Debating a death sentence: 5 questions from the Editors of AcademiaSG
AcademiaSG editors suggest 5 questions for Parliament to consider when they discuss the decision to close Yale-NUS College in 2025.
Category: Academic Views
The closure of Yale-NUS: A loss for Singapore
Linda Lim (professor emerita of corporate strategy and international business at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, who previously taught at Swarthmore College) and Pang Eng Fong (professor emeritus and former dean at Singapore Management University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business) consider how Yale-NUS has demonstrated the value of a […]
The song remains the same: The emergence of security studies in the wake of 9-11
Farish A. Noor, Professor at the Department of History, University Malaya (UM), looks at the reductive lens through which Islam and Muslims have often been understood in security studies since the attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001, and traces historical connections between these works and those of 19th-century colonial scholars. Summary After […]
Finding the words for richer conversations about race
There are many things scholars cannot do, but building vocabularies and frameworks is a core part of our work. Recent developments are good reminders that ideas are slow-moving things with unpredictable trajectories.
Race-based data: Friend or foe?
Shannon Ang, Assistant Professor of Sociology at Nanyang Technological University, considers whether and when it is useful to disaggregate data by race. A recent spate of racist incidents has led to more discussion of inter-ethnic relations and race-based policies, from arguments about concepts like Chinese privilege and Critical Race Theory to policy debates about the […]
为什么新加坡有华人优势，但与白人特权不同
蔡秀敏，新加坡历史学者，讨论在新加坡脉络下区分“华人优势”和“白人特权”的主要特点，包括政治威权主义的角色、语言不平等的格局和使“华人”成为“华人”的明显种族机制。与之相关的，是我们对本区域马来世界历史、华人移民史和殖民史的不完整理解。
Racial preference: Bad for the economy, bad for business
Linda Lim, Professor Emerita at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and AcademiaSG Editor, brings an economist’s perspective to the ongoing discussion of racism in Singapore. This piece contains some updates added on 28 June 2021. Recent discourse in Singapore on race, racism and race relations, including on AcademiaSG, has helpfully […]
Recognising the roots of racism in Singapore
Chong Ja Ian, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science of NUS, considers the media response to recent incidents of racial discrimination, particularly discussions of Critical Race Theory, and how to build greater understanding and empathy. All opinions are the author’s own. This piece is a translation of a Mandarin version published by AcademiaSG […]
Why there is Chinese privilege in Singapore, but it’s not analogous to White privilege
Sai Siew Min, a Singaporean historian now based in Taipei, discusses key features of the Singapore context which distinguish “Chinese privilege” from “White privilege”, including the role of political authoritarianism, the landscape of linguistic inequalities, and the visibility of racialisation as “Chinese” in Singapore, which connects to our incomplete understanding of the history of the […]
面对种族歧视，务必认清问题
族群共处向来带来的挑战，不是一件当成是理所当然的事情，更不能轻视。需要的是出同理心、宽容和中肯前提下，让民众进行公开对话，才更能充分体会彼此的痛处和理想，而找到初步共识。就因如此，强调一片和谐无事，或一直坚持闭门作业，往往容易使人忘记在建立族群关系上，需要下的努力。多数族裔因为在人数上的差异，往往更容易忽视少数的劣势和经验，面对地问题较小，所以有一定的责任跨出第一步。笔者以为，积极的对话与磨合，或许比穿异族服装、品尝异族食物，更符合推动新加坡现阶段的族群关系，更有利于迈向新加坡公民誓约里，以“不分种族、言语、宗教”为基础，“建设公正平等的民主社会”。