Month: March 2011

New Joint Minor with University of Toronto

fasswebmaster Announcements, Special Programmes, Undergraduate
Visitor to Deanery_002_Web
L-R: A/P Paulin Straughan, Prof Brenda Yeoh, Prof Ito Peng, Ms Shirley Koh and A/P Robbie Goh

In March 2011, FASS concluded the Joint Minor agreement with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of the University of Toronto (UoT); officially launching the joint minors in Asian Geographies and Urban and Regional Change in North America. NUS students will be reading the minor in Urban and Regional Change in North America while UoT students will be accessing the minor in Asian Geographies. The joint minor is open to FASS students from the 2009 cohort onwards, regardless of their majors.

Professor Ito Peng, Associate Dean for Interdisciplinary & International Affairs, Faculty of Arts and Science, UoT, was in Singapore recently and was the happy witness to the conclusion of the agreement. She said that UoT considered NUS to be an important and strategic partner and was pleased that the joint minor arrangement has now been extended to FASS. Professor Brenda Yeoh, Dean of FASS, echoed Professor Peng’s satisfaction that the joint minor has now come to fruition and that students from both universities will now be able to benefit from the best of both worlds. She hopes that the relationship between Toronto and NUS will continue to deepen to include collaboration in research and graduate studies.

More information on the joint minors with UoT can be found here.

Inaugural LSE-NUS Public Lecture hosted by FASS

victoria Events, Research
Pro-Director of the LSE, Professor Stuart Corbridge delivers the LSE-NUS Public Lecture
Pro-Director of the LSE, Professor Stuart Corbridge delivers the LSE-NUS Public Lecture

The inaugural London School of Economics (LSE)- NUS Public Lecture was hosted by FASS on March 25th with Professor Stuart Corbridge, Pro-Director of the LSE, delivering his lecture on ‘Good and Bad Inequalities: Or, When and Why Did India Take Off and Who Has Benefitted?’

Prof Corbridge is a specialist in development studies with a particular focus on the eastern states of India. In this ‘broad brush-strokes’ lecture he connected the remarkable overall growth story of India with the persistently high levels of poverty and inequality experienced, in particular, in many east Indian states. Various theoretical models for India’s growth were explored with a theory of ‘elite revolt’ emerging as the most satisfactory explanation. This concept suggests that the deep drivers of growth were due to a sustained series of initiatives at the government and state level which encouraged the elite business community (and later markets) to both abide by and circumvent the law (such as through bribery) to create conditions ripe for growth. These conditions allowed some reform to take place, but mostly within the realm of elite politics. These are the ‘good inequalities’ of the lecture title.

The ‘bad inequalities’ are more structured along class, ethnicity, gender, and caste and are the barriers towards equitable growth. These inequalities mean South Asia suffers from an elasticity of poverty that is not as efficient related to GDP growth as other global regions for lifting the poor out of poverty. The changes made at the federal (state) level have largely benefitted the western richer states exacerbating a form of ‘provincial Darwinism’ whereby the eastern states suffer little investment or economic growth. However, the domain of mass national-level politics, regarding agriculture, governance and power remains unreformed and this is where India’s future prospects for growth lie.

In conclusion, Prof Corbridge professed himself generally optimistic for continuing growth in India but also predicted continuing difficulties in negotiating political reform and even violent political struggles due to the pro-Maoist presence in the many eastern states which suffer from the undersupply of public goods and an endemic political vacuum.

Prof Corbridge’s lecture was part of his broader mission to strengthen ties between the LSE and NUS.

Award for Outstanding Contribution to Psychology in Singapore

fasswebmaster Announcements, Staff Achievements

Prof George Bishop of the Department of Psychology was awarded for his Outstanding Contribution to Psychology in Singapore by the Singapore Psychological Society (SPS) in recognition of his contributions to the development of Psychology in Singapore as well as the Singapore Psychological Society.

Recipients of the Award have:

  1. Demonstrated exceptional service or made distinguished contributions to the SPS;
  2. Made distinguished contributions in serving the public or a community through their psychological knowledge and skills;
  3. Made distinguished contributions that have advanced psychology as a science and/or profession.

On behalf of the FASS Dean’s Office, we would like to congratulate Prof Bishop on receiving this award!

Double Negative Visits

fasswebmaster Announcements, Events

Dear Students

Double Negative, one of the largest Visual Effects for film companies in the world and winner of an Oscar for their work on Inception, will present a talk by Victoria Rodgers, Head of Human Resources for Double Negative and Harriet Bates, HR Advisor for Double Negative Singapore.

This talk will include a breakdown of work one of Double Negative’s recent films as well as discuss how to get a job in visual effects for film. 

Details of the event are as follows:

Date     : 30 March 2011

Time     : 4 to 6pm

Venue   : Seminar Room 1 (COM1 level 2 Room 06)

Thank you.

Dean’s Office                                                                                                           School of Computing                                                                                              National University of Singapore

FASS hosts inaugural Roundtable on ‘Medical Tourism in Asia and the UK’

victoria Events, Research
Dr Neil Lunt, University of York, presents his keynote address on "Medical Tourism: What Is It, and How Should We Understand It?'
Dr Neil Lunt, University of York, presents his keynote address on "Medical Tourism: What Is It, and How Should We Understand It?'
On March 23rd, two of FASS’ Research Clusters, Migration and Science, Technology and Society, held the first workshop of its kind on ‘Patients on the Move: Medical Tourism in Asia and the UK’. The half-day conference took an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon of medical tourism which is a concept that receives much attention in the media but scant debate within academic circles.
The papers presented offered multiple perspectives both in terms of geogrpahy and theoretical approach with topics ranging from State involvement in medical tourism to the privatisation of medicine in Asia and from the rise of the ‘clinician-researcher’ to the prevalence of plastic surgery in South Korea. The workshop provided a unique platform for discussion and opportunities for future research collaborations will proceed in line with this burgeoning industry and its associated complexities.