces students to the major texts of Confucianism and the core thinking of this school of thought. It also explores the impact of Confucianism on governments and people.
HC232 Division and Integration: From the Spring-Autumn/ Warring States to Sui, Tang and the Five Dynasties
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Focusing on a period that was characterised by repeated division and integration in Chinese history, this course covers the periods of Spring-Autumn, Warring States, Qing, Han, Wei, Jin, South-North, Sui, Tang, and the Five Dynasties. It discusses, among others, the political institutions, territorial expansion and contraction, economic conditions, social changes, religious development, and cultural transformation and pluralism throughout this period. The influence of the non-Han culture and its interaction with the Han culture will also be explored.
HC330 Chinese Buddhism and Daoism
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Daoism and Buddhism are the two most important philosophical and religious schools in China in addition to Confucianism, that the study of Chinese history, society, and culture cannot afford to ignore. Major themes include their origins and introduction to China; their fundamental philosophical ideas and their evolutions; the developments of Buddhism and Daoism as religions of salvation and their effects on Chinese society; and the interaction and competition among Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism.
HC331 Conquering and Conquered Dynasties: From Song to Qing
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Commencing from the Song and continuing into the Qing Dynasties, this course investigates a period fraught with drastic political and social changes under the influences of peoples from Inner Asia and Manchuria. It discusses a series of critical social and political transformations, including the establishment of the Liao, Jin, Mongol (Yuan), and Manchu Empires, the rise of neo-Confucianism and consolidation of Confucius rule, territorial expansion, population boom, and the decline of dynastic rule in China.
HC332 War and Memory in Modern China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course studies the major conflicts—in their domestic and international contexts—that transformed Chinese society and consequently shaped modern Chinese history since the early 19th century. It discusses the origins and the impact of major wars and unrests on China’s political, social, economic, and cultural development. Furthermore, it explores the way such turbulent events have been subsequently recorded, remembered, and re-constructed in writing and other media and then consumed as historical knowledge and foundation of national identities by both those who participated and who did not. By analysing the interaction between social /political development of wars and intellectual enterprise of historiography in modern China, this course aims to provide an interdisciplinary approach to the study of Modern Chinese History.
HC430 Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Political Movements
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
In modern Chinese history, intellectuals played a crucial role in remaking Chinese traditions and introducing Western ideas in an effort to strengthen a country that was simultaneously confronted with internal crisis and foreign encroachments. The aim of this course is to study the Chinese intellectuals since the 19th century, the way they dealt with the cultural conflicts between Chinese traditions and Western thoughts, and their contribution to the shaping of modern Chinese history. Key historical events to be discussed include the Reform Movement of the late Qing, the 1911 Revolution, the May Fourth Movement, and the rise of Socialism/Communism.
HC431 Interculturalism in Chinese History
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a historical study of cultural interaction within China and China’s exchange with foreign cultures. It examines how different cultures of ethnic groups interacted within the boundaries of China. It also investigates the open and isolationist policies that China adopted at different points of time in relations with foreign forces. Discussion includes the factors driving interculturalism and the impact of such interaction on China.
HC433 Special Topics in Chinese History and Thought
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course provides analytical and in-depth study of selected topics in Chinese history and/or thought. It will lead students to further explore thematic issues related to ancient, pre-modern, and/or modern Chinese history, and/or closely examine key issues in Chinese philosophy and intellectual foundation.
Category C: Modern Chinese Society, Politics and Economy
HC240 Understanding China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course aims at analysing “Chineseness” and engendering critical thinking about the representation of “China” and its society, culture, politics, and people in various media. In light of critical theory, the course examines what traditions and experiences have shaped the historical construction of what “China” is, and what values and beliefs might inform its future development. Media (print, digital, internet, etc.) to be studied include those in the West, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia, and overseas Chinese-language media.
HC241 Contemporary Chinese Politics and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
Focusing on the era since 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded, this course offers an examination of contemporary Chinese society in the midst of political changes. It covers topics such as the Chinese state and political institutions, collectivisation, political campaigns, population control and internal migration, urban and rural living conditions, the era of economic reform, and civil-government relations.
HC340 China’s Reform and Economic Development
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course introduces students to the economic reform that China launched in 1978 and to the subsequent China’s transition from a planned economy towards the one driven by market. It addresses some of the important economic, social, and political issues prior to and since 1978, including the structuring of state-owned enterprises, the development of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ), the impact of direct foreign investment, the booming of townships and villages, the disparity between coastal and inland provinces, and the Western Development Project.
HC341 City and Culture in Modern China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
The aim of this course is to provide a critical understanding of the modern city and its culture in China since the 19th century. Topics to be discussed include the emergence of the modern city, colonialism (political, economic, and cultural) of the Western powers, urban political movements, modernism and postmodernism in urban culture, the transformation of the city landscapes and its cultural significance, popular culture and cultural industry, globalisation and Chinese cities.
HC342 China in Asia
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course discusses the international relations of East Asia/South Asia and China’s role in these regions. Topics that are of particular interests are China’s relations with Japan, Japan’s relations with the ASEAN countries, and the possible competition between China and Japan in shaping a regional hegemony; China’s relations with the two Koreas; and China’s relations with India and Pakistan. In addition this course will introduce students to broader issues such as international relations, national security and strategy, and political economy.
HC440 Cross-Taiwan Straits Relations
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course looks at the cross-straits relations between mainland China and Taiwan. It studies the political, social, and economic development in and between China and Taiwan and its regional/international implication throughout history. In particular, this course will examine the political discourses reflected in the principles and policies adopted by the Chinese Communist Party, Kuomintang, and Democratic Progressive Party over such issues as reunification and independence, as well as non-official views on these issues.
HC441 China and ASEAN
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course examines the dynamics between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a whole as well as its member countries. It looks at the changing China-ASEAN perception and relations from the political, economic, social, and cultural dimensions. Discussion includes such issues as diplomatic relations, political order, security, trade, investment, people interaction, and cultural exchanges.
HC442 China and Globalisation
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC205 recommended, Semester: NIL
This course studies China’s responses to globalising forces that offer both opportunities and challenges since the 20th century. It looks at the impact that global capitalism brought to China, which includes China’s accession to World Trade Organisation, and the influences of foreign cultures and ideas on China. It also discusses China’s impact—cultural, economic, political, social—outward on global development, including overseas Chinese and China’s role in the international political stage.
HC443 Special Topics in Modern China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course provides analytical and in-depth study of selected topics in contemporary Chinese economy, political development, foreign relations, social transformation, and/or culture. It aims to give students an opportunity to study the latest development and emerging issues in China.
Category D: Linguistics and Chinese Linguistics
HC150 The Science of Chinese Characters
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is designed to walk students through the evolution, development and transformation Chinese characters has taken on or will be taking on since archaic time. Students will acquire knowledge on the essential features of the Chinese characters, principles underlying their construction, the transformation in forms, the process of evolution, the study of Shuo wen jie zi and issues on its modernisation.
HC151 Modern Chinese
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course aims to develop students’ awareness of Modern Chinese grammar and phonology. Students will explore the grammatical, phonological and semantic properties of the language through application of a descriptive approach to the analysis of Chinese data.
HC250 Chinese Lexicology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
The course provides a comprehensive knowledge for students to understand lexicon construction in Chinese and its connection with syntactic and phonological environment, issues in new word formation since ancient times, differentiation of synonyms and given that word sense is a function of its parts, students will also be guided to examine the semantics in Chinese lexicons as well as variation across time and geographical boundaries.
HC252 Language and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course surveys the interactions between language and other areas of human behavior. Students will examine the way language works in relation to communication and culture, interaction between language structure and social structure and social norms (sociolinguistics), the relationship between linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge (anthropological linguistics), the interplay of language and the mind. Special case studies on the Chinese Language and/or the language context in Singapore may be designed.
HC253 Varieties of Chinese
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course introduces students to the varieties of Chinese as surfaced in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore. Topics cover social factors leading to the variation, characteristics of the varieties, comparison between the varieties, phenomenon in language standardisation and modernisation, issues in language contact: language interference, convergence and divergence, language change and identity among others. The course aims to build an understanding on the relation between language and society such that learners are better prepared to communicate across the changing forms.
HC350 Sound and Prosody in Chinese
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC102 or HC250, Semester: NIL
This course aims to raise students awareness of the nature of sound and their production, the system of rules that determine how the basic sounds of Chinese combine, prosody features, historical sound change, the relation of syllable structure with Chinese lexicon formation, the relation between sound and structure, prosody and discourse.
HC351 Language, Culture and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
The course surveys the interactions between language and other areas of human behavior. Students will examine the way language works in relation to communication and culture, interaction between language structure and social structure and social norms (sociolinguistics), the relationship between linguistic knowledge and cultural knowledge (anthropological linguistics), the interplay of language and the mind. Special case studies on the Chinese Language and/or the language context in Singapore may be designed.
HC352 Chinese Language and Grammatical Theories
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HC102, Semester: NIL
This course is designed to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the interaction between theoretical assumptions, analysis and data in syntax. To this purpose, the course concentrates on several key functional and formal approaches, their application to the study of the Chinese Language and the characteristics of Chinese grammar.
HC450 Chinese Semantics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Semantics is a discipline dealing with meanings at lexicon, syntax, discourse and pragmatic levels. This course will begin by introducing students to the general principles of semantics, basic concepts in semantic analysis such as sense, reference, semantic features and meaning relations. The peculiarities of semantic studies in Chinese and the connections semantics has with logic, discourse and pragmatics will be examined.
HC451 Text, Rhetoric and Style
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course covers central topics in the study of text linguistics and text pragmatics and the interpretation of language use and that of discourse, on textual and textuality. It also serves to acquaint students with stylistic theories and rhetorical devices. Students will be introduced to functional theories and strategies to understand the interrelatedness of form and meaning, the psychology of syntax, metaphor, and diction.
HC452 Special Topics in Chinese Linguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course furthers students’ understanding of the nature and use of Chinese language from different perspectives. Topics may vary from year to year.
Category E: Studies of Ethnic-Chinese
HC160 History of Singapore and Malaysian Chinese
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
A historical review of Chinese communities in Singapore and Malaysia, the course starts with the period before World War II, exploring internal divisions in the communities as well as the Chinese’s economic and political relations with the British colonial government and China. It also examines the changes after World War II, with special attention paid to the ethnic Chinese’s political reorientation, participation in the nation-building projects in the countries of residence, and response to China’s economic reform.
HC260 Chinese Education in Southeast Asia
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Wherever Chinese overseas have settled in significant numbers, they always aspired to establish their own schools to educate the younger generation in Chinese language or dialects. Focusing on Southeast Asia, this course studies the origin, development, setback, and revival of Chinese education in some of the countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
HC261 Chinese Literature in Singapore and Malaysia
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
A survey of Chinese literature in Singapore and Malaysia since the early 20th century, this course examines major trends in literary writing such as the influence of the May Fourth Cultural Movement, political and cultural identities, debate on realism and modernism, social engagement and cultural reflections, the influence of Hong Kong and Taiwanese literature, etc., through close reading of works by important writers.
HC360 Chinese Literature in Europe and America
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is a critical analysis of works by selected Chinese-language writers in Europe and America. Topics to be examined include diasporic writing, cultural nostalgia and cultural identity, the influence of Western literature and ideology, etc., through the reading of works by writers such as Gao Xingjian, Bei Dao, Yang Lian, Hong Ying, Yan Geling, etc.
HC361 Transcultural Singapore Theatre
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Situating Singapore Chinese-language theatre in the context of a multicultural society, this course examines the social, cultural, and political aspects of the production of theatre and performance in Singapore. Topics include theory of transculturalism, models of transcultural theatre, intellectual dialogues and cultural communications through transcultural theatre, Kuo Pao Kun’s theatre and its trancultural signifi cance, etc.
HC362 Chinese Overseas and China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course investigates the changing relations that Chinese overseas have with China and the factor underlying these changes. It first looks at Overseas Chinese’s concern about China’s political upheaval and social disorder before 1949 when the People’s Republic of China was founded. It then examines the isolation of Chinese overseas from China between 1949 and 1978, because of the radical political movements in China and nation-building projects in their countries of residence. It subsequently explores the responses of Chinese overseas after 1978 when China launched economic reform.
HC363 Critical Study of Singapore Society and Culture
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This foundation course provides critical approaches to the understanding and reading of various aspects of Singapore society and culture. It includes the study of Singapore languages, religions, folk cultures, ethnic communities, intellectual activities, civic groups, issues related to political and cultural identities, etc., which will be situated within a multicultural and multilingual context of Singapore, and with an emphasis on the perspective of the Chinese community.
HC460 Globalisation and Chinese Overseas
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Globalisation implies escalated pace of free flow of people, capital, and ideas across political boundaries. While national framework still exercises constraint on those lacking resource to move, a signification portion of Chinese overseas demonstrates high transnational mobility. This course first reviews the concepts associated with globalisation. Then it examines the extent to which the Chinese overseas have been globalised. It also studies the obstacles to and impacts on Chinese overseas in their efforts in the process of globalisation.
HC461 Chinese Migration
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course studies migration trajectories involving Chinese leaving China and dispersed in many parts of the world. It examines the formation and transformation of migrant-sending localities in the past and at present. It also discusses the patterns of migration as well as the networks that facilitated Chinese migration. It studies the establishment of Chinese communities around the globe. It invites students to rethink the concepts pertaining to Chinese migration such as Overseas Chinese and Chinese diaspora.
HC462 Special Topics in the Studies of Ethnic-Chinese
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course addresses special topics pertaining to the studies of ethnic Chinese. In-depth discussion will be conducted on issues that are of historical significance or critical to contemporary situation concerning ethnic Chinese, or on topics that are important to the effort of conceptualising and theorising the studies of ethnic Chinese.
Graduation Project (compulsory)
AUs: 8, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course is to be completed individually with the guidance of a supervisor assigned by the Division of Chinese and submitted as a researched academic paper of not more than 20,000 Chinese characters on a selected topic in one of these five categories:
- Category A: Chinese Literature and Culture
- Category B: Chinese History and Thought
- Category C: Modern Chinese Society, Politics and Economy
- Category D: Linguistics and Chinese Linguistics
- Category E: Studies of Ethnic Chinese
Economics
HE101 Microeconomic Principles
This course gives students a basic grasp of economic theory as well as the ability to apply economic principles to real-world problems. The course addresses the decision-making of small economic units - consumers, firms and markets. Topics covered include cost-benefit principles, opportunity cost, laws and elasticity of demand and supply, utility maximisation , the concept of the margin, indifference curves, profit maximisation , market equilibrium and efficiency, market structure, market failure, public choice, externalities and property rights, the economics of public policy and of public goods.
HE102 Macroeconomic Principles
This course exposes students to a basic understanding of the workings of the economy as a whole. The topics covered include measures of the GNP; inflation and unemployment; economic growth; the general product market; the 'Keynesian cross' model; the general money market, the creation of money; the role of central bank and of the financial institutions; the basic IS-LM model; aggregate demand and aggregate supply; open economy macroeconomics that includes capital flows and the balance of trade.
HE103 Basic Mathematics for Economists
This course is designed for students who do not have the necessary background in mathematics. Students will be taught mathematical techniques that are useful for economic analysis at both the elementary and the intermediate level. Topics covered include functions, derivatives and partial derivatives, optimization with or without constraints, integration, simple differential equations and simple difference equations, matrix algebra.
HE104A Introduction to Statistical Theory and Methods
The purpose of this course is to present an introduction to the general statistical principles which serve as the statistical foundation for HE204A Introduction to Econometrics. The course covers basic measures of central tendency and dispersion through descriptive statistics; elements of set theory and probability; discrete and continuous distributions; random variables and sampling distributions, statistical estimation and hypothesis testing theory. Finally, the course ends with an introduction to multivariate random variables.
HE104B Introduction to Probability and Statistical Inference
This course provides a statistical foundation for students to pursue further courses in econometrics and statistics. A standard calculus course would provide adequate mathematical background. The course emphasises fundamental concepts and presents them in a logical order. Topics covered include probability; distributions and densities; mathematical expectations; functions of random variables; sampling distributions; estimation and hypotheses testing for means, variances and proportions .
HE201 Intermediate Microeconomics
Pre-requisite: HE101/AB106/HE191
This is an intermediate course on microeconomic theory for economic majors. It covers some important contents in microeconomic theory and basic economic modeling. Economic concepts are analysed in a rigorous manner, thus laying the foundation for economic majors to pursue advanced microeconomic theory. Students who did not take HE103 Basic Mathematics for Economists should have at least GCE A-level C mathematics or equivalent.
HE202 Intermediate Macroeconomics
Pre-requisite: HE102 /AB106/HE191
The aim of this course is to provide a basic understanding of the theoretical foundations of macroeconomics at an intermediate level. The course covers (a) the major macroeconomic markets: goods, money, and labor markets, and their constituent functions including the consumption function, saving function, investment function, money-demand function, the determinants of money supply, etc; (b) macroeconomic models: IS/LM/AD/AS in closed and open economics, and the Phillips curve; (c) macroeconomic stabilisation and macroeconomic policies; and (d) introduction to growth theory.
HE204A Introductory Econometrics
Pre-requisite: HE104A /HE104B/AB103 or equivalent
The purpose of the course is to offer students in Economics and other social sciences an overview of econometrics. The course exposes economics students who are less quantitatively-inclined to the main tools of estimation and inference through a variety of empirical examples. These will be based on economic decisions in fiscal planning, investment expenditure, consumption and monetary policy. Students will be given hands-on experience of econometric application through computer lab sessions.
The course begins by introducing the basics of probability and statistics in terms of random variables, probability distributions, estimation and hypothesis testing. The basic ideas of modeling are then introduced through the simple linear regression model, with illustrations to emphasises its applications in economic analyses. These ideas are then extended to the multiple regression frameworks. Consideration is given to functional forms, restricted estimation, structural change, dummy variables, multicollinearity, dynamic economic models, qualitative dependent variables and diagnostic checking. Systems of equations models are also introduced.
HE204B Principles of Econometrics
Pre-requisite: HE104B or equivalent
This course offers students in Economics and other social sciences a firm foundation in the theory and methods of econometrics. The course teaches students the main tools of estimation and inference. Applications of econometric techniques will be illustrated by empirical examples based on economic analysis. Students will be given hands-on experience through computer lab sessions .
The course begins with a thorough analysis of the simple linear regression model. It covers the estimation and hypothesis testing of regression coefficients, goodness-of-fit and prediction. The model is then extended to the multiple regression frameworks. Further topics such as diagnostic checking, functional forms, restricted estimation, dummy variables and structural change are discussed. In addition, the course provides an introduction to nonlinear models, models for panel data, and the matrix approach to the GLM.
HE205 International Trade
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
The aim of this course is to provide students with an understanding of trade theory and policy. The course will cover the law of comparative advantage, the gains from trade, the Ricardian model, factor intensity and factor abundance, the Heckscher-Ohlin theory, factor-price equalization, standard and alternative trade theories, product differentiation and intra-industry trade, technological gaps and product cycles, trade and economic development, import substitution versus export orientation, tariff and non-tariff barriers, theory of effective protection, instruments and impacts of trade policy, economic integration, customs unions and free trade areas, international factor movements, and multinational corporations.
HE206 International Monetary Economics
Pre-requisite: HE102/ HE191/AB106
This course offers a systematic analysis of theories on international money and finance. Topics covered include balance of payment; the foreign exchange market; hedging and speculation; interest arbitrages; the J-curve effect; the Marshall-Lerner condition; the absorption approach; internal and external balance; adjustment mechanisms under the fixed and flexible exchange rate systems; long-run determinants of the exchange rate; the monetary approach; the asset market approach; the role of market fundamentals, expectations and news of exchange rate and asset price movements; the theory of optimal currency area; financial crises; Singapore's exchange rate system.
HE207 Money and Banking
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE102/HE191/AB106
This course offers a systematic analysis of monetary theories and the financial system. Apart from exposing students to different approaches in monetary analysis, the course places a special emphasis on the up-to date analysis of how information costs affect financial structure and monetary policy. The course will cover the structure and importance of the financial system, the functions of money, behaviour of interest rates, financial structure and asymmetric information, bank management and regulation, debates on macroeconomic and monetary policies, the targets and instruments of monetary policies, the transmission mechanism of monetary policy and its effectiveness, money and inflation, rational expectations and its applications, and exchange rate and monetary policies in Singapore.
HE208 Public Finance
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
This course uses the tools of microeconomic analysis to study the rationale for government intervention, the areas of intervention and the sources of public financing. Topics include the theory of public goods; externalities; natural monopolies; cost-benefit analysis of government projects; social expenditure programmes; principles of taxation; personal and corporate income taxes; consumption taxes; implications of tax policies for efficiency and equity; deficit financing; Singapore's budgetary policies.
HE209 Industrial Organisation
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
This course seeks to provide students with a consistent framework of economic analysis to understand the impact of efficient organisation on the economy. It addresses some fundamental questions in industrial organisation: how the modern firm has evolved; why some economic activities are organised within the firm and others outside; how firms interact in the marketplace; how governments react to strategic behaviour and how they regulate industries.
This course is about the 'new industrial organisation'. It goes beyond the traditional descriptive structure-conduct-performance approach and uses the latest analytical tools of microeconomics to study strategic interaction between firms. Cases in competition policy are discussed, exposing students to anti-trust law in ASEAN, Canada, the United States, Europe and Japan.
HE210 Development Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE102/HE191/AB106
This course introduces the student to the field of development economics. It explores the definition and measurement of economic growth and development, as well as competing theories of economic growth. It also examines specific issues in the economics of developing countries. Examples include the relationship between population growth and economic development, the environmental impact of economic development, the role of the IMF in developing countries, the economic relationship between developed and developing countries, and the debate on export promotion versus import substitution.
HE211 Labour Economics & Labour Relations
Pre-requisite: HE101/ HE191/AB106
This course seeks to explain the inner workings of the labour market. The course focuses on the economics of the labour market. It covers the determination of labor market demand and supply, wage determination, wage differentials, human capital investment, migration and discrimination, as well as unemployment and labour policies. The course also aims to explain why workers join unions, trade union behaviour , wage determination under the union, and the economic impact of unions.
HE212 Economic Thought
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE102/ HE191/AB106
The study of economic thought is not concerned primarily with the way in the moderns evolved from ancients and learned to avoid the foolish mistakes of their more primitive forebears. Rather, this course examines the extent to which different economists have looked at the same thing in different ways. Few of the alternative approaches are out of date even if many are now out of fashion. The purpose of this option is to widen students' perspectives by examining how some of the great thinkers of the past have sought to resolve economic problems which remain the central focus of our present-day concerns. The course will proceed historically, covering the main stages, the main authors and the main paradigms: the Greeks, the Middle Ages, Islam, Mercantilism, Smith, Malthus, Marx, historicism, marginalism, Keynesianism. It will situate each in the economic circumstances of its time.
HE213 Internet Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101 or AB106 or HE191
Applying basic principles of economics, this course surveys the various ways that economics can be applied to the area of electronic commerce and how the e-commerce revolution affects the economy. It covers relevant applications of electronic commerce to various areas of economics: virtual products, network industries, online pricing and advertising, vertical integration/vertical restraint in the online market, Internet intellectual property rights, antitrust issues in e-commerce, online financial market, online banking, digital cash and electronic payments, regulatory issues of online markets, the public sector and the online marketplace, Internet privacy and security. It provides balanced examinations of how basic economic principles continue to apply to the electronic marketplace and of how features of certain products sold in this marketplace have required rethinking some of those principles.
HE220 Survey Methods and Sampling Techniques
Pre-requisite: HE104A/HE104B/AB103 or equivalent
This course is useful for Business majors and social sciences majors. It covers the methodology of surveys and the techniques of sampling. The course covers the simple surveys and sampling principles, and the strengths and weaknesses of different sampling techniques. Course topics also include the design and methods of surveys, sampling techniques, data collection and estimation methods, analysis of collected data, treatment of responses, non-responses and measurement errors. To meet the differential needs of the course students are encouraged to data analysis utilising computer software.
HE301 Mathematical Economics
Pre-requisite: HE103 or equivalent and HE201/HE192
This course deals with basic mathematical tools used to analyse economic problems. These include matrix algebra, linear programming, differential calculus, differential and difference equations. This course emphasises economic applications of each technique and an understanding of standard economic models. Economic models of continuous and lagged adjustments will be introduced. By the end of the course, students will have learned enough mathematical skills to read some technical articles in economics and to analyse some economic problems.
HE302 Game Theory & Applications to Social Sciences
Pre-requisite: HE103 or equivalent and HE201/HE192
This is an intermediate level game theory course. The basic concepts of games are discussed in a rigorous manner. Examples are introduced to help students understand the basic concepts and their applications. The prerequisites for taking this course include elementary economic theory, A-level mathematics and elementary calculus.
HE303 The Chinese Economy
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE102/HE191/AB106
The purpose of the course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the emerging Chinese economy and its business environment. Major topics include: (1) a background introduction to China's economy and its economic reforms; (2) fundamental economic institutions; the current economic structure; industrial policies; (3) macroeconomic policies; (4) growth patterns and trends.
HE304 Health Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
Health care is expanding rapidly in both private and public sectors of the economy. As prevention and cure of illness absorbs a larger and larger share of the national product, it becomes increasingly important to examine the implications for efficiency and equity of the use that the industry makes of scarce resources. This course will consider the principal areas of concern to the economist interested in health status and health care. The topics will include demand, uncertainty, spillovers, health indicators, cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness techniques, the goals and cost-functions of hospitals, the market for medical-insurance, the pharmaceutical industry, manpower planning and health education. Theories will be illustrated with material relating to Singapore and other countries, developed and less developed.
HE305 Environmental Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
This course deals with the application of microeconomic tools to the analysis of environmental externalities. A main theme is the impact of economic activity on the quality of the environment and the related policies and regulations that arise in response to these impacts. The course will cover methods of valuing non-market environmental resources; assessment of environmental benefits and damages; analytical tools such as cost-benefit analysis needed for project evaluation and environment impact assessments; the concept of optimal pollution and its control; regulation and market solutions. Selected topics on international environmental issues and aspects of sustainable development will also be discussed.
HE306 Urban and Transport Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106
This course explores business and household location decisions and the relevance of the theories in analyzing urban trends. Topics to be covered are urban spatial analysis, density functions, the market for housing, rental markets and rent control, alternative housing policies, trends in urban transport, demand for transport and the value of travel time, supply and pricing of transport services, pricing of modes, congestion and pricing, government urban and transport policies, urban public finance, environmental problems and the issues of regulation and deregulation will be examined in the context of Singapore and other East Asian countries.
HE307 Financial Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE191/AB106 and HE104A/HE104B/AB103
This course deals with the theory and practice of financial economics. The course starts with financial decisions under certainty and uncertainty: the utility approach and the mean-variance approach. Based on these basic theories students will be exposed to market equilibrium models: capital asset pricing model, arbitrage pricing models and their variants, and efficient market hypothesis. The course also deals with capital structure theory, valuation of bonds and shares, derivative markets, option and futures pricing theory.
HE309 Population Economics
Pre-requisite: HE101/AB106/ HE191
This course provides an introduction to demographic methods and then considers topics in population analysis of interest to economists. It provides training in developing quantitative skills required in the analysis of population structures and projections. Demographic measures (e.g. mortality, fertility, nuptiality and standardization), life-table analysis and techniques of population projection will be presented. Also to be discussed will be economic issues related to an ageing and declining population. Topics to be covered will include social security and retirement behaviour, intergenerational transfers, health and disability of the elderly, and impact on economic growth.
HE310 Energy Economics
Pre-requisite : HE101/AB106/ HE191
This course seeks to give students an introduction to the economics of energy use and its relationship with the environment. It looks at energy demand and supply, both now and in the future, and energy markets and trading (in particular, in oil markets). Alternative energy supply technologies and the economics of renewable resources are also examined. Issues such as monopoly power in electricity markets and regulation and deregulation in such markets will also be discussed. Finally, it deals with issues relating to energy security and the effect of energy use on the environment and climate change.
HE311 Cost-Benefit Analysis
Pre-requisite: HE201/HE192
Cost benefit analysis is concerned with the theory and application of criteria for public investment decision-making. The purpose of this course is to develop an understanding of the principles of cost benefit analysis and to indicate the usefulness and limitations of the method by way of project evaluations and other varied examples on its implementation. Such questions as what costs and benefits are to count, what alternative investment decision criteria exist besides the popular discounted cash flow method, how do we appraise projects under conditions of uncertainty, and what could be done about distributional considerations? The problem of including non-market goods and their valuation is also highlighted and discussed in this course. Such commodities as scenic views, human life, time, environmental externalities, and recreation which are not exchanged explicitly in the market require shadow-efficiency prices for inclusion into cost benefit analysis.
Helpful pre-requisites to this course will be a microeconomics principles course and some knowledge of basic calculus and algebra. Exercises and cases involving real and simulated cost benefit studies will be given where appropriate.
HE312 (previously HE299) Political Economy of East Asia
Pre-requisite: HE101/HE102/ HE191/AB106
The aim of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the political economy of the region. The course covers recent economic development in East Asia, especially Singapore. It examines government-business relationship, foreign direct investment and trade flows, macroeconomic management and the transitional economies in East Asia. Issues relating to regional integration, the World Trade Organization, capital flows, the international financial system, demography and dependency will also be examined. Special attention will be given to problems and prospects of economic development in Southeast Asian countries .
HE320 Applied Econometrics
Pre-requisite: HE204A/HE204B*
The course focuses on important applications of econometric techniques. The course structure follows the philosophy of hands-on training. Every lecture is followed by a tutorial session in which the students will use a computer software package to solve real world problems discussed in the lecture. The course covers a wide variety of applied problems often faced by economists in both public and private sectors. At the end of the course, students must be able to use a standard computer package to carry out empirical studies.
The scope of the course covers: (1) Macroeconometric modeling, which includes econometric analysis of consumption functions, models of investment, production and cost functions, money demand, and wage-price equations; (2) Business forecasting, which includes modeling demand for electricity, sales and advertising, pricing strategy, and the other applications; and (3) Applications of models of qualitative variables, including the estimation of hedonic price index and ARCH and GARCH models.
HE321 Intermediate Econometrics
Pre-requisite: HE204B/at least an A grade in HE204A*
This course builds on the earlier Principles of Econometrics by considering further inferential issues related to the multiple regression model. In addition, dynamic economic models are discussed and are shown to represent many economic relationships. Topics covered include heteroskedasticity, autocorrelation, multicollinearity, omission of relevant variables, inclusion of irrelevant variables; selecting the set of regressors, autoregressive and distributed lag models ,
HE322 Econometric Modeling and Forecasting
Pre-requisite: HE204A/HE204B*
The purpose of this course is to provide students with an understanding of the modern economic modeling and forecasting methods. The course begins with the fundamentals of forecasting techniques, a review of single-equation, multiple equation forecasting models. These include ARIMA modeling with trend, seasonal and cyclical components. The course then examines the basis for making forecasts, the nature of forecast errors and examines the properties of forecasts based on different forecasting models. Practical examples using a variety of economic variables will be used to illustrate the actual generation of forecasts. A recent new development in this field is the investigation of non-stationary time series and its impact on estimation procedure. The contrast between modeling stationary and non-stationary time series will be discussed.
HE323 Econometric Analysis of Financial Data
Pre-requisite: HE204B/at least an A grade in HE204A*
The application of econometric techniques in finance has expanded rapidly in recent years. This course introduces some econometric models and methods widely and frequently used in examining financial time series. It aims to provide a basic understanding of the basic characteristics of financial data and gain some experience in analysing financial time series. Topics covered include ARIMA models, volatility modelling, unit roots, cointegration and multivariate models. This course will emphasise hands-on applications using computer software.
*For non-Economics majors the pre-requisite for HE320, HE 321, HE322 and HE323 also includes HE191/AB106/HE101.
HE401 Advanced Microeconomics
Pre-requisite: HE201
This course covers several microeconomic topics taught at the advanced level. It will provide a solid microeconomic foundation for the students for their future research in different fields in economic theory. The pre-requisites of this course consist of intermediate microeconomics and a strong background in mathematics. Topics include the theory of consumer choice, demand and supply, game theory, competitive markets and market failure; externalities and public goods; adverse selection, moral hazard; principal-agent problem; general equilibrium theory.
HE402 Advanced Macroeconomics
Pre-requisite: HE201/HE202
The course aims to give students an overview of the field of macroeconomics using models and techniques to gain insights into important issues in macroeconomics. It covers issues in economic growth such as why some countries are rich while others are poor, what accounts for the increases in income over time and why some countries experience economic growth while others experience economic stagnation. It also covers issues such as the sources of economic booms and recessions and of inflation and unemployment. In the discussions of growth, inflation and unemployment, competing theories will be considered and the impact of government policies will be assessed.
HE403 Advanced International Finance
Pre-requisite: HE202/HE192
This course offers a rigorous exposition of the latest theoretical developments in international monetary economics. By exposing the students to a substantial amount of journal articles, the course aims at building up students' technical and theoretical background as well as providing the economic and financial knowledge that are useful to a future financial economist, analyst or dealer. Some of the technical applications that could not be covered in the course of International Monetary Economics will be covered here. Students interested in pursuing postgraduate studies in economics or finance are recommended to take this course. Finance, engineering and science students with strong mathematical background that have interest to work in the government and finance sectors are also encouraged to take this course.
Topics covered include exchange rate overshooting models; portfolio balance models; stock-flow interactions; role of market fundamentals, expectation, financial and political news and release of government statistics on exchange rate and asset price movements; exchange rate determination using dynamic general equilibrium models; herding behavior; models on the impacts of chartists and fundamentalists on exchange rate dynamics; the US dollar bubble in the early 1980s; the impact of the US budget deficit on its current account and the US dollar appreciation; hysteresis effect and exchange rate pass through; models on speculative attack; empirical tests on purchasing power parity; Stein's natural equilibrium exchange rate model; the monitoring band system; and Singapore's exchange rate system.
HE404 Behavioural Economics
Pre-requisite: HE201/HE202/HE192
This course gives an introduction to behavioral economics which is the combination of psychology and economics. It is intended for advanced undergraduate students. We will study quasi-rational behaviour of less than perfect economic agents in their judgments and decision making by modifying the rationality assumption adopted in the standard economic model and incorporating important features of human psychology. Bounded rationality, bounded willpower and bounded self-interest, three important ways in which human behaviour and choices diverge from rationality, will be discussed. We will also demonstrate how less than perfect economic agents survive market forces and exert a strong influence on market outcomes. Empirical and experimental evidence from finance, saving behaviour , labour market and other fields will be used to show how behaviour economics can be fruitfully applied to yield important insights into market operation and behavior patterns.
HE405 Growth Theory and Empirics
Pre-requisite: HE201 and HE202
The course aims to equip students with analytical tools used in various economic growth models. The basic Solow Model and the Ramsey Model will be presented, followed by models with product variety, product quality, technology diffusion, and human capital. Selected topics on income inequality, social mobility, institution, natural resources, unemployment, migration, finance, and others in relation to growth theory will be examined. Recent empirical studies on economic growth will be discussed and assessed.
HE410 The Singapore Economy in a Globalized World
Pre-requisites: HE201 and HE202
This is a capstone course designed for final year economics students, This course is a study of Singapore economic policies - their rationale, their design and what they have achieved. The topics will include exchange rate, privatisation and competition, manpower and labour market, industrial economics, and monetary and fiscal policies. The objective is to provide final year economics undergraduates with greater insights into the policies that have shaped Singapore's economic growth and to be engaged in a discussion of these policies. It will be unique in drawing upon the expertise of adjunct staff who have been, and/or are involved in making policy and of staff members who have worked extensively in the area, and on senior government policy and decision-makers.
HE411 Current Topics in Economics
Pre-requisite: HE201 and HE202
This course is designed to tap into the expertise of visiting academics in their areas of specialisation . It is intended to cover new or recent developments in economics, or in-depth economic analysis of one of many fields of economics. The topics can be theoretical, applied or policy-oriented. The course is aimed at third and fourth year economics undergraduates.
HE420 Econometric Time Series Analysis
Pre-requisite: HE321
This course provides an introduction to econometric time series techniques that are widely used in analysing economic data. The course will meet the needs of students who plan more advanced studies in this area. Students are instructed on the econometric time series techniques that can be used for empirical economic studies, as well as to analyse financial time series. Topics covered include stationary time-series models, trends and volatility modeling, models for time-varying volatility, univariate processes with unit roots, multiequation time-series models, cointegration and the error-correction models.
HE421 Advanced Econometrics
Prerequisite: HE321
This course presents some asymptotic theory and results relevant to econometric methods. Students are also introduced to some econometric models which have wide applications in economic analyses. Applications of these models will be demonstrated in hands-on computer lab sessions.
The course begins with a discussion of large sample distribution theory which forms the basis for the likelihood ratio, Wald and LM tests procedures. Models for analysing cross-section and time series data are discussed, followed by models for analysing simultaneous relationships. Qualitative and limited dependent variables models are also introduced.
HE191 Principles of Economics
This course aims to equip students with basic concepts in economics that will aid better understanding of current issues and events. Lectures will give the framework for economic analysis. Tutorials will provide the platform for discussion of economic theories that can be applied to current affairs and issues. E-learning tools will be used for disseminating information related to the course.
HE192 Economic Theory
Pre-requisite: HE191/AB106/AB106Exempt
The aim of this course is to provide a basic understanding of the theoretical foundations of microeconomics and macroeconomics at an intermediate level. In the first half of the course, students will learn microeconomic theories of (a) households making consumption, saving, and labour -supply decisions, (b) firms making output-supply as well as input-demand decisions, and (c) public goods and externality. In the second half of the course, students will be equipped with models in understanding key macroeconomic phenomenon in the short run and medium run related to the goods, financial, and labour markets. A growth model will be developed to understand the economy in the long run.
English
HL101 Introduction to the Study of Literature
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: Nil
Semester: 1
and 2
HL101 serves as an introduction to the study of literature at tertiary level. It looks in turn at examples of works from each of five major literary genres, including three very different short stories, a selection of poems, a classic American novel, a play that transformed the nature of modern drama, and an enigmatic and very influential film.
The course has two purposes: to further develop skills in reading and in writing. The first involves exploring the specifically literary nature of each of the works studied through sustained exercises in close reading and critical analysis. The emphasis here will be on helping students to identify the characteristics of each of the genres discussed by way of a discussion of literary devices and techniques (e.g. foreshadowing, style, the use of motifs, etc.). The second involves developing greater awareness about the nature and requirements of academic writing about literature (e.g. how to identify a significant issue for discussion, formulate an argument, substantiate your claims, etc.).
The objectives of the module are to illustrate how to respond appropriately and imaginatively to a wide range of texts and to provide students with guidelines on how to formulate and structure an argument in an appropriate academic register.
HL102 Survey of English Literature I
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course covers some one thousand years of England's literary tradition, from Anglo-Saxon to Neoclassical literature. We will aim here to gain a preliminary understanding of the peculiarities of different literary periods and a just appreciation of the achievement of some of the greatest writers in the English language by examining: 1) major developments in genre, with focus on the sonnet, the lyric, tragedy, and the epic; 2) revolutions in thinking about the purpose and meaning of poetry and of being a poet; and 3) the provenance and significance of literary contributions to the history of ideas generally, and to the history of ideas in particular about love, death, and the chasm that separates the finite from the infinite, the human from the divine.
HL106 Introduction to American Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
In this course we will read and interpret classic works of American literature from the Colonial and Revolutionary eras, the American Renaissance (approx. 1836-1861), through 19th-century realism and Romanticism, 20th-century modernism, and contemporary postmodernism. Reading poems, plays, short stories, novels, essays, and an autobiography, we will think critically about the different ways that American identity has been formulated both within the texts we examine as well as in the interpretive strategies that construct national literary history. We will also examine the literary history of American ideology, a cluster of concepts that comprise Americans’ self-understanding of themselves as a nation. We will read the literature in order both to understand American ideology and to appreciate the aesthetic strangeness and brilliance of these works.
HL201 Medieval Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
Medieval English Literature provides a comprehensive introduction to English literature from its Anglo-Saxon beginnings to the end of the fifteenth century. Spanning a period of just under 800 years, English literature of the Middle Ages embraces an astonishing variety of genres and subjects, from the elevated tragedy of Le Morte Darthur to bawdy tales of fun-loving priests and their amorous conquests. In exploring this diversity, we will question the traditional view of the Middle Ages as a monolithic “Age of Faith” that can be neatly opposed to our own modernity. The course thus aims to consider early English literature in light of important changes during the Middle Ages, including the development of individualism, the growth of political protest and satire, the transition from feudalism to a market-based economy, and the increasingly prominent role of popular culture. Selected texts will be read in Middle English with the help of a glossary; no experience reading Old or Middle English is required.
HL202 Renaissance Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course serves as an introduction to the plays of Shakespeare. Because some familiarity with the work of Shakespeare’s contemporaries will better allow us to appreciate the unique character and achievement of Shakespeare’s dramatic literature, and the singular contribution of Shakespeare to the history of poetry and thinking, our reading will be guided by careful attention not only to the language of the plays but also to the intellectual context from which they emerged. We will examine, for instance, how Shakespeare situated his work in relation to the sceptical intellectual climate fostered by Montaigne, the revolution in tragic drama effected by Marlowe, and the emergence of the learned Ben Jonson as Shakespeare’s greatest rival.
HL207 Contemporary Literature & Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This subject seeks to investigate various fictional images of an oft-tumultuous contemporary world from the mid twentieth century to the present. The contemporary is multi-faceted and represents a truly cosmopolitan series of landscapes and contemporary authors are alert to the strains of contemporary music, influenced by film and television, conscious of the prevalence of visual imagery in society and are keenly aware of the multi-racial/religious natures of their cities and towns. In an age where traditional literary categories are being challenged and reshaped, where social values and cultural identities are being invented and reinvented, we will consider ways in which some of the most important writers of this generation are responding, and how they, in turn, are shaping the contemporary.
HL209 Southeast Asian Literature & Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This module approaches its topic through a variety of selected writings in English or in English translation. Largely that of women’s writings, texts to be studied range from the non-fictional such as letters and biographies, to poetry, short stories and novels from various countries in the region – Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam and the Philippines. Situating the writings in their respective socio-cultural, political and historical contexts, the course will discuss issues such as the conditions of literary production and reception; whether the description “Southeast Asian” is merely a geographical category, culturally embedded, or a valid and significant construct based on a shared, and in the case of the women’s writings, a gendered “Southeast Asian women’s” experience. The course will examine the extent to which the experience was precipitated by colonial and post-colonial urgencies; the extent to which these women’s narratives, and representations of their experience are feminist, and inescapably inscribed by patriarchal structures; and the usefulness of Western feminist and postcolonial theories in approaching these texts.
HL211 Representations of Asia in Theatre and Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
What is to be done in order to situate and perform a dramatic literature in a certain public arena? This course examines how thematic variations in theatre and literature convey new meanings through different styles of performance. Specifically, we will look at the ways in which the image of Asia or the theme of “Asianness” have been manipulated and consumed through contemporary (Western/American) literature and performance. We will also discuss to what extent literature and theatrical performance can be a cross-cultural, ethnographic representation. And more broadly, through different genres of art such as novels, essays, musical theatre, paintings, and film, we will explore how the notion of “Asia” and/or “Asian-America” has been received and consumed in American contemporary pop culture.
HL213 British-Asian Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course will examine critically some of the ideas and narratives that dominate the field/area, viz. diaspora, hybridity, and other associated terms. It will look at how writers negotiate their location within and between different social formations. Where relevant, it will explore the existential and social/familial dilemmas addressed by the writing (e.g. absorptionism versus enclavism, inter-generational conflict). How minority cultural production unsettles an assumed homology between race, culture and nation will examined, as well as the sense in which British-Asian writing widens the cultural and semantic parameters of Britishness. Links with postcolonial studies and globalisation studies will also be made.
HL214 Urban Culture Asia
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course seeks ways to explicate variable, contested, and multi-layered features of urban cultures in Asian societies. The question of urban Asia, or “Asian modernity” acquires new significance at the current moment, as the impact of globalization and advancement of digital technology have created a thriving East Asian cultural market and active exchanges of pan-Asian popular cultures among different Asian locations. Looking into various forms of urban culture in contemporary Asian societies—theatres, films, street performances, demonstrations, national campaigns, ads, fashion, sporting events, etc.—students will be engaged in critical discussions about how people experience patterns of national/cultural expressions that are not readily reduced to fixed, static narrative descriptions. Active class participation is extremely crucial.
HL216 Literature & Madness
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course will closely examine how novelists have represented madness in their writing as a means of therapy and/or social commentary. We will begin by looking specifically at women and hysteria, and how a woman’s yearning for autonomy has often been conflated with mental illness. The second half of the semester will investigate male writers that have used madness to comment on the arbitrary nature of language and the confining parameters of social institutions.
HL 218 Fantasy Fictions
Fantasy as a genre has fundamental roots in the mythologies, poetry and other written texts of every culture around the globe. As one of the most enduring forms of storytelling, the ideals of fantasy writing may reveal the aesthetics concerns, psychological dimensions and cultural comprehension of certain societies. This subject will examine fantasy writing and how it both influences and is influenced by society through a variety of different media; from films to oral legends; from heroic sagas to contemporary fantasy novels; from science fiction to gothic horror. Taking a broad approach to the definition of “fantasy fiction,” it will draw on various genres, including literature, film, and the new media. Selected material for discussion can range from The Lord of The Rings to Don Quixote, from The Neverending Story to A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, or from Dracula to Harry Potter.
HL 219 Children’s Literature
This subject includes the historical and critical study of a number of acknowledged classics of children's literature. The study of children’s literature involves the analysis of fairy tales, followed by the classics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, comparing and contrasting the different forms and concerns children's literature may take in both Western and non-Western contexts. The use of visual picture-books may also form a central component of the module, with an emphasis on the development of visual literacy. This subject offers a critical examination of the development and changing role of children’s literature. We will debate issues of didacticism, the powers of the imagination, and the “invention” of childhood in the eighteenth century with its subsequent impact on the ways in which children’s literature is perceived, marketed, and consumed.
HL220 Creative Writing Workshop
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course begins with the assumption that participants have engaged in some aspect of creative writing, particularly for the stage, and seeks to further develop one’s understanding of the craft of writing in relation to theatre and live performance. You will explore various dramaturgical approaches in creating, researching and developing text for performances through solo as well as collaborative endeavours; experiment with ideas through practical work; and analyse a range of performance writing possibilities through critical review and self-reflection.
HL222 South Asian Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
Over the last few decades, South Asian literature in English has achieved a global prominence that is unique among postcolonial literatures. In this course we will be tracing the historical development of South Asian writing from the colonial period to the present-day – exploring, among other things, the impact of British colonial policy on its formation, the ongoing debate surrounding its use of an ‘imperial’ language, and the reasons behind its phenomenal popularity. We will also be discussing some of the social and political issues with which this literature engages, whether it be the caste system, communal violence, or the vagaries of the postcolonial nation-state. Although literature will be our primary focus, the course will include an analysis of the Bollywood film Lagaan, and will introduce students to a number of important theoretical concepts in the field of postcolonial studies.
HL224 Approaches to Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
HL228 Nineteenth-Century American Literature & Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course surveys the development of a distinctly American literary culture and history in the nineteenth century. In exploring this expanding terrain, we will encounter new genres and media, consider the impact of race and gender on ideas of freedom and democracy, and assess the formation of an American canon. Our goal is a critical familiarity with texts that have claimed a place in American literary history and the social movements that produced them.
HL230 Post-1945 American Literature and Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
Through the interpretation and study of selected works of American literature and culture from 1945 to the present, we will consider the ways that writers respond to changes in the economic, political, and social conditions of the United States during the postmodern era. While some writers reassert long-standing themes such as the individual’s quest for freedom defined against the constrictions of status-quo, domestic life (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Morrison, the Confessional Poets), others pose intellectual questions about language and meaning through metafictional innovation (Nabokov, Vonnegut, Barth) or confront national myths such as the American Dream (Dylan, Mamet) and the romance of the Western frontier (McCarthy). In an age where mass culture has replaced intellectual literacy, contemporary American authors ponder the place of the novelist in the world (DeLillo), reflect on the meaning of ethnic identity (Walker), and seek out a critical perspective from which to view the present.
HL301 Reading Films: Film Theory
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
Does the cinema most resemble the stage, a painting, or a photograph? What sort of machine is it? Is it more like a picture frame, window on the world, mystic writing pad, or a mirror? Does it function like a language, an address, a puzzle, or a provocation? How should we examine it in terms of narrative, apparatus, and ideology? In terms of image and sound, style, genre, the film artist, and audience reception? What is the relationship between the cinema and democracy? These have been the primary questions throughout the history of film theory and will be the key concerns of this module. It seeks to introduce students to the history and debates of film theory from its beginnings to the contemporary period. Students will be exposed to various ways of reading films and writing about the cinema, including realist and formalist theories, semiotics, psychoanalytic and feminist theories, ideological critiques, queer theory, cognitive analysis, and ethical criticism.
HL306 Modern Drama
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This subject will trace a line of development throughout modern drama from realism and naturalism to absurdism and post-modernist theatre. Among others, dramatists will include Strindberg, Brecht, Beckett, Churchill, and Shepherd as well as contemporary Singaporean dramatist Kuo Pao Kun. In addition to understanding how changing theatrical trends embody changing epistemological, ontological and ideological attitudes, students will also develop a powerful comparative appreciation of the interconnected evolution of Asian and Western drama.
HL310 European Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course explores two important traditions of European literature through a selection of works that span the continent from north (Norway) to south (Italy) and east (Russia) to west (Germany, France and Portugal). All texts of course will be read in English translation.
The first tradition we shall look at is the Fantastic, which might be described as continental Europe’s counterpart to Gothic literature. The German Romantic Fantastic is illustrated by two of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s bizarre and disturbing ‘modern fairy tales’, and the Russian genius for this genre, by Bulgakov’s equally zany masterpiece in which the Devil arrives in Stalinist Moscow accompanied, amongst others, by a very mischievous cat ...
Our second topic is the lucidity with which early Modernist continental European writers explore the translation of vivid personal experience into literature. A selection of Baudelaire’s poems illustrates the origins of European Modernism. Hamsun’s short but powerful Hunger illustrates the birth of the modern novel. And we shall conclude with a selection of short texts by Fernando Pessoa, one of the most extraordinary, but also one of most accessible poets of the twentieth century.
The objective is to introduce these two influential continental European literary traditions, the tension they each exhibit between a social reality and the reality of the imagination, the nature and implications of their concern with self-consciousness, and the redefinition of the scope and subject of literature proposed by each of our texts. Our final text brings all of these concerns together: Calvino’s playful postmodern novel of 1979 is about the problems of reading, writing, and the nature of literature that lie at the heart of this course.
HL311 Science Fiction: Origins to Parody
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
From its origins in nineteenth-century writing on the possibilities of technology and the newly established sciences to its generic reconstruction and intertextual revisiting in Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, science fiction has transformed literature and film. In covering texts as different as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, this course seeks to map the genre’s most defining tropes: travel through space, time, and parallel universes; experimental technology; alien life; testing the boundaries of the mind and manipulating the body (cloning). Science fiction has always been experimental in its technique as well as in its critique of social, psychological, and scientific definitions of selfhood, and parody has always been central to its narrative thrust. This course leads you through a changing genre that has always retained a central quest narrative: a “re-search” of the same in experimental retellings of the alien.
HL317 The Rise of the Novel
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
Eighteenth-century English readers recognized the “novel” as a new literary form that borrowed from previous narrative traditions such as the spiritual autobiography, romance, the picaresque tale, criminal biography, and travel literature. As a genre the “novel” raises questions of authority, tradition, convention, and innovation: What distinguishes creation from bastardization? What types of “mixing” are acceptable and which are not? How is something recognized as genuinely new and how is it incorporated into an existing tradition? The issue of identity is central to the “novel” as a literary form and is reflected in its subject matter. The genre enabled authors and readers to explore the subjectivity of the individual self, the constitution of identity within a specific environment, and the relationship between “self” and “other.” From the new worlds made available by technological innovations such as the microscope and telescope to Robinson Crusoe’s disorientation at seeing a mysterious footprint in the sand, encountering the strange, the foreign, and the shocking broadened the perspectives and possibilities of literature in novel ways.
The course will cover the development of the eighteenth century English novel as a narrative form while analyzing the different literary choices and innovations used to represent identity and its response to novelty. We will study how novelists used and adapted their narrative form to negotiate conflicts of class, nation, gender, family, religion, and literary tradition. By the end of the course, students will have a sound familiarity with the history and development of the eighteenth-century English novel and will have acquired the vocabulary and analytical tools to think critically about the form and function of the novel.
HL323 Literature & the Arts
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
HL323 explores connections between nineteenth-century literature, painting and music. It focuses on four major issues: (1) the similarities and differences between works belonging to each of these genres; (2) the adaptation of poems and novels in musical works; (3) the new interest in art as an expression of individual concerns; and (4) the origins of a truly modern art.
We shall look at three very different kinds of ‘text’. The literary texts include a number of short literary and critical works, an autobiographical novel by Alexandre Dumas that highlights tensions between the individual and society, and Chekhov’s tragicomic study of self-centredness. The paintings considered cover most of the important developments that unfold in the course of the century. We shall begin by looking at traditional history painting, move through landscape and visionary painting, follow the origins of Impressionism, and then closely explore the new interest in painting as an on-going process of self-expression. And the music covered falls into four distinctive genres: popular song (a selection of Schubert Lieder), opera and society (Verdi’s adaptation of Dumas’ novel), comic opera and myth (Orpheus in the Underworld), and Mahler’s last great symphonic song cycle, which is based on classical Chinese poems.
HL323 offers an introduction to a focussed area of study. It explores how to ‘read’ and discuss a wide range of works that belong to different but related disciplines. You do not need to know anything about western art or music. The only requirement for the course is an interest in these and in the questions they raise when considered in relation to literature.
HL 406 Reading Texts: Advanced Critical Theory
The purpose of this subject is to offer students the opportunity to develop their initial interest in a particular branch of literary theory. We will focus on a specific school of literary theory, or a specific strand of development across a few schools, to be decided by the subject coordinator, with the very precise aim of attaining an advanced level of comprehension within the theory, or stand, in question. Areas of study may include any of the following, or combinations of the following: new criticism, structuralism, poststructuralism, feminism, psychoanalytical criticism, deconstruction, new historicism, reader theory, cultural materialism.
HL410 Feminist Studies
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This course aims to introduce students to the central concepts in feminist theory, and to apply these to the analyses of literary texts. We begin with the liberal feminism of Mary Wollstonecraft, move on to the writings of Woolf and de Beauvoir, followed by the development of “New French” feminism and écriture feminine. We will finally arrive at an evaluation of how contemporary feminism situates itself in relation to postmodernism, whose perspective raises uncertainty about the existence of a specifically female subject and therefore the possibility of political agency for women. Such a perspective forces feminism to interrogate the ‘nature’ of woman and femininity, and question ‘universal’ statements about what women want, or what ‘the female experience’ comprises. To this end, this module will also engage in Black, Third World and Lesbian feminist perspectives. Students will be expected to engage with feminism as both an ideology and a literary tool of analysis.
HL417 Advanced Study in Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
We will study canonical examples of English poetry, drama, and prose fiction using thematic foci as entry points to understanding the structure and meaning of fictional works written during the period 1660-1800. In order to historically contextualize these works, we will study major developments in England during this period, including evolutions in national identity; challenges to social hierarchies of class, race, and gender; and innovations in literary forms and genres. We will contextualize literary texts, choices, and practices by analyzing them in terms of contemporary philosophical, moral, and political theories.
HL419 Advanced Studies in Victorian Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 1
This subject allows students to take a more focused approach to Victorian literature and culture. By providing a thematic, rather than a chronological, introduction to a number of nineteenth- century texts, it aims to show that the shifts in literary representations at the time were part of an extremely versatile cultural scene that belies any retrospective typecasting of “Victorianism.” The comparison of canonical Victorian works and only recently reprinted material, primarily by long forgotten nineteenth-century women writers, will help us to understand the literary developments that engendered a plethora of controversies, both produced such a versatility of works, and perhaps above all, created the novel genre as the Victorian era’s most popular, critical, and representative form of cultural expression.
HL422 Advanced Studies in Nineteenth Century American Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HZ101
Semester: 1
Following the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, the abolitionist movement, which until this time had been a radical minority, splintered as it grew in strength in the decade preceding the Civil War. This multi-front campaign to end slavery was itself a nation divided over hot issues: Should we encourage violence in the struggle for freedom? What role will freed men and women have in American society? Should black men vote before women achieve suffrage? Who speaks for the movement? Will our mission be diluted by coalition-building? Does our campaign organization reflect the racial and gender equality we champion? This course will approach these historical questions by investigating the paper trail these writers left behind. We will draw conclusions about reform writing from the rhetoric and distribution networks of the textual genres these writers employed.
HL428 Science and Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HZ101
Semester: 1
This course will investigate various treatments of science by literature according to both traditional and contemporary (postmodern) theories within the philosophy of science. According to Jean Francois Lyotard, scientific knowledge has traditionally been legitimated for being either emancipatory, or according to how it assists in the realization of a unified scientific whole. Texts by Ibsen and Glaspell provide an opportunity for investigating the poignancy of the first of these legitimation narratives, while texts by Ursula LeGuin and John Banville will help us evaluate the second legitimation narrative. Finally, we will conclude the semester by questioning whether scientific knowledge is, as Foucault suggests, “linked in a circular relation with systems of power which produce and sustain it, and to effects of power which it induces and which extend it. A regime of truth;” relevant texts to this discussion are Thomas Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49 and Darren Aronofsky’s Pi.
HL808 Introduction to Magical Realism
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: Nil
Semester: 1
In this course we will be exploring the literary and cinematic style known as magical realism. This term describes a work of fiction or a film which introduces an element of magic into the everyday lives of its characters. In magical realism, miracles take place in broad daylight and ordinary people undergo strange transformations: men are turned into giant insects, the dead are brought back to life, women predict the future or ascend to heaven while folding their laundry. And it is typical of magical realism that such miracles should be seen not as something unusual or bizarre, but as evidence that there is magic to be found in even the most ordinary of lives.
Since first achieving widespread recognition in the 1960s, magical realism has become a global phenomenon, making its presence felt in everything from The Simpsons to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The course will reflect this diversity by focusing on literature and films produced in various different times and places. Our discussion will be structured around Franz Kafka’s powerful novella, Metamorphosis, and two short novels: Gabriel García Márquez’s Of Love and Other Demons, and Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate. We will also be looking at a number of magical realist films, and one of Shakespeare’s simplest and most engaging plays, The Tempest.
Our primary objective will be to explore the relationship between the magical and the real within each text, and to understand the wider significance of the author’s decision to bring them together in such a way.
HL815 Acting and Representation in Theatre and Film
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: Nil
Semester: 1
This subject explores the notions of mimesis and acting in theatre and film from a historical and multicultural perspective. Through readings and videos, we will examine the evolution and diversity of the ideas of representation and acting from a global context. The course centres around a single pivotal question: what is the relationship between performative art and reality and how the question is dramatized in acting in different cultures and historical periods? In order to answer this question, we will be considering texts of European theatre, Asian theatre, film and theoretical essays.
HZ101 Introduction to Creative Writing
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: Nil
Semester: 1
and 2
This course introduces creative writing through the practices of writing, reading and collaborative critical response. We will work with fiction, poetry and multimedia texts (which include performance writing, graphic novels, artist books and electronic word art). Each unit is designed to foster skills in language and creativity that can be applied beyond the given genre and beyond the classroom. In particular, we will work towards greater understanding and control of language's material presence, its referential power, and the relationships between content, form and reception. Students will be introduced to a range of composition processes intended to stimulate frequent and adventurous writing, and will be encouraged to make disciplined and inventive use of the revision process. They will also develop their abilities to create and participate in a fertile writing community.
HZ201 Poetry
AUs: 4
Prerequisites:
HZ101
Semester: 1
Students of this course will engage in the history and community of poetry as readers, listeners, writers and performers. We will observe and absorb the poetry and poetry-making practices of others, and expand the range of our own inventions. The course encourages students to learn by reading and writing in new territories, and by acting in creative and critical collaboration. As we work with poetry carried on the voice, the page, and the screen, students will become familiar with processes for taking their own work from early, inchoate forms to published or performed versions. We will learn about managing creative production, and about participating in the social and material structures that bring writers and audiences together.
HZ202 Creative Writing: Fiction
AUs: 4
Prerequisites:
HZ101
Semester: 1
Students of this course will engage in the history and community of poetry as readers, listeners, writers and performers. We will observe and absorb the poetry and poetry-making practices of others, and expand the range of our own inventions. The course encourages students to learn by reading and writing in new territories, and by acting in creative and critical collaboration. As we work with poetry carried on the voice, the page, and the screen, students will become familiar with processes for taking their own work from early, inchoate forms to published or performed versions. We will learn about managing creative production, and about participating in the social and material structures that bring writers and audiences together.
HL103 Survey of English Literature II
AUs: 3
Prerequisites:
HL101
Semester: 2
This survey aims to provide a stimulating introductory overview of influential English literary works from the Romantics to the present. While the majority of texts will be drawn from the “classic,” or canonical, works of English Literature, we shall also critically question the rationale of canon formation. Lectures will present historical and cultural contexts, such as the French and American Revolutions, World War I and II, and technological innovations; while close readings of our primary texts will show us how these contexts helped to shape the formal and aesthetic developments of each time period. In thus offering the study of a number of canonical and non-canonical texts, we will stress specifically the revolution in poetry achieved by the Romantics, the rise of the novel as a new genre, the experimental nature of nineteenth and twentieth-century literature, the impact of modernism and postmodernism, and the ways these developments have defined our understanding of literature and culture.
HL105 Singapore Literature and Culture I
AUs: 3
Prerequisites:
HL101
Semester: 2
Singapore has a rich heritage of writing in the various local vernaculars. This course will examine how English-language writers handle the task of the creative expression of Singapore life and society, and whether such work contributes to or tracks the formation of a specifiable Singapore identity/culture. The following topics will also be addressed: use and representation of history, multiculturalism and cosmopolitan identity, integration versus enclavism, relation between art and society/politics, place and function of Singapore Colloquial English (aka Singlish).
HL107 Classical Literature
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
In this course we will read seven of the most widely influential literary, philosophical and autobiographical works from antiquity, paying attention to their internal complexity, their historical contexts, and their afterlives. In doing so we will discuss some foundational concepts in literature and the humanities, such as 'myth', 'history', 'epic', 'tragedy', 'the polis'. By studying these books and guiding concepts, students will be hermeneutically-enabled in their encounters with later European and Western culture. For example, they will better understand what it means for Virgil to lead Dante through the Inferno; how Hegel differs from Aristotle as a theorist of tragedy; where Freud ultimately got his theories of narcissism and the Oedipus-complex; what Joyce was up to in Ulysses; where Marlowe, Goethe and Mann got the character of Faustus; and why Neo is described as ‘the one’ in The Matrix. Assessment will be by means of two short essays and one exam.
HL203 Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
We will study canonical examples of English poetry, drama, and prose fiction written during the period 1660-1800. In order to contextualize these works historically, we will study major developments in England during this period, including evolutions in national identity; challenges to social hierarchies of class, race, and gender; and innovations in literary forms and genres.
HL204 Sensibility and Romanticism
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course explores the gradual emergence between 1740 and 1820 of a literature that investigates both the inner life of the individual and social conscience; in other words, of a literature that reflects recognizably modern concerns. This period witnesses a new fascination with individuality, a new interest in childhood, a marked change in the importance of women, an increased tension between the individual and society, an inevitable connection between the philosophy of the enlightenment and political radicalism, a new delight in the power of the imagination, a fascination with both the past and tradition, and the rise of an obsession with nation.
The first half will be given to examining two important facets of the late-Augustan cult of Sensibility. First, we shall begin our exploration of the emergence of a literature of vivid personal experience through a selection of Gray’s poems, which we shall read alongside the magnificent designs produced by William Blake. A choice of works by Wordsworth illustrates the first culmination of this important autobiographical tradition. Second, the tension between social, personal and moral vision is illustrated by The Vicar of Wakefield, a delightfully absurd eighteenth-century fairy-tale. In the second half, we shall explore three different facets of British Romanticism. Mansfield Park, which was Jane Austen’s own favourite amongst her novels, explores the tension between sense and sensibility. A close reading of William Blake’s extraordinary Marriage of Heaven and Hell illustrates the power of the visionary imagination. And the course will finish with a close reading of Frankenstein, which illustrates the polyvalence of both the Gothic and the Romantic imagination.
The objective is to engender a critical understanding of some of the seminal tendencies in the literature of this period and their lasting impact on the modern world.
HL205 Victorian Literature and Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
Victorian Literature provides an introduction to some of the best literary works of the nineteenth century, while drawing attention to neglected aspects of this extremely versatile, fast changing, and intriguingly self-conscious age. The course aims to foster excitement about the indeterminacies, doubts, and fissures that shaped the Victorian period’s greatest cultural achievements. At the same time, we shall critically reconsider the many legacies of the shifts it saw in epistemological, cultural, and specifically literary conceptualisations. The material discussed this semester will include novels by Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Wilkie Collins, one of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories, a play by Oscar Wilde, as well as a selection of poems and paintings.
HL206 Modernism
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course surveys Modernist Literature in English, spanning from the turn of the century to the 1930s. This time period is marked by developments that were both exciting and disturbing for artists: Heisenberg’s “uncertainty principle”; Einstein’s theory of relativity (1913-6); WWI (1914-1918), which silenced the suffrage movement in England and resulted in historical, geographical, psychological, and cultural fragmentation; the Easter Rising in Dublin (1916); the world reinterpreted through Marx, Freud, Darwin and Nietzsche; an accelerated growth of capitalism and industry; and technological modernization through inventions like the telephone, phonograph, wireless, x-ray, cinema, automobile, and airplane, all of which changed our sense of time and space. These radical shifts often resulted in a sense of anxiety: a loss of faith in reliable narratives, language, and the role of the artist. Artists also, however, saw this change as opening new ways of representing the world, allowing them to create new systems of meaning through their artistic forms and aesthetics. Together, we will close read the literature of this period in order to begin to understand the preoccupations and formal innovations of the modernist writer.
HL208 Singapore Literature & Culture II
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course will examine how artistic practitioners handle the task of the creative expression of Singapore life and society, and the ways in which their work contributes to forming a sense of a collective Singaporean cultural space. We will do this by considering a range of texts from a variety of forms and genres, including fiction, poetry, drama, film, architecture, as well as other arts. We will consider how these address ideas of a culturally-specific collective imagination, and its close connections to issues of play, nostalgia, a post-1990 Singapore, creative subversion and aesthetic responsibility. More importantly, we will consider the relevance of Singaporean cultural artefacts and their value in relation to a larger sense of (modern) universal culture.
HL210 East Asian Literatures in Translation
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course examines literatures and cultures in different regions of contemporary East Asia (South Korea, Taiwan, China, Japan, etc.). The range of the texts in this course includes fictions, short stories, theatrical performance, and films, and we will discuss these cultural products vis-à-vis the intensive process of globalization in these regions (roughly early 1990s and onwards) as well as in the context of rapidly-growing inter-Asian cultural flows we are facing now. Also, moving beyond the selected texts as part of a literary/art genre, we will envision how these cultural productions are inseparable from our living surroundings and, how these texts shape social memories, traditional Asian values, gender roles, nationalisms, and historical traumas. Readings and media used in this course will be in English translations/subtitles.
HL215 War in Literature and Film
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course considers the manner in which art responds to war, and the ways in which war and violence are appropriated in both aesthetic and critical discourse. We will examine the centrality of war to human and civilisational experience, and also consider the conditions of inevitability that bind human experience to a deep-seated violent impulse. Issues raised by this course include, but are not confined to:
- the structural constitution of war
- the differences and similarities between war and violence
- the inherent ambivalence of war
- semantics, rhetorics and discourse of war
- artistic expression of war experience as ambiguating gesture
- Just War or just war?
- visual vs textual representations
The course aims to avail students of the critical tools to consider war, violence and conflict as viable subject matter of literary studies. Indeed, we will attempt to explore the role that art has, as well as its (in)ability to shape and be shaped by war, violence and conflict.
HL221 The Literature of Empire
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
In this course we will be focusing on literature produced in response to the historical experience of Empire. We will look at the way in which literary narratives have been used to legitimize the imperial project – justifying its ‘civilizing mission’, reinforcing certain racial stereotypes and hierarchies, and contributing to an archive of knowledge on colonial subjects and territories. However, this complicity between literature and Empire is only part of the story. We will also be exploring the ambivalence that so often haunts the peripheries of imperial narratives, and examining the way in which literature has served to critique colonial ideologies and practices. Our discussion will be wide-ranging, both historically and geographically. Although literature will be our primary focus, the course will also include analyses of Hergé’s early Tintin comics and the celebrated anti-colonial film The Battle of Algiers.
HL226 Approaches to Drama
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This subject will examine the major dramatic movements in drama from the Greeks through the present. Special attention will be given to how the theatrical concerns of one era influenced the developments of the next. Authors are likely to include Aristophanes, Shakespeare, Moliere, Ibsen, Pirandello, Brecht, Beckett, Pinter, Norman, and Howe.
HL227 Early American Literature & Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This module maintains dual Course Objectives:
- To survey works of American literature written in English during the period 1620-1820. As we read we will consider the formulization of an "American" "Early" "Literature". What constitutes "America" before 1789? Are these texts "literary"? Does our study of these texts require a teleological perspective? What factors determined the canonization of only English language texts from a multi-lingual, multi-colonial, and native population?
- To identify reiterations of persistent American mythologies rooted in this period. How has pre-revolutionary America been represented in the past and in our own time? How do these “secondary” histories determine what of the past gets preserved, celebrated, and canonized? What aspects of early America are forgotten in this process? What can we learn about contemporary American culture from these imaginative representations?
HL229 American Modernism
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course analyzes and interprets mostly early twentieth century American culture, including fiction, poetry, and film, looking at the way that the conditions of modernity engendered new forms that go beyond the earlier novel/romance dichotomy. We’ll study realism (Cather); naturalism in its classic, modernist, and Depression-era forms (London, Stein, Steinbeck); as well as classic modernists Eliot, Hemingway, and West, examining their experiments involving perspective, language, history, memory, and the surreal. We’ll study the archetypes and coded messages of film noir, focusing on patterns of corrupt morality, cold passion, and dehumanizing modernity. The short fiction of the Southern Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor will be discussed in terms of the grotesque and the rural/urban divide. We’ll conclude with Naked Lunch, Burroughs’ shockingly experimental work examining power and addiction.
HL232 African Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This module explores a diverse range of African literatures – including works from Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and South Africa. It will offer an historical account of the emergence and development of these national literatures, while also focusing on some of the major social and political issues they address. Of particular interest will be the epochal impact of colonialism, the conflict between tradition and modernity, the disillusionment of Independence, and the numerous challenges faced by postcolonial African societies. We will also be discussing the significance of the oral tradition in African literature, and the controversy surrounding its use of English, the language of the colonizer. Although literature will be our primary focus, the module will include an analysis of the South African film Tsotsi, and will introduce students to a number of important theoretical concepts in the field of postcolonial studies.
HL236 Virgins and Vixens
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
We will be examining the representation of women during the Restoration and eighteenth century (1660-1800), roughly the span of the Enlightenment in England. With the scientific discoveries of Isaac Newton and others in the late seventeenth century, Western civilization experienced an epistemological shift from an adherence to traditional structures of authority (church, crown, patriarchal family) to the age of empiricism and a privileging of reason, evidence, and experientially acquired knowledge espoused by such philosophers as John Locke. This crisis of authority (reason versus revelation, evidence versus faith), exacerbated by the political upheavals and constitutional debates in the wake of England’s Civil Wars and the Glorious Revolution, sent shock waves through all levels of society, including the domestic.
How did women—having few political rights, little financial independence, and existing as legal nonentities when married—respond to this new age of discovery? The title of the course is meant to indicate the binary opposition of “good” and “bad” women with which real, complex women had to work in order to survive in society. The course itself will problematize that opposition in an effort to understand how women in an uncertain but exciting age could form and articulate their voices—as images of God, as rational beings, as rejects and misfits, as companions, wives, mothers, and citizens—in an effort to contribute to the public and private spheres and establish their own dignity as members of society.
HL302 The Politics of Film: Race, Gender, Class
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course attends to film as a politically overdetermined cultural commodity that is informed by and/or engages the cultural politics of its time. Like the printed text, cinema’s mass reproducibility also permits it to move outside of its temporal and cultural context, allowing audiences to draw interpretive significance, hence often making cinematic art critically and politically relevant and productive for contemporary consumers. This two-pronged approach to various bodies of film from both the United States and Singapore will enable students to first historicize the works that they see and understand the political conditions that make these films possible, and then analyze how these films are consumed by viewers by examining the way contemporary political concerns colour the readings of these films. While “race,” “gender,” and “class” are invoked in the subtitle of this course as generic political categories to mobilize thinking on the issue of cinema and ideology, this course seeks to expand and move beyond these categories by accepting other notions of identity and identification such as (trans)nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, and political ideology as critical frameworks for filmic appreciation. Every two to three weeks of the course will be devoted to one historical/cultural period of cinema. We will begin with the Civil Rights Movement and the arrival of African American film, then move on to the New Queer Cinema of the 1990s, study the post-9/11 cinema of violence and war, before returning home to contemporary Singapore cinema. While these four periods seem disparate and disconnected, they all share the cultural politics of identity, which colours late 20th and early 21st century U.S., Singapore, and global political landscapes.
HL303 Film & Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course is about more than just literature adaptations. In what ways, we shall ask, are texts transformed from one genre to another? If turning a book into a film is perhaps the most obvious form of what we understand under adaptation and what we conceive of as the most often expected link between literature and film, how do films impact on how we read? How does film adaptation feature in fiction, for example? In this module, we shall critically analyse the shifting, ambiguous, and yet creative, two-way relationship between film and literature.
HL307 Postcolonial Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course explores competing versions of cosmopolitan and nationalitarian identity through a survey of important works by writers from nearby emerging economies (Malaysia and the Philippines). Among other matters, existential issues raised by urbanisation and industrial development will be addressed. The search for an idiom and imagery appropriate to a Southeast Asian locale, the challenge posed by primordialism, the issue of alternative modernities and the need to fashion a usable past from disparate material are other topics handled by the course. Students will be encouraged to formulate a first-cut analysis of where they place themselves with regards to these questions and concerns.
HL312 The Discourse of Love
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
We will begin with Plato’s Symposium, and move on to recent theorizations and philosophies of love. More than simply addressing thematic concerns, this course will approach love as a philosophy and a discursive practice, as well as address the issues of subjectivity, the Self-Other relation and difference, all of which are central to love. Our final aim is to evaluate the potential for love to serve as a discourse of alterity. We will be covering a variety of discourses and texts: philosophy, psychoanalysis, feminism and literary theory; film and literary works by both male and female authors and poets.
HL313 Postmodernism
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course will focus primarily on Postmodern literary texts (and some films) in an effort to conceptualise Postmodern Literature as a distinct literary genre. This course will focus on literary (and film) texts, as opposed to offering an overview of what is known as Postmodern culture. After establishing some of the precursors and shaping influences, we will consider the primary characteristics of postmodern literature, after which several suggestions regarding the evolution of postmodern literary forms in recent years will be offered.
HL316 Gender and Sexuality Studies
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
The multi-colored symbol in the title box above is a mathematical construction called a Mobius strip. Its complex inversion and simultaneous connectivity perfectly evoke the theoretical and discursive approaches to the questions of gender and sexuality in this course. As Diana Fuss aptly puts it, the symbol “interlaces many orifices, many sites of pleasure, many libidinal economies. It visualizes for us in the very simplicity of its openings and closures, its overs and unders, its ins and outs, the contortions and convolutions of any [gender and] sexual identity formation” (Inside Out, 7). In attempting to unravel and complicate our basic assumptions of gendered and sexual identities, this course will set us on an intellectually vigorous and exciting journey through the philosophical and theoretical debates dealing with gender and sexuality, covering arguments in contemporary feminist theories, essentialism, gender identity and performance, masculinities, psychoanalysis, and queer theory. The theorists whose work we will be reading include Judith Butler, Monique Wittig, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Marjorie Garber, Michel Foucault, Diana Fuss, Stuart Hall, Anne McClintock, and Elizabeth Grosz. To engage these theories, we will also be looking at a range of texts from popular culture, covering film, theatre, music, art, and television.
HL320 Ethnic American Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
In this course, we’ll study works of literature by African-American, Jewish-American, Chinese-American, Chicana, and native American authors, paying particular attention to the way that identity is materialized in these texts, defying the erasure that race often undergoes in the ethnically unmarked texts of the Anglo-American canon. Beneath its rhetoric of diversity and acceptance, America has been and remains a country divided by racism. These texts examine the effects of ignoring, exaggerating, Othering, or exoticizing racial identity, and provide an expanded view of American cultural history by reading examples of ethnic poetry, fiction, and non-fiction that illuminate marginalized subjectivities. Student assignments: one research paper and an oral presentation.
HL324 Contemporary Women’s Writing
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This course will explore a range of contemporary women’s writing. Two seminars will be devoted to the study of each text; one seminar will focus primarily on the text as a exemplary of “women’s writing”, thus dealing with the politics of gender identity, female desire and sexuality, while the next will address the text as exemplary of contemporary writing, dealing with narrative language, postmodern reality and questions of historical representation, as well as the construction of the shattered/ split postmodern subject.
HL325 Photography and Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
This module provides an opportunity to encounter a number of seminal texts in the study of photography and visual culture, while maintaining a dialogue with exemplary literary texts. In our reading, we will compare critical writing about photography, texts written “photographically,” and the work of actual, fictional, and filmic photographers. These texts illustrate a living history of the technology, the medium, and the people behind these cameras. By applying theories of the image as an interpretative code through which to analyze literary texts, we will apprehend moments of interaction, appropriation, and adaptation between these classically opposed ways of seeing and knowing.
HL329 Arthurian Literature
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
We will study major Arthurian narratives of the European Middle Ages as well as considering three modern versions of the story. In addition to attending to literary issues of genre and style, we will pay special attention to the larger question of what cultural values various contributions to the Arthurian tradition reflect, promote, or call into question. Topics to be discussed include historicity and textual authority, the role of chivalric ideology in medieval social and political life, the cult of “courtly love” and its attendant gender dynamics, and the impact of social change on the reception of the Arthur story in later periods.
HL330 Mojor Author Study: Shakespeare
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
In this course we will read twelve plays by Shakespeare, in the chronological order of their composition, and with attention to the variety of genres in which he wrote. Our selection will include highly canonical and less well-known plays, allowing us to think about why some have been valued more than others by the critical tradition, and whether there are grounds for reevaluating them according to our own lights. We will want to think about the difference between plays as texts and plays as performances. Therefore we will watch film productions of the plays in order to see the multifarious ways they can be made to produce meaning, and how actors as distinct from academics interpret them. These plays are sites in which we can observe some of the social and conceptual tensions that have come to define Shakespeare’s period for later critics, but they are also the works of a supremely intelligent artist. They are dense texts, displaying extraordinary compression of thought, so the fact that we will be watching movies in class shouldn’t encourage anybody to think that this course will be a soft option. It will, however, be an opportunity for ambitious students to read a significant amount of Shakespeare’s work.
HL333 Performance and Cultural Industry
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
Moving beyond performance as an art genre, this course envisages how theatre, as a cultural production, is influenced by the demands of global cultural market and social institutions in different national contexts. Students will be engaged in performance and cultural theories/discourses dealing with politics of culture, national development of arts, and the workings of cultural globalization in some Asian locations. In relation to the readings, the students will further explore performance’s role in shaping and forging social values and memories, how theatre builds connections within the live, immediate productions of knowledge, desires, images, and gesticulations.
HL402 Major Author Study: Chaucer
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is not only the best-known work of medieval English literature but also one of the most diverse, containing within it the full range of medieval genres, from romance to saints’ lives to racy tales of amorous conquest. The poem has been compared to a gothic cathedral in its elaborateness of detail and inclusion of seemingly contrary elements. Reading the Tales is thus an ideal introduction to the complex thought, culture, and history of the late Middle Ages—an age that was profoundly different from our own yet provided the basis for much of the modern world. In understanding the Tales, we will try to understand how the Middle Ages both differs from and relates to our present moment. You will be reading in Middle English, but no prior experience is expected or required.
HL 409 Popular Literature and Culture
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
The study of popular culture opens with the theoretical question of the divide between high and low art. In examining the philosophical and theoretical implications of this aesthetic divide, this subject foregrounds recent academic interest in popular culture as a suitable object of intellectual inquiry. A survey of the major theoretical approaches to pop culture will provide a critical and historical framework to analyze pop cultural texts in literature, cinema, television, music, performance art, visual art, and various other contemporary media, including the Internet.
HL418 Advanced Studies in Romanticism
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HL101
Semester: 2
Literature of the romantic period is characterized by the various ways in which it challenges the assumptions and conventions of the preceding century, thus extending the boundaries of human understanding and experience. It foregrounds powerful appetites and obsessive, even compulsive behaviour, best illustrated by the succession of daemonic others that appear in otherwise very different texts.
HL421 examines the nature of transgression and the role and function of the daemonic in some landmark works of Romantic literature. It is divided into three units. The first unit examines the relation between shame, guilt and creation through a close reading of two of Blake’s early prophetic books. The second unit explores two very different examples of overreaching. In Goethe’s Faust, possibly the single most important work of the romantic era, the eponymous hero is torn between knowledge and carnal pleasure. In Ivanhoe, it is not the hero but the antagonist who is torn between comparable desires. And the third unit contrasts two very different novels: Balzac’s Père Goriot, which explores a Faustian pact made within an emphatically social context, and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, which is possibly the most disturbing novel ever written about ungovernable passions.
This course offers an in-depth exploration of a major aspect of Romantic literature and of its lasting significance. The objective is to closely examine the social, psychological and literary implications of the extraordinary processes with which these landmark texts are concerned and of their continuing relevance today.
HZ204 Creative Writing: Playwriting
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HZ101
Semester: 2
This course invites students to explore the craft of playwriting through a critical understanding and practical application of basic playwriting elements such as plot, character, dialogue and so on. Students will participate in creative writing exercises and improvisation games as a means to finding their playwriting voice as well as honing an ear for the spoken word onstage. Critical analyses of stage play excerpts, peer critiquing of fellow students’ work-in-progress scripts and a final dramatised play reading showcase will also be key components of the learning process. This course prepares students towards the completion of a final 10-minute stage play and a self-analytical essay that articulates their individual creative processes.
HZ301 Advanced Creative Writing
AUs: 4
Prerequisites: HZ101
Semester: 2
This course is designed to give students experience and support in the development of a sustained writing project towards publication or production standard. The course can accommodate projects in poetry, fiction, scriptwriting, multimedia writing and blends of these genres, but the semester’s work should be conceived of as a single project (a themed collection of poems or short stories; a short novella, etc). Please consult with the lecturer if you wish to work in a genre that is not mentioned here or in one that you have little experience with. Students will commit themselves to a program of writing, reading and revision, which will be enriched by group feedback and discussion. We will learn through practice about the pleasures and difficulties of managing longer writing projects, and about the business of taking work to publication and production. To facilitate and inform the writing process we will read on the theory and practice of creative writing, and students will select an author or movement within their chosen genre to investigate in depth.
HL814 Sympathy for the Devil
AUs: 3
Prerequisites: Nil
Semester: 1 and 2
This course explores deviance in literature and other art forms through character representation. In order to examine this, we will be considering texts of various media, including poetry, short stories, drama, film, music (including opera) and paintings. The texts chosen feature characters who are villains who may be portrayed as heroes; and heroes who may be portrayed as villains. This module addresses the question of sympathy for the devil through the exploration of deviancy as a necessary trope in the representation of the hero (and of the villain).
Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
CORE COURSES
HG101 Fundamentals of Linguistics (A): Mind and Meaning
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course introduces students to the uniqueness of human language as a communication system. Students will examine how language is learnt and the way our mind stores meaning and organises information. The topics include animal communication, biological foundation of human language, language acquisition, bilingualism and multilingualism, sign language and deaf studies, language impairment, word formation and the study of meaning. These concepts are illustrated by examples taken from a wide range of languages.
HG102 Fundamentals of Linguistics (B): Structure and System
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course presents an introduction to the sound and morphological systems of languages in the world. Students will learn to systematically examine smaller units of language by studying basic phonetics, phonology and morphology. Upon completing the course, students will be able to examine how language varies across speakers depending on their social and geographical backgrounds. They will also understand how power and attitude influence language use.
HG201 Morphology and Syntax
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, Semester: 1
This course is an introduction to basic concepts linguists apply to their analysis of word and sentence structure. Students will learn about morphological and syntactic diversity in the world's languages and practise morphological and syntactic analysis on different data sets. Key concepts covered include inflection and derivation, case marking, agreement and concord, word classes, phrase structure, word order, grammatical functions and relationship s between clauses. A range of languages will be studied and students will be encouraged to apply and evaluate theoretical concepts based on their analysis.
HG202 Semantics and Pragmatics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, Semester: NIL
This course is an introduction to the study of meaning: linguistic meaning and speaker meaning. Major approaches to the study of lexical and grammatical meaning will be reviewed and the role of semantics and pragmatics in grammar examined. Students will be given plenty of practice in performing semantic analysis using a variety of frameworks such as componential analysis, prototype theory and cognitive semantics. They will also explore and apply the frameworks to the evaluation of metaphors and linguistic categorisation such as noun class systems, kinship terms and colour terms across languages.
HG203 Phonetics and Phonology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, Semester: 2
This course introduces students to the study of speech sounds and the analysis of sound systems in the world's languages. Students will develop skills in perceiving, articulating and transcribing vowel and consonant sounds using IPA symbols. They will also be introduced to syllable structure and distinctive features, and learn how to apply phonological rules to the analysis of sound patterns.
HG205 Research Methodology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL (Course is only open to major students) Semester: 2
This course introduces students to different issues relating to social science methodology and fieldwork methods in linguistic research. Students will explore methodological questions concerning quantitative and qualitative research designs. Part of the course involves an evaluation of basic assumptions underpinning research in linguistics, particularly in the area of bilingualism and multilingualism. This entails a critical evaluation of research methodology used in linguistic research. The aim of the course is to equip students with the skill to evaluate and conduct their own research.
HG210 Bilingualism and Multilingualism
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course focuses on issues central to the phenomenon of bilingualism and multilingualism. Students will learn to evaluate sociological and psychological claims about the bilingual experience, and appreciate the implications of these claims on the social perception of bilinguals in different societies. Topics covered include bilingual language acquisition, cognitive and social effects of bilingualism, bilingual literacy skills, bilingual linguistic memory, bilingualism in special population, bilingual education, bilingualism and language identity, and the testing of bilingual performance.
HG220 Language in Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, Semester: 2
This course examines how social factors influence language and the role language plays in reflecting social categories such as status, ethnicity and gender. Students will be trained to observe and identify linguistic variables which reveal the nature and function of speech variation within and across speech communities. Topics covered include variation in language styles and registers, and language variation reflecting social class, gender and ethnic group. Students will also study changes in language status over time, language shift, language maintenance, language death and the emergence of new languages.
HG499 Graduation Project
Prerequisites: To have completed 8 cores and 12 electives, Semester: NIL
Students will undertake independent research work under the guidance of a supervisor. They are expected to read widely to develop an in-depth understanding of a topic, and then identify research objectives, isolate new research questions, collect and analyse information or data and write up their findings as a research report. The graduation project integrates linguistic knowledge and analytical skills which the students have acquired.
LANGUAGE, MIND AND MULTILINGUALISM CONCENTRATION
HG211 Psycholinguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, Semester: NIL
This course explores the psychological processes underpinning a variety of issues related to language activities. It introduces students to language processing models and theories of how language is stored and learnt. It also evaluates the relationship between language, thought and culture. The course adopts a crosslinguistic approach and will focus on research on bilingual and multilingual individuals.
HG212 Cognitive Linguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, Semester: 2
This course examines language from the point of view of cognitive processes. Theoretical frameworks about language and cognition will be applied to the study of language, thought and culture. Students will learn about systems of conceptual organisation through the study of categorisation, metaphors, cultural models and grammar. Other topics include representation of space and time and cognitive motivations for language change and language universals. The approach is multi-disciplinary , as evidence is drawn from text analysis, language acquisition, language change, psycholinguistic experimentation, and brain imaging, among other sources.
HG213 Child Language
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, Semester: 2
This course is an overview of some key issues in first language acquisition. It charts children's language development from birth right through the school years. The emphasis of the course is on evaluating crosslinguistic data against current theoretical models of language acquisition. Topics include phonological; morphological; grammatical; semantic and pragmatic development. The course will also evaluate the influence of the environment on the child's language development by examining studies on input and research on differences in socialisation patterns across languages. Students will have the opportunity to work with real language data from a variety of languages.
HG214 Second Language Acquisition
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, Semester: 1
This course will examine a range of theoretical models of second language acquisition and evaluate their validity in explaining patterns of second language acquisition. Students will also explore influences on the process of second language acquisition , such as the effects of the first language, the age of acquisition, motivation, aptitude, input factors and individual earner strategies. Similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition will also be discussed.
HG310 Language Disorders
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, HG213, Semester: 2
This course introduces students to both developmental and acquired language disorders. Students will examine the difference between normal and atypical language development. The emphasis will be on understanding underlying cognitive deficits and the effect of communication disorder on general development. In the second part of the course, students will study acquired language disorder such as aphasia, dementia and other speech disfluencies due to brain injury. There will be a special focus on the assessment of clients in culturally and linguistically diversified population s, as students will explore the impact of bilingualism and multilingualism on assessment principles and strategies for intervention.
HG311 Language and the Brain
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, HG211, Semester: 1
This course examines how language is represented in the brain, and the neural basis of language processing and language learning. Findings from functional neuroimaging and lesion studies will be reviewed to enable students to understand the workings of the human brain in relation to language use. Special emphasis is placed on "the bilingual brain": how two or more languages are organised and how they interact within a bilingual individual, and how the multiple language systems are deployed in language comprehension and production.
HG312 Deaf Culture and Sign Language
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, HG102, Semester: NIL
In this course, students will explore the socio-cultural world of deafness and the history and use of sign language. The topics covered include the similarities between sign language and speech, the structure of signs, variation in sign languages in the world and the acquisition of sign language by both hearing and deaf children. Students will also examine the issue of identity within the deaf culture from the perspective of children who grow up bilingual in both the hearing world and the deaf world. The aim of the course is to develop an awareness of the linguistic practices of the deaf community and to inculcate cultural sensitivity when interacting with members from minority culture.
MULTILINGUAL SOCIETIES AND MULTICULTURALISM CONCENTRATION
HG221 Intercultural Communication
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course focuses on how key cultural values are embedded in language use, and how these hidden assumptions can impede effective communication across cultural groups. Aspects such as the organisation of discourse, preferred mode of communication, nonverbal communication, intonation patterns, politeness, address terms, greetings, and requests will be examined across cultures. The analysis will focus on how these relate to the broader definition of cultural values in terms of collectivism versus individualism. The objective is to develop students' sensitivity to cross-cultural variation in communication and to provide a theoretical framework for interpreting variation.
HG222 Sociolinguistics of a Region
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG220, Semester: 1
In this course, language structure and the social aspects of multilingualism in various Asian societies are investigated. Each time this course is offered it will focus on different regions. Areas for discussion are chosen from Chinese, Indonesian/Malay, Japanese and the languages of other Asian societies such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. Topics will include dialectology, speech levels, politeness, gender, ethnicity and language policy issues.
HG223 Language and Gender
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, Semester: 2
This course examines theoretical views about language and gender from a variety of disciplines. It integrates both social and cognitive approaches in its discussion of how meanings related to gender are reproduced in spoken and written discourse. Topics covered include gender differences in linguistic forms, nonverbal communication and conversational patterns. The course will also focus on the impact of gender-linked differences in the media, education and legal settings. The research will be drawn from research in sociolinguistics, anthropology, psychology and women studies.
HG320 Language Planning and Policy
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG220, Semester: NIL
This course focuses on language planning & policy and the ensuing impact on multilingual communities. Students will be introduced the basic concepts in the field of language planning and policy, with an emphasis on how international, national, and local level sociolinguistic factors impinge on language planning decisions. This course will illustrate the complexity of language roles around the world and present case studies of the language planning and policy issues in a particular region, for example, Singapore.
HG321 Language Change
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG203, plus either HG102 or HG234 or HG231 , Semester: 1
This course examines the ways in which languages change over time and the techniques used to study these changes. It will explore changes at all levels: meaning, grammar and sound. Specific topics include the nature of language change, and the comparative method and linguistic reconstruction in phonology and morphology. At a broader level, the course will also examine sociolinguistic aspects of language change. Students will become acquainted with attitudes towards language change, language convergence, language genesis and language death. Other topics include cognitive explanation of language change and grammaticalisation.
HG323 Anthropological Linguistics
Aus: 4, Prerequisites: Nil, Semester 2
The course explores the interaction of language and culture from linguistic, sociological and anthropological points of view. Topics discussed include the role of prosody and nonverbal behaviour in communication; factors influencing conversational style in different discourse contexts; the negotiation of power and solidarity in intercultural communication; the socialisation of language, and the creation of an identity from a child language acquisition perspective.
HG420 Languages in Contact
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG201, HG203, Semester: 2
As all languages show some effect of contact with other languages, this course will introduce students to the basic methodologies employed in the study of language contact, using an interdisciplinary approach. The course will focus on various issues of language contact including code-mixing and lexical borrowing, language shift and substrate influence. It will also focus on the most striking cases of "contact languages" - pidgins and creoles - and the challenges and opportunities they present to linguistics.
HG422 Forensic Linguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, HG102, HG210, HG220, Semester: Nil
Forensic Linguistics is the interface between linguistics and the law. This course outlines the history and development of Forensic Linguistics from its beginnings in the 1950's and 1960's to the present day. The emphasis will be on forensic phonetics, courtroom discourse, cross-cultural/cross-linguistic differences in legal settings, and the significance of linguistic evidence in resolving litigations and crimes in the judicial system.
APPLIED ENGLISH LINGUISTICS CONCENTRATION
HG231 The History of English
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL. Not to be taken with HG802, Semester: NIL
This course focuses on the birth and development of English from a historical perspective. Students will become acquainted with the structure and development of English from Old English, to Middle English and to Modern English, and will explore the principles of language change in terms of orthography, phonology, syntax and lexicon. The development of other varieties of English such as American English and Singapore English will also be discussed.
HG232 Globalisation and World Englishes
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course provides an overview of the spread of the English language in the British Isles, North America, Australia, Asia, Africa and other parts of the world. Arguments related to English as a World Language will be discussed. The theories and principles on the development and structure of World Englishes will be examined and students will assess the notion of linguistic imperialism, the role of language in politics, and issues concerning language in education. The impact of this globalising process on local cultures and languages will also be evaluated.
HG233 Language Structure and Verbal Art
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course invites students to explore the role of language in works of art, both folk art and high art. The course will focus on: the sound structure of poetry (meter and rhyme) in epic poetry of several cultures around the world, English poets from Chaucer to Yeats, the troubadours, and contemporary pop music lyrics. In this course students will learn to determine the time and place of composition for texts such as the Old English epic Beowulf; the nature of oral literature; the linguistic basis of jokes, and the structure of folk narratives, including present-day narratives of personal experience, fairy tales from different countries, and myths from native cultures.
HG234 Structure of Modern English
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: 1
This course provides students with the conceptual framework and skills for describing and analysing Modern English. Students will learn to parse simple and complex constructions in English. The topics covered include word classes, the structure of sentences and phrases, clause types, complex sentences and discourse styles. The course will also analyse variations in English through time, and evaluate influences on the structure of English in bilingual/multilingual situations such as Singapore.
HG330 Discourse and Conversation
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102 or HG234, Semester: 1
This course is an introduction to key concepts and methods in Conversation and Discourse Analysis. How do people conduct a conversation in an orderly manner? How are assumptions made about readers' knowledge built into a written text? These and related questions will form the focus. Different approaches to the study of the structure and function of conversations and written texts will be reviewed, and issues of data collection, transcription and analysis will be discussed.
GENERAL LINGUISTICS CONCENTRATION
HG240 Language Evolution
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG101, HG102, Semester: NIL
Where does language come from and how might it have evolved from earlier forms of representation and communication? This course reviews a number of influential theories about language evolution, including Pinker's language instinct theory, Gould's 'spandrel theory', Dunbar's 'gossip theory', and Deacon's language-brain co-evolution theory. A range of evidence will be examined from a variety of fields: primatology, archeology, paleontology, anthropology, linguistics, neuroscience, and child language acquisition.
HG340 Phonological Theory
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG203, Semester: NIL
This course reviews fundamental notions of phonological analysis and introduces students to current debates on phonological research and analytical techniques. Issues pertaining to the nature of phonological representations will first be discussed, followed by an examination of major approaches and frameworks, particularly Autosegmental Phonology and Optimality Theory. The relationship between the phonological component and the lexicon, morphology and syntax will also be discussed.
HG341 Syntactic Theory
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG201, Semester: NIL
This course is designed for students who have studied basic syntax, and would like to find out more about syntactic theory and theorising. The focus will be on new approaches to syntactic analysis since Government and Binding. A number of frameworks will be selected for comparison and review each year, although the choice of frameworks may vary from year to year. The more important candidates are: Lexical Functional Grammar, Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Role and Reference Grammar, and Culicover and Jackendoff's 'Simpler Syntax'.
HG342 Contrastive Linguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, Semester: NIL
In this course, students will learn to compare and contrast languages in a systematic and principled manner. The focus is on how similar notions (e.g. causation, 'impersonality', and information foregrounding) are grammatically encoded in different languages. The languages chosen for in-depth analysis may vary from year to year, from Chinese and English to other languages such as Japanese and Italian. Examples from other languages will also be analysed from time to time. We will find some surprising similarities as well as interesting differences. Students interested in doing bilingual research or pursuing a career in language instruction or translation will find this course particularly relevant.
HG345 Field Methods: Structure of a Language
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG201, HG202, HG203, Semester: NIL
This is a hands-on course showing you how linguists go about investigating a new or unknown language: how to find existing information about the language, how to select and work with native speakers, and how to record and analyse data. Students will develop techniques for organising information on phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics by working with a language consultant. Other topics covered include ethical concerns, field research techniques, effective documentation, and the use of relevant software. The choice of language will vary from year to year.
HG346 Language Universals and Language Types
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HG102, HG201, HG202, HG203, Semester: NIL
Do languages of the world have any features in common? Are there universals of language that can be discovered through careful comparisons and contrasts of different languages? And how have languages been classified? This course provides an introduction to how linguists have tackled these and related questions. Theories of language universals will be reviewed, and schemes of language classification examined.
LANGUAGE AND TECHNOLOGY CONCENTRATION
HG250 Language and Technology
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: Not to be taken with HG803, Semester: NIL
This course explores the impact of technology on everyday use of language. The focus is on modern information technology, but the course will begin with a review of some 'old' technology (e.g. writing, typing, sound recording, radio and television) in order to show how all technology can potentially change language use. A range of information technology available in contemporary society which opens up new possibilities of communication will then be discussed and their impact on language examined.
HG251 Language and the Computer
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: 2
Traditionally linguistic analysis was done largely by hand, but computer-based methods and tools are becoming increasingly more widely used in contemporary research. This course provides an introduction to the key instruments and resources available on the personal computer that can assist the linguist in performing fast and accurate quantitative analyses. Frequency lists, tagging and parsing, concordancing, collocation analysis and applications of Natural Language Processing will be discussed.
HG252 Language and the Internet
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: 1
Like so many other aspects of life, language and communication has been revolutionised by the introduction of the Internet. This course explores how the structure and use of English have been shaped by the popularity of new modes of communication made available by the Internet: SMS, e-mail, chatrooms, Internet Relay Chat, Usenet newsgroups, World Wide Web pages, and virtual worlds. The implications of these changes for our thinking and understanding of language will also be discussed.
HG350 Machine Translation
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: HG251, Semester: NIL
This course introduces students to the field of Machine Translation (MT). It will begin with an overview of the history of MT, from early attempts to contemporary approaches including rule-based MT, statistics-based MT and knowledge-based MT. Key concepts relating to representation and processing, dictionary building and annotation, and principles and components in the construction of MT engines will be illustrated and discussed. Major MT resources, particularly on-line ones, will also be reviewed.
HG351 Corpus Linguistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: HG102 or HG251 , Semester: 2
This course is an introduction to the fast growing field of corpus linguistics. It aims to familiarise students with key concepts and common methods used in the construction of language corpora, as well as tools that have been developed for searching and using major corpora, such as the British National Corpus. Students will be given hands-on experience in pre-editing, annotating, and searching corpora. Criteria and methods used for evaluating corpora and analytical tools will also be discussed.
HG453 Grammar Engineering
AUs: 4, Pre Req-HG201 , Semester: Nil
The course gives an introduction to the Linguistics Knowledge Building (LKB) system, and how to develop a grammar with the help of the Matrix Grammar. On the one hand, the course will focus on technical aspects, like the installation of the tools needed for the grammar development, how to run the tools, and how to do the actual implementation. On the other hand, the course will focus on certain grammatical phenomena, like modification, agreement, valence, and long-distance dependencies, as well as the semantic representation used: Minimal Recursion Semantics (MRS).
GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS- PRESCRIBED ELECTIVES (GER-PEs )
HG801 Language Puzzle: The Study of Human Language
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: 2
In this elective, you will be taken on a tour of 'the world of language' and you will be shown how linguists (specialists in language history and language structure) conduct their research, and what they have found out about the mystery that is known as 'human language'.
HG803 Technologically Speaking: The Intersection of Language and Technology
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: 1
In this elective you will get a chance to see how technology affects how we use language (from the effects of encoding to the rise of chatspeak), and also how technology has enabled us to study and process language in new ways. Students will gain understanding of the problems of representing, transmitting and transforming language electronically. Specific topics will include automatic parsing and generation of language, text mining (extracting knowledge from text) and machine translation.
Psychology
HP101 Introduction to Psychology
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL
This course is an introductory overview of fundamental areas in the contemporary study of psychology. Topics include the biological bases of behaviour, sensation and perception, memory, thought and language, social behaviour, intelligence, motivation, learning, personality, and development.
HP102 Fundamentals of Social Science Research
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This is an introductory course to the research methods and basic statistical techniques commonly used in psychological research. Students will be introduced to the process of scientific inquiry in psychology, both in terms of empirical research methodology and statistical analysis. Research methods covered will mainly focus on experiments and survey research. Statistical techniques introduced will include correlation, simple linear regression, t-test, and analysis of variance for simple experimental design. Learning is through lectures and hands-on practices during tutorials.
HP 200 Research Design and Data Analysis in Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Building upon on the basic statistics concepts introduced in HP 102, this course will discuss analysis of experimental data from simple and factorial designs using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Elementary concepts of multiple regression and test of association in categorical data will also be introduced. The course is divided into lectures and tutorials. In the lectures, we will focus on conceptual issues and cover the content materials that you need to understand in order to work with empirical data. In the tutorials, you will get hands-on experience with data analysis using SPSS
HP201 Biological Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Biological psychology assumes that all behaviour can be explained by neural processes occurring within the brain and its interaction with the environment. This course will first examine the general architecture, subcomponents, and inter-cellular communication in the human brain. Next, we will examine the neural substrates of complex behaviours including perception, attention, memory, language, sleep, hunger, and addiction. In summary, students will learn how behavior is instantiated in the brain.
HP202 Developmental Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Human beings develop cognition, personality, social relations and emotions in fundamental ways. This course introduces students to the major milestones in the human lifespan, from infancy through childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Special emphasis is placed on the role of socialisation and environmental factors in human development.
HP203 Social Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
An individual’s behaviour, thoughts and feelings are influenced by other people and by the social environment. This course examines topics such as interpersonal attraction, attitudes, social influences, social cognition, perception of the self, others and groups, altruism, aggression, conformity and antisocial behaviour.
HP204 Personality and Individual Differences
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
The study of human personality is central to psychology. This course surveys the major approaches, covering classical and contemporary themes such as psychodynamic theories, behavioural models, humanistic theories, trait theories, social learning theories as well as personality perspectives indigenous to cultures in the Asian region.
HP206 Cognitive Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
The representation, processing and retention of information are basic psychological processes. In understanding these processes, this course covers topics such as attention, vigilance, pattern recognition, memory, language and reasoning, concept formation, artificial intelligence, and problem solving.
HP207 Abnormal Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, Semester: NIL
This course aims to build a broad foundation for the study of psychopathology by covering a whole range of abnormality described in the DSM-IV. The main aim is to acquaint students with the etiology and treatment of psychological disorders through the major paradigms of abnormal behaviour. Students learn to appreciate the multifarious factors that lead to mental illnesses. Case studies are used consistently to reflect the clinical approach adopted by the field in understanding mental illnesses.
HP 305 Applied Statistical Methods for Psychological Research
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP200, Semester: NIL
This is an intermediate level course in statistics for psychology research. The general focus of the course will be on advanced topics in analysis of variance (higher-order between-subjects design, repeated-measures design, split-plot design, Latin-square design, cross-over design, etc.) and regression analysis (multiple regression, polynomial regression, regression with categorical explanatory variables, moderation-mediation analysis and residual analysis). If time allows, topics such as non-parametric statistics, and/or path analysis may also be discussed
HP307 Psychological Adjustment and Mental Health
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, Semester: NIL
Everyday, we are faced with numerous events that challenge our adaptability. Some people adjust to these challenges well, and some less so. What causes these differences? Concepts and theories of stress-and-coping, mental health, normality and abnormality of psychology are discussed in this module.
HP308 Psychology in the Workplace
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Psychology has practical applications to the workplace at the individual and organisational level. In illustrating this, the course covers organisational culture and development, employee motivation and leadership, team dynamics, work satisfaction, organisational influences on work behaviour. Special emphasis is placed upon organisational behaviour in contemporary Asian societies.
HP309 Cultural Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Culture, sub-culture and ethnic group membership affect behaviour in a variety of ways. This course introduces students to theories of, and research in, the influence of culture upon basic psychological processes such as cognition, the conceptualization of self, as well as developmental processes.
HP310 Positive Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, Semester: NIL
Positive psychology redirects the attention of psychologists to the positive aspect of the adaptive and the pro-growth aspect of human psychology. The topic includes such psychological processes as positive emotions and cognitions, resilience and subjective wellbeing. The present course provide a review of recent research in positive psychology, critical analysis of issues and methodology involved in positive psychology and its potential application in applied work.
HP311 Evolutionary Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: HP101, Semester: NIL
The course will provide students with a basic background of evolutionary theory and how it may apply to the field of psychology. Training on evolutionary theory will address common misunderstandings and provide students with the necessary information so that they can think critically and independently about its relevance to understanding human behavior. During the course, we will see how evolutionary theory provides a theoretical framework for understanding basic survival strategies, sex and mating strategies, parenting and kinship, development, language, emotion, cooperation, conflict, aggression, warfare, social dominance, psychopathology, and other aspects of human behavior. The course will culminate in an effort to demonstrate how evolutionary theory can apply to all branches of psychology and to address the advantages and disadvantages that the evolutionary approach provides for advancing our understanding of mind and behavior.
HP 313A The Social Psychology of Human Communication
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP203, Semester: NIL
This course will cover the following topics: The cognitive and interpersonal processes involved in message formulation and comprehension; the communicative functions of nonverbal behaviors such as filled pauses and hand gestures; the cognitive consequences of language use and social cognitive models of persuasive communication.
HP314A Issues and Concerns in Adolescence
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP202, Semester: NIL
This module introduces students to the issues and concerns in adolescence. Research on adolescent maladjustment such as aggression, juvenile delinquency, depression and suicidal ideation among others will be studied. In addition, critical issues surrounding the period of adolescence such as adolescent identity, adolescent and his/her relationships with parents, peers and significant others will also be explored.
HP314B Personnel Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, Semester: NIL
This course exams the application of psychological principles to assessment, personnel selection, training, performance appraisal, and separation - the complete work cycle. In doing so, the course builds on basic principles of psychology, research methods, and testing of individual differences. The topics will be examined from individual, organizational, and cultural aspects. The goal is for students to understand the fundamentals of the personnel process from both a theoretical perspective and from an applied perspective in an increasingly complex, diverse world.
HP314C Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP308, Semester: NIL
This course will develop your understanding of the principles, strategies, and tactics of effective negotiation and professional relationship management. You will also increase awareness and understanding of ethical principles and stakeholder considerations that influence the choices offered and made in transactions and relationships.
HP317 Child Psychopathology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP202, Semester: NIL
The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the rapidly expanding field of child psychopathology. This will be an introductory module surveying the various childhood disorders as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4 th Edition, Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR). An integrative perspective, acknowledging biological, psychological, social, and emotional influences and their interdependence, will be explored to explain the causes and effects of the presented childhood disorders. In addition, developmental processes that shape and are shaped by the expression of each disorder will be considered, within the context of family, peers, school, community, culture and society. Current approaches to treatment and prevention will also be briefly highlighted.
HP318 Health Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, Semester: NIL
This is an advanced psychology course that focuses on the interaction between psychological, behavioral, social, and biological factors on health. The course is designed to inform students about health psychology theory through class discussion, media presentations, and guest speakers (when possible).
In addition to piquing curiosity about health psychology, the primary goals of the course are to help students gain knowledge about the exciting field of health psychology, to develop skills for critically evaluating health psychology research, and to understand how health psychology is applied to improve individuals’ wellness. Specific learning objectives will be provided with each course unit.
HP320 Learning and Behavioural Analysis
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, Semester: NIL
Major theories of learning have developed from psychological research. This course covers ideas from classical and operant conditioning, including reinforcement, punishment, habituation, shaping, desensitisation, spontaneous recovery and extinction. The course also considers contemporary learning models such as cognitive learning including cognitive maps, discovery and insight.
HP321 Alcohol, Drugs and Behavior
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP 101, HP 102 and HP 201, Semester: NIL
This is an advanced psychology course that focuses on the interaction between behavior, neurobiology, genetics and pharmacology. The course is designed to inform students about behavioral pharmacology, neurobiology of drugs of abuse and treatment outcomes of drug abuse. In addition to educating and increasing students’ knowledge about behavioral pharmacology, this course also seeks to challenge students to think critically. The necessary increase in critical thinking will be derived by having students grow in the organization of data on various topics and produce written and verbal reports detailing this organizational endeavor.
HP324 Human Motivation
AUs:4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 & either HP203 or HP204 , Semester: NIL
This course looks at the question of why people are motivated to think and act in the ways that they do. In order to answer this question, we will study human motivation using a combination of various perspectives, such as biological, social, personality, developmental, and cognitive areas of psychology. The course is discussion and writing intensive and will be conducted in a format that promotes analysis and in-depth review of classical and current motivation research.
HP326 Cognitive Development
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: HP101, HP102, Semester: NIL
The course focuses on the development of brain, motor function, perception and attention, memory, language, representation of physical and mental world, problem-solving, and reasoning. In addition, the course surveys major theories of cognitive development, including socio-cultural perspective, Piaget, Neo-Piaget, information-processing approach, and neuropsychological perspective.
HP327 Introduction to Clinical Neuropsychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP201, HP207, Semester: NIL
This is an introductory course to clinical neuropsychology. This course will provide the foundation for students interested to pursue graduate studies in clinical neuropsychology. We will briefly cover the history and development of neuropsychology, neuroanatomy and neurophysiology as related to brain function and behavior, and survey clinical disorders involved. Consideration of the contributions of neurology, experimental and clinical neuropsychology to the understanding of normal cognitive and affective functioning and of disturbances resulting from brain damage in selected areas will also be presented.
HP328 Psychological Testing
AUs: 4, Prerequisite: HP101, HP102, Semester: NIL
This course is an introduction to the principles underlying educational and psychological measurement and testing. The general goals of this course are to explore the nature, problems, challenges and potential of psychology testing. The first half of the course is devoted to the foundations of psychological testing in various contexts. As part of this we examine topics such as the historical roots of psychological testing, uses of psychological tests, ethical considerations, and technical and methodological principles involved in developing and evaluating test materials. The second section of the course surveys major types of psychological tests, such as intellectual ability, educational aptitude, personality and assessment in the workplace. By the end of the course students are expected to understand the basics of test theory and test construction, and be able to critically evaluate the tests that we consider in the course which are drawn from tests commonly used in the field of psychological testing.
HP329 Psychology in the Asian Context
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Basic, applied, and theoretical research in the context of Asian cultures have developed in contemporary psychology. This course explores the cognition, personality, emotions, motivations, group and interpersonal relationships, adaptive and maladaptive behaviour of individuals in the context of their environment.
HP330 Clinical Community Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102,HP207, Semester: NIL
This course provides an in-depth examination of research and practice in an exciting, innovative branch of psychology. Clinical community psychology seeks ways to eliminate distress and promote well-being in people and their communities. It emphasizes (among many things), prevention (instead of treatment) of psychological problems, empowerment of persons and communities with few resources, the impact of stress and social support on people, and the importance and value of human diversity.
HP340 Engineering Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP206, Semester: NIL
Engineering Psychology aims to understand the capabilities and limitations of the human and use the knowledge to inform engineering design. It spans psychophysics, cognitive psychology, ergonomics, human-computer interaction, and engineering design. This course teaches students core concepts in engineering psychology and the use of these concepts to solve real-world problems.
HP348 Managing Organisational Behavior
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, Semester: NIL
The course explores the three determinants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups, and structure. Using recent research to explore practical questions relevant to managing successful organizations, students will learn about individual issues including attitudes, personality, motivation, and emotion; group factors such as teamwork, communication, leadership, power, and negotiation; and organizational structure and culture.
HP402 Laboratory in Developmental Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP200, HP202, Semester: NIL
In this laboratory course, students will be introduced to some common research paradigms and methods used in Developmental Psychology. The course will have a specific applied focus in which students will gain hands-on practical experience in working with actual data sets, analyzing the data using appropriate statistical techniques and writing up a research paper. Data from different populations such as children and adolescents will be examined. Students will learn the basics of scale development with reference to a child/adolescent population, using factor analysis. In addition, students will also be introduced to methods and issues in the area of child/adolescent developmental psychopathology and related intervention work.
HP 403 Laboratory in Social Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP200, and HP203, Semester: NIL
This laboratory course introduces students to the techniques used in conducting social psychological research. Readings and discussions will focus on both qualitative and quantitative methodology commonly used in empirical enquiries in social psychology. Examples of qualitative methods are naturalistic observation, structured interview, and content analysis. Quantitative methods will include implicit and explicit measures of attitudes, priming, response latency measures, and other behavioral manipulation in laboratory experiments. Students will gain hands-on experience in the various techniques that they have learned through conducting their own research projects.
HP404 Laboratory in Personality & Individual Differences
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 , and HP 204, Semester: NIL
This course will focus on the practical use of concepts, methodologies, and tools needed in evaluating and designing personality and individual differences empirical research. We will cover a variety of topics in measurement, instrument choice and design, hypothesis development and testing, and data preparation and manipulation, including statistical issues, tools for conducting personality and individual differences studies, and study design and evaluation methods .
HP 405 Laboratory in Cultural Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 , and HP 204, Semester: NIL
Human behaviours take place within an eco-socio-cultural context of the everyday life of the individual. Therefore, the conceptualization and manifestation of the same psychological process would be intimately informed and shaped by the eco-socio-cultural context of the people. This laboratory aims at introducing the approach and the procedure engaged by psychologist and anthropologist that is a multistage, multimethods approach that combines naturalistic observation, qualitative interviews with quantitative test construction and/or laboratory experiments to investigate the basic human psychological process in the cultural context.
HP406 A Laboratory in Cognitive Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP200, and HP206, Semester: NIL
In this laboratory course, students will be introduced to common research paradigms and methods used in Cognitive Psychology. The course will have a specific applied focus in which students will gain hands-on practical experience in gathering data using classical paradigms, analyzing the data using appropriate statistical technique, writing up, and presenting a research paper. In addition, students will also be introduced to research methods and analyses in the key cognitive psychology areas of perception, attention, memory and reasoning.
HP406B Laboratory in Human Factors
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 , and HP 206, Semester: NIL
This course will focus on the practical use of concepts, methodologies, and tools needed in evaluating and designing human-computer interaction. We will cover topics in Human Factors Engineering and Human-Computer Interaction, including human performance issues, tools for conducting human factors studies, and human-machine interface design and evaluation methods.
HP 409A Laboratory in Selected Topics: Data Analysis using ANOVA
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP200, Semester: NIL
This laboratory course focuses on the data analysis and interpretation part of the research process. It aims to provide students with hands-on experience in carrying out preliminary data-screening and analysis of experimental data using ANOVA. Students will learn to perform higher-order analysis for three-way designs, repeated measures designs, and simple effect analysis in ANOVA using SPSS. Emphasis will be placed on understanding interaction effects, estimating effect size, and carrying out multiple comparisons.
HP 409B Applied Multivariate Methods for Psychological Research
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP200 and HP409A, Semester: NIL
Multivariate methods are a set of tools for analyzing multiple variables (obtained from multiple time points, multiple measures and/or multiple samples) in an integrated and powerful manner. It can enrich our understanding of the interrelatedness between and within sets of variables and provide greater assurance that we come to some conclusions with more validity than if we were to analyze these variables in isolation. The focus of this course is the analysis, interpretation, and reporting multivariate statistical analyses frequently used in psychological studies. It prepares students with advanced quantitative skills for conducting independent research and their final year project. Conceptual understanding, including appropriate circumstances for use of each technique, the development of practical "how-to" skills, and an understanding of the trade-offs made in technique choice will be emphasized. Topics covered in this course include factor analysis, MANOVA, logistic regression and discriminant analysis, multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, etc.
HP 411 Clinical Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP207, Semester: NIL
This course aims to teach students the roles and responsibilities of a clinical psychologist. They will be adept at conducting an initial interview using appropriate counseling skills and be able to prepare a case formulation that reflects holistic care for their client. They will also become familiar with ethical issues related to the professional practice of a clinical psychologist.
HP 415 Trauma Psychology, Crisis Intervention and Management
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP207, Semester: NIL
The course covers concepts of emergency behaviour and psychological trauma arising from disasters and crises. Due emphasis will be given to the development of psychological resilience and coping strategies. A fair proportion of the course will be devoted to practical learning of crisis intervention and management skills to address the mental health issues and traumatic effects of victims of crises
HP 416 The Forensic Psychology of Crime, Terrorism and Disasters
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
This module covers an introduction to the psychology of crime, terrorism and disasters. A large part of it covers criminological psychology, applying psychological theory to criminal investigations, the psychology of disasters and accidents and in general the application of psychology in criminal, security and safety contexts. This course will benefit those who have an interest in working with the police, prisons, civil defence, child custody areas, as well as counselling, clinical and forensic settings.
HP429A Interpersonal relations and family studies
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102 and HP203, Semester: NIL
There is an increasing awareness that the individual's behavior takes place in the context of others. Individual behaviors develop within the context of interpersonal relationships and human organizations such as the family. ‘Family and human relationships’ introduces the student to the major theories and empirical studies in the structure and processes of the family and interpersonal relationships. Students are expected to read the theories, significant empirical findings and the emerging theoretical and methodological perspectives in family and relationships studies
HP429B Primate Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101 and HP102, Semester: NIL
Psychology is the study of mind and behavior, and using a comparative approach we can study the lives of other organisms to help understand psychology. Non-human primates share similar traits with human beings and therefore studies on them have provided useful comparison for understanding the basis of human behavior. In this course, we will be reviewing primate research that has advanced our understanding of psychological phenomena. We will focus on social behavior and cognition, and will explore how biology-environment interactions influence aggression, conflict resolution, parenting, sexuality, emotion, personality, communication, and social cognition. This course will provide an understanding on the basic components of a social mind and how we use primates as models for understanding behavior.
HP429C Cognitive Neuroplasticity
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP201, HP206, Semester: NIL
Recent discoveries have overturned longstanding beliefs that the neurophysiology of the brain remains relatively fixed after childhood. We will discuss new research that compares and contrasts both adult and child neural cognitive neuroplasticity. This class will review behaviors that can lead to increased neurogenesis and changes in neural connectivity. At the end of course, students will have a clear understanding how specific experiences are linked with specific changes within the brain.
HP429D Technology and Social Behaviour
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP203, Semester: NIL
Emerging technologies such as social networking and virtual worlds have become an inseparable part of our lives. They inevitably change our social behaviors and relationships. The purpose of the seminar is to introduce students to the up-to-date interdisciplinary research on emerging technologies and social behavior.
HP429E Neuropsychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP201, HP206, HP207, Semester: NIL
The purpose of the seminar is to introduce students to the fast growing field of neuropsychology where neuroimaging is applied as an advanced technique to study brain functions. This is an interdisciplinary domain that has its roots in psychology, neuroscience and biomedical engineering, and has important bearings in advancing psychology as an interdisciplinary science. The course attempts to provide an introduction to major neuroimaging techniques in neuropsychology in studying brain function, as well as, how these techniques can be combined complementarily to answer some of the more perplexing questions in cognitive neuroscience. We will focus on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a measurement technique that observe brain functions as it occurs and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a manipulation technique that change how the brain functions. With these foundations, students will be exposed to readings on how these techniques are applied to various areas of neuropsychology to advance our knowledge of the intrinsic properties of brain function, higher cognition in subcortical structures, severe mental illness, and the normal aging process of the brain as well as pathological aging in dementia.
HP429F Seminar in Selected Topics: Psychology of Leadership
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP308 , Semester: NIL
This undergraduate seminar provides students with a theory-based, integrative, hands-on, practical view of leadership from the individual and organizational perspectives. Students will use a cross-cultural perspective to distill useful and practical concepts from each theory, which will be reinforced with individual interactive on-line activities and self-assessments designed to highlight practical application and personal skills. Class meetings will review theory and concepts in the psychological literature and provide opportunity for group discussion and class debate, supplemented with experiential activities, role plays, and case studies designed strengthen skills with diagnosing situations and applying the appropriate leadership style.
HP429G Seminar in Selected Topics: Social and Emotional Development
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP202 , Semester: NIL
This course is an advanced exploration of social and emotional development. The general goals of this course are to obtain essential knowledge in the field and develop a scientific approach to the field. In particular, students will be introduced to the recent development of the field.
The course focuses on the neurobiological bases of social and emotional development. Additionally, in terms of social development, important topics such as self, identity, temperament, personality, social relations, including intimate relationships, and religious and spiritual development across the life span will be discussed. In terms of emotional development, essential topics such as the interaction between emotion and cognition, emotion regulation, stress coping, and motivation across the life span will be covered. In addition, developmental psychopathology will be reviewed.
HP429H Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP 101, HP 102 and HP 201, Semester: NIL
Vision has puzzled scientists and philosophers for many centuries, and continues to do so. The course “ Computational and Cognitive Neuroscience of Vision ” is an advanced course that offers an accessible, though rigorous, introduction to the computational approach to understanding biological visual systems. The computational approach may be considered to be the most successful to date in providing serious foundation to a theory of biological vision.
Intellectual support for the computational approach has a significant pedigree, extending to at least the 1950’s with the work of pioneers in the field of cybernetics. Cybernetics is usually defined as the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems, and is related to control theory and to systems theory. One of the defining characteristics of cybernetics was concern with stating clearly the problems that needed to be solved. This feature is also the cornerstone of the computational approach to vision, an approach introduced by, and best known from, the work of David Marr and his colleagues.
The computational approach today takes as its premise Marr's comment that “to understand vision by studying only neurons is like trying to understand bird flight by studying only feathers,” and makes use of Marr's three different levels of analysis in the study of vision: the computational level, the algorithmic level, and the hardware-implementation level. The computational approach will be applied to topics in vision that are covered in the course which include visual aftereffects, the retina, receptive fields, object recognition, brain maps, Bayesian perception, motion, colour, and stereopsis.
HP429I Social Cognition
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HP101, HP102, HP203, Semester: NIL
Social cognition has dominated social psychological research in the past few decades. In this seminar, we will have an in-depth analysis of how cognitive principles are involved in social psychological processes. We will survey the major topics in social cognitive research and have in-depth analysis of the empirical studies conducted in the under each topic. Some of the topics to be covered in this seminar include personal perception, stereotyping and prejudice, automatic and controlled processes in social cognition, and the relation between cognition and behavior.
HP801 Mind over Stress
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This class guides you in identifying, understanding and successfully managing various types of stress in our contemporary fast-paced lifestyle. Discover how stress affects your body, making it more prone to illness and poor performance. Based on scientific research, learn to become more stress-resistant through improving your self-awareness; changing your thinking habits; building a physical activity routine that suits you and the creation of relaxation with safe, simple and tested techniques like mental imagery. Apply research findings and enjoy the benefits of having greater control in the academic, social, family, spiritual and occupational components of your life.
HP802 Working in the 21st Century
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
Work in the 21st Century is characterised by competition on a global scale, where jobs are becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive and technology-driven, and where constant change is the rule rather than the exception. This course aims to provide students with an understanding of some areas of study within the field of behavioural science that are relevant and applicable to the work situation. This course explores the role of socio-psychological factors among individual and work group behaviour as a basis for understanding our place in the work setting. The lecture topics present four areas of interest - personality and work, occupational health, learning-performance, and career development. While each section is designed to be a stand-alone module, all the four areas of study are fully integrated within the general context of the work situation in organisations. Empirical findings from applied research are used to explain psychological principles and concepts and the course emphasises a practical approach to applying psychology in the workplace.
HP803 Are You OK? Mental Health in Singapore
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
Are you OK? We often ask each other this question. We are often concerned about the psychological well-being of our family members, friends, and, most importantly ourselves. In this course, we will discuss issues concerning psychological well-being and mental health in Singapore: the early signs of not being “OK”, when you might need professional help, and where you might find the appropriate help. The course will be taught by a seasoned mental health practitioner in Singapore, in collaboration with our in-house faculty members.
HP804 Coping with Culture Transition
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
We are living in a post-modern world where the technology changes rapidly. Such rapid change in technology would bring with it changes in the culture in which we live. People also migrate from one cultural community to another cultural community, either as sojourners or students or as immigrants. Cultural transition has become an important part of every modern professional’s life. In this course, we will introduce classical and modern theories on sojourning, migration and acculturation. We will also introduce strategies of coping and thriving in cultural transitions, including coping with cultural diversity in multilingual and multiethnic societies. Finally, we will discuss the process of acculturation and adjustment to a new culture, and the patterns of the host country’s reaction and accommodation to the new immigrants.
HP805 Introduction to Human Resource Management
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
In today’s fast-paced and competitive work environment, a student is often lost as to how and where to find jobs and how to manage one’s career. This course will provide an introduction to the contemporary human resource management functions: employment, employee relations, training and development, performance systems, compensation, benefits, and human resource information systems. It is not the objective of this course to train students to be HRM managers but to provide basic information for students to plan and manage their own careers.
HP806 Psychology of Crisis Stress Management
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
Regardless of one’s profession or occupation, the probability of encountering a disaster, critical incident or crisis situation in one’s life can no longer be ignored. Disasters of various forms have become realities that people should be prepared to face wherever they work or live in a technological and global environment. The objectives of this module are to provide students with an understanding of how people react, behave or are affected in a disaster, critical incident or personal crisis. It will present some practical knowledge about how an individual or organisation can cope with the traumatic stress that comes with the critical incident or crisis. In addition, the students will be introduced to some concepts of crisis management, psychological resilience and how an emergency response system could be set up or developed in the organisation where he or she may be employed.
HP807 Psychology of Career Development
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This highly practical course draws on principles and theories from psychology to help students understand their own life-career development; and proactively develop their strategy and plans to make occupational choices, transiting from the learning to workplace environment and continual career development and progression. Drawing on academic and research work in a variety of fields in psychology, the course will facilitate students’ career management and development skills. Practical illustrations will be used extensively during the learning process.
Sociology
HS101 Person and Society
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1
This introductory course explores what it means to develop the “sociological imagination”. Moving beyond the biological basis of behaviour, the course develops a perspective of the human person located in “society” - within webs of social relationships and institutional forms of social organisation. Social life is governed by norms and social constraints, but individuals as social actors also “make history” and exercise choice in their lives. In addition, the course develops a comparative understanding of the diversity of societal forms and cultural traditions in human history, especially the key features of modern life and its continued transformation in contemporary times.
HS102 Singapore Society in Transition
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1
Beginning with a broad perspective on the historical formation of Singapore, from its pre-modern roots, through its evolution as a colonial society, and then its fast-paced development as a modern nation-state in Southeast Asia, this course develops a holistic analysis of fundamental features of Singapore as a “society”. The course examines the making of “Singaporeans” and “Singapore culture”. The patterns of social order and dynamics of social change are understood by focusing on the relationships between political rule, economic structure, and cultural life.
HS103 Social Problems in a Global Context
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1
This course introduces students to sociological theories, methods, and research through an examination of selected social problems in a global context. “Social problems” refers to sets of social conditions, arrangements, and practices whose resolution, or mere existence, social actors deem important. “Social problems” are social in two ways. First, social problems are constituted through human interaction. Second, social problems are socially defined and thus the meaning and significance of social problems may be contested. There are some social problems that pose practical (if different) challenges for us all. This course introduces sociological perspectives on social problems relating to poverty and inequality, work and occupations, social welfare, and the constitution and role of government.
HS201 Classical Social Theory
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester 1
This course examines the theoretical foundations of sociology as a discipline. It focuses on the key ideas and perspectives developed by “classical” social theorists in their analyses of basic features of social life, the making of modern society and the consequences of modernity. In particular, the contributions of major thinkers such as Karl Marx, Emile Durkheim, and Max Weber are discussed against the backdrop of the social and intellectual contexts of their times. In understanding the pivotal influence of such contributions on the development of the discipline, the course also considers their continuing relevance for analysing social change in the contemporary world.
HS202 Doing Social Research
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
This course introduces the methodology - and methods - of social research. It offers a practical immersion into the process of studying human beings and social phenomena, from the formulation of research questions to the interpretation of research findings. Students are exposed to a range of research methods, including the experiment, ethnographic fieldwork, the interview, documentary research, and the social survey - taking a “hands-on” and “learning-by¬doing” approach in carrying out and completing a research project. In addition to questions concerning the analysis and use of qualitative and quantitative data, students also consider ethical issues in social research.
HS203 Economy and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
From the invention of the ploughshare to the rise of the internet, technological advancement makes an impact on economic organisation, social relations, and cultural life. In developing this central theme, this course begins with an understanding of the rise of science as a social institution and as a predominant form of rationality. In addition to understanding basic shifts in the experience of time and space brought about by scientific and technological advances, the course considers specific changes in the way that people live, learn, work and play. The human and social consequences - benefits and costs - of the impact of such advances are also examined.
HS204 Culture, Self and Identity
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
In its widest sense, culture refers to the sum total of ways of life that are shared by members of a society, providing a sense of social order and yet changing through time. In addition to the concept of “material culture”, this course focuses on intangible aspects of culture such as values, norms, ideas, beliefs and symbols, which govern the conduct of social life. Culture is transmitted by the institutions and processes of “socialisation” and is drawn into the social construction of personal and collective identities. The course also discusses changing conceptions of selfhood in modern society and issues related to “ethnocentrism”, “cultural relativism”, “subculture”, “global culture”, “popular culture”, and “multiculturalism”.
HS205 Organisations and Organisational Change
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester 1
Large-scale and complex organisations are a central feature of modern society. This course examines theories and types of organisations, especially in terms of hierarchy, control, authority, decision-making and accountability. In particular, it considers the rise and impact of bureaucracy and bureaucratic rationality in modern society and the subsequent development of schools or systems of management. In understanding the formal features of bureaucratic and post-bureaucratic organisations, the course also considers the informal, cultural and small-group processes that influence the functioning of organisations. Organisational change - and the transformation of management in contemporary society - is analysed in terms of the relations between organisations and their environments.
HS207 Understanding Globalisation
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
‘Globalisation’ refers to the increasing interaction and interdependence between peoples and places across the world. This course examines the interrelated cultural, economic and political processes that constitute Globalisation, and analyses their impact on individuals, groups, cities and nation-states. Emphasis is placed on understanding the multifaceted character of Globalisation and the debates that it has engendered. Specific themes include the spread of global capitalism, the global consequences of technological advancements in transport and communications (especially the Internet), the expansion of consumer culture, issues of global governance, and new cultural formations.
HS208 Social Class and Inequality
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester 1
Social divisions are found within all societies, whether in relation to wealth, status, or power. In particular, this course examines theories of social class, the dynamics of class formation and the “reproduction” of class along the lines of education, occupation, and lifestyle - involving unequal access to not only economic capital but also “cultural capital” or “symbolic capital”. The course also discusses poverty, gender inequality, racial discrimination, the “digital divide” and other forms of social exclusion and marginalisation in contemporary society.
HS209 Sociology of the Life Course
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
The social experiences of individuals change as they develop through different stages of life from birth to death. Members of each age cohort and generation share certain formative or defining experiences such as schooling, work, family life, and retirement. This course examines the various stages of the life-course in tandem with the changing demographic profile of a society, paying attention to social factors related to marriage, parenthood, family structure, education, employment, health and medical care, living arrangements, lifestyles and social equity. The social, economic and political implications and consequences of demographic trends and the policies that address such trends are also discussed.
HS211 Ethnicity and Ethnic Relations
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester 1
This course develops an understanding of “ethnicity” as a social concept and phenomenon in which group boundaries are defined and maintained on the basis of inherited or acquired cultural characteristics (e.g., language and customs). In particular, it considers the relationship between ethnic identity and minority status in plural or multicultural societies, especially in relation to racism or other forms of discrimination. The course also examines patterns of ethnic integration and ethnic conflict - and the “politics of identity” - in different societies, especially in light of flows of new immigrants from global diasporas.
HS212 Sociology of Language
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Who speaks what to whom, when, where and why? This course develops an understanding of patterns of language use - including language maintenance and shift, language endangerment and death - within specific socio-cultural contexts and the larger political-economic contexts of nation-state formation and globalisation. It examines the relationship between language use and ethnicity, gender, class, nationality and, more generally, identity formation on the part of individuals and groups. In particular, the course analyses language planning in multilingual societies, including the effects and effectiveness of policies related to bilingualism and bilingual education.
HS214 The Changing Family
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
The family occupies a central place in the everyday lives of most people across societies and cultures. Yet changes in contemporary society have had a major impact on the family as a social institution. Beginning with a basic understanding of kinship patterns in human society, this course examines theoretical perspectives on the family and the diversity of family forms and households that has developed over time. It considers issues related to intimacy, marriage, divorce, parenthood (both motherhood and fatherhood), alternatives to conventional family practices, and social policies which affect family life and family planning. The “politics of the family” and issues such as gender inequality and domestic violence are also discussed.
HS215 Education and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Formal education is a defining social institution of modern society. Its influence on individuals and society extends far beyond its pedagogical function, especially in relation to social inequality, economic development, governance and cultural life. In examining theories of schooling, the development of educational systems and the expansion of schooling in various societies, this course also considers the social organisation and culture of the school, the role of the formal and informal curriculum, the educational experiences of various social groups, and the social factors that affect educational opportunity and individual educational attainment.
HS217 Social Psychology
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Language use, socialization, interaction, cooperation and conflict, self-presentation and identity-formation, these are some basic processes in social life. Paying detailed attention to everyday social interaction and interpersonal relations, this course examines the inextricable relations between emotions, motives and thoughts, and the social worlds of individuals and groups. The course considers a wide array of empirical phenomena from multiple theoretical perspectives and equips students with tool for analysing the processes through which human beings construct their social realities, which in turn shape their notions of selfhood and collective identities vis-a-vis others.
HS218 Media and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Beginning with an understanding of the social character of communication, this course explores the interrelationship between the media - oral, written, print, broadcast, and electronic - and society. It considers the production and reception of the media in relation to social inequality, political power, economic structure and cultural life. Topics include the role of the media in the social construction of reality, the making of popular culture, cyber-culture, and the creation of the new vehicles of self-expression. In addition to examining theories of media, the course explores issues such as the rise of the media industry and the formulation of media policies within national and transnational contexts. It also focuses on the social impact of ‘new media’ created by the digital technologies, especially the Internet and mobile telecommunications.
HS219 Science, Technology and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Rapid advancement in science and technology presents individuals and societies with a unprecedented array of challenges. This subject explores the social, ethical and policy issues associated with scientific and technological advancement by posing questions such as the following: What is science? How is scientific knowledge created, disseminated and adopted? How are discoveries and inventions made and accepted? What is the nature of scientific and technological progress? How is it influenced by social, political, economic and cultural factors? What are the roles of universities, research institutes and industrial or business partners? In examining the social implications and consequences of the new scientific ideas and technological applications, the subject scrutinizes developments in multiple fields, including the life sciences, medicine, engineering and digital media.
HS221 Sociology of Food
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
Food is a basic necessity for human survival. Yet the choice, preparation, presentation and consumption of food are aspects of a larger social and cultural phenomenon. This course will examine the symbolic meanings individuals and groups attach to food and to eating as a social activity. It explores the complex social networks behind the production and consumption of food, involving class, ethnicity and gender and unequal relations across the globe. Issues related to health and dieting, fast food and genetically modified foods, and hunger and malnutrition are also examined in light of the globalisation of food production, distribution, and consumption.
HS222 Social Demography
Aus: 4, Prerequisite: HS101, Semester: NIL
This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the social-scientific study of population. Beginning with a discussion of the significance of changing demographic patterns within nation-states and in the global context, we consider the development of population science and major theories of demographic change. Special attention is given to “the demographic transition” and the causes and consequences of population growth in developed and developing countries. In understanding population dynamics, we focus on basic aspects of demographic structure and composition and analyze their implications for ethnic, gender, class and inter-generational relations. In particular, we analyze the role of the state in formulating and implementing population policy, especially in relation to fertility, which is in turn influenced by marriage and the formation of families and households. Population growth and distribution are also studied in relation to immigration, aging and mortality.
HS223 Environmental Sociology
Aus: 4, Prerequisite: HS101, Semester: 1
This course provides a critical survey of key theories and issues in environmental sociology. Beginning with an overview of environmental problems in the contemporary world, we examine the social construction of nature and the development of environmentalism as a concept and a social movement. In particular, it analyze the challenges of sustainable development and the roles of the state, market, and civil society in responding to environmental issues. Specific issues such as climate change, food security, and renewable energy are studied from a sociological perspective. The course will also consider issues related to environmental inequality and environmental justice.
HS226 Deviance and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester: NIL
This course addresses the fundamental question of how any type of behavior can be treated as “deviant”, “delinquent” or “criminal” within the context of a particular society. In examining theories of deviance - especially the social construction or labelling of deviance - the course considers the mechanisms of formal and informal control in a society and the strategies of resistance on the part of “deviant” groups. It also discusses basic concepts in criminology, varieties of crime (including corporate crime, organised crime, international crime and cybercrime) and systems of law enforcement and public surveillance.
HS227 Popular Culture and Consumption
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS101, Semester 1
Contemporary popular or “mass” culture may be distinguished from traditional “folk culture” or “high culture” and understood in relation to “consumption culture” and “global culture”. In examining the production and consumption of popular culture, this course draws and discusses examples from a wide range of areas, including television, film, music, magazines, fiction, fashion, food, and shopping. In particular, the course considers “cybercultures” which have emerged and spread with advances in digital technology. It also discusses the “culture industry”, especially the social and ideological implications of the commodification of culture.
HS301 Contemporary Social Theory
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS201, Semester: NIL
This course builds upon the foundations laid by classical social theory and maps out the field of contemporary social theory. In particular, the legacy of classical theory is critically reviewed in light of the advent of the “postindustrial”, “postmodern” and “post-Cold War” era in the late twentieth-century and the early 21st century. Beyond surveying the ideas and perspectives that major social theorists have developed in response to the transformation of contemporary society, the course focuses on key contributions that have influenced the development of sociology in recent decades.
HS302 Understanding Social Statistics
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: HS202, Semester: NIL
Social statistics appear routinely not just in articles in academic journals but also those in newspapers and popular magazines. Statistics are often cited and accepted as “factual” evidence or “empirical” support for a particular opinion or policy. But statistics can be used and abused. This course aims to develop a working understanding of social statistics, focusing on basic statistical concepts, the logic of statistical reasoning in social research, the foundations of statistical inference and hypothesis testing, and the generation and interpretation of statistical data. Students also learn to use a statistical software package for social research.
HS304 Cities and Urban Life
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course examines theories of urban development and features of urbanism as a way of life, focusing on processes of urbanisation and metropolitan development in both the developed world and in the developing world. It considers the urban transformation of predominantly rural societies, highlighting the implications of the rural-urban divide and issues related to urban poverty, housing and urban renewal. The course also discusses the rise of global cities and “informational cities” - and the rise of the “creative city” - with emphasis on the competition between cities in attracting trade, talent and tourists and the potential collaboration between them in addressing problems engendered by the global economy and international migration.
HS305 Sociology of Migration
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
The movement of individuals and groups across national borders has resulted in increasing numbers of people who live outside of their country of birth. Migration has become a major factor in the changing social and demographic profile of many contemporary societies. This course examines the socio-cultural, political and economic processes underlying global migration, including labour migration, human trafficking and refugee flows. It explores the causes and consequences of the mobility of populations. In particular, the relations between migrant and host populations tend to be divided along ethnic and class lines. The continuation of global diasporas, especially into countries and cities of the developed world, also raises issues related to multiculturalism and national identity.
HS306 Sociology of Risk and Crisis
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
The contemporary world faces unprecedented risks which extend beyond the periodic occurrence of natural disasters. Such risks - e.g., health risks and “cyber-risks” - are created by technological advancements (e.g., in fields such as biotechnology, genomics and information technology) and can have a global impact. This course examines the causes and consequences of new risk-related phenomena such as the threat of epidemics (e.g., SARS or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome and “bird flu”), which can spread across national boundaries. In addition to health and environmental risks, the early 21st century world is characterised by new and unpredictable forms of violence such as terrorist acts, whose causes and consequences are again not confined within the context of a single nation-state. This course also discusses the perception of insecurity and the negotiation of risk - and the management of potential and actual crises.
HS307 Religion and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course is concerned with the place of religion in personal and collective life, the varieties of religious phenomena, and the social organisation of religious belief and practice. In particular, the course draws a comparison of the types of religious worldviews embodied in animistic, polytheistic and monotheistic religions. In so doing, it examines the great religious traditions, including the “Abrahamic faiths” (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religion, as well as new religious movements. The course also discusses the relation between religion and modernity, especially science, capitalist rationality and the secular state.
HS308 Sociology of Emotions
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course develops a sociological understanding of emotions and emotional behaviour - which have tended to be neglected in social research in spite of their centrality in human life. It examines the social role of emotions and the social processes shaping and regulating emotional experiences and expressions in everyday social interaction, especially in the family and the workplace. Concepts such as “emotional intelligence”, “emotional labour” (or “emotion work”) and “emotion management” are also discussed. In addition, the socialisation of emotions is considered in relation to cultural notions and social constructions of “face” and of concepts such as trust, guilt, shame, pride, honour, fear, anger and rage.
HS311 Power, Politics and the State
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
Power is a fundamental feature of social life, and it is manifested most obviously in the role of political institutions, especially in the modern nation-state. This course examines the nature and exercise of power and political control. In tracing the making of the modern state, it considers the ideological processes that legitimise political rule and government authority, especially in relation to nation-building and citisenship. In drawing contrasts between “fascist” and “democratic” states, it discusses the processes of democratisation, including the changing relations between state and civil society, the role of social movements, the protection of human rights, and the mechanisms of conflict resolution.
HS313 Social Movements
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course examines why and how personal concerns develop into social movements, e.g., the women’s movement and the environmental movement. It discusses the social backgrounds and motivations of members and supporters of social movements. In addition, it analyses the organisational features and activities of social movements and the factors - including the role of the state and mass media - affecting their development and their effectiveness in bringing about social and cultural change. Examples are drawn from social movements in different societies and from transnational social movements.
HS314 Health, Medicine, and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
Illness is a primary component of suffering, and human beings have developed different methods of dealing with it. However, notions of ‘sickness’ often connote physiological dysfunctions, which in turn require biomedical remedies. What then does it mean to be healthy? What are the social conditions for physical well-being? How can ‘genuine’ and ‘pseudo’ medicine be distinguished? How is medicine organised as a profession, institution and industry? In drawing on theories and case studies, this course considers how social relations and cultural constructs influence the definition of health, the provision of medicine, and the effects of therapy. Topics include medical ethics, medical technology, and the political economy of healthcare.
HS315 Development and Social Change
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
Why are some countries poorer than others, and why do some countries develop faster than others? ‘Development’ is often equated with ‘industrialisation’, ‘modernisation’ and other such large-scale social transformations. That conventional approach assumes that all societies advance through linear, evolutionary stages of ‘progress’ through the adoption of modernising institutions and practices. In studying the historical experience of developing countries (in Africa, Latin America and Asia), this course views development and social change through the lens of political, economic and cultural processes, recognising that outcomes of ‘development’ often hinge on competing ideas, conflicting interests, and power asymmetries. Students will gain a historically grounded understanding of development and social change in a variety of institutional settings.
HS316 Societies in Comparative Perspective
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course has four main components: (1) A comparative discussion of the nature of human sociality. (2) Macrosociology: the various types of society that have existed in the past and present, with special attention to peasants (who comprise more than half of the world’s people). (3) Kinship and marriage: how to study them both formally and in relation to wider cultural and societal issues. (4) Notions of the person and the ‘self’ as culturally expressed in different social circumstances. Special attention will be given to social organisation in India, China, the Malay world, Southeast Asia and Europe.
HS317 Sociology of Tourism
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
As a prominent aspect of globalisation, tourism entails the global creation and consumption of ‘tourism spaces’ characterised by complex interactions between tourists, host communities, state agencies, businesses, cultural institutions and international organisations. The study of tourism as a social and cultural practice therefore also deals with issues such as migration, development, sociocultural change, and domination. Drawing on theoretical perspectives and research findings from various disciplines, using multimedia teaching tools, and engaging in fieldwork activities, this course develops a comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted character of tourism and its impact on contemporary societies.
HS318 Sociology of Gender
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course examines gender relations within various institutional contexts. Beginning with a discussion of gender difference and inequality from a sociological perspective, we consider theories of gender, including the nature of patriarchy, and the social and cultural construction of women and men. In particular, we will discuss the structural and ideological aspects of gender relations in social contexts such as the following: the family and household, work and the economy, politics and the state, and popular culture and mass media. Within these contexts, we examine specific issues, for example, the domestic division of labour, gender segregation in employment, gender representations and identities, and gender inequality in relation to crime and violence. In so doing, we also analyze the effectiveness of public policy in these areas.
HS319 Sexuality and Society
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course surveys the study of sexuality as a social phenomenon. Beginning with a discussion of anthropological and sociological approaches to sexuality, we examine the plurality of sexual identities and communities across historical periods and societies. In particular, we focus on the construction of masculinity and femininity in relation to the family, social class, work, and citizenship, highlighting the politics of diversity and the negotiation of sexual and reproductive rights. In so doing, we analyze the relationship between intimacy and modernity, and sexuality in contemporary society.
HS350 Society and Culture in Southeast Asia
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
This course introduces the sociology and anthropology of Southeast Asia – the region around Singapore – in its historical, sociocultural and geopolitical contexts. The countries covered include: Burma, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and the Philippines. The course has four closely interrelated sections:
- Pre-modern Southeast Asia; with special attention to peasant life and the associated pattern of inequality
- Modernity and modernisation, in both rural and urban contexts
- The modern nation-state in relation to culture and society
- Religion, with primary attention to the political situation of Islam and Theravada Buddhism
HS351 Contemporary Chinese Societies
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: Any two of the 200-level cores, Semester: NIL
Contemporary Chinese societies – the People’s Republic of China, Hong Kong (now a Special Administrative Region of China), Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas – have developed out of specific historical, political and economic conditions. This course analyses social change in these societies by focusing on basic issues related to economic development, political authority, and cultural identity. While considering the continued links between them, the emphasis may be placed on either an in-depth understanding of one particular Chinese society or a comparative analysis of two or more societies.
HS352 Comparative Asian Societies
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course develops a macro-sociological and comparative understanding of Asian civilisations and their post-colonial transformation into modern nation-states and development as contemporary societies. It also considers the historical linkages between East, Southeast, South and West Asia and the impact of globalisation on the region as a whole.
HS410 Religion, Culture and Society in Contemporary China
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: All Core Courses except HS401 and HS402, Semester: Nil
The religious revival witnessed in China in recent years is a poignant indication of the significant role religion continues to play in the lives of many Chinese, despite numerous attempts by the Communist state to stamp it out. As China globalizes and persists in its modernization effort, the various religions exist in a tense and ambiguous relationship with an officially atheistic ruling party that seeks to maintain hegemonic control over society. Through the examination of various important methodological and substantive issues relating to religions in China, this course aims to enable students to analyze the complex ways in which religion shapes, and is shaped by, China’s contemporary social, political, and cultural developments.
HS411 The Self in Southeast Asia
AUs: 4, Prerequisites: All Core Courses except HS401 and HS402, Semester: Nil
The rapidity of social change in Southeast Asia has resulted in the transformation of many Southeast Asian societies in just a few decades. This seminar style course will examine how this rapid social change has affected the individual in terms of self and identity. The focus on Thailand and Indonesia will provide the opportunity to compare and contrast two different cultures in Southeast Asia. One issue that will be considered is the growth of individualism, what it means in Thailand and Indonesia, and the ways in which it is manifested in everyday life.
HS390 Special Topics in Current Sociology
HS391 Selected Topics in Applied Sociology
HS490X Honours Seminars
HS401 Research Practicum I: Qualitative Social Research
HS402 Research Practicum II: Quantitative Social Research
HS499 Graduation Project
GER (PEs)
HS801 Women in a Globalised World
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester 1
This course examines issues related to women in the context of a Globalised world with a focus on Southeast Asia, which has experienced rapid economic transformation. This transformation has brought about significant social and cultural consequences for women and concomitant changes to the family. This course familiarises students with the nature of the social and economic changes that have taken place and their impact on the diverse multi-cultural aspects of Southeast Asia societies such as the race/ethnic, religious/ secular, rural/urban, social class and gender differences, both between and within the different countries.
HS803 Comparative Societies
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This is a globally-focused course on comparative societies and social patterns that surveys five societies, including Japan, Mexico, the Kalahari Bushmen, Egypt, and Germany. Basic concepts from social science are introduced to enable students to compare and contrast aspects of social organisation across societies and assess their relative importance, such as culture and values, social groups and institutions, social stratification and inequality, and gender and ethnic relations. The selected cases also demonstrate aspects of societies and social organisation that contribute to social stability or social change. Students will gain specific knowledge about the societies under review as well as the ability to use tools and concepts learned in the course to expand their knowledge of other societies around the globe.
HS804 Sex, Death and Related Social Processes
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL Mutually exclusive with: GS14, Semester: NIL
Population is shaped by two processes, births and death. Even though both are biological processes, there are significant social dimensions to these population processes. Sex is what initiates the process of birth and tends to be a highly regulated social process. This course will provide an introduction to the social dimensions of population processes. We will examine the debates of the core population issues: population growth, births and deaths. Within this framework, issues such as health and the family will also be considered.
HS805 Religion and Social Life
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL Mutually exclusive with: GS11, Semester NIL
Religion constitutes a profoundly important part of individual and social life. The different relations have been major components in history, politics and culture. This course will help students start thinking about these issues, and introduce the ways in which religion is investigated by sociologists, historians, psychologists, anthropologists, and others. On completing the course, students should be able to take a more informed interest in issues concerning religion that form part of current discussion, both public and private.
HS808 Understanding Culture and Globalisation
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Today, we are living in an interconnected world. People from diverse backgrounds have to practice forms of cultural negotiation when they interact together. This course analyses how cultures are ‘socially constructed’ and what happens when different cultures meet. Cultures are not monolithic constructs. People continuously negotiate their content in relation to a wide variety of factors and Globalisation has accelerated and broadened these forms of negotiations. The principal themes are: cultural capital, dominant cultures, sub-cultures, Asianisation, Westernisation, consumption, hybridity, popular culture and transnationalism.
HS809 Understanding China Today
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course examines the market transition process in China since 1978. Market transition here is understood as a process of not only economic transformation but also sociopolitical and cultural change. Thus, in addition to introducing the facts and policy issues behind China’s recent economic “miracle”, the course also discusses the broad implications of economic reforms on the political, social, and cultural systems in China and the transformation of the political, social, and cultural systems.
HS810 Food in Culture and Society
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Food constitutes a profoundly important part of human life. It affects us physiologically, culturally and socially, and it is a major element in history, economy and politics. This course introduces the ways in which food-related questions have been researched by scientists, historians, sociologists, anthropologists and others. Why do we eat what we eat? How has the human diet changed over the centuries? How does our food get to our tables? What are the consequences of our eating patterns? What difference does it make whether we find and cook our own food, or have it prepared for us by others? What does ‘fast food’ do to us and our society? Why are some people starving while others are eating too much? If these and other such questions interest you, then this is the course for you.
HS811 Whose Rules? Issues in Crime and Punishment
AUs: 3, Prerequisites: NIL, Semester: NIL
Crimes and deviance, as fiction or as news, have always been stock topics for human discussion. Today in the mass media it is no different. But ways of understanding and explaining them and ways of reacting to them have changed over time. Are criminals and deviants born different, or just brought up different? Are they mad, or merely sad? Are they predominantly male? Who sets the rules anyway? And does prison do any good? Students will be familiarised with the historical sequence of major sociological explanations, contrasted or interwoven with philosophical, biological and psychological theories. Students will learn how to detect these varied approaches in everyday writings, talk and policies, as well as the difficulties of interpreting the research on which they are based and the oft-quoted statistics of crime.
HS812 Emotions in Everyday Life
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course will focus on cross-cultural meanings of emotional experiences and expressions, which appear differently across time and space. After reviewing various theoretical frameworks, we will read ethnographic accounts of emotions in everyday life from a broad variety of ethnographic settings, ranging from small-scale communities, postindustrial complex societies to cyberspace, and diverse genres from Bedouin love songs, Kaluli laments, to the U. S. cable news after the terrorist attack on September 11. Specific topics include; definitions of emotion; emotion and non-verbal communication; emotion and self-presentation; emotion and language; gender issues in emotion; emotion and the body; emotion, power and politics; emotions in global encounters.
HS813 Tourism Today: Image, Stories and Trends
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
In the 21 st century we have the sense of living in a scientific, technologically-based and statistically-described world that is a far cry from the olden days when life was based on unconfirmed beliefs and far-fetched stories. Yet our understanding of our societies may not be as factually-grounded as we think. Through the topic of Tourism in Singapore and Southeast Asia, students will explore the knowledge we have of the societies we live in, what we tell and sell to tourists about ourselves and what we tell ourselves about tourism. Using sociology and history texts, official statistics, newspaper reports, tourist guidebooks and brochures and a host of other sources, the course will outline and students will explore and present on Singapore and Southeast Asian history, heritage, development and conservation in relation to tourism in general and specific trends such as ecotourism. Individual topics might range from The Merlion, to “Uniquely Singapore” and “Malaysia Truly Asia” to Casinos and Integrated Resorts or the future of Pulau Ubin.
HS814 How Do Social Inequalities Come About?
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course introduces the analytic and systematic study of how social differentiations become structured and durable social inequalities. We look, in particular, how the differences in class, status, power, gender, ethnicity, caste and age become the bases for unequal life-chances. We look to social thinkers since the Enlightenment to explain the causes of these inequalities and how they are legitimated and contested.
HS815: Why We Work: How Work Shapes Our Lives
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
The course looks at why we work and how our lives are organized by it. The course has three main sections. In the first section on Employment, students learn how paid work is organized in different labour markets. Who gets the good jobs and who the bad? What is the link between educational credentials and job placement? In the second section on Unemployment, students find out about the structural explanations for unemployment in an increasingly globalized world. In the third section on Unpaid Work and Leisure, students learn about work that is not paid or evaluated highly but which nevertheless is essential for the well-being of individuals, for instance, housework and caring work, and ask why this is so. Throughout the course, the emphasis is placed on the relationship between work (in its various forms) and our lives. How does work discipline as well as emancipate us? Examples will be drawn from advanced economies such as the USA, UK, Germany, France, Japan and Singapore as well as developing countries like China and Malaysia.
HS816: Understanding Singapore Society
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
Contemporary Singapore has been described by observers in many different ways. The country has been perceived by some as a model of economic success and multi-racial harmony. Others have criticized the high degree of state regulation in the nation-state. This course provides a sociological perspective on various aspects of Singapore society, from its historical formation to its post-independence social transformation. Issues to be covered include the question of national identity and culture. We examine whether Singaporeans possess a common identity and a culture to call their own. Matters concerning the exercise of political power and the maintenance of authority will also be analyzed. We explore methods of governance that shape society and individuals. Finally, we examine social divisions, for example, class, gender, and religious affiliations. Students will learn to develop the 'sociological imagination' - the ability torelate larger societal issues and personal concerns of everyday life.
HS817: Man or Machine: Science and Modern Society
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
Modern society has been characterized by the proliferation of science and technology in everyday life. The culture of the new millennium will be much more influenced by technoscientific advances particularly in biotechnological and informational fields. This course is designed to provide an introduction to sociological studies of science and technology. A wide range of issues is discussed including the Internet and cyberworld, nanotechnology and new material, bio-engineering, medical science, and military technology. All the cases will be observed using the sociological lenses that allow students to understand structural relations that underpin unprecedented development of science and technology. The role of science and technology in globalization processes is also examined. From learning these cases using sociological frameworks, students will develop the ability to examine social and cultural implications of science and technology in contemporary society.
HS818: Our Bodies, Our Selves
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course provides a meaningful insight on the body as a contested terrain on which struggles over control and resistance are fought out in contemporary societies. We will to understand how the body has been included in the sociological inquiry as a critical reflective response to the current social changes. By emphasising on the transformations in medical knowledge, we will analyse how the understanding of the body has changed from a passive receptacle of disease to a responsible and active agent of self-care. Moreover, we will examine the knowledge of the body vis-à-vis social competence.
HS819: Living in Contemporary Cities
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
This course investigates various social forces that shape urban life conditions and the developmental patterns of cities by exploring a range of urban sociological concepts and relevant empirical research outcomes.
HS820: Exploring Southeast Asia through Films
AUs: 3, Prerequisite: NIL, Semester: NIL
The course introduces students to the region around Singapore – in particular, to the cultural and social aspects of the people who live in the region. We will examine contemporary Southeast Asian society and culture through the lens of contemporary Southeast Asian films. The course will examine key issues pertaining to gender, ethnic, religious and national identities in contemporary Southeast Asia. It will also discuss the forces of urbanization, modernity and globalization that have affected society, culture, ethnicity, and economy in the region. Each of the films selected for viewing and discussion will provide scope for the discussion of key issues pertinent to understandings of Southeast Asia. The range of countries to which this course refers includes Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines.
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